Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon

[Mark9]

1 hour ago, Marc said:

 

Mayve compared to Galactica that would be a fair point but not sure if a ride designed around it suffers the same shortfalls as one having VR bolted on.

 

I genuinely think VR will play an important role in dark rides for years to come.

 

I personally hope not. I'm yet to try Derren Brown, but reading from the comments here and all over, I can just tell that VR is not for me. Its ok as a novelty on things like Alpen Express and Pegasus. But to re-engineer rides like Air or to make it the main drive behind an attraction sends alarm bells ringing for me.

[Owen]

Well it's certainly not going for a little while, with Disney's Millenuim Falcon attractions focusing around VR tech as well.

[Mitchada04]

The Milenium falcon attraction is going to be like you driving one type thing so you'd see others flying around. And they're building a standard dark ride with animatronics etc too. VR is a gimmick, far too computer game like and just loses the magic of dark rides. Add in the fact everyone will be using it at home for things in 5 or so years it's just not going too be special. VR should not be the future of dark rides. They're just like really fancy personal simulators. 

 

But the public seem to lap it up so bye bye the dark rides we all wish we could get, as VR will be it for now. 

[Owen]

My thoughts exactly, I personally think it's a dreadful idea to make the headline attraction at Star Wars Land VR but that's another subject entirely.

 

Ghost Train I feel will be looked after, or at least I hope. Thorpe has a bright future ahead of it so I look forward to see this attraction develop!

[Project LC]

If the ghost train is looked after I will be amazed. The headsets will remain the same for the next 10+ years and the animation will remain the same for even longer. As for the actors they will disappear anywhere from next week to 4.5 years.

[Owen]

4.5? Goodness no, 2.5 is more like it!  

[L7123456]

47 minutes ago, Owen said:

4.5? Goodness no, 2.5 is more like it!  

 

I'm assuming you mean 2.5 months

[Owen]

Haha, weeks!

 

In all seriousness I don't see the actors going purely because the attraction relies so heavily on them, IAC has kept them (although let's be honest IAC is gone in a few years). The amount of effort they put in, that's another story...

[jack holmes 12]

its probably been said but if you walk in the room look underneath the carriage there are mirrors (you see the ripples in the mirror) 
also I kinda caught on after a while in the gift shop theres 2 mirrors one under the counter and one for the staff bit ... so mirrors play a bit part in this 

I loved it though definitely a good purchase

[TPSou]

The Vive is tracking you in 3D space so to make the perspective work it has to render it in real time. When you move forward and backwards or side to side, it all works out how to present the world to you, just like it does when you move your character in a video game. If you understand why a video game can't just be a video then you should understand the principle.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Matt A]

On 7/15/2016 at 8:42 PM, Owen said:

Well I'm not going to outright say something am I, but if you just think of it logically if the ride were to simply just play a video, if another train was waiting in one block meaning your train would have to stay put for a little extra time, the video would begin to play segments that dont correlate to the movement of your specific train. If you can understand what I'm trying to say from that great - if not feel free to message me and I can explain it in more detail.

 

My point being that the headsets and their computers are a little more complex than what people would like to believe!

 

Oh no your point is very true, I was just saying originally there was no reason for it to be rendered compared to being a video, which I thought you were referencing, sorry if I didn't come across like that the first time! I'm sure it has all the extra stuff you said about, which does make it a very complex ride 

 

In response to everyone saying VR isn't good and such: it has been used well on the Ghost Train imo, even though I still thought it could be improved. (I'd say why I think it works well but it'd be spoiling parts of the ride)

[Jack F]

Moved to spoiler forum

[ThemeParkCrafter]

Write this on spoiler forum 

[Jack F]

Well, I think I worked out how it all works...

 

Here is an image: 
 
So, you enter through the Pre-Show area and listen to Derren blabber on... Then you exit up the stairs and into the warehouse room. Now this room is much smaller than it would seem. The train carriage is part of the wall, with fake walls and mirrors used to hide the rest. This is supported using this documentation: http://documents.runnymede.gov.uk/AnitePublicDocs/00168903.pdf

Once onboard, you put on the headset and the train starts moving right. Once it has reached the correct point, it moves forward enough for the next train to be able to pass behind it into the carriage. It will stop for a bit, while you are listening to the vr guy, and then continue into the northbound platform. When you get off the train, you exit down the unthemed ramp at the end of the northbound platform, and your train moves left again to reach the southbound platform. This gives space for the next train to arrive aswell. Once you have escaped the rogue train, you enter into the southbound platform and enter the same train you just got off. The train now goes backwards down the route and stops. The train will then wait for the one inside the carriage to board, and will show ugly-waste of time-stupid green gas. Then, once the station is clear, your train will continue a bit to get to the end of that part, the demon will grab you and you will start heading right into the carriage. Then, 3... 2.. 1... eyes open, its over... *scream*. Done. Exit through offload and your done.

 

 

In other news... NEW FOR 2017: DERREN BROWN's GHOST TRAIN - BRAVE IT BACKWARDS...

[MattyMoo]

Did anyone see the post on Thorpe's FB asking fans to "react" to the Ghost Train - most of the comments below it really aren't very good... just saying!

[400400]

6 hours ago, Jack F said:

Well, I think I worked out how it all works...

  Hide contents

Here is an image: 
 
So, you enter through the Pre-Show area and listen to Derren blabber on... Then you exit up the stairs and into the warehouse room. Now this room is much smaller than it would seem. The train carriage is part of the wall, with fake walls and mirrors used to hide the rest. This is supported using this documentation: http://documents.runnymede.gov.uk/AnitePublicDocs/00168903.pdf

Once onboard, you put on the headset and the train starts moving right. Once it has reached the correct point, it moves forward enough for the next train to be able to pass behind it into the carriage. It will stop for a bit, while you are listening to the vr guy, and then continue into the northbound platform. When you get off the train, you exit down the unthemed ramp at the end of the northbound platform, and your train moves left again to reach the southbound platform. This gives space for the next train to arrive aswell. Once you have escaped the rogue train, you enter into the southbound platform and enter the same train you just got off. The train now goes backwards down the route and stops. The train will then wait for the one inside the carriage to board, and will show ugly-waste of time-stupid green gas. Then, once the station is clear, your train will continue a bit to get to the end of that part, the demon will grab you and you will start heading right into the carriage. Then, 3... 2.. 1... eyes open, its over... *scream*. Done. Exit through offload and your done.

 

 

In other news... NEW FOR 2017: DERREN BROWN's GHOST TRAIN - BRAVE IT BACKWARDS...

look at the far wall when u walk in and the mirror reflects light at an unnatural angle just in case anyone wants to see it for them selfs 

[Mark9]

8 hours ago, MattyMoo said:

Did anyone see the post on Thorpe's FB asking fans to "react" to the Ghost Train - most of the comments below it really aren't very good... just saying!

 

People more likely to post are more likely to to not like something. You can tell that on this forum a lot too..

[Matt A]

7 minutes ago, Mark9 said:

People more likely to post are more likely to to not like something. You can tell that on this forum a lot too..

 

Applies to anything really, the people who enjoy something/find it okay are usually the ones who don't say anything but the people who think negatively of something often voice their opinions.

[Matt A]

What I still don't understand is how the train after the live action section gets back to the start place, since it must be further back in the building and I don't remember it moving sideways at all

[Jack F]

18 minutes ago, EpicSmatty said:

What I still don't understand is how the train after the live action section gets back to the start place, since it must be further back in the building and I don't remember it moving sideways at all

 

When you fall into the firey pit of awfulness, the train shakes back and forth, and moves back into its starting place.

[pluk]

1 hour ago, Mark9 said:

 

People more likely to post are more likely to to not like something. You can tell that on this forum a lot too..

 

People with a middling opinion, finding something 'OK', are naturally not likely to be making much noise about their feelings as they don't really have any. 

 

I think if people are blown away by something being amazing they are just as likely to comment as those who are disappointed are to moan. 

 

Maybe there isn't too much to be post positively about at the moment. 

 

As for DBGT, does anyone have any idea how well the ride is actually being received in the properly monitored feedback the park gather? 

[Matt A]

55 minutes ago, Jack F said:

When you fall into the firey pit of awfulness, the train shakes back and forth, and moves back into its starting place.

 

Ah that would make sense, thought it could be that

[Marhelorpe]

After looking through some of the promotional images Thorpe have used for the attraction, it does seem that Jack's theory adds up when you really turn up the contrast and brightness on the following image below. The illusion that the train is suspending in the air does indeed use some giant mirror panels on both sides of the carriage and underneath.

For the side mirror (green highlighted), it looks like four vertical panels are used with specifically shaped edges to create a perfect outline of the victorian carriage shell design. The big hint that massive mirrors are used here is the distorted shape in the reflection which isn't a perfectly formed rectangular shape of the tiled window. Another giveaway is above the outline of the green mirror, you can see the warehouse roof not lining up with the wall which means the mirror doesn't seem to go any higher than the top of the carriage.

 

(The red lines are the panel edges of each mirror.)

As for the yellow mirror however, this is used underneath the carriage in the very middle all along from the front to the back. The brown pipe in view underneath the carriage is actually half the length it appears to look in this photo. With this, it creates the illusion that this pipe is directly underneath the carriage when in fact only part of it is. At the other end of the warehouse where the carriage moves into another section of the warehouse, much like the green mirror, a massive one is used here too to cover up the mechanics behind the wall in addition to the tunnel it travels through. This is why the platform you walk on doesn't lead to this other end of the warehouse - you would see yourself in the mirrors if you did. (I didn't highlight it in this image as it's a difficult perspective to show easily).

So in terms of how the system works, it looks like the entire movement of the carriages work in a clockwise motion where the 1st half of the VR involves the train moving linearly from the victorian shell into the other section of the building, and when it arrives back into the warehouse during the 2nd half of the VR experience it moves horizontally back into position as the carriage rocks and moves to hide this sense of movement for the riders.

 

 

[Cornflakes]

Had my first experience of this ride today, I have a lot of thoughts on it;

• It's very interesting to see a ride tackle such overtly political themes in it's narrative, I don't believe any ride has ever really done it to this level, it's a pretty bold move...
• ...however the narrative itself is a bit of a mess; what causes the infection we hear so much about? Why is it talked about so much but never properly explained? Does it come from underground along with the demons? if thats the case what is the need for the demon plot, the whole story could've easily focused on the infection plot, it probably could've been a lot scarier than the hammy demon plot but it just gets pushed to the side.
• the requirement to create some kind of narrative on this ride really feels like a restriction, in my opinion the ride would've worked far better as a series of vignettes set in the train using VR, it would've allowed a lot more experimentation in different sequences, the creativity of this project really feels like it was held back by the need (and failure) to create a cohesive story.
• The technology for this ride clearly isn't there yet. While it made me jump, sure, the fact the whole thing looked like an early PS2 game really took away from the supposed scariness of it, my non enthusiast friend who I was with felt the same way, it doesn't look real enough to be truly scary.
• The rides heavy use of VR is something thats really interesting to me, I get the impression that this ride may never truly be finished, it feels like it'll be worked on and updated for years to come, while it may not be easy, it's not inconceivable to think that in the near future we may have far more polished and graphically impressive VR sequences, it's also possible that we could even have an entirely new story - the fact this ride relies on VR opens up a world of possibilities, it's super interesting to me.

All in all I actually really enjoyed the experience, it's definitely rough around the edges and feels like it could've done with a year or two longer in development to ensure that the tech was up to snuff, but the potential this ride has is really exciting. I hope they do make the effort and continually update it, if it stays the same it'll still be fun as it is now, but in a couple of years time it'll look horribly dated, if they put the effort in Thorpe could be onto something really special with this ride.

[Owen]

Here is a very spoilery video from the Mail Online.