A new, free 10-minute immersive VR movie, Spacewalkers, from Felix & Paul Studios is available to Quest, and it’s a must-watch for any who owns a headset. Here’s our quick review.
Despite an interest in outer space and the wider universe, before this week I had yet to dive into any of Felix & Paul Studios’ Space Explorers content. With the launch of the new (and free) Spacewalkers special feature, available in the Space Explorers app, Oculus TV or Horizon Venues, I figured I’d jump in and give a spacewalk outside the ISS a try.
After the short 10-minute experience was over, I was left completely astounded, my breath taken away by the scope of what I had just watched. It comprises mostly of 30 – 60 second to minute-long vignettes set at different locations just outside the ISS, showing astronauts completing actions and attending to the space station in low Earth orbit.
The scale and perspective that this immersive, 3D video offers is overwhelming – it is likely the closest you will ever feel to being in space, using cutting-edge technology to achieve the effect.
The studio is known for having the best capture technology in the industry, and it shows in Spacewalkers. It’s easy to think that you’re watching some kind of recreated 3D model of the ISS, with animated astronauts floating around. I certainly caught myself thinking that a couple of times, and then remembered that I was looking at 100% real 3D footage captured in space.
Most of the space station itself is stationary throughout each scene, with astronauts moving around it as it floats slowly through low Earth orbit. But for me, there was one moment that brought home the realism of what I was watching – while the mostly-static ISS floated above Earth, I looked around and saw a tiny flap of unsecured fabric on the side of the station, flapping in zero gravity. While a tiny detail, it was an astounding moment of realization – this isn’t just an immersive model or recreation, it’s a proper captured event, in all its glory and detail, filmed in outer space.
For any Quest owner, Spacewalkers is a must-watch. It’s available now on Oculus TV (in the highest quality, when you enable device caching for an episode in question), or through Horizon Venues and the Space Explorers app.
