The Great Lego Race Coaster has just opened at Legoland Florida, it is a VR re-imagining of its previous ride called Project X. The roller coaster uses the existing roller coaster structure, but adds a VR element, with each participant wearing a VR headset, which transforms the ride in to a colourful race closely resembling a video game.
“What we did is painstakingly map out every inch of this roller coaster,” Keith Carr of Legoland told the Orlando Sentinel. “What you feel and what you see are actually in sync with each other. That’s what makes the virtual reality work. What we wanted to do was take and enhance the drops and take and enhance the turns, and that’s what the VR allows us to do.”
The ride begins with a video introducing the characters you will see along the way. Participants get get instructions on attaching the Samsung VR headset (which is cleaned before every use).
Once the ride begins the race moves through a detailed Lego landscape, smashing through walls and taking unexpected detours. The action takes place in a full 360-degree view, so riders can look behind them too.