Inside Industrial Light and Magic's Secret Star Wars VR Lab | Hacker News Reader

Inside Industrial Light and Magic's Secret Star Wars VR Lab

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LucasArts used to be a very well known game developer studio. Many of the early star wars games were very well received and highly innovative. Star Wars: Tie Fighter is consistently considered one of the best games of all time. They also released one of the earliest games to make use of a dedicated GPU in PCs. Over time, the quality dropped off and left many fans disappointed.

There were still a few gems after 2000, e.g. Knight of the Old Republic and Battlefield. However, the sequel to KotOR was released unfinished. This era seems to be filled with collaborations where other companies performed much of the work. I suspect using external resources caused a drop in in-house talent and ultimately left the studio unable to compete against newer and more ambitious studios.

I hope this marks a return of an innovative and competitive LucasArts. It would be wonderful to have the same level of early innovation back and associated with the star wars brand.

Hey ffk - you're not far off. Many of the folks at LucasArts moved on to Lucasfilm's Advanced Development Group after Disney shut it down, and they're a big part of the real-time computer graphics effort that's making all the xLab stuff possible. (Andrew Grant, who's in the video demoing the iPad experience, is one, and had been working on 1313 before things came to an end.)

After Disney bought LucasFilm they laid off everyone at LucasArts except those responsible for handling licensing [1]. ILM's work here seems focused on more cinematic stuff - the word "game" doesn't appear once in the article.

By the way, a lot of the missing content in KotOR 2 has been restored by a mod called "The Sith Lords Restored Content Modification." There's a standalone version if you still have the original discs rattling around, but the easiest way to get it now is to use the Steam Workshop [2]; the game was recently updated (after 10 years!) to add easier mod support, controller support, etc.

[1] http://www.ibtimes.com/disney-closes-lucasarts-video-game-ar...

[2] http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=485537...

They do mention gaming applications in the video, however they will focus on cinematic applications.

> I hope this marks a return of an innovative and competitive LucasArts.

I don't see this as innovation. It's simply a continuation of the path towards higher and higher levels of eyecandy. Unless they put one in my living room, I cannot see this bringing any fundamental changes. I'd much rather them do some more cutting-edge writing, new ideas and concepts to make a game enjoyable beyond the demo.

I want Tie Fighter + WingCommander:Privateer + Eve Online. I couldn't care less about realistic facial renderings. (Yes, I am aware of star citizen, but atm I am ready to drink that koolaid.)

Note that other game companies usually developed the actual games for LucasArts. X-Wing and TIE Fighter were developed by Totally Games and KOTOR (the first one) was developed by BioWare. Many of their adventure games (such as Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango) were developed in-house, though.

I don't know if any of the original LucasArts people are involved in this new effort -- I have a feeling that this is a denovo group.

The description is disappointing. It sounds like VR from the 1990s. CAVE systems with flat walls and annoying corner effects have been around since 1992. I'd expect Lucasfilm to at least have a big curved screen, like this one from 2013.[1] People at Lucasfilm seem to think that people will "want to follow the droids before they enter the scene", but other than fanatical fans (the ones who edit Wookiepedia), probably not many will.

Cameron says the Oculus Rift form of VR is a "a yawn".[2] That's surprising from a director who has a track record of using CG, IMAX, and 3D very well, and wants higher frame rates. Cameron even uses a VR device as a working tool in shooting CG movies. But he doesn't see it as an entertainment delivery vehicle.

VR is sometimes interesting if you can go in there and do something, but as a way of watching a show with a static plot, it's not that exciting.

The main game for the Oculus Rift seems to be a roller coaster simulator.[3] VR is apparently able to make this reviewer come close to throwing up. Some roller coaster fans may consider that a feature, not a bug. But it may limit the size of the market.

[1] http://io9.com/5986569/new-virtual-reality-cave-brings-us-on... [2] http://www.gamespot.com/articles/james-cameron-on-vr-meh/110... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMrhaLb6UeQ

There was a larger scale Cave at Communitech in Waterloo, Canada for years. They've only just recently gotten rid of it. It was really impressive technology, but never had a solid demo to show. I imagine having one at ILM would solve that :)

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