If you put together a list of top brands that companies would love to be associated with, then Star Wars has to be high on that list, with a dedicated following of fans the world over. When it comes to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) the franchise has already graced The VOID with Star Wars: Secret of the Empire, there’s the to be released Star Wars: Vader Immortal, and Lenovo even released the Mirage AR headset just for Star Wars: Jedi Challenges. Today, ILMxLAB has announced the release of Star Wars: Project Porg, a free experience for Magic Leap.
Star Wars: Project Porg is ILMxLAB’s first public experiment in mixed reality (MR) storytelling, designed exclusively for the Magic Leap One Creator Edition headset.
The entire experience revolves around the fluffy little bird-like creatures called Porg’s – made famous in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Just like any other pet simulator Star Wars: Project Porg is all about keeping these little critters healthy and entertained. This means users need to continually feed and play with their pet Porg’s, teaching them how to navigate real-world environments whilst taking care instructions from everyone’s favourite droid C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels).
ILMxLAB has released a video going into further detail regarding the project, how it came about and what the team managed to achieve using Magic Leap’s spatial computing technology. Vicki Dobbs Beck, ILMxLAB executive in charge, and other key spokespeople all feature, plus there’s a small amount of footage of an as yet unreleased MR experiment called Project Hoth.
This experiment originally debuted at Magic Leap’s LEAP Conference in October 2018, with additional smart home integrations shown exclusively for the conference.
Ever since the launch of Magic Leap One, the company has been growing its roster of developers, with the likes of Insomniac Games with Seedling, Funomena with Luna: Moondust Garden, and Rovio Entertainment in collaboration with Resolution Games with Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot. For the average consumer however, don’t expect to get your hands on a Magic Leap One anytime soon. The device retails for $2,295 USD and is only available in certain US cities. For more updates, keep reading VRFocus.