gmigriff
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User ID: 71547892
 United States
05/02/2016 04:33 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | “It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real!” VR simulated tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. While I was waiting in line for The Walk, a virtual reality experience that simulates Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, a man working at the booth at the Game Developers Conference shared an interesting statistic with me. About 25 percent of the people who try The Walk quit, he said conspiratorially. They take one look down at the 110-story drop that materializes below them, take off the headset, and walk away.
“They never even take the first step,” he said. I laughed. What babies, I thought.
“I’m sure you’ll do better because you’re used to VR,” he reassured me.
I positioned myself, one foot in front of the other, on a roughly 6-foot length of wire taped down in the empty demonstration space, a fan positioned at the other end to simulate wind. A man adjusted a Vive VR headset to the contours of my skull and placed a pair of headphones over my ears. The screen was blank, but then suddenly I was there, standing on the roof of the World Trade Center. I could feel the wire beneath my feet, right where that tightrope was supposed to be, the wind blowing against my face as I faced the world from the height of a skyscraper. I saw everything in every direction as I turned my head: the sky above me, the roof behind me, the sprawling panorama of New York City opening in front of me. And, of course, the dizzying drop below.
For the moment my feet were fixed on a wide metal beam at the edge of the roof, but a wire beckoned, stretching 140 feet in front of me to the other tower. My path was clear, and it was about an inch wide.
I couldn’t move. And I wasn’t laughing anymore.Rationally, I knew that I was in a tiny, makeshift room in a convention center, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers watching me wobble and shake. I knew I was standing on a carpeted and fully corporeal floor, my arms held out for balance, and that I only had to walk about six feet in a straight line to finish. But it didn’t matter. The moment I moved to take my first step off the building and saw nothing but a wire separating me from a 1,300-foot fall to the ground below, some primal, reptilian part of my brain started screaming: YOU’RE GOING TO DIE.
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Anonymous Coward
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05/02/2016 04:53 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: “It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real!” VR simulated tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. Fight Owens Fight ! |
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 68634517
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05/02/2016 05:01 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: “It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real!” VR simulated tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. |
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 72123535
United States
05/02/2016 05:03 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: “It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real!” VR simulated tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. neat! |
gmigriff (OP)
User ID: 71547892
United States
05/02/2016 05:20 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: “It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real!” VR simulated tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. |
gmigriff (OP)
User ID: 71547892
United States
05/02/2016 06:14 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: “It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real!” VR simulated tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. |
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 70321915
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05/02/2016 06:20 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: “It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real!” VR simulated tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. Cool, but instead of wearing something strapped to our face, they need to make a holodeck room |
gmigriff (OP)
User ID: 71547892
United States
05/02/2016 11:02 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: “It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real, It’s Not Real!” VR simulated tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. Cool, but instead of wearing something strapped to our face, they need to make a holodeck room
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 70321915 Someday... |
