If like me you are a fan of virtual reality or are simply curious, know that it is not necessarily necessary to invest in a helmet to experience it on a regular basis.
The places of virtual reality thrive around the world, especially in China or the United States with a New York venue that is green with envy: The Void.
But in the last few months several clubs have sprung up in Paris and so I wanted to try some of them.
Here are my tips for spending 1 hour alone or with friends in virtual worlds.
I) MK2VR, the multi-experience
Installed at the end of the MK2 library, the MK2VR has the advantage of offering many experiences and above all of being able to test the main viewers on the market: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Playstation VR.
I’ve been there 3 times already, especially at the invitation of BNP Paribas for the Kaleidoscope II festival and I find it’s the best place to get a general introduction to what VR can offer today.
In addition to games, you can for example mistake yourself for a bird, go rowing thanks to Holodia and let yourself be fascinated by a selection of truly quality content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_aHn8zSfXM
Price: 12€ for 20 minutes (which in my opinion is too little to really enjoy it), 24€ for 50 minutes (twice as much as a cinema ticket, but it’s the price to discover new territories).
Address: 160 avenue de France, Paris 13.
To find out more, visit the site.
II) Virtual Room, Escape Game atmosphere
I do it regularly virtual realitybut I experience it much more rarely in a collective form.
It’s all about Virtual roomwhich invites you to come with friends (4 I’ve tried it at the moment) and find you all together in an interactive story that I really enjoyed discovering.
Each player is put into an individual box with an HTC Vive, but you’ll all end up in an Escape Game-like game where you see your friends’ avatars and hear them through microphones and headphones.
The duration of the experience depends on your ability to work together to solve the puzzles (about forty minutes for me).
You will not see the time pass because writing the script and your involvement will even make you forget that you are not really in this virtual world.
Price: from €25 to €30 per hour depending on the time of day.
Address: 93 rue de Turenne, Paris 3.
To find out more, visit the site.
III) MindOut, 20 experiments to test
Installed in a space of 200m2, MindOut could at first glance be compared to the MK2VR. The positioning is a bit different, as Romain Lesaffre points out in Le Point: “This is the difference [le MK2VR] it is more a first contact laboratory with virtual reality, in a short time of a few minutes and with an often renewed programming, while we are more in line with a logic of a real arcade for the general public and durations of use up to a an hour or more”.
Price: starting from €15 for 30 minutes or by subscription.
Address: 35 rue de Turbigo, Paris 3.
To find out more, visit the site.
IV) VirtualTime, VR for everyone
Even if I wanted to, I would have had a hard time ignoring it Virtual time so much so that they invest in advertising on Facebook or Google.
We believe they have a lot of ambition on the subject and their stated mission is to make VR accessible to everyone. At the time of writing these lines I haven’t been able to test the room yet, but it won’t take long 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTDXmqD9OxE
Price: from €19 for 30 minutes.
Address: 38 rue d’Aboukir, Paris 2.
To find out more, visit the site.
Cover photo: Benoît Florençon.
