Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

May 11, 2018

Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel VR Experience Now On Oculus Rift

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.

Silicon Valley: Inside The Hacker Hostel

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.

Kumail Nanjiani_Dinesh in Silicon Valley Inside The Hacker Hostel VR

“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.

March 24, 2018

REWIND and HBO Releasing Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel Experience Tomorrow

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.

Thomas Middleditch_Richard Hendricks in Silicon Valley Inside The Hacker Hostel VR

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.

Kumail Nanjiani_Dinesh in Silicon Valley Inside The Hacker Hostel VR

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.

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.

March 24, 2018May 12, 2018

‘Silicon Valley’ VR Experience Lets You Explore Erlich Bachman’s Incubator, Now on Rift & Vive

VR headset users now have a chance to walk into an interactive version of HBO’s Silicon Valley house. The Palo Alto home, which is owned by the series’ eccentric startup guru Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller), was lovingly recreated in VR, replete with ‘always blue’ ball, foosball, and yes, even a bong.

Update (05/12/18): First released on Viveport, for HTC Vive, the free ‘Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel’ experience is now available on Oculus Rift for US-based users. The release on Rift precedes the show’s season finale, coming May 13th.

The original article follows below:

Original article (03/24/18): Called Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel, the experience is landing on Viveport March 25th, giving you a chance to walk around the house and fulfill objectives given to you by the show’s characters – Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) and Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani).