VR exhibition: Mondes Disparus (old port Montréal)

6 of us went to the VR exhibition at the Old port of Montreal, a voyage though time depicting the start and evolution of life in Earth. The last few shows like this were all pretty amazing so we had high expectations and who doesn't want to walk (or swim or fly) with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures? 

The show was set up the same as past shows. You enter, get a visor and follow a Virtual 3D animated guide through the show.  You see others in the room with you as avatars and if you are in a group you can see the names of your group so you don't get separated and know you are not talking to a stranger. 

The illusion you are in a place, despite it not being photorealistic, is still amazing to experience. I thought the information was presented in a childish way but still entertaining. The microscopic start to life and progression to insects, seas life and then on to the stars of the show, the dinosaurs were all fun to see. This is really the best way we have to really get a good feeling of how large some of these creatures are in relation to humans as they walk past you or you walk under them. You even get small look at the future. Even though it looks like you in water, descending down a hill, surrounded by trees and vegetation or snaking through a system of cave passages you are in fact just on a flat floor walking in a weird pattern in a room with odd markers all over the walls that track what you see in your VR Glasses.  

It isn't that expensive to do and the experience is certainly memorable and fun. I had some issues with the visor... at least 2 of us has slightly blurring images which gave me a headache by the and and lessened the effect of the VR. I didn't like the transitions, at points the whole world just goes black and you are back in the default scene for 10 seconds while the next segment loads.. I guess. This wasn't the case in earlier shows which were all fluid. 

The English version of the show is called something else and I fully admit I was too lazy to look it up!