Google’s Daydream View arrived a few days ago to positive press, with various videogames and apps available on day one. To be successful it’ll need a constant amount of content available and the BBC will be adding to it this week with a virtual reality (VR) film called The Turning Forest.
Created by the BBC’s Research & Development team in conjunction with VR production studio VRTOV, The Turning Forest is a surreal story set in a magical forest. In it a young child stares into the eyes of a fantastical creature, together, they begin a journey transporting audiences into a realm of folk law’s and childlike imagination.
With VR offering new storytelling possibilities, media companies are exploring what can be done with the technology, and The Turning Forest has been developed by the BBC as part of its ongoing work into VR.
Zillah Watson, executive producer of BBC R&D, said: “The Turning Forest is unique in that it’s been designed from the sound up, using state-of-the-art audio to help transport people to a magical world.
“It takes advantage of decades of research and experience from our own team, partners and universities to create a beautiful soundscape that we hope people will love. We’re delighted to bring this latest experiment to even more audiences and we can’t wait to hear what they think.”
As an experimental project to help the BBC understand how VR can be used for educational and entertainment purposes, the experience originally debuted at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival for Oculus Rift. Since then it’s spatial audio has been improved, Daydream controller functionality added, and a few more surprises in store.
Checkout a trailer for the experience below prior to The Turning Forest launching for free. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Daydream View, reporting back with any further content additions.