Technology in the parks - I'm disappointed

[subsonic]

Yep, that's the ticket. It's the little things that Disney has been slacking on. Though, I think Disney has been doing a better job recently and Lasseter will be kicking butt.

[DisneyManInSeattle]

re: spiderman ride. Yes quite cool actually and an immersive feeling to it, but it feels like a D ticket ride though -- compared to Buzz Lightyear or Roger Rabbit. What I fear is that technology will make something less immersive and more "virtual".
Indy, Pirates and Splash are immersive (you are actually in the ride and can visually see and feel the ride) -- Soaring and Spiderman are too "virtual". That is my fear with the Incredibles ride -- all I've heard about is the "robot arm" thing (anyone been to Legoland and tried out the joust ride?) what I've not heard of is the environment.

-mark

[kronk's angel]

It's interesting that the most amazing thing I ever saw at Disney wasn't a ride at all. It was a black screen in the gift shop at the Contemporary Resort in Florida. It was a l.e.d. fireworks show programed into this black fabric screen. For some reason, that gave me the WOW that I expect from WDW. Sometimes it's the small things.

The attention to detail of the parks is so important, and so magical. The shortcuts over the past several years (or since Walt died, according to some) undermine everything else.

[Gizmata]

I think you mean innovation and not Technology per se.

Technology in my mind would be adding virtual reality, Laser guns/scoring, projection waterfalls, the haunted mansion upgrades (bride/pianist/leota). While these things look cool today their technology is based upon equipment which gets old with time. I am not talking like old technology, but physically will degrade. Unlike a color filter on a light, an video projector will eventually fail with strange results. Unless they have purchased enough backups, or planned ahead they may not be able to fix the effects when they fail.

Innovation was the peoplemover (ford magical skyway), Carousel of Progress, First Tube roller coaster, circlevision, submarines. They did something completely new, or at least in a totally different way.

Most everything today is store-bought technology. Mission Space was bought, Star Tours and Indy are just motion simulators. Soarin’ and Tower of Terror are about the only things in the past 20 years of an outside-the-box idea.

Too much of the business model is about duplication. Disneyland is to get Nemo, yet Epcot gets its scaled down version ahead of the big version. Maybe we should have gotten the Yeti in the Matterhorn ahead of Expedition Everest

Disneyland has already seen what happens when you stagnate the park. Yet they seem destined to repeat it because the bean counters cant look further than next weeks financial sheet.

[kronk's angel]

Disneyland has already seen what happens when you stagnate the park. Yet they seem destined to repeat it because the bean counters cant look further than next weeks financial sheet.

Exactamundo.

Whenever simply "reducing costs" becomes the goal, rather than improving the customer's experience, long-term decline is inevitable.

[soccermouse]

I can't wait to see the upgrades on Subs. These were very much needed!

I hope that there will be a major 'WOW' factor with the new subs at Disneyland. Any rumors about what is to come?

[Jacca5660]

I have a life long friend who has been a Tech at EPCOT (and other WDW parks) for over 16 years. He tells me most of the WDW parks atractions are based on windows 95. The only things that are new technologies are vendor based!!

[rdeacon]

I have a life long friend who has been a Tech at EPCOT (and other WDW parks) for over 16 years. He tells me most of the WDW parks atractions are based on windows 95. The only things that are new technologies are vendor based!!

Windows 95?!?

Sooory folks Star Tours just got a BSOD.... we will have to reboot before you can board.

Rich

[borjoyzee]

Windows 95 is like Windows 98. 98% of the bugs have been removed.

Now as for the others like Xp(getting much better than before) and the new Vista(horrible coding) will take time to correct the bugs.

[TikiTikiRoom]

i'm a little weary of Vista after all the stuff I heard about it in the news. I'll stick with my Mac.

[FlyingMouse]

RE: updating Star Tours

If just updating the techno part of Star Tours is the plan, there is a company in Japan developing UHDT (Ultra-High Definition Television). Whereas the current HD resolution is something like 1900x1100, UHDT is something like 6000x4000 with 22.2 sound (22 speakers at 3 height levels, plus 2 subwoofers). The company has a working prototype. They say that pure HD(1900x1100ish) is like looking through a window and that this UHDT is like really being there (on the other side of the window).

The only problems they are having with it right now is the size of the data. I think the numbers were into the hundreds of terabytes for a feature length film.

There isn't much info on the company or this technology. What little there is a google search away.

[subsonic]

Yeah, right now star tours uses film. Really, there's no limit the resolution of that. But, if they were to move to all digital, I'll bet they could make the cabin much lighter.

My idea is that they should have windows that open and fill the entire outside with LED screens. That would be so much more real. I need an email address to email Disney my ideas. I could do a 3d mockup

[rdeacon]

Sub,

Yeah I always though that Star Tours was lacking with that one screen. If they would have used mult-screens it would be more immersive and cooler effect.

Lets hope they up the bar with Star Tours 2.0 and don't just make a different movie.


Rich

[Captain Schnemo]

It was a black screen in the gift shop at the Contemporary Resort in Florida. It was a l.e.d. fireworks show programed into this black fabric screen.

I remember being fascinated by the fiber optic fireworks in that shop in the 1970s. I actually didn't mind being pulled from the beach (back then you could actually swim in the lake) to go shopping with Mom, since I'd just sit and watch the effect for a couple minutes, then spend the rest of the time figuring out how it was done.

I liked that the lights were so piercing, and the whole effect was so quiet and clean.

Spider-Man certainly has the WOW factor, but I do agree that things are getting too "virtual" in general. Spider-Man works because the 3-D makes things leap off the screen and there is timed interaction with real world effects (hooray for pumpkin bombs!). The cartoony nature of the subject matter makes the cartoony imagery work perfectly as well. None of that tech was particularly new (except for the complicated math involved in making a 3D movie for an audience whose position is changing), but it was packaged in a way never seen before. Really, if you'll forgive me, amazing, and completely unlike just about everything Disney has done recently.

In general, I'm not impressed with attractions where all the hard work is put into the production of a video which is shown to you as you're shaken around. I never liked Star Tours or Body Wars. Compared even to something like Back to the Future, your vision is far too limited and it's far too obvious that you're basically watching a TV show while someone shakes the couch.

What makes the Mansion, Pirates, and a handful of destroyed attractions at Epcot so great is they actually built so much stuff. I know a lot of effort goes into lighting these shows artificially, but you just can't beat the way real light bounces off a real three-dimensional object. No matter what happens in Pirates, the water you're travelling through is real and that adds immensely to the experience right there.

If they'd been advancing AA technology at a more reasonable pace, imagine the great attractions we'd see.

I think stuff like Pirates and the Mansion are monuments to creativity, whereas Mission: Space, Star Tours and the like are just shows you could watch at home, really.

As for the creativity of the Imagineers, I don't want to put any of them down, but it really seems that the spark is not there. I think it's more likely that it's been beaten out of them than laziness, or just the learned helplessness that comes with knowing your budget is going to be decimated, but I really see a lack of grand ideas.

As I said, this seems to have much more to do with the culture than anything else, but it's also true that if they were doing truly innovative things, they'd be attracting stellar candidates.

If you look at what Walt had his hands in, he was always pushing the boundaries of technology (inside theme parks and in other arenas) and that spirit just isn't with Disney today.

[rdeacon]

.....whereas Mission: Space, Star Tours and the like are just shows you could watch at home, really.

You have a centrifuge at your house! SWEEEET


hahaa

Rich