Sky’s bloody historical drama, Britannia, is returning for a second season today. And, oh look, there’s a new VR experience to tie-in with it.
Britannia VR: Out Of Your Mind was developed by Sky VR and Hammerhead VR, the team that runs the Dimension volumetric capture studio in London. Sure enough, the experience displays impressive use of the format. Volumetric capture is a process in which an array of cameras capture an actor’s performance from all angles. The results are then stitched together to make a realistic 3D model of that performance.
Here it’s used to bring you closer to some of the characters from the world of Britannia. The series itself centers on the Roman conquest of Britain. The VR app lets you experience that conflict from two different sides. First, you can join the Druids and take part in a psychedelic rave. You can also visit the Roman empire to worship gods and more.
The volumetric capture brings real-life actors including MacKenzie Crook, Liana Cornell, Ben Bailey Smith and Steve Pemberton to virtual life. It’s one of the more impressive displays of this technique I’ve seen, with highly detailed character models and less of the fuzziness you can find in other volumetric experiences. In fact, the entire experience is richly detailed, with crisp environments captured with photogrammetry. There’s even some fun interactive elements. I personally know very little about the show, but I found this to be just as engaging as a historical VR experience.
Take note that there’s some hefty requirements to run the experience, though. It requires 13GB of space (which is almost as big as Stormland). The app’s currently available on SteamVR for free with support for most PC VR headsets and will be coming to the Oculus Store soon.
