Richie's Plank Experience gets mixed reality mode and improved graphics

Image: Toast Interactive

里奇的平板支撑体验已收到更新 Meta Quest 这带来了改进的图形和混合现实组件。

VR experiences in 2017 demonstrated the unrivaled suggestive power of virtual reality.

For those of you who have never heard of Richie's plank experience: You enter an elevator at the base of a skyscraper, and after a short ride, the elevator opens to reveal an abyss in front of you. The challenge is to balance on a virtual plank above an abyss.

The experience becomes more mentally challenging when you put a real board on the floor and feel the wood under your feet. The size of the virtual plank can be adjusted to match the physical plank for maximum realism and fear factor.

Richie's 2023 plank experience: Despite updated graphics, it's not spectacular

This week, Richie's Plank Experience received a free update that adds an atmospheric mixed reality component to the VR experience, projecting a virtual elevator into your physical environment. Once you enter the elevator, the rest of the experience takes place in virtual reality. It's a more immersive introduction to the overall experience, but nothing earth-shattering, and there's definitely room for improvement in its use of mixed reality.

This update brings graphical improvements including higher resolution, redesigned textures, and better lighting. I first tried Rich's Plank experience on a standalone headset, but was disappointed by how bland the elevators and cities were in the new Meta Quest 3. There was also blurry fog on textures that weren't close up.

The same goes for Canyon's Edge DLC, which costs $4 from the studio and adds a new environment inspired by the Rockies. The textures might look better, but they're ruined by something that looks too aggressive with fixed-foveated rendering.

Still effective, but too expensive by today's standards

Despite its visual flaws, Richie's Plank Experience achieves its primary purpose: balancing on a plank over an abyss takes courage, and is great for showing off the power of virtual reality to your friends, or just watching their reaction.

The $15 price was fine in 2017, but not anymore. Not to mention the overpriced DLC content. In addition to the plank experience, you can fly over the city and destroy missiles. Due to the harsh urban environment, this was not a particularly great experience.

Richie’s plank experience is available at Meta Quest,Steam. The studio is also developing a promising VR platform game, Max Wasabi, which will be released in 2024.