An eye-catching world representing the Venice Immersive 2024 event held in Italy earlier this year can be visited on an ongoing basis in VRChat.
Designed to transport users to a rendition of the iconic city of Venice, the world serves as an artistic hub where culture, art, and interactive experiences converge in VR. As part of the Venice International Film Festival, Venice Immersive showcases a diverse selection of VR experiences, each one highlighting the individual creativity and style of its creator.
Below we take a virtual tour of Venice Immersive's presence inside VRChat. To start off the series, Michael Salmon, AKA Manglebird takes us on a tour of the main island world.
“All of the actual buildings in Venice have copyright. So we're not allowed to use any actual real building, or we're not allowed to build out any island to represent a real island in Venice," Salmon noted.
"So what we had to do is get something that has the vibe of a Venice. It's like, is of Venice, but not actually Venice, which I think Deac has done really beautifully in this world. The main reason to have this space as well as being, like the jumping off point at the beginning of all of our tours, is also so that it can house all the portals to the worlds that we feature.”
The hub introduces the various attractions and serves as a gateway to some of the deeper experiences that Venice Immersive offers. You can also grab a quick selfie on the Red Carpet.
We also take journeys into the minds of a couple of the artists behind two of this year's contest entries. We met creators like MetaRick and Wondering Chew, each offering a distinctive VR storytelling experience, through MetaRick's "Uncanny Alley" and Wondering Chew's "StrangeWays". Both entries showcased inventive and engaging narratives, inviting participants to dive deep into these thoughtfully crafted worlds.
My colleague Henry Stockdale visited Venice himself this year and wrote an overview of many of the experiences available at the event.
I recommend giving that a read if you have time, and if you're in a headset and want to check out some of these experiences for yourself, you can start at this VRChat world link below and play parts 2 and 3 of this guided tour after you finish the first for a kind of guided tour through the space with the artists and organizers of Venice Immersive 2024 providing context.
You can visit the Venice Immersive VRChat world here: