Vintage VR
released on May 02, 2016
In the 19th century, when people had no HTC Vives to play with, they resorted to using primitive stereoscopes to see stereoscopic images in 3D! This free VR experience allows you to view a collection of over 700 such images from that era and enjoy them as people saw them over a century ago.
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Can good intentions redeem a game's experience? If so then this game did not. Vintage VR is as the name tells you, a VR game about looking at images used in stereoscopic devices to simulate the depths of the field. This technique was used hundreds of years ago and in its most basic form, not unlike a VR headset used in the modern day. The idea is pretty cool for a nerd like me.
So, to get this out of the way. This is not really a game. This is a virtual museum with no real objective other than the experience. So I did not come in with those expectations and you should not either. Coincidentally, my master's degree studies were about virtual museums so I feel that I can review this with some expertise for once.
I used the Valve Index VR headset and the game still works as intended despite its age. This is not true for all VR virtual museums because they often go unsupported after release and the new controllers are not added. Here I suspect that the controllers are so simple that it won't ever become a problem. The game is basically one room with a projector screen on one wall and an assortment of vintage items in what looks to be a wealthy family's living room during the turn of the 19th century.
Here comes the elephant in the room. The stereoscopic images are projected on this screen in the room. You actually never use one of these stereoscopic devices in the game and therefore the images on the projector screen are all pretty flat. This makes the experience to be a series of old photos as flat as a table. There should really have been a mode where you as the user get to see only the photos from a fixed point because these are not made to be viewed from different angles with things in the periphery vision. The very core of this game is flawed in its execution.
Other than that the information from the hundreds of photos is incredibly sparse. I get that many of these pictures probably never came with much information other than a single sentence of what they depicted. But this VR museum really needed a curator or narrator voice giving some sort of story or info about what was depicted. Or what about giving a more in-depth breakdown of how these devices used to work? It's history, popularity, etc. Tell me why these are culturally important and why I should care when I use them.
The amount of pictures shown is very generous, over 700 of them. But some are not the best quality. No doubt due to their age of when scanned. Some images are very interesting though and they gave me this Victorian-era explorer vibe.
All in all, this VR museum experience was very lacking. Not much to be interacted with, the very core of showing these pictures was failing to the point of being flat and didn't give much worth to learning. I spent less than in hour in it and all I got was a disappointment.
I asked in the beginning if good intentions could redeem a game's experience. Sadly I have to say no. This idea is a really good one for a virtual museum but this was underdeveloped, even for a free game.
So, to get this out of the way. This is not really a game. This is a virtual museum with no real objective other than the experience. So I did not come in with those expectations and you should not either. Coincidentally, my master's degree studies were about virtual museums so I feel that I can review this with some expertise for once.
I used the Valve Index VR headset and the game still works as intended despite its age. This is not true for all VR virtual museums because they often go unsupported after release and the new controllers are not added. Here I suspect that the controllers are so simple that it won't ever become a problem. The game is basically one room with a projector screen on one wall and an assortment of vintage items in what looks to be a wealthy family's living room during the turn of the 19th century.
Here comes the elephant in the room. The stereoscopic images are projected on this screen in the room. You actually never use one of these stereoscopic devices in the game and therefore the images on the projector screen are all pretty flat. This makes the experience to be a series of old photos as flat as a table. There should really have been a mode where you as the user get to see only the photos from a fixed point because these are not made to be viewed from different angles with things in the periphery vision. The very core of this game is flawed in its execution.
Other than that the information from the hundreds of photos is incredibly sparse. I get that many of these pictures probably never came with much information other than a single sentence of what they depicted. But this VR museum really needed a curator or narrator voice giving some sort of story or info about what was depicted. Or what about giving a more in-depth breakdown of how these devices used to work? It's history, popularity, etc. Tell me why these are culturally important and why I should care when I use them.
The amount of pictures shown is very generous, over 700 of them. But some are not the best quality. No doubt due to their age of when scanned. Some images are very interesting though and they gave me this Victorian-era explorer vibe.
All in all, this VR museum experience was very lacking. Not much to be interacted with, the very core of showing these pictures was failing to the point of being flat and didn't give much worth to learning. I spent less than in hour in it and all I got was a disappointment.
I asked in the beginning if good intentions could redeem a game's experience. Sadly I have to say no. This idea is a really good one for a virtual museum but this was underdeveloped, even for a free game.