GDC 2015: Meeting Up with Crytek (and a T-Rex) [VIDEO]

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Going face to face with a T-Rex

What is it like to experience VR's latest prototype called "Crescent Bay?" How does it feel to have a T-Rex breathe down your neck as you stand in a pile of her unhatched eggs? Does the T-Rex really have a walnut-sized brain? Awesome, scary, and watch Land of the Lost. Those are our quick answers if you're in a rush. For everyone else, let us elaborate a bit about what we saw at GDC.
We stopped by Crytek's booth to check out its T-Rex demo, which is a modernized version of Dinosaur Island, a 14-year-old demo that was originally designed to show what Crytek could do with graphics. Crytek overhauled the graphics and cleaned it up for a VR demonstration using CryEngine. The response was so overwhelming positive that Crytek extended the demo to three and a half minutes for GDC, while collaborating with Oculus VR.
Here's a look at the demo in action:

So, why doesn't the T-Rex go postal in the above demo and swallow us whole? The demo is actually in the perspective of a baby dinosaur that just hatched. You're surrounded by unhatched siblings when all of a sudden the mother T-Rex comes charging over to investigate.
We spoke with Crytek's director of production, David Bowman, who told us that the responses from the T-Rex demo have been mixed. Some people have yelled when the dinosaur comes running up to them, others have tried to play it cool before flinching, and yet others have tried to crouch down and hide behind an egg. All of these are natural responses to what's ultimately a realistic VR experience.
Bowman wasn't allowed to talk about Crescent Bay's hardware, but one thing he noted, and that we experienced, is the lack of nausea. Of course, this is a standing a demo without a lot of motion, but previous to Crescent Bay, a user might feel nauseous by swinging his or her head from side to side.
Here's more of what Bowman had to say:



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