Meta is reintroducing its VR Animation Player as Theater Elsewhere, now home to some of the best non-interactive VR experiences you can have on Quest.
The overhaul of Meta's VR Animation Player gives Quest headset owners a fresh reason to discover the storytelling power in linear hand-drawn VR artwork. Meta handed off the creativity app Quill to its creator years ago, with the PC-based software allowing artists using Touch controllers to sketch out entire stories directly in VR with their hands. Meanwhile, Quill's counterpart on Quest headsets offers a way to view these creations. The viewer app was first called Quill Theater, then VR Animation Player, and now it's called Theater Elsewhere with a simple one-handed remote control system.
The overhaul announced today includes six immersive environments you can set as the background for the app while browsing, and, from the ones I looked at, they're arguably better than some of Meta's own home environments. The app promises more than 2400 immersive animated works as well with a freefly mode to move through the experiences and a simple remote control interface to progress through narratives.
While the tear-jerking story Dear Angelica isn't in the app, we highly recommend giving the experience a look as well because it is a standout example of the kinds of works that you can make with Quill, and similar to the types of stories you can experience inside the Theater Elsewhere app.
Theater Elsewhere requires the use of a tracked controller and can be found for free on the Meta Horizon Store, with compatibility listed for all Quest generations. If you're interested in adding your own works to the app, you can use the Meta Quest Media Studio to upload it.
