Kraken Unleashed

[Scott W.]

Yes, it changes as needed on the fly. Mine went into a little slow motion on the lift hill to get into sync, but still wasn't enough to be perfect. It can skip frames to catch up to it sounds like after talking with them.

The movie itself is done beautifully and it a much higher quality than I was expecting for a small device to be able to handle graphics-wise.


I'll definitely try it again after it's officially open to compare. I was a little caught off guard the first time, seeing as I never get motion sickness on anything. Heck, I'm the wacko that goes upside-down on the Gravitron at the county fair. Hopefully next time will be better synced, cause I really do like the story they created for the ride. Fits very well.

EDIT: I love Silicon Valley, Scott Walker just reminded me I haven't been watching the new season yet. Thanks!

I don't think the VR is rendering the graphics in real time. It will probably just be displaying a 3d video that is synced to the trains location. Similar to those 3d videos you seen on Facebook so it should allow for the highest grade of graphics available to them.

I'm really curious to ride this. I've never tried VR on a coaster before and I'm interested to see where it can go.

That was a very slight spoiler there so I apologise if you haven't been watching but it's been a great season so far. If you've enjoyed the first 3 seasons, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one.

 

[IAmFloridaBorn]

See, I don't think adding VR says anything about Kraken, but more about the direction of SW and how much closer SW is to simply becoming a regional park.

Well this I could agree with. If that is so the case then I'd be behind Sea World doing so. Just can't justify it being something Kraken "Needed".

 

[Jwhee]

Just went on it. Surpringly good. Clear VR and was calibrated perfectly. Also the audio was loud and very audible! No one has posted pics of the gear, so here are the pics I took.

 

[Alicia]

Just went on it. Surpringly good. Clear VR and was calibrated perfectly. Also the audio was loud and very audible! No one has posted pics of the gear, so here are the pics I took.

What did you think of the new queue theming? I get that it matches the Sea lab style from the VR, but I'm gonna miss the murals of legendary water monsters.




I love the new entrance tentacles though. That came out amazing.

 

[Mr. EPCOT]

What did you think of the new queue theming? I get that it matches the Sea lab style from the VR, but I'm gonna miss the murals of legendary water monsters.




I love the new entrance tentacles though. That came out amazing.

Love it. Very SeaBase Alpha. :thumbsup:

 

[bob albert]

I don't think the VR is rendering the graphics in real time. It will probably just be displaying a 3d video that is synced to the trains location. Similar to those 3d videos you seen on Facebook so it should allow for the highest grade of graphics available to them.

I'm really curious to ride this. I've never tried VR on a coaster before and I'm interested to see where it can go.

That was a very slight spoiler there so I apologise if you haven't been watching but it's been a great season so far. If you've enjoyed the first 3 seasons, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one.

Unless you want a high end pc strapped to each seat this is the likely explanation. Generally though 3d videos are less clear than 3d real time in vr and the videos on facebook look much less clear than a game on VR does. When you take a certain (even high) resolution video and throw it into VR you lose quality as it is stretched and adjusted to play properly according to that setup. Given the application they must have mapped the video 1:1 considering this is the only device this video will be played on. I imagine this is still based on 1440p displays but it would be pretty great if they found a way to get a 4k display on this ride and would be a 1st for vr. The note 8 is rumored to have 4k and current pc setups are around or slightly below 1440p.

What I hope happens is that they fine tuned this enough from earlier coaster vr and once people get used to the load process it doesn't lose too much capacity or have hardware failures due to wear and tear that sea world leaves to rot.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I don't think the VR is rendering the graphics in real time. It will probably just be displaying a 3d video that is synced to the trains location. Similar to those 3d videos you seen on Facebook so it should allow for the highest grade of graphics available to them.

I'm really curious to ride this. I've never tried VR on a coaster before and I'm interested to see where it can go.

That was a very slight spoiler there so I apologise if you haven't been watching but it's been a great season so far. If you've enjoyed the first 3 seasons, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one.

If it's like the VR on the Fun Spot coaster then it WILL be live rendered and not just video. At Fun Spot you could tap on the side of the visor to "shoot" while on the ride. It's not HD gaming quality by any means, but it is rendered in real time.

 

[Alicia]

If it is a movie the audio and video are independently played back because while the video slows down to sync up with the track position the audio cues still play normally.

 

[GadgetGuru]

I don't think the VR is rendering the graphics in real time. It will probably just be displaying a 3d video that is synced to the trains location. Similar to those 3d videos you seen on Facebook so it should allow for the highest grade of graphics available to them.

I'm really curious to ride this. I've never tried VR on a coaster before and I'm interested to see where it can go.

That was a very slight spoiler there so I apologise if you haven't been watching but it's been a great season so far. If you've enjoyed the first 3 seasons, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one.

"Rendering" is a really vague word for these kinds of things. A 360 video does some intelligence and "renders" the proper portion of the video depending on what you're looking at.

When we all think of rendering, we think of an animated movie. There's a bunch of computer code that goes into a giant data center and off pops out a video.

Regardless, the cell phones powering those VR headsets could easily render a video. The mobile rendering engines (Metal on iOS, something on Android) have gotten insane.

What did you think of the new queue theming? I get that it matches the Sea lab style from the VR, but I'm gonna miss the murals of legendary water monsters.




I love the new entrance tentacles though. That came out amazing.

I just had major flashbacks to a queue at Six Flags Great America for some roller coaster. It has (had?) virtually the same layout and level of theming. Take that how you will.

 

[Alicia]

Here's my update from yesterday with video. After sleeping on it, I'm actually looking forward to trying it again with the VR. Hoping it is sync'd better, because I really like the visuals and story and audio. It's all so very well done, I want to see it working perfectly.

Video:


Photo Highlights:

No more eel head!

No more eel "eggs" inside cave

Looks like some theming elements or signage might still be on the way for the queue:

Up, that's hydration, thank you for the sign:

Gonna miss the Loch Ness monster the most from the wall murals:

Monitors explaining how to set up VR headset added throughout queue:

This is what you see while focusing, the sea lab launch for your submersible:

Green light when the rider is ready:

Love the new sign and tentacle theming, best part of the update:

 

[WAJAS]

I assume the eggs were removed because the animal this Kraken is based off didn't lay eggs, so it wouldn't be accurate for education purposes.

It really sucks though because that small detail was really neat. The music was awesome, and the lighting was perfect. I even remember discovering that little cavern with them for the first time.

 

[Alicia]

I assume the eggs were removed because the animal this Kraken is based off didn't lay eggs, so it wouldn't be accurate for education purposes.

It really sucks though because that small detail was really neat. The music was awesome, and the lighting was perfect. I even remember discovering that little cavern with them for the first time.

I don't think there had been eels inside the eggs for a loooong time though. And I always felt bad for the little guys trapped in there with no where to go.

 

[GadgetGuru]

Does anybody know how the VR syncs to the part of the coaster you're on?

The exact speed of your train depends on the weight of the people on it. If I'm on a light train, it could be going 59 mph after the loop while a heavy train would be going 61 mph (example). I would think this could cause sync issues because there shouldn't be a big margin of error.

 

[Alicia]

Does anybody know how the VR syncs to the part of the coaster you're on?

The exact speed of your train depends on the weight of the people on it. If I'm on a light train, it could be going 59 mph after the loop while a heavy train would be going 61 mph (example). I would think this could cause sync issues because there shouldn't be a big margin of error.

During construction I saw sensors being installed along the track. I think a main brain thingy on the train keeps track of which sensor it's passing and checks/syncs all the headsets.

Just my theory.

They told me front and back rows are the least synched for the whole train, which tells me all headsets are synched at once.

 

[WAJAS]

Old Kraken vs New Kraken

 

[bob albert]

"Rendering" is a really vague word for these kinds of things. A 360 video does some intelligence and "renders" the proper portion of the video depending on what you're looking at.

When we all think of rendering, we think of an animated movie. There's a bunch of computer code that goes into a giant data center and off pops out a video.

Regardless, the cell phones powering those VR headsets could easily render a video. The mobile rendering engines (Metal on iOS, something on Android) have gotten insane.


I just had major flashbacks to a queue at Six Flags Great America for some roller coaster. It has (had?) virtually the same layout and level of theming. Take that how you will.

Wut? Rendering in digital animation is transferring computer drawn footage to digital video. A ride like the six flags one is done in real time because of the interaction requiring it. This ride seems to be only needed to be synced to the video which is slowed or sped up given the position of the train. These phones are not nearly powerful enough to render a high level of quality animation in real time for a ride like this.

 

[GadgetGuru]

During construction I saw sensors being installed along the track. I think a main brain thingy on the train keeps track of which sensor it's passing and checks/syncs all the headsets.

Just my theory.

They told me front and back rows are the least synched for the whole train, which tells me all headsets are synched at once.

That would make sense. I couldn't understand how you could do a VR coaster without some kind of markers on the track. I just didn't realize they did construction on the coaster. Thanks!

 

[Alicia]

That would make sense. I couldn't understand how you could do a VR coaster without some kind of markers on the track. I just didn't realize they did construction on the coaster. Thanks!

Well, when they had the crane there and remodeling for new entrance they were also installing markers on the track at the same time.

 

[Brian G.]

We will be there tomorrow for Media Previews.

 

[MakoMania]

Anyone wondering a bit about how the VR works on a coaster, this video may answer some questions: