Trials on Tatooine Star Wars ILMxLAB Virtual Reality Trailer
A large part of the story of Star Wars, and of Lucasfilm, is innovation. Trying new things. Blending technologies. Experimenting. Seeing what works, what doesn’t. Embracing the unknown. It’s an ethos that started with lightsabers and trench runs and outer-space dogfights, led to digital dinosaurs that looked as real as any animal we’d ever seen, and recently brought us a ball-shaped robot that captured our imaginations and hearts. And Lucasfilm’s next big foray into the future is here. In a special press event held at Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco yesterday, ILMxLAB unveiled Trials on Tatooine: a completely enveloping, interactive virtual reality experiment. Developed under the guidance of Rob Bredow, Lucasfilm’s chief technology officer, and co-written by Bredow and Star Wars canon-keeper Pablo Hidalgo, Trials on Tatooine throws you into Star Wars for, truly, the first time, and for a longtime fan, it’s a watershed moment. Without delivering too many spoilers, it goes something like this. Strap on the VR headset, take a remote in hand. But with the VR gear on, the remote looks more like something from a Coruscant electronics shop. Space and stars surround you. The opening crawl begins — the familiar Star Wars main theme triumphantly blaring — but this is no normal Star Wars prologue. It’s three-dimensional, you’re right on top of it. You learn that Luke Skywalker, having defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, is looking to rebuild the Jedi Order. One hopeful Padawan is heading to Tatooine. That Padawan is you. The prologue fades, the camera pans, and you soon find yourself on the desert homeworld of your master. Literally, on Tatooine. Turn 360 degrees, look up, look down. You’re not anywhere else. All you see is desert and sky and Star Wars stuff. Sound — music and wind and and more — surrounds you. Now, the experiment really begins. You encounter the Falcon, watch as it lands right next to you (you might find yourself ducking as it descends, which is totally normal), and get a special gift from Artoo — a lightsaber, which you’ll soon get to use. That’s when Star Wars dreams really come true, and it is, in a word, transformative. It feels like a next step. StarWars.com caught up with Bredow over e-mail to talk Trials on Tatooine.
