Following the release of the Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel immersive virtual reality (VR) experience back in March of this year for the HTC Vive. HBO and REWIND have now announced that the experience will be coming to the Oculus Rift now as well.
The announcement comes ahead of the season give finale for Silicon Valley that is set to air this coming Sunday, May 13th at 10:00pm EST. The title allows fans of the show to jump into the Hacker Hostel and get to experience a number of items from the show along with having 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). Users 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 a coding crisis.
The Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel title was built by REWIND within the Unreal Engine 4 to allow for an authentic virtual recreation of the Hacker Hostel to be made for users to explore. By using a 3D software to faithfully recreate the environment from blueprints of the actual set, along with photo references to create textures and materials the team at REWIND were even able to capture HDR 360-degree photos of each room on set to ensure authentic lighting was possible. The team worked hard to ensure the digital recreation of the Hacker Hostel would be a one-to-one result giving fans the most immersive experience possible.
“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 available now on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. You can see a behind-the-scenes trailer below for the Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel experience and for more on the title in the future, keep reading VRFocus.