The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel is an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience that will bring fans of the hit HBO comedy series Silicon Valley and put them into the heart of it all.
The interactive VR experience provides fans with one-on-one encounters with the characters from the show including Richard (Thomas Middleditch), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Big Head (Josh Brener) and Jian-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang). Viewers who attend the Hacker Hostel can see how many times they get “always blue”, demo the Not Hot Dog app, find a secret message from Jared and help Richard out of coding crisis.
Powered by the Unreal Engine 4, which recently unveiled a host of new features at the Game Developer Conference including a real-time ray tracing Star Wars demo, the experience has been crafted for the HTC Vive. The team at REWIND, an immersive content studio with a passion for VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), have worked to create an authentic virtual version of the Hacker Hostel, a central part of the HBO show.
Using 3D software to faithfully recreate the environment from blueprints of the actual set, along with photo reference to create textures and materials and making use of the show’s set using a HDR 360 Capture of each room to replicate the lighting as authentically as possible. The end result for the users is a digital recreation of the set that is fully explorable and intractable.
“Being handed a beloved IP like Silicon Valley is daunting and exciting at the same time, but we were able to craft a virtual world that takes fans into the heart of the show.” Says CEO & Founder of REWIND Sol Rogers. “It isn’t just a gimmick or a reskin of something else; this is VR done right. It gives those that want to literally live and breathe the show the perfect accompaniment to the fifth season. Filled with Easter eggs, show references and loads of items to play with, it’s pure entertainment. Countless hours went into creating a perfect virtual replica of the Hacker House and we’re thrilled it’s now open to visitors.”
The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel experience is host to a number of interactive elements that users will be able to interact with including table football with integrated artificial intelligence (AI) to a fully playable piano. Screen distortion effects allow the user to become ‘drunk’ within the experience. It packed with so many different objects that are interactive that users can even put on a VR head-mounted display (HMD) within The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel experience.
The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel experience is releasing tomorrow on HTC Vive’s Viveport platform tomorrow and for now will only be available in America. As season five of the series is just starting on HBO, it is a perfect time to experience the show like never before and be a part of it with The Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel experience.
VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest from REWIND and HBO in the future so stay tuned for more.