There’s no party like a VR dance party.
With Google I/O coming to a close, the three day developer conference saw its fair share of annoucements around VR and AR. Reveals included everything from a new standalone VR headset, updates to Daydream, and a more social YouTube.
But among all the night’s pizza parties and live music, tucked away in a tent on the sprawling Mountain View grounds, sat a dance pool party like no other.
Rightfully called “The Ballroom,” the bash included two rows of brightly colored walls that surrounded a swimming pool filled with clear plastic balls. One row included four HTC Vive setups with partygoers flailing their arms and dancing in VR. The other row consisted of six Daydream View headsets, with guests bobbing their head on a swivel chair.
This was the latest preview of LCD Soundsystem’s VR music experience for their upcoming track titled “Tonite.” The ever-changing VR experience was made in collaboration with Amsterdam interactive designer Jonathan Puckey, Moniker, Google’s Data Arts team, and Brooklyn-based LCD Soundsystem.
The row of Daydream View guests got an early preview of the web VR music experience, where you find yourself floating on rails through a line of different colored rooms. In each room, stick-like avatars are dancing in their own unique style, all while “Tonite” is blasting in your headphones.
But if you were one of the lucky guests to strap on a Vive, you got the chance to actually participate in the creation of the experience itself. Instead of being a spectator like the Daydream users, you were instructed to record your dance moves, which was saved, and possibly may end up in the final music VR experience. You could also amuse yourself in VR by playing back your own dance moves, watching your avatar gracefully complete a perfect lawnmower or sprinkler dance move.
Unlike the more subdued VR demos i’ve grown accustomed to at tech conferences, this was an all out dance party, and likely the most fun you can have in any web VR experience.
The web VR music experience dubbed “Dance Tonite,” will release along with the “Tonite” track and music video this summer.
Google announced on Thursday that a version of Chrome will be coming to Daydream. As part of Google’s continued effort to invest in web VR and allow developers to distribute their creations to even more people, regardless of device, Chrome VR allows you to literally browse the web all while in a VR headset. Making it even easier for everyone in the future to load up a web VR experience like LCD Soundsystem’s “Dance Tonite” and rock your socks off.
You can signup to be notified when the experience drops on tonite.dance.
