Disgruntled Walt
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Wait, what's the ghostly breeze?
-
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Tower of Terror effects status watch
- Thread starter thelookingglass
- Start date
Wait, what's the ghostly breeze?
Rodj
Well-Known Member
When the ghosts first appear until they disappear, there is a cool breeze you can feel. From my last trip, it seemed the strongest in Bravo.
Disgruntled Walt
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
I never once noticed that. I'm not surprised, though, the ride is a masterclass of Imagineering in every way, when it's firing on all cylinders.
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
The problem with OLED is burn in. See Avatar. Looks ridiculous.
They could haves mocked this up with high quality LCD but Disney is lazy, cheap, and doesn’t care.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
Burn in isn't really an issue with OLED displays anymore, as they now come with built in tech that prevents it. Even then, the Tower pre-show wouldn't cause burn in as it doesn't have any logo or stationary graphics staying on the screen.
But yeah, they threw likely the cheapest LCD monitors possible in there.
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
Maybe now it’s better, but look at the Avatar show. I don’t think anything needs to be stationary other than the same content playing over and over.
Also, I don’t think they’ve completely eliminated from the technology even in the newest panels. You have to remember the content is played 12-16 hours per day 7 days/week.
VicariousCorpse
Well-Known Member
Burn in with OLED displays will always be a possibility due to the technology its built with. Pixel refreshers and shifters only help for so long. Due to it being black and white, they would probably last even longer, but it WOULD happen given enough time. Organic materials decay and the areas around it can only compensate for so long before they burn out as well.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
Personally I have not seen burn-in at Flight of Passage. I also have been told that they weren't OLED but instead expensive LCD displays behind tinted glass, giving the illusion of OLED which was still riskier in 2017. If there is in fact burn-in in the FoP pre-shows it could be because of the video pausing its loop overnight (and Disney techs not caring enough to properly shut it down, which wouldn't surprise me as Disney does not have a dedicated A/V team for their rides like Universal does).
OLED being at serious risk for burn in does not really apply anymore and you can treat a modern OLED the same as older display types. Mind you, static images and graphics on screens for extended periods have time have always had the potential for burn in dating back to CRT's. It's why screensavers were invented. It's why every gaming console since the mid 2000's, when LCD displays started popping up, have screen dimming features when idle. Consider the fact that most phones coming out now are OLED and they do not get burn in despite showing the same lock and home screen constantly.
The Tower of Terror pre-show would not cause burn in because no part of it is static. The still shot of Rod Serling, for example, is only a few seconds long and quickly refreshed with movement. Showing the same content over and over does not cause burn in, only static images on screen, for extended periods, consistently.
In similar vein, when solid state hard drives first started gaining traction, everyone was warned to not get them because they would fail easier and have a much shorter lifespan. But it's been over a decade and things have improved significantly. Today, solid state hard drives are the norm and you don't have to treat them any different than traditional hard drives.
Not trying to be condescending, just wanting everyone to get on board with OLED now that OLED displays are becoming affordable, so we can finally move on from ugly LCD screens and their bad black levels and bad viewing angles.
OLED being at serious risk for burn in does not really apply anymore and you can treat a modern OLED the same as older display types. Mind you, static images and graphics on screens for extended periods have time have always had the potential for burn in dating back to CRT's. It's why screensavers were invented. It's why every gaming console since the mid 2000's, when LCD displays started popping up, have screen dimming features when idle. Consider the fact that most phones coming out now are OLED and they do not get burn in despite showing the same lock and home screen constantly.
The Tower of Terror pre-show would not cause burn in because no part of it is static. The still shot of Rod Serling, for example, is only a few seconds long and quickly refreshed with movement. Showing the same content over and over does not cause burn in, only static images on screen, for extended periods, consistently.
In similar vein, when solid state hard drives first started gaining traction, everyone was warned to not get them because they would fail easier and have a much shorter lifespan. But it's been over a decade and things have improved significantly. Today, solid state hard drives are the norm and you don't have to treat them any different than traditional hard drives.
Not trying to be condescending, just wanting everyone to get on board with OLED now that OLED displays are becoming affordable, so we can finally move on from ugly LCD screens and their bad black levels and bad viewing angles.
VicariousCorpse
Well-Known Member
Burn in occurs when the diode decays and doesn't emit light as well. It should be called burn out because that's what's happening. All of the pixels will eventually die, but being in the on-state degrades them much faster. Would it ever be a concern under the Tower's show conditions? Probably not. There's no practical reason why they shouldn't go with them. I'm all aboard for your idea, it's just fun to discuss the technical side of things as well.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
Agreed. I'm into this stuff. It's also interesting because Tower of Terror is a unique case where adding in newer technology actually made the show quality of the ride worse (different from changing scenes to something more high tech like at Haunted Mansion), though a lot of that is because they just didn't try very hard to make it fit.
OK this was definitely fixed, watched a couple videos/streams over the last few days and I can hear a clear difference compared to my own recordings of the preshow from 2022 and 2024 (most notably the final music cue after the static is clearly audible again):
Hoping this upward trend of Tower's show effects can continue
Rodj
Well-Known Member
OK this was definitely fixed, watched a couple videos/streams over the last few days and I can hear a clear difference compared to my own recordings of the preshow from 2022 and 2024 (most notably the final music cue after the static is clearly audible again):
Hoping this upward trend of Tower's show effects can continue
This is the first stream of Bravo since Alpha's projections were corrected, unfortunately Bravo's hasn't been corrected either yet. Also starting from a few days ago and seen in this stream, the left side starfield door "line" in the 5th Dimension isn't working.
VicariousCorpse
Well-Known Member
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
Why were the scorch marks in the lobby ever removed?
This dripping water effect is something I did not know ever existed, and I have pretty extensive knowledge of the ride.
This dripping water effect is something I did not know ever existed, and I have pretty extensive knowledge of the ride.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
Since we're discussing missing effects, here's everything I can think of off the top of my head:
The big sign emitting actual sparks. This was later replaced with occasional strobes for safety reasons, but this doesn't seem to work anymore either.
The drop shaft audio being audible from the outside. Not just faintly, but clearly.
The sound effect of the wall sliding open in the libraries. (Not sure if this is back as of recently)
The boiler room used to have fog covering the ground. The random theater lights on the ground would make the fog glow. Was disabled because of causing mold.
I don't recall ever seeing pipes shooting steam.
Wind hitting you during the corridor scene (apparently finally being fixed?)
Light from the lightning outside the window in the corridor scene shining onto the hallway floor.
A large amount of the fiber optics in the corridor scenes have been dead for a long time.
The scenes in the 5th dimension were originally filled with smoke, that's why they're behind glass. Apparently caused issues.
A photo of your actual elevator in the 5th dimension eyeball.
electricity projected onto the walls of the drop shaft at the start of the drop sequence.
Air cannons in some of the drop sequences (they are hit or miss, but they used to blast a mechanical scent at you too). They're on the same spot as the two ghost figures in the drop shaft (which were just spares from the 5th dimension scenes).
Under-carriage strobes at the end of the drop sequence. Used to be a really pronounced effect, now you're lucky to get one or two dim flashes.
There's probably more. And I'm not even mentioning how bad the audio has been for like 15 years and still is. Tower of Terror is an absolute mess, show quality wise, and whoever has been in charge of that, or was, does not deserve their job. Among all the E-tickets in Orlando, it is easily near the bottom for show quality.
The big sign emitting actual sparks. This was later replaced with occasional strobes for safety reasons, but this doesn't seem to work anymore either.
The drop shaft audio being audible from the outside. Not just faintly, but clearly.
The sound effect of the wall sliding open in the libraries. (Not sure if this is back as of recently)
The boiler room used to have fog covering the ground. The random theater lights on the ground would make the fog glow. Was disabled because of causing mold.
I don't recall ever seeing pipes shooting steam.
Wind hitting you during the corridor scene (apparently finally being fixed?)
Light from the lightning outside the window in the corridor scene shining onto the hallway floor.
A large amount of the fiber optics in the corridor scenes have been dead for a long time.
The scenes in the 5th dimension were originally filled with smoke, that's why they're behind glass. Apparently caused issues.
A photo of your actual elevator in the 5th dimension eyeball.
electricity projected onto the walls of the drop shaft at the start of the drop sequence.
Air cannons in some of the drop sequences (they are hit or miss, but they used to blast a mechanical scent at you too). They're on the same spot as the two ghost figures in the drop shaft (which were just spares from the 5th dimension scenes).
Under-carriage strobes at the end of the drop sequence. Used to be a really pronounced effect, now you're lucky to get one or two dim flashes.
There's probably more. And I'm not even mentioning how bad the audio has been for like 15 years and still is. Tower of Terror is an absolute mess, show quality wise, and whoever has been in charge of that, or was, does not deserve their job. Among all the E-tickets in Orlando, it is easily near the bottom for show quality.
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There are a few of these that are either fixed or partly fixed that I know of, so I'll just list them real quick:
-The drop shaft audio has definitely been much more audible from outside the ride recently (as of my program in summer 2024) but it seems to vary in volume from sequence to sequence - for example I always seemed to specifically hear the final drop of the Ghost profile clearly while waiting in line. Definitely seemed louder in recent years.
-The wind in the corridor scene has been fixed since at least late 2023, I've always felt a gentle breeze on my last two visits that I don't recall being there prior (not sure if it differs from shaft to shaft but I don't think I've had a single ride recently where I haven't felt it)
-There was a big issue discussed earlier in the thread where the floor lighting in the corridor was either broken or stuck on, but this has since been fixed.
-The lightning bolts on the drop shafts wall are a... unique case. They were originally strobes (implemented with the Fear Every Drop update in 1998 AFAIK) that would flash at different intervals in each of the four drop sequences, usually at the very start and about halfway through, where the elevator would 'struggle' up the shaft and stop in front of them. The effect was always hit or miss in recent years but they all had their panelling and strobes removed late last year... and replaced with a pretty bad LED effect that not only illuminates the ENTIRE lightning bolt outline instead of small portions like it used to, but only occurs at the very start of the sequence. (also they forgot to put the covers back on so if the shaft is bright you can clearly see the outlines)
-The air cannons are even more inconsistent. I've never felt the air blasts myself but they were supposedly fixed for a small period in around October. You still hear them fire, but nothing comes out.
-I believe as of late 2024 the under-carriage strobes have all been fixed, or at least restored to how they always used to be in Tower4 (two bright flashes during the final drop)
There may be more but that's all I can think of right now - if anyone else has more clarification it'd be appreciated hahah