Formula E has offered a sneak peak into what it sees as the future of watching sporting highlights by revealing how they’re using virtual reality to offer a new perspective on races.
Earlier this year the electric car racing series announced it had started working with VR firm Virtually Live to create virtual reality highlights packages from their races. The twist would be that these highlights would be computer-generated versions of the races, giving a video game-like experience, but also increasing the scope for the experience – enabling users to be on the track and next to the cars as the race unfolds.
Now, ahead of the new Formula E season starting in less than two weeks, the first tangible version of this experience has been revealed.
Using HTC Vive, fans will be to move freely around the track as they wish, as well as use a “guided mode” to follow specific drivers around each circuit.
This version of the experience has been added to HTC’s new Viveport app store for VR experiences, and comes from four races from last season bundled into one package.
There’s plans to have an Oculus version ready during the new season too, while Virtually Live also has plans to run one of the experiences ‘live’ alongside the real race at some point during the season.