Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine may be the game that convinces you to buy the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. The VR experience that began as little more than a rumor this week has now been unveiled in a tantalizing and all-too-brief trailer from Industrial Light & Magic. The 48-second clip gives a quick glimpse of ILM’s plans for putting you inside the Star Wars cinematic universe courtesy of VR.
Referred to as a “cinematic virtual reality experiment,” Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine will contain both gaming and storytelling aspects. As reported by Variety, the experiment begins with a relaxed setup as you’re whisked away to Tatooine. Described as a “room-scale” VR experience, the boundaries for the Trials on Tatooine will reportedly be a 15 x 15-foot room in which you can explore the planet’s surface, hang with R2-D2, and even work on a broken-down Millennium Falcon.
As shown in the video, the experience ends with a lightsaber battle (delivered courtesy of R2’s inner compartment) against a horde of attacking Stormtroopers — probably something fans have been dreaming of since HTC showed off the wireless controllers that are central to the Vive experience.
It’s not a surprise ILM has a Star Wars VR project in the works. Last year, it formed the ILM Experience Lab, where virtual and augmented reality projects surrounding ILM movies would be created. In the launch video, Star Wars was repeatedly featured, and like the new video, the HTC Vive VR headset was seen several times.
The HTC Vive is available for pre-order now, with a launch date at the beginning of April, just a month before May 4 — a date that would be fitting for any Star Wars VR content to be released. More news on the release of the project could potentially come at any time, and we’ll keep you updated.
Updated on 03-15-2016 by Ryan Waniata: Added the official teaser video and more details about the Star Wars VR project coming to HTC’s Viv
