Universal's Epic Universe Construction Thread

[12th Man]

I enjoy sightlines and such, but I really don't fault seeing show buildings and such (if there are other things drawing my eyes away from them). To me, I think if I look across a lake and the only thing catching my eye is a light blue building, well that is more poorly done than a building where I am peeking through foliage to see.

I think framing matters in art, if my eyes are naturally pulled away from a problem area is it really a problem or am I being too picky? I think the details in this park will draw my eyes away from the issues folks here seem to think will be present.

This park also seems like it will have a different look during the night than during the day. I mean maybe it is not cool to see the racers from Berk during the day, but what does it add when commits are flying around while dragons move around? I think the kinetics of the area will keep my eyes busy. I think I will be able to frame my photos to avoid an odd wall here or there.

I think this is a great take.

Obviously guests know that what they’re seeing isn’t technically real, so as long as a certain illusion or “magic trick” isn’t revealed, I don’t think it’s a huge issue. Honestly, even seeing Stardust Racers from HTTYD doesn’t bother me that much.. a theme park is a likely place for a roller coaster to be!

 

[12th Man]

TIL about Google Earth Pro...

Here's some of the potential sightline issues that we may be talking about a few months from now.

Want to preface this by noting that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of trees in place since these photos were taken (with more to come), as well as various other themed buildings, so everything should be taken rather lightly. However, right now I'd say my biggest takeaway is that the back of the Potter facades are probably going to be visible around the park unless viewed straight on at the portal. I know there's some rather large trees planted around there now, but judging from the aerials they don't cover the entire width of the land. I'll save my disappointment until we see real views from inside the park, but that's my expectation.

Mostly everything else though does not look to be a problem, and I'd say the left side of the Monsters show building is definitely overblown. With the amount of ground level trees, all of the apparent issues here will be mitigated for the most part. This is not going to be a Universal Beijing situation, that's for sure.

Potter:







Mario Kart:



Dark Universe:







HTTYD:

 

[Mad Dog]

The sightline stuff gets crazy. After all, its just a theme park. As Frank said, lets not get too picky. Heck, from the Swiss Family Treehouse top you can see about all the MK back of buildings unthemed. I could care less if someone, while laying on their side at a 45 degree angle, with their head upside down, and their eyes crossed, can see a sliver of a wall through a tree line that just might be a color they don't like....This reached the apex during Hagrid's early construction, and basically all the fears ended up to be unfounded. As always, give the construction and foliage some time, and be thankful for an attempt at Universal/Disney theming that you certainly wouldn't see at the regional and Six Flags parks. .

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I can't believe "wait and see" is such a controversial take...

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

I can't believe "wait and see" is such a controversial take...

Especially when we are a handful of months away from getting our answers. This isn’t early construction speculation. People will be there in 3-4 months for previews, we’ll know.

 

[12th Man]

I can't believe "wait and see" is such a controversial take...

Haha Joe but we want answers nowww.

Plus we already know this park is going to be phenomenal, so we need some niche, trivial things to discuss in the meantime.

 

[Rhian]

Sometimes I get the impression people are reading the intent behind some of the sight line discussions a bit harshly. That could be my own interpretation of course, but it does feel like that once in a while. That said, considering this park was built from the ground up in an area with little constraint like previous projects in existing parks and advertised as an "industry-changing" theme park I wouldn't say it's not something worth chatting about here and there. Naturally it's still all very much wait and see.


Switching up gears, I noticed this for the first time in another photo: themed doors to the portals being installed. There was rumor that they could close the lands early and keep CP open longer and this would an easy be how. Much better than having the area roped off or throwing some bushes on wheels in the way.

It'd be super cool if the doors themselves had some lighting effects.

 

[fryoj]

I think this is a great take.

Obviously guests know that what they’re seeing isn’t technically real, so as long as a certain illusion or “magic trick” isn’t revealed, I don’t think it’s a huge issue. Honestly, even seeing Stardust Racers from HTTYD doesn’t bother me that much.. a theme park is a likely place for a roller coaster to be!

But then, by that logic, aren't the back of buildings likely to be at a theme park?

 

[DarkMetroid567]

Sometimes I get the impression people are reading the intent behind some of the sight line discussions a bit harshly. That could be my own interpretation of course, but it does feel like that once in a while. That said, considering this park was built from the ground up in an area with little constraint like previous projects in existing parks and advertised as an "industry-changing" theme park I wouldn't say it's not something worth chatting about here and there. Naturally it's still all very much wait and see.

Yeah, I think that’s the fun part about it. It’s what makes Beijing so fascinating. It’s a beautiful park built from the ground-up with existing attractions — yet instances like the JWA showbuilding, Forbidden Journey show building, and the showbuilding behind Waterworld are some of the worst sightlines in the entire Universal chain. It’s bizarre. Epic looks a lot more thoughtful from above, but that’s why I’m so excited to wait and see.

Switching up gears, I noticed this for the first time in another photo: themed doors to the portals being installed. There was rumor that they could close the lands early and keep CP open longer and this would an easy be how. Much better than having the area roped off or throwing some bushes on wheels in the way.

It'd be super cool if the doors themselves had some lighting effects.

View attachment 24576

My hope is to never see those doors closed, LOL. I don’t want to find out.

 

[queenmetroid]

Switching up gears, I noticed this for the first time in another photo: themed doors to the portals being installed. There was rumor that they could close the lands early and keep CP open longer and this would an easy be how. Much better than having the area roped off or throwing some bushes on wheels in the way.

It'd be super cool if the doors themselves had some lighting effects.

View attachment 24576

*sigh* Pendantic nitpicky rant incoming and I'm disappointed with myself, especially since me of all people believes in waiting to pass judgement.

I really hope the doors are integrated well and they slide into the wall rather than fold, because that could really ruin the clean look of this portal. For immersion's sake, it should look like a seamless transition as opposed to something that's meant to occasionally be closed. It's like the Warp Pipes entering in Super Nintendo World; they just wouldn't look right with a door in the front.

You can see that white break in the area might be where the door is supposed to fold back, and I'm not sure that will look good in practice. If they have a mouth to the portal, then a small gap, and then the magic that transports you, it's a little meh to me in terms of themeing. I very much prefer the transitions of Galaxy's Edge, Pandora, and Diagon Alley which happen pretty naturally. I'm in no way opposed to doors, especially because I know it requires extra staff to simply use ropes, and if the business model is different here where Celestial Park is open after hours, the massive potential cost savings are massive, but that little touch will be important.

 

[Clive]

I'm in wait-and-see mode on sight line stuff. There's just no way to know how it's going to work out until the thing's done and open - and even then, some adjustments will likely be made. Universal's really whiffed it on sight lines before (thinking mostly of Forbidden Journey's honking building lording over Jurassic Park), but then they they made it so you have to go hunting to see the Gringotts building. As long as there's nothing egregious and there's smart art design to draw your eyes away from the show building, I'll call that a success.

The one other thing I'll say is I think we're forgetting how egregious some of the sight lines are in Walt Disney World, too. I'd never been on Slinky Dog Dash before a quick visit in December, and uh, you can see a whole lot of backstage from the entirety of that ride without looking hard at all. Sometimes you just can't cover everything.

 

[Legacy]

I’m just waiting for the inevitable complaints about sight lines from the upper floors of Helios.

 

[belloq87]

The one other thing I'll say is I think we're forgetting how egregious some of the sight lines are in Walt Disney World, too. I'd never been on Slinky Dog Dash before a quick visit in December, and uh, you can see a whole lot of backstage from the entirety of that ride without looking hard at all. Sometimes you just can't cover everything.

With the major caveats that I don't like Slinky for several reasons (including this one) and that I'm equally irked by these issues regardless of which resort they're located in, I think something like Slinky (which had to be forced into an already-existing and contained space in the back of the park) is a little bit different than a built-entirely-from-scratch theme park.

But I hear your larger point, and the larger points some others have been making. We won't know what any of these potential "problem" angles/views will look like until we're at ground level in the park. Nobody should be automatically assuming the park will be filled with terrible sightlines.

(I think it's also fair to say "I hope they've got a plan for SPOT X because it doesn't look great from hundreds of feet above the park.")

 

[DarkMetroid567]

The one other thing I'll say is I think we're forgetting how egregious some of the sight lines are in Walt Disney World, too. I'd never been on Slinky Dog Dash before a quick visit in December, and uh, you can see a whole lot of backstage from the entirety of that ride without looking hard at all. Sometimes you just can't cover everything.

Disney hasn’t been performing well on this front, either, but I think coasters are typically a bad example and I wouldn’t cite to them because it is very hard for outdoor coasters to not suffer a few breaks.

Instead, you can look at the TRON and Guardians buildings. (Or hell, even the existence of the Contemporary!) That being said, none of these examples are as egregious as Beijing Forbidden Journey or Beijing Waterworld.

 

[OrlLover]

Disney hasn’t been performing well on this front, either, but I think coasters are typically a bad example and I wouldn’t cite to them because it is very hard for outdoor coasters to not suffer a few breaks.

Instead, you can look at the TRON and Guardians buildings. (Or hell, even the existence of the Contemporary!) That being said, none of these examples are as egregious as Beijing Forbidden Journey or Beijing Waterworld.

To me Disney is a mixed bag because we have Tokyo recent additions which good sight lines and also Epcot France expansion is good from the ground level.

 

[sonoma15]

It's almost like you can't generalize the portfolio of an entire company and all these rides are done on a per project basis with different levels of budget being allocated to all of them based on multiple internal and external factors. I'm sure if Creative or Imagineering had an infinite budget they wouldn't hesitate to cover up any sightlines, but sometimes that's just not how it works out. There will be bad sightlines in Epic but spending all our time complaining and arguing about them instead of talking about all the amazing things coming to the park just seems like a waste of time.

 

[Jake S]

There will be bad sightlines in Epic but spending all our time complaining and arguing about them instead of talking about all the amazing things coming to the park just seems like a waste of time.

talking about the bad things in addition to the good things is what makes any of this interesting. all positive or all negative is extremely dull.

 

[DrStarlander]

That being said, none of these examples are as egregious as Beijing Forbidden Journey or Beijing Waterworld.

Admittedly, I'm not aware of the Beijing issues, but Disney California Adventure has some awful outside-world-intrusions including the pesky power lines that once went through the DL parking lot where DCA is located. They now skirt the southern edge, well within view of much of the park (though beautifully blocked in Cars Land, a triumph of sightline mitigation as I even think particular peaks may stick up higher to block individual towers).

But the 1980s Pixar Place hotel looming over, within view while in half the park, is pretty bad.

So while I'm a bit concerned about potential issues in Epic, seeing any same-park attraction or show building will never be as bad as these outside intrusions, and I also know there's only so much that can be done even starting with a blank slate. Yet as someone fascinated with the art and science of theme park design, it's hard not to wonder what will and will not be an issue (what else am I going to wonder about for the remaining 5 months? So much has been answered. ).

 

[sonoma15]

talking about the bad things in addition to the good things is what makes any of this interesting. all positive or all negative is extremely dull.

I don't really want to keep furthering this discussion because I'm kind of sick of the whole sightline thing all together but I mean, how many times have we had the same discussion about the same 3-4 potential bad sightlines that we think will be in the park here? It just feels kind of overblown at a point, and I don't think there is much more to say about it till we can actually be on the ground within the park ourselves.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

Admittedly, I'm not aware of the Beijing issues, but Disney California Adventure has some awful outside-world-intrusions including the pesky power lines that once went through the DL parking lot where DCA is located. They now skirt the southern edge, well within view of much of the park (though beautifully blocked in Cars Land, a triumph of sightline mitigation as I even think particular peaks may stick up higher to block individual towers).

But the 1980s Pixar Place hotel looming over, within view while in half the park, is pretty bad.

So while I'm a bit concerned about potential issues in Epic, seeing any same-park attraction or show building will never be as bad as these outside intrusions, and I also know there's only so much that can be done even starting with a blank slate. Yet as someone fascinated with the art and science of theme park design, it's hard not to wonder what will and will not be an issue (what else am I going to wonder about for the remaining 5 months? So much has been answered. ).

Tried to look for my own photos but they’re likely somewhere on my computer. Instead found some images.



I have zero doubt in my mind that Epic will not look like this — they know what they need to do and what we’ve seen from these construction photos is already inspiring confidence. As an aside, Beijing was not a cheap park, which is why I won’t be surprised if Epic costs substantially more.

I don't really want to keep furthering this discussion because I'm kind of sick of the whole sightline thing all together but I mean, how many times have we had the same discussion about the same 3-4 potential bad sightlines that we think will be in the park here? It just feels kind of overblown at a point, and I don't think there is much more to say about it till we can actually be on the ground within the park ourselves.

Totally justified, but there really isn’t much new to say positive or negative on Epic until we’re there. It’s fun to boil the ocean on stuff like this, even if it’s from analyzing a tiny change in construction photos.