- September 26, 2024
- Hooked Wit Ltd
The Great Exhibition of 1851 in VR
Platforms
About
The Great Exhibition ran from May to October 1851 in London's Hyde Park, in a temporary building known as the Crystal Palace. Six million visitors passed through the turnstiles, to view over 100,000 individual exhibits. Now, over 170 years later, we are recreating the exhibition as an immersive VR experience. The simulation includes a narrator to describe each of the exhibits and the Crystal Pala…







- The game is an excellent use of VR, showcasing a remarkable amount of research and collaboration with museums to recreate The Great Exhibition accurately.
- The exhibits are visually impressive in VR, with detailed 3D scans and audio descriptions that provide a wealth of historical information.
- The developer is committed to ongoing updates and improvements, responding quickly to feedback and expanding the content available in the experience.
- The game currently feels a bit barebones, lacking fully populated displays and some polish in controls and overall experience.
- Some 3D models are underwhelming, with flat images used for certain exhibits, which detracts from the immersive experience.
- The controls can be clunky and cumbersome, particularly for non-VR users, making navigation less intuitive.
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral NegativeReviewers note that while the developers aimed to optimize performance, the use of flat images for 3D objects detracts from visual quality, reminiscent of older games like Super Mario 64. Suggestions for improvement include implementing quality toggles to allow players to adjust settings such as anti-aliasing and resolution for a more customizable experience.
“I understand that the devs of this program were trying to cut back on performance hits, but several free-standing 'statues' were actually just flat images mapped in a 3D way that makes me think of the trees in Super Mario 64.”
“If you guys are worried about performance, perhaps add quality toggles (like adjustments for anti-aliasing, resolution, sampling, etc.) to have the options of higher or lower overall quality.”