Virtual Video Lets You Explore New STAR WARS Planet

This. Is. Cool.

We have all been waiting for the Star Wars: The Force Awakens to come out for sometime now. While the Star Wars fans are excited for December to roll around, it looks like the fans have not been forgotten. Recently, Lucasfilm and Disney have released a new way for the fans to explore the new environment of the upcoming film. In a short video on Instagram and Facebook, showed a video where fans can go and explore the desert of Jakku on a speeder bike.

For those of you that don’t know, Jakku is a new planet in Star Wars: The Force Awakens that has been featured in both trailers heavily. This video showcases certain things such as the Millennium Falcon’s chase with the First Order fighters. It looks like it might take place in this part for the first few scenes of the film; J.J. Abrams has been discreet about it, so it’s hard to know for sure.

This planet is home to Daisy Ridley’s Rey who we get to know more about later on in the film, but who we also got to see in The Force Awakens trailer.

This virtual game puts you in the drivers seat of Rey’s speeder as you get to move around the desert planet. You don’t get to change the course that has been provided for you, however, you can control the camera 360 degrees with a click of the mouse. Their also seems to be a short cameo from one of our favorite Droids, BB-8.

To create 360 videos, a special set of cameras is used to record all 360 degrees of a scene simultaneously. This means that when the video is playing on Facebook, you can choose what angle you want to see it from. On the web you can do this by dragging around the video with your cursor, and on mobile devices you do it by dragging with your finger — or even just by turning your device. You’ll be able to hold up your phone and the 360 video will follow you as you turn, looking around, to experience things from all over the world like never before.

Pretty incredible. Not only is it cool for the Star Wars factor but you can use this in everyday life! Even though it is a short virtual game there have been a few rumors that it’s not just a short interactive video for the fans, but it would be either some sort of promotional marketing strategy for the film (which would make sense to be honest), or possibly some hidden Easter Eggs that we won’t be able to identify yet, but that is just a thought.

 

Unfortunately, this video is about a minute long so they don’t give you much time to explore, but the good thing is that you can try multiple times over and over again. Just don’t do it on the days you have work because it could get addicting. You have been warned. Looks like Disney has done it once again.

Bravo.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in theatres on December 18, 2015.