It was obvious that VR headsets were mostly going to be used for next-generation games, but there's a lot more to them as we found at the Game of Thrones Exhibition in London. Touring the world now, the exhibition is a chance for fans of the HBO show to get a look at props and costumes, plus really get involved. Visiting the show, it was our opportunity to enter the fictional world of Westeros and make the journey to the top of the Wall via Oculus Rift and the Ascend the Wall exhibit.
Climbing into the replica steel cage, which is used in the show to winch members of the Night's Watch to the top of the 700ft-tall ice wall, and donning the Oculus Rift we were transported into Castle Black. With wind machines blowing in our face and the rush of the elevator moving up, it felt exactly as though we were there. It's when you get to the top and have a chance to peer over the edge that things start to get really scary, the vertigo tries to kick in and a little bit of fear hits.
The Game of Thrones exhibit uses the 1,280x800 version of the Oculus Rift, so the graphics you see are a little low-res. Even so, once you start looking around and the scene begins to move, you forget the resolution and just feel a part of the experience. It was clear to us that VR really is the future for this kind of event, putting visitors fully in the experience in a way that hasn't been done before.
Visitors to the attraction (now sold out) could also have themselves turned into a White Walker and burned alive by a dragon, downloading the images and video respectively from a special supporting website. It's something that other companies have started to look at, too, with John Lewis using Google Cardboard in store for the interactive Monty's Christmas, based on the penguin used in the Christmas ad.
Our thanks to the HBO Store who invited us to the event and were running a pop-up shop with Game of Thrones Merchandise.