Australia Opens A “Free Roaming” Virtual Reality Gaming Center

The idea behind virtual reality gaming is to make the experience feel more immersive, and it does even though technically you’re just sitting on your couch. However if you’d like to experience it as if you were actually there, now you can. A new free roaming game center has opened up in Melbourne, Australia called Zero Latency.

Basically it is a massive 4,300 square foot warehouse that has been converted into an open space gaming center equipped with 129 PlayStation Eye cameras. Players will wear the Oculus Rift DK2 headsets, a backpack containing an Alienware Alpha PC that will help power the Oculus Rift, and will be attached with several PlayStation Eye cameras themselves.

From there they will be able to roam freely in the warehouse while playing what appears to be an FPS. As the name implies, it is meant to create a zero latency experience so that what they are seeing in virtual reality matches up with what they’re actually doing in real-life. According to CNET who got to test it out ahead of its opening, hundreds of people have signed up to play within its first week.

It is priced at AUD$88 per person for an hour and the warehouse will allow up to 4-6 players at one time. It is a pretty awesome idea and seems to be taking concepts such as paintball and laser-tag to whole new levels. A similar idea called The Void is expected to open its own gaming center in Salt Lake City next year.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: alienware, Oculus Rift, playstation eye, Virtual Reality (VR), Wearable Tech