If you’ve recently gotten a headset and aren’t interested in games, you might be both overwhelmed by the options for apps, and also disappointed with the challenge of finding good titles. This is where VR Voyaging can help!
Especially with the Meta Quest, your first views of the Feed and Store might get you excited with a huge variety of titles, but you learn quickly that many of them are just 3D 360° videos. These videos can be nice for laid-back entertainment, but they don’t really deliver on the promise of VR to let you enter new worlds.
At VR Voyaging, we specialize in finding and indexing experiences in the realm of travel, new experiences, arts, and cultural heritage. Read on if that sounds like what you’re looking for!
Selection process
Each of our five main categories are represented here with two picks each. So how did we come up with this list? Only the most objective, unbiased Just kidding! These are just titles that are great examples of experiential VR that we liked. We hope you’ll like them too. Without further ado…
Categories
Travel
There are just so many places to go once you put on your headset. Finding the best titles and deciding where to spend your money is hard without a guide. Let us lead you!
One of our favorites, Blueplanet VR. We love this one due to its high-quality scans, its selection of locations, and the large number of locations. You can also see a miniature of each place to get a better acclimated. The base app has 50 locations and they’ve just released new content packs bringing it up to 90 in total! If you want to see some great places, it’s well worth it.
Also amazing for VR travel is BRINK Traveler. While it doesn’t have as high of a location count, it’s a younger app and cheaper to start with. We love the navigation panel that comes up wherever you are (no returning to a main menu), the voice-over, the multi-user capabilities, and the cool 3D effects on the info board for each location.
Art Appreciation
The real world makes you keep your distance from historic and other precious works of art. Whether it’s behind glass, or a velvet rope, you can usually only get so close. With VR, you can get up close and personal with paintings, sculptures, and museum exhibits. Take in every brush stroke and sometimes even hold it in your hands with the immersion of VR.
The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is world-renowned for its amazing works of art adorning every surface by none other than Michelangelo. Walk around the chapel to see the typical view, then use the lift to see the ceiling closeup. Lots of great information about the restoration a few years ago and how it all began.
Art Plunge is a unique way to experience famous classical paintings. Instead of just seeing it flat on a wall, they are reimagined as life-size tableaus that you can walk into and look around. It’s pretty amazing and fun to share with people who are new to VR.
Experiences
VR lets you try things that would difficult or impossible to do in our everyday life. Want to go to the depths of the ocean? How about outer space? How about shrinking down to nano scale? These are all things waiting for you in VR.
We love theBlu because it’s very relaxing, and also just realistic enough to provide a great visit to the ocean. See whales, sharks, and even deep-sea bioluminescent creatures. It’s also fun since it makes a great experience for showing off VR to the uninitiated.
Would you like to conduct a symphony orchestra? Not much chance of being to do that anytime soon for most people, so why not give it a try in VR! Keep the beat, cue the instrument sections, and watch the dynamics. All with a fun cartoon-like art style.
Documentaries
Flat-screen documentaries can be very good. Stepping inside a 3D 360 video documentary can also be great. There’s nothing like stepping into it and being able to walk around and explore history close-up.
The Nazis stole countless artistic treasures during World War II and hid them away in various places. Learn through the narration, walking around in some of the affected places, and examine some of the artwork up close.
Maybe classical paintings don’t go far enough back for you. How about heading back to early cave paintings? The Chauvet Cave is one of the earliest examples of cave paintings in the world and it really feels alive with the powerful imagery along with outlines left by the hands of prehistoric people.
Interactive learning
Plenty of VR experiences let you try or see new things, but not all of them are geared towards teaching you about them. We love to see titles that let us explore history, the natural world, science, and other disciplines with narration, labels, and even lessons. Learning in VR can make knowledge come alive and make it easier to learn and remember.
There’s nothing like learning about nature from Sir David Attenborough. In this app, you can actually sit across from him in full volumetric 3D as he explains discoveries in the British Museum. Watch short clips from his time exploring and see scans or recreations of different animals and artifacts.
Wish you had a time machine? Just strap your headset on and go wherever and whenever you want! With Colosseum VR you can travel back to the glory of the Roman Empire and walk in and around the colosseum. See it in its former grandeur alongside its current state. See what it was like during events and when it was empty.
