DHS "Black box" interchangeable dark ride coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios?

[Mediachi]

This sounds like a cool idea, but it sounds like something Universal would do.

 

[JustInTime]

I’m for it.

 

[matt9112]

everyone on here is like no more screens but rumor of legit empty ride space and everyones like yeah sure its disney duh?!

 

[marni1971]

So it's a thing, but it's not what they're saying it is?

Depends who’s saying it.

 

[marni1971]

IIRC, this sound similar to a rumor from 20 years ago when I worked at the studios. There was talk of replacing GMR with a screen based attraction - I think they referred to the technology as "Cave" and basically you were surrounded by screens in every direction. I don't know if this is part of that development or the project morphed into MMRR.

Yep. CAVE was in its infancy but was researched to go into the GMR building way back. Basically a motion base with limited lateral movement surrounded by screens.

 

[Darkzeid25]

How often has Disney updated or dropped in new games for Toy Story Midway Mania?

Now that there's going to be a new movie and new characters, we'll see.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Yep. CAVE was in its infancy but was researched to go into the GMR building way back. Basically a motion base with limited lateral movement surrounded by screens.

We've suggested CAVE as a Play Pavilion component that would allow for visiting past attractions.

 

[Epcot_Imagineer]

Okay, so what I'm gathering from all of this is The Unspeakable Site said, "We are confirming that in DHS, a building will contain an attraction, and over time the attraction can be changed to another attraction." So... the most generic rumor conceivable.

Now, we're asking insiders if this is confirmed and our insiders are saying, "Well yes, there is something coming that fits that incredibly generic description."

Can someone back me up on this?

 

[LuvWDW2]

Okay, so what I'm gathering from all of this is The Unspeakable Site said, "We are confirming that in DHS, a building will contain an attraction, and over time the attraction can be changed to another attraction." So... the most generic rumor conceivable.

Now, we're asking insiders if this is confirmed and our insiders are saying, "Well yes, there is something coming that fits that incredibly generic description."

Can someone back me up on this?

That’s what it sounds like to me.

Personally I think he recycled an old vague rumor in anticipation of the BIG announcement today (which was the most anticlimactic thing ever- a new logo of the same name). If it turned out to be something else he could CONFIRM!!!! his vague rumor.

 

[marni1971]

Okay, so what I'm gathering from all of this is The Unspeakable Site said, "We are confirming that in DHS, a building will contain an attraction, and over time the attraction can be changed to another attraction." So... the most generic rumor conceivable.

Now, we're asking insiders if this is confirmed and our insiders are saying, "Well yes, there is something coming that fits that incredibly generic description."

Can someone back me up on this?

Attraction? I heard the word “ride” mentioned on these boards.

Attraction could make more sense.

 

[Epcot_Imagineer]

Attraction? I heard the word “ride” mentioned on these boards.

Attraction could make more sense.

The Unspeakable Site said "Disney plans to build a ride in what they call a "black box"... allowing the theme of the entire ride to be changed in just weeks, if not days... ...the ride would be trackless, featuring free-roaming vehicles that could easily be reprogrammed." All of this with no location and no opening timeframe.

I simply said attraction to make my snarky take on the "News Today" easier to say. Thank you for this clarification, though. Attraction seems much more believable than ride.

 

[marni1971]

The Unspeakable Site said "Disney plans to build a ride in what they call a "black box"... allowing the theme of the entire ride to be changed in just weeks, if not days... ...the ride would be trackless, featuring free-roaming vehicles that could easily be reprogrammed." All of this with no location and no opening timeframe.

I simply said attraction to make my snarky take on the "News Today" easier to say. Thank you for this clarification, though. Attraction seems much more believable than ride.

If it’s a “ride”’it’s got me.

 

[Phicinfan]

Attraction? I heard the word “ride” mentioned on these boards.

Attraction could make more sense.

@marni - this isn't the Lightning McQueen theater is it? I think some if not you yourself, stated this is set up for quick exit if needed, and not set up to be "permanent".

Or will this be a different site?

 

[the.dreamfinder]

How is MMRR a cash grab? It’s a brand new E ticket for us. Was ToT a cash grab? Splash Mountain? I remember reading vloggers in 1959 complaining on Facebook that the pack mules were a cash grab. Greedy Walt. Don’t get me started on Midget Autopia.

When Tom Morris was working on the project, he basically said flexibility was a component of the project. The choice to rip out TGMR makes more sense under this scenario because the Chinese Theater would have the “featured attraction” de jour.

[Season Pass Podcast]

 

[HauntedPirate]

Just when you think they've cut every corner when it comes to spending on new rides... I just wonder how they manage to not trip on the bar that they've set so low.

 

[thepirateking]

This rumor seems heavily inspired by the tech WDI is already using to help design and iterate Rise of the Resistance (and much of Galaxy's Edge). Basically, an articulated and programmable ride vehicle in a warehouse. Instead of a CAVE sysetm with projections, the riders wore VR head mounted displays. A standard 3D cave/projection approach makes more sense for throughput and logistic reasons.

Here's a link to the article:
Tech Crunch: How Disney Built Star Wars in Real Life

And here's a snippet:

But Disney has also been using VR in more radical ways to simulate their rides. Specifically, they’ve built a full ride-on vehicle that sits inside a warehouse on the Imagineering lot. It’s surrounded in a wide 100 foot long ring by traffic dividers and operates just like the trackless vehicles in Rise.

“We were able to test all of our vehicle motion early using VR,” says April Warren. “Imagine you’re on a vehicle, you’ve got your VR headset, and you are able to see what this attraction is going to look like in the future. We could do that all in real‑time. It was very exciting. I don’t think we could’ve made this attraction without this workflow. We broke the attraction to pieces and could ride it in the facility to really prove out that what we thought we were getting with our vehicle is what we were going to get in the attraction.”

“The great thing was when we got to the actual building things were all installed. We hadn’t been down there before, at least I hadn’t. To walk through that building knowing what we’d seen in VR and go, “Oh, my gosh. I know exactly where I am. I know how to get around this place because I have seen all of this before, and it looks exactly like what I thought it would look like.” It’s been super exciting.”

The rig itself is pretty wild. It’s built out to match the seat layout of the Rise of the Resistance vehicle itself. On board it has enough compute power to push out the visuals to headsets of everyone on board and a motor to run the vehicle around the floor perfectly in sync with those visuals. This gives you the illusion of the ride mixed with the real physicality of moving through space and feeling the pull — a process the imagineers who show us the rig call “Visceralization”. It’s the most bad VR sim rig ever.

 

[marni1971]

@marni - this isn't the Lightning McQueen theater is it? I think some if not you yourself, stated this is set up for quick exit if needed, and not set up to be "permanent".

Or will this be a different site?

From the relatively few pieces I have, possibly a new site.

 

[EOD K9]

So make the walls floating walls hung from gridwork above.. rather than attached at the floor.

On a similar note, could you not have numerous sensors in the ground and manually drive the ride car over them to create a new layout?

 

[britain]

If they do prove this concept at WDW, I wonder if this could spark life back into the oft-tried-never-succeeded idea of regional entertainment venues.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Interchangeable ride for an interchangeable park.