Disney, VR/AR, and Apple's WWDC 2023

[Cmdr_Crimson]

I think this could be the start of a new innoventions only this will be at the Play pavilion. Apple can use it to help showcase some of its products while disney can bring in a couple vr attractions. Sounds like that virtual disney ride idea may not be so far off. The question is how well will disney be able to recreate former attractions.

We had Disneyquest..They could have updated it....And they didn't..

 

[The Colonel]

The recording feature is scarily like Black Mirror's The Entire History of You.

 

[wdwmagic]

This is a very good overview from someone who tried it yesterday

 

[Trauma]

I agree. It's yet another example of WDC focusing on things that have zero to miniscule impact on customers, while the things that actually do have major impacts (new attractions, increasing capacity, etc) are dismissed and/or purposefully overlooked.

It's a symptom of a much wider problem.

It was worth it to Bob.

He was on the world stage showing off all the accusations he has run into the ground.

That’s what matters to him.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It's posible Disney has been working on models of the parks for a long time intending to lay out new attractions more comprehensively (and secretly) than they do with sight ballons. Even if they don't already have one it still would be useful to them. But seriously they must have a model.

So there may not be that much of an investment or effort required. They almost certainly would use a common gaming modelling framework that Apple (or any other vendor) can ingest without some kind of FP+ level effort.

Models are used for specific projects but they don’t yet have the entire parks modeled. And models created specifically for gaming and visualization don’t always play nicely with the tools used for documenting the design of a project to actually build it.

There are entire models of newer parks (Shanghai Disneyland, Universal Studios Beijing and Epic Universe) but they’d require some cleaning and polishing to be any sort of public experience.

 

[Trauma]

I know nothing about this stuff so forgive my ignorance.

Is there the correct kind of “footage” of Splash Mountain to eventually be able to ride it again virtually?

Like in a very realistic way not YouTube quality ride thru.

 

[Tha Realest]

I know nothing about this stuff so forgive my ignorance.

Is there the correct kind of “footage” of Splash Mountain to eventually be able to ride it again virtually?

Like in a very realistic way not YouTube quality ride thru.

It will be available on D+ Apple Vision app right next to Song of the South and Mickey’s Mellerdrammer.

 

[jeanericuser001]

We had Disneyquest..They could have updated it....And they didn't..

Disneyquest was an entirely different animal than innoventions. Disneyquest they wanted to do the vr/ar experience but they did so with technology that was still in its early stages. Just like many other early technologies though they needed for technology to improve and it would be many years before technology would catch up to the concept. By that time disney had other plans but they kept some of that knowledge which they used for later attractions like sum of all thrills which had one of the same ideas only with a far more advanced setup. Innoventions in the early days almost reminded me of a tech demo convention where is later stuff fit more at home with a theme park. Thankfully it did open my eye to the potential of conventions for seeing cool stuff. I remember seeing a kuka arm years before harry potter or sum of all thrills used it on that ride. I remember looking at that arm moving about and imagining what it would be like to ride in a seat on that.

 

[MrPromey]

I think this could be the start of a new innoventions only this will be at the Play pavilion. Apple can use it to help showcase some of its products while disney can bring in a couple vr attractions. Sounds like that virtual disney ride idea may not be so far off. The question is how well will disney be able to recreate former attractions.

I think Apple would rather use their website and their stores to showcase their products, right there where you can actually buy them.

Short of putting an Apple store in the middle of Epcot, I don't see them having any reason to waste their money on an attraction Disney charges money for guests to gain access to just to feature products they're already selling.

I can (barely) imagine a more abstract sponsorship of an attraction but honestly, even that's a stretch since there is no need these days for most large companies, especially Apple, to promote their brands in that way like there was when Epcot originally opened.

I think you'd see Apple in Disney Springs before you'd see them in a park with this sort of setup. I'm sure it'd be a very busy location - especially the genus bar area.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

In case anyone is not familiar, Mario Kart in Universal (Osaka, Hollywood and in Orlando in 2 years) is AR-based but is on a moving track with set pieces as well.

Disney is probably going to look into this as an option as well (even if it's not directly related to Apple)

Two words: kraken unleashed

 

[Poseidon Quest]

I see people continue to bring up (not just here but everywhere) that people have doubted the success of various Apple products and they've all been successful. I really don't see how AR headsets can take off though.

If my eyes felt strained after 5 minutes of riding Mario Kart, how will people want to watch a 2 hour movie on Disney+?

 

[Tha Realest]

Disneyquest was an entirely different animal than innoventions. Disneyquest they wanted to do the vr/ar experience but they did so with technology that was still in its early stages. Just like many other early technologies though they needed for technology to improve and it would be many years before technology would catch up to the concept. By that time disney had other plans but they kept some of that knowledge which they used for later attractions like sum of all thrills which had one of the same ideas only with a far more advanced setup. Innoventions in the early days almost reminded me of a tech demo convention where is later stuff fit more at home with a theme park. Thankfully it did open my eye to the potential of conventions for seeing cool stuff. I remember seeing a kuka arm years before harry potter or sum of all thrills used it on that ride. I remember looking at that arm moving about and imagining what it would be like to ride in a seat on that.

I appreciated what DQ tried to do/become, but I still don’t know that the demand is there for these VR experiences. The Void was apparently cool to those who experienced it, but they went out of business. Dave and Busters has a few of those setups but they seem in low demand. Despite a lot cost of entry and decent install base it doesn’t seem like VR has made huge leaps and bounds in terms of customer demand. It all still feels very niche. Maybe Apple will change that as they have with so many of their other innovations.

 

[jeanericuser001]

I know nothing about this stuff so forgive my ignorance.

Is there the correct kind of “footage” of Splash Mountain to eventually be able to ride it again virtually?

Like in a very realistic way not YouTube quality

Yes and no. You can have the full vr exprience ie a 360 recording of the entire attraction. As for simulating g-forces from the fall, smells, and splash down at the end that is very difficult to achieve. Sum of all thrills tried to do so but simulating g-forces in some environments is tricky. A vr recording though is quite common. There are literally hundreds of 360 videos on youtube of all manner of attractions though to access them you need a vr capable headset. Don't use the cell phones as those are junk. The best choice would be an oculus go or quest. Wire free vr is typically one of the best forms of vr as your movement is unrestricted where is wired limits you to a small area. Beyond that you want good resolution and decent frame rate just like any tv or monitor display. The bigger the better.

 

[MrPromey]

This is a very good overview from someone who tried it yesterday

Thanks for posting this, Steve. Love his videos and take on tech!

 

[jeanericuser001]

I think Apple would rather use their website and their stores to showcase their products, right there where you can actually buy them.

Short of putting an Apple store in the middle of Epcot, I don't see them having any reason to waste their money on an attraction Disney charges money for guests to gain access to just to feature products they're already selling.

I can (barely) imagine a more abstract sponsorship of an attraction but honestly, even that's a stretch since there is no need these days for most large companies, especially Apple, to promote their brands in that way like there was when Epcot originally opened.

I think you'd see Apple in Disney Springs before you'd see them in a park with this sort of setup. I'm sure it'd be a very busy location - especially the genus bar area.

I thought the same until nintendo pretty much took over a large chunk of innoventions. Alas that was also when epcot started to make the switch over from its early roots.

 

[wdwmagic]

Another hands-on from iJustine

 

[lazyboy97o]

I see people continue to bring up (not just here but everywhere) that people have doubted the success of various Apple products and they've all been successful. I really don't see how AR headsets can take off though.

If my eyes felt strained after 5 minutes of riding Mario Kart, how will people want to watch a 2 hour movie on Disney+?

Different and better technology along with the difference between a personal device and a communal device. The resolution and frame rate on these screens is very high. To get a good VR experience you also need to adjust the headset to the distance between your eyes.

 

[MrPromey]

I thought the same until nintendo pretty much took over a large chunk of innoventions. Alas that was also when epcot started to make the switch over from its early roots.

Much different time in the 90's. Also, wasn't that Sega?.

 

[Ayla]

I see people continue to bring up (not just here but everywhere) that people have doubted the success of various Apple products and they've all been successful. I really don't see how AR headsets can take off though.

If my eyes felt strained after 5 minutes of riding Mario Kart, how will people want to watch a 2 hour movie on Disney+?

I'm not an Apple hater. I have an iphone, a mac, an ipad and an apple watch (and use all of them but the watch daily).

I just don't see how this is ever going to appeal to the masses or how they'll ever make any money off their very costly investment.

 

[wdwmagic]

someone was asking about weight earlier. A hands-on tester is saying its 1lb.