Watching films and TV shows on a virtual reality (VR) headset isn’t anything particularly new, with streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu launching their own VR apps that allow their customers to watch their favourite programmes from the comfort of a virtual living room. Hulu even recently launched a special edition of their VR viewing room that takes fans of Syfy title 12 Monkeys into a time machine to view the latest episodes. However, the problem with these services and their apps is that you don’t get access to everything you might want to watch in a virtual theatre, you only get what these services have on offer rather than your personal film library. VR Theatre Pro, a VR experience seeking support on Steam Greenlight right now, seeks to change that.
VR Theatre Pro is a a VLC-based virtual theatre experience that’s been developed for the HTC Vive head mounted display (HMD).The idea behind the application is that it will allow users to experience movies, TV, webcasts, and more content besides from their very own large cinema auditorium. As it’s VLC-based, VR Theatre Pro is able to support most video and audio files, as well as YouTube videos. When users choose which file they’d like to watch, they’re displayed on the large VR theatre screen.
This isn’t a completely passive experience, either, as VR Theatre Pro comes with full Vive controller support meaning users will be able to explore their theatre by moving their thumb around the trackpad or by using the grip buttons to control a laser pointer that will allow them to teleport to anywhere in the auditorium they like (something we all wish was possible in real theatres, I’m sure, when everyone is rushing to get to the doors).
VRFocus will keep track of the progress of VR Theatre Pro’s Steam Greenlight campaign and report back with news as it happens.
