Over the weekend I attended the launch of House of VR in downtown Toronto. House of VR is Toronto’s First Virtual Reality Lounge. A futuristic arcade, gallery and event space, House of VR is located in the historic Burroughes Building at 639 Queen Street West (at Bathurst). Let me give you a quick tour.
You cannot miss seeing this location at night as it looks very unique. Even on Queen St. W. which has a lot of hip and cool places.
On the main floor are booths with green screens which literally insert the player into the game that they are playing so that viewers get a very immersive experience. The headsets in use are the HTC Vive and they have workstation class computers to power each booth.
Scattered throughout both floors of the facility are these pods that have Samsung Gear VR headsets for more “passive” VR experiences. They’re handy for relaxing after working up a sweat playing some of the other games.
Upstairs are booths without the green screens.But that doesn’t mean that they are any less fun.
I noted that some of the players were wearing a Subpac like this one so that they can “feel” the game as in you will feel a hit to the body for example. I should also note that the handheld controls do have haptic feedback to them.
I normally don’t take pictures of bathrooms, but this one was indicative of the art that House of VR scattered around the facility. Oh yeah, I should note this:
The bathrooms are gender neutral.
House of VR is now open. The website has pricing info for individuals and groups depending on what you want to do. Just make sure you leave your cash at home as they only accept debit, credit, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. After all the future as far as they are concerned, the future is paperless. Check it out if you want a different sort of night out.