I briefly thought about how crazy people must be to take on the challenge of climbing up Mount Everest. But the truth is it's a once in a lifetime kind of experience that is an accomplishment like no other. It will take your breath away — and I'm not talking about the altitude.
Standing tall at 29,035 feet (although the Nepali government has not made this newly reported height official), I couldn't help but feel small as I took in the beauty. The aerial view revealed an endless sea of snow-covered rocks pointing to the heavens.
The trip is tough and dangerous, but l can see how it would be life-changing for those who complete the summit. There is no denying that the imagery will stay with you.
Created by Sólfar Studios in partnership with visual effects house RVX, Everest VR allows players to take the climb from the comfort of their own home — all that's needed is a VR headset.
The experience starts with the player feeling like they are sitting in the front row in a theater as the documentary-style shots reveal Mount Everest in all her glory. Then the player is taken into the scene themselves to experience what it would look and feel like to make the journey to the top.
"We try to take you to Everest, and we try to give you a really photo-realistic environment to actually explore and act in. We try to make it so you just feel like you are there," director and game designer at Sólfar Studios Petur Thorarinsson told Tech Times. "I think pure experiences like this is so much more rich then just 360-degree videos of being in a location."
The Everest VR experience was created using the assets taken by RVX, who worked on the visual effects for the movie Everest last year. The visual and special effects company went to Nepal and took almost half a million aerial pictures of the entire mountain. From that, they were able to create a detailed point cloud of the mountain, including its textures, to bring the mountain to life in a real way on the big screen and now in virtual reality.
Someone who has a fear of heights may not want to look down, but this would probably happen on instinct. Luckily, I don't suffer from this fear, but feeling this high up still had me a little wobbly. Totally immersed in my surroundings, I looked down, right, left, and down again, thankful that my feet were firmly on the ground in the comfort of PR agency fortyseven communication's office in New York.
"This is a chance to do something [where] you feel truly frightened, but knowing that there's not real risk involved," Thorarinsson said. "A lot of people get a real sensation out of that. So prepare to feel that fear and feel that excitement while actually knowing that you're not risking your life doing it."
I was also grateful to not be feeling cold during my icy summit. Even still, with HTC's Vive Pre on my head, headphones on my ears and the headset's accompanying controllers in hand, I was taken from the room onto the massive mountain. Reaching out, my hands revealed they had transformed into gloves. My first task was to bend down and hold onto the rope, clenching on the triggers to close my palms to cross a bridge to join my team.
I began feeling all the sensations I imagine I would be feeling if I were there in person, which included slight vertigo and nervousness while trekking through the snow. When asked to climb up a ladder, I felt like I should be using my legs (the player must use the controllers to reach up and climb with their hands), so I am sure I looked a bit ridiculous.
Since there is the ability to walk about and explore the terrain, I enjoyed being able to take in the sights and walk around to identify the various base camps that were nearby.
Since not everyone can go there physically, Everest VR allows people to explore and learn more about one of Earth's greatest wonders.
"Who wouldn't want to go to Everest? A lot of people want to see it, and it has potentially a really wide appeal, even though people aren't necessarily actively curious about it," Thorarinsson said.
The official date has not yet been announced, but Everest VR will launch sometime this year, with Thorarinsson adding that Sólfar Studios is "aiming for the same launch window of the HTC Vive in spring or summer."
The experience is expected to launch with a few VR platforms, including HTC's Vive and Microsoft's Oculus for the PC, with the potential to be released for gaming consoles as well. However, no official announcements have been made.
With preorders for the HTC virtual reality headset starting on Feb. 29, Everest VR is one of the journeys worth experiencing.
