I’ve written before how virtual reality might well enable new and more powerful ways to re-live moments from the past or just gently wallow in immersive nostalgia. The recent launch of nostalgia simulator MemoRift and the Transformers tech demo show that this is a clear desire, at least amongst developers of a certain age. In terms of Star Wars nostalgia in VR though, picking are surprisingly slim – with the now famous Trench Run demo by Riftcoaster creator Boone Calhoun remaining unreleased, where to Star Wars fans go for their Jedi fix in virtual reality?
Developer ‘DarthDisembowel’ clearly felt there was something missing as his Millennium Falcon demo for the Oculus Rift has just been released. The demo allows you to tour the sights of Han Solo’s ‘bucket of bolts’ via a lovingly modelled digital recreation. Peer through the cockpit, take a peek at the gun turrets and just generally hang out in this scoundrel’s lair.
DarthDisembowel said of the demo:
This is my first project for the Oculus. I have been most impressed so far with the “experience”-type submissions, particularly the Star Trek-themed ones. As a big Star Wars fan as well, I wanted to experience walking around inside my favorite spaceship, and I thought I’d share it.
I take no credit for the models, I only modified some free meshes that I downloaded. Special thanks to Sean Kennedy for the interior meshes, Al Meerow for the exterior, and Degardin Arnaud for the R2D2 mesh.
So a good example of VR nostalgia tourism fuelled by open source assets then. The demo is up for download via Oculus Share here.
