Has the melon finally ripened?, Observation | Metaverse Entertainment Pyramid | Project | Observation | Metaverse

Xingye Taikouhui, a cultural and entertainment project called "Lost Pharaoh - Immersive Exploration of the Khufu Pyramid" has become popular.

In addition to parent-child families and young couples, there are also elderly people in their 80s and visitors in wheelchairs who come to experience it. This surprised Tang Yicheng, founder and CEO of the organizer "Bo Xin Metaverse". "I didn't expect the audience's acceptance to be so high." This week, "The Disappearing Pharaoh - Immersive Exploration of the Hufu Pyramid" announced that the closing date has been extended from the originally scheduled August 27th to October 7th.

Also on Nanjing West Road, the first "X-META | Time and Space of Opportunity" China-Chic Cosmos Theme Park in China in the Opportunity Center of Tomorrow Square, has combined many VR full-sense theater projects such as Luoyang in the Wind, Kunlun Maze, Mars Rescue, etc. In Shanghai, more and more "metaverse" cultural and entertainment projects are becoming new experiences that attract citizens and tourists, such as the immersive experience drama "Beyond the Gravity of the Three Body Problem" by Fengchao on the west bank, and the "Mysterious Tower City 1933" metaverse immersive scenic area in the old workshop of 1933.

Has the "metaverse", which has been talked about for many years, finally landed as consumable content? Industry insiders believe that with the development of technology and cost reduction, the speed of cultural IP's digital transformation is accelerating. On the new track of "metaverse", Shanghai cultural and creative enterprises have already taken the lead.

How to play the metaverse?

How to play "Metaverse" entertainment? The reporter experienced multiple projects.

On weekday afternoons, at the entrance of Xingye Taikoo Hui's "Lost Pharaoh - Immersive Exploration of the Khufu Pyramid", there was an uninterrupted flow of people queuing up. While waiting for the device to be worn, the reporter looked inside the venue. The event venue looked very much like the core exhibition hall of an art museum, but there were no exhibits in the spacious exhibition hall. Except for patterns similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs on the floor and walls, it was almost a "white box". Groups of tourists wearing headsets and carrying backpacks are dispersed in different positions on the field.

On weekday afternoons, participants queue up at the entrance of the "Lost Pharaoh - Immersive Exploration of the Khufu Pyramid".

The venue for the "Disappearing Pharaoh" event was empty, with groups of tourists wearing headsets and backpacks scattered in different positions on the field. Apply morning dew evenly

The reporter put on his backpack and quickly connected to the "metaverse" world. After receiving a basic explanation of the operation guide, she arrived at a small tent in the desert. The black skinned tour guide girl waved outside the tent and followed quickly. Outside the tent, a magnificent pyramid stood before her eyes. The fit of the head display is good, and the image gives a sense of immersive shock. Turning the head can also see more scenes, almost simulating the real field of view in reality.

In the "Lost Pharaoh - Immersive Exploration of the Khufu Pyramid", the "tour guide" leading the way ahead

From a process perspective, "The Disappearing Pharaoh" is quite similar to the first perspective adventure game. Users can follow the guide to enter the interior space of the pyramid for sightseeing, and then follow the goddess Bast, who takes on the form of a cat, to travel through time and space, watch the process of Hough being mummified, and understand the history and culture of Egypt.

In the virtual world, you can see other nearby tourists appearing in the form of "air people", watching their squatting or arms crossing movements, hearing their voices, and having their surnames marked in pinyin on their heads. In addition to facilitating communication, a greater use is to avoid these human "obstacles" when walking. After all, entering the virtual world will generate a sense of fear of being in the unknown. Every time the tour guide asks you to take a step forward, especially when there is a floating stone slab ahead, you will always tentatively want to touch its "entity", and even hesitate. If you can't keep up with the rhythm due to hesitating steps, you will fall out of the plot and enter a pure white space. You need to follow the prompts to walk towards a "beam of light" - like a resurrection point in the game, and then restart the plot.

In the "Lost Pharaoh - Immersive Exploration of the Pyramid of Khufu", the experiencer can see other tourists appearing in the form of "Air Man" through their head display

Compared to adults, the children on site are obviously more adapted to such "metaverse" works. Blue and orange areas will be marked in the screen, with blue representing the best viewing area and orange representing the boundaries. While exploring, reporters can occasionally hear the voices of small audience members discussing, who have quickly adapted to the survival laws of the metaverse. When you carefully "manipulate" your legs to climb onto the stone slab that will "take off", you hear them trying to study "Will I fall if I step on it empty?" As you closely follow Bast's guidance to the area around it, ensuring your "safety," a child stands inside Bast's body and exclaims, "I see a pair of cat eyes."

"Disappearing Pharaoh - Immersive Exploration of the Khufu Pyramid" Scene

The VR full sensory theater of "The Wind Rises in Luoyang", which landed in Tomorrow Square, is decorated with an antique atmosphere. After watching an immersive live drama performance, players wear VR headsets and enter the ancient world, transforming into "villains" and engaging in a battle of wits and courage with the mysterious organization Spring and Autumn Road. "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" offers thrilling audio-visual experiences and stronger interactivity. When boarding a carriage, boat, or wooden kite in virtual time and space, the presence of a chair can also be felt in reality. When a ship collides with a stone and the water rushes out, real-life chairs will also sway and water droplets will splash on your arms. If you are afraid of that roller coaster like experience, the simplest way to crack it is to close your eyes, which will allow you to temporarily escape from the virtual world.

When experiencing "The Wind Rises Luoyang", the reporter encountered Yang Yige, a third year junior high school student from Changchun. "The Wind Rises Luoyang" was one of the reasons that attracted her and her mother to come to Shanghai for a trip. "I came across this project on the Cat's Eye platform and have always wanted to experience what full sensory VR is like. In Changchun, I have only played VR games and there is no plot content." Yang Yige is interested in traditional culture, and the promotion video of "The Wind Rises Luoyang" is full of historical and ancient Luoyang city buildings, Tang Dynasty songs and dances, which are very attractive to her.

"The Wind Rises in Luoyang" VR Full sensory Theater Scene

9-year-old Zhu Yulin and 7-year-old Zhu Jiayi, who live in Xuhui District, have already completed two screenings of "The Wind Rises in Luoyang". The siblings, who are in elementary school, have also experienced "Kunlun Maze" and "Mars Rescue". "It's very fun, I want to play it again." Zhu Yulin has never been exposed to computer games before, and it's also her first time encountering the "metaverse". In her understanding, games should be like this: "It feels very real, as if I'm really fighting monsters. Big fat worms will spray venom into my eyes, but I'm not afraid at all. Here, I feel like I'm in another world."

The End of the Metaverse is Content

It is reported that "The Lost Pharaoh - The Immersive Exploration Experience of the Khufu Pyramid" is the world's first commercially operated large-scale immersive exploration project. It premiered globally in Paris, France in June last year, and Shanghai is the first time this project has been held in Asia and has also landed outside of France.

Tang Yicheng told reporters that the characteristic of immersive exploration experience in large spaces is that it can accommodate tens to hundreds of people simultaneously in the venue for immersive virtual reality experience. Viewers can team up to enter a virtual cultural and tourism scene, freely strolling while chatting with each other, highly replicating the experience of offline tourism. The backpack carried by the tester is actually a high computing power computer, with a market price of about 25000 yuan, and the price of the headset worn is about 10000 yuan. These devices are all commercial grade and not for household use.

"Four years ago, when the French side was brewing this project, we wanted to introduce it to China. At that time, many conditions were not yet in place. On the one hand, the number of high computing power computers was not enough, and the cost was high. On the other hand, the technology that could accommodate dozens of people online was not perfect enough. In Tang Yicheng's view, the successful landing of the" Lost Pharaoh - Hufu Pyramid Immersive Exploration Experience "in Shanghai was inseparable from the high attention paid by the capital and consumer markets to the concept of the" metaverse "in recent years. At the same time, technological development further reduced hardware costs, and audience acceptance was gradually increasing.".

The entire venue of "The Disappearing Pharaoh" has a total of 80 devices, which can be used continuously by 50 people. Each session lasts for 45 minutes, with 12 sessions per day and a capacity of 600 people. Since its launch on May 12th, it has received more than 15000 people. The Dragon Boat Festival holiday was once overloaded, with over 600 people received in a single day.

Who is the audience of the "Metaverse" entertainment project? In the journalist's circle of friends, friends who returned from Australia chose to experience the "disappearing pharaoh" with their children during a brief stay of a few days. During the journalist's experience, they also heard visitors communicating in English. "The first wave of visitors were mainly from parent-child families, and currently there is a large age range. I asked the elderly audience who came together how they knew about this project, and they said they were recommended by their children." Tang Yicheng said.

"Disappearing Pharaoh - Immersive Exploration of the Khufu Pyramid" Scene

"It feels quite friendly, with good visual effects, strong knowledge, and gentleness." Experient Ms. Tan told reporters that she was originally a bit afraid of the "Metaverse" project, "just like someone who dares not play roller coasters or secret rooms in an amusement park." After being urged by friends to experience the entire process, she found that it was "not dizzy or stimulating.".

If the "disappearing pharaoh" emphasizes cultural experience, the VR full experience theater of "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" has higher playability, and also includes activities such as carriage racing and shooting enemy soldiers. After experiencing two projects, the reporter felt that if described as a movie, the "disappearing pharaoh" is more like a traditional movie. "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" is a 4D movie, or wearing VR glasses to watch a 4D movie. However, this experience is more realistic and immersive than 4D movies.

Film and television practitioners may have been the first group to touch upon the "metaverse". At the 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival Forum, industry insiders discussed the topic of "how far away we are from VR viewing". At that time, not only was the device not mature enough, but some people bluntly said, "When you turn with a VR helmet, you will feel dizzy or nauseous, which is very normal. And don't try to create VR content for more than half an hour, because current devices do not support it." The lack of good content is also a problem that troubles practitioners. "Currently, many VR films are" sugar water "films, which look very beautiful, but the content is empty and meaningless.".

Another constantly discussed question is, what exactly is the "metaverse"? Someone once joked, "The 'Metaverse' is a basket that can hold anything inside.". However, entertainment workers have long agreed that the end of the metaverse is content. At the 2019 Shanghai International Art Festival in China, foreign theater practitioners shared VR theater projects in the form of PPTs - to unravel a mystery, audiences can wear VR devices and explore back in 1995; Another type of offline multiplayer VR interactive drama that can accommodate up to 15 people has a game like experience: wearing VR devices, the audience can enter the story and even join the stories of other viewers. Through interaction and user interaction, they can ultimately co create and complete the work with the director.

The form of entertainment described in PPT at that time has gradually become a consumer item in reality. "A model like ours that can receive 600 people a day can give the market and the industry a confidence that VR can make money and be responsible for its own profits and losses." In Tang Yicheng's view, just as Tiktok lowered the threshold for content production, more content producers can profit from the platform, more and more people do content, forming a complete ecology. "The landing and profitability of the 'meta universe' consumption scene can also stimulate content producers and hardware vendors to further research and development and breakthrough, forming a virtuous circle, and rolling the snowball."

"In 2015, VR became popular. Later, live streaming became a more popular form, and the VR content industry experienced a 'desolate period'." Xu Yuxuan, Shanghai Affairs Director of iQiyi's Public Affairs Department, introduced that since 2018, iQiyi's cracked environment studio has started to expand into the offline VR market. The team has successively launched games such as' Future Border ',' Hong Kong Island Action ', and' Snowy Land Mistake ', which have a good reputation among hardcore players. ".

The VR full sensory theater of "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" was also developed by the Fragrance Studio and is a part of the Luoyang IP "One Fish, Twelve Eats" of iQiyi's "Huaxia Ancient City Universe". When players play, each group has 8 people, and they can receive up to 20 groups per day. The experience time for each group is about 1 hour. "We will scan a 600 square meter space in its original state online, and build a 1:1 scene online. Each physical object inside, including machinery and props, including tables and chairs, will be virtualized." Xu Yuxuan explained that the project has invested over ten million yuan and has always been profitable. "We will continue to improve technological innovation and bring better offline experiences to more users. In the future, we will develop an offline experience mode that can accommodate more people at the same time." On the 4th floor of Tomorrow Square, in a similar area of space, the VR full experience theater of "Canglan Jue" is being built. This project is based on the fairy tale drama "Canglan Jue" that was popular on iQiyi last year and is expected to be launched next year.

"The Wind Rises in Luoyang" VR Full sensory Theater Scene

Now, is it the turn of the "metaverse"?

Throughout the "metaverse" cultural and entertainment projects currently available in Shanghai, almost all are further extensions of successful cultural IPs. The disappearing pharaoh relies on Egyptian culture, and the TV series "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" is adapted from Ma Boyong's novel. "Beyond Gravity" is jointly developed by Shanghai Three Body Star Human Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. and Three Body Universe, the IP copyright owner of "Three Body". It integrates immersive performance, AR, VR, AI, and digital interactive art, with actors from the Shanghai Drama Center joining in. The 3400 square meter venue on the 7th floor of the West Bank Phoenix Nest is transformed into "Gravity". At the Global Licensing Exhibition · Shanghai Station held last week, the sci-fi IP "AI Dream" announced that it would create a cultural and tourism experience project integrating AI, interactive technology and immersive narration on the 102nd floor of Shanghai center Building.

Immersive Experience Drama Scene of "Beyond Gravity" in Three Body Problem

Another trend that can be seen is that "metaverse" cultural and entertainment projects seem to be becoming a new "standard" for first tier commercial districts and landmark buildings. When cultural IP accelerates its transformation into digital content, it ignites new growth points in cultural consumption. Xingye Taikoo Hui is one of the organizers of "The Disappearing Pharaoh". The venue for the event is a multifunctional hall that used to hold art exhibitions, and now it has become a large-scale testing ground for the "Metaverse", bringing popularity to the business district. Someone has planned a route - first check in at Zhangyuan in the morning, then experience the "disappearing pharaoh" at Taikoo Hui, then go shopping in the Nanjing West Road commercial district in the afternoon, and at night go to the Meiqi Grand Theater to watch on-site performances and experience cultural nightlife. "To build Shanghai into an international consumer city and attract domestic and foreign tourists, it is not only necessary to have luxury goods, but also high-quality cultural consumption content in order to form long-term influence and radiation."

In 2014, Tianxie Culture held the Impressionist Master Monet Exhibition at K11, setting a record of 400000 visitors and pioneering the art exhibition in the commercial district. According to statistics at the time, during the special exhibition, K11's daily revenue increased by 20%, providing a case of art and business integration. Since then, many masters such as Dali, Picasso, and Andy Warhol have successively landed in different business districts in Shanghai. The success of the Monet exhibition has also boosted the confidence of more enterprises and overseas institutions to transport their works to Shanghai and commercial centers for exhibition.

Now, is it the turn of the "metaverse"?

The VR full sensory theater project of "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" is a joint venture between iQiyi and Opportunity Center, which also excels in creating offline commercial cultural and entertainment projects. In Tomorrow Square, which mainly focuses on hotel formats, the Opportunity Center initially developed formats such as libraries and cafes on the second floor. After introducing the "Metaverse" project, other floors were further activated.

In Tang Yicheng's view, the immersive exploration experience of the "disappearing pharaoh" in a large space breaks the constraints of time and space, allowing viewers to explore cultural relics thousands of kilometers away in the mall, truly achieving a combination of virtual and real, and a linkage between business, tourism, and culture. In addition to planning to promote the project nationwide, the team of Boxin Metaverse is already brewing to create an original project for Chinese cultural heritage IP. "We hope to choose an IP that can be exported overseas to promote Chinese culture abroad. We have a core team of about 10 people and will form a studio similar to a movie studio in the future for related content research and development."

"In recent years, the cultural and tourism driving role of film and television works has become increasingly prominent, and a drama that ignites a city has become the norm. During the hot broadcast of" The Wind Rises Luoyang "in 2021, topics related to Luoyang topped the list of key tourist cities in China. Last year's" In the World "made Changchun, the filming location, a destination that audiences yearn for. This year's" Raging Wind "has increased the number of tourists in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province during the Spring Festival by five times, and the whole country has remembered this small city with pig feet." Wang Zhaonan, Vice President and Editor in Chief of iQiyi, said that when film and television IPs become the source of empowering cultural and tourism, the key to connecting online and offline is technological innovation. "The Wind Rises Luoyang" "We hope that we can start from Tomorrow Square and move towards a broader future in the cultural and tourism metaverse," said the VR full sensory theater, which was the first to land in Shanghai

"Now, the 'metaverse' is like standing on the eve of over 100 years of film invention, but perhaps it no longer needs to go through the long process of film industrialization development," Tang Yicheng said.