A Visit to Exa Outpost

On the day of 8 September 2017, we went to the first VR theme park in malaysia that offers multiplayer free roaming VR experience which is launched by the EXA Global in Setiawalk, Puchong. I was so excited to know that there is a free roaming VR game exist because one of the weakness of VR game is that we couldn’t roam freely as there will be lots of wire messing around and the devices will go out of detection area.  So, i set quite a high expectation towards the visit to Exa. It was raining cats and dogs at the moment when me and my coursemate trying to get ourselves to the Exa as there were no bus provided for us due to the MMU convocation day. However, we managed to get ourselves to Exa just on time. And.... We reach here like finally!

(Image taken from Malaysia hardwarezone.com because i forget to take a picture of the outside)

Exa uses black and yellow colors as the color theme of their structure design. The exterior design of Exa looks pretty mysterious and it gives me the feeling of that i am entering a construction area. That’s the same feeling as you were entering an escape room. You feel a little bit lost when entering as you don’t know what’s waiting you ahead.  

This is the reception counter of EXA outpost.

The interior of Exa are separated by two zone, the dimension 12 and the friends and family zone. Visitors will be able to see the friends and family zone after entered into Exa since the zone is just right beside to the reception counter. However, the Dimension 12 will not be that obvious to the visitor since it is located in a room. The atmosphere in friends and family zone is very comfortable as they only uses dim light to lit certain area. I personally like the usage of dim light very much as it gives a very soothing and relaxing feelings. I guess this is the reason why they use dim light in the friends and family zone --- to give the visitors the sense of home. Everyone feel relax in their home, don't they?

Friends and family zone (1) - Sony PlayStation VR

Sony PlayStation VR

Friends and family zone (2) - HTC vive

For the dimension 12 session, it is quite different from the friends and family zone. The design is very futuristic and sci fi kind of feel. First, we have to enter to a small room to equip with all the devices and then we only proceed to the game play area. Before the game start, the staff there brief us with the safety precautions, story line of the game (Dimension 12) and the instruction on how to play the game.The spoken language is english. Yet, I couldn't actually clearly heard what he said because the guy who brief us speak in quite a low voice. We are equipped with the Oculus HMD (personally prefer Vive), headset with mic, gun, and a wearable laptop backpack.

The pathway to enter dimension 12

Exa staff are helping to equip the device

Equipped + Hygiene mask (Are we ninja turtle?XD)

Next, we proceed to the game play area. The size of room is actually smaller than what i had expected but it is still acceptable. There are about approximate 10 motion sensors installed in the room surrounding. The motion sensors are actually the one that are detecting the location of the device and transfer the information into the game. Both HMD and the gun are installed with a sensor as well. We are warn not to lean on the pillars as the set up of the motion sensors are relying on the pillars' strength.

HMD's sensor

Gun's sensor

the staff are helping me to adjust the HMD

Well, everything is done prepared and is time to start the game. There is something like a game test for us to warm up and familiarize on the game play. It is so considerate as the player might needs some time to familiarize on how the devices function in the game. Each game lasts about 20 minutes and the maximum players is 4 person per game. We can communicate with each other through the microphone and the commander will also guide and instruct the player what to do next. Every player are given the same character, i'll describe it as an astronaut with gun (refer to the image below).

the given character

the control desk

Now, the real game starts. All of us are required to work as a team and defeat all the monster. Eg. Spider, bugs, bee, etc. We can upgrade our gun by swiping the gun over the virtual box in the game. Unfortunately, my HMD screen suddenly got blackout when the game starts. I have no idea what's going on but just raise my hand to wait for assistance. They restarted the game and reinsert the HMD wire linked to the laptop backpack and somehow everything went back to normal. This is the part that break my excitement, i was so excited to start the game and who knows something like this happened. Another part of the game which will ruin the immersion is the gun we are holding in reality vs the gun we are holding in the game is different. When i hold the gun with one hand, i have no idea where to put the other hand on the gun because the shape of both gun is different. I try to see the shape of the real gun through the little gap of HMD to decide where my other hand should place on. The narrative of the game can be clearly heard and the background music used match with the context of the game. In the middle of the game, anas' gun accidentally collided with my gun and the sensor of my gun fell. The gun is facing upward in the game when the sensor fell off. Again, i raised my hand to wait for their assistance. I keep dying in the game at that moment since i wasn't able to defend myself. I hope Exa global are aware of this kind of collision issue during the game and put into consideration for improvement. My last suggestion is it would be much more better if there are more sensors on the player and devices so it could perfectly detect the exact location. 

Lastly, here's the result of my team.

 

But still, it doesn't disappoint me and is a cool and fun game. It is a great entertainment center to hang out with friends and family over the weekend. I'll definitely come and play again if they had made some improvements. I am hoping to see the establish of AR Theme Park in the near future.