Dino VR review on Oculus Rift

Ever wanted to meet a Tyrannosaurus Rex?

Well you can’t, because they’ve been extinct for 65 million years (sorry to break the bad news). But now, with Dino VR, you can finally meet a T-Rex in virtual reality on your Oculus Rift! Thankfully the Rex in Dino VR is a docile creature. One that’s happy to let you walk beneath its legs, gaze into its eyes or hop onto the back of a Quetzacoaltus (that’s a flying dinosaur to you and me) and buzz it from the sky.

Set on a massive open-world island, Dino VR lets players discover dinosaurs as they trek through jungles, walk across open plains and climb rocky cliff-tops. It’s an impressive achievement on paper, with an educational aspect that makes the experience suitable for children; but technical caveats prevent Dino VR from becoming an essential Oculus Rift experience.

Interestingly, to play the full version of Dino VR you’ll need to sign-up to Unimersiv’s Premium Subscription plan. Priced $10 a month, it lets you download any virtual reality experience or game from the Unimersiv website (each being yours to keep once downloaded), with Dino VR being the first premium experience of many to come. The company promises to release one game per-month, with Colosseum VR coming in the next few weeks. So, how does Dino VR fare?

After loading the application, players find themselves standing on a lush footpath that meanders in both directions. Heading forwards leads to a group of Diplodocus, standing near a spinning black disc that automatically displays information about the creatures while playing a narration as the player approaches. It’s a museum-like experience that educates in an entertaining manner, with an authoritative but friendly voice that’s easy to listen too. Progress further and other dinosaurs can be found, with eight in total:

• Diplodocus – A large plant-eating dinosaur with tremendously elongated neck
• Triceratops – Easily recognized thanks to the three horns found on its face
• Velociraptor – A furious carnivore whose intelligence was the highest among the dinosaurs
• Stegosaurus – A dinosaur with 17 bony plates embedded in its back
• Spinosaurus – The largest of all known carnivorous dinosaurs
• Parasaurolophus – A long-crested, duck-billed dinosaur
• Tyrannosaurus Rex – One of the largest dinosaurs that ever lived.
• Quetzacoaltus – The largest known flying animal to have ever lived.

At times the world seems alive, with lush foliage blowing in the wind, flying dinosaurs overhead and distant creatures milling about; but look a little closer and the illusion quickly falls apart. Most dinosaurs stand fixed to the spot and cycle through the same animation, while their basic geometry means jagged knees and joints can clearly be seen. You’ll certainly marvel at the scale of the dinosaurs, at times wanting to reach out and touch them, but the looping animations, blocky modelling and lack of any artificial intelligence quickly detract from true wonder.

While on the subject of graphics, we’re pleased to see real-time shadowing implemented, while dinosaur scales subtly catch the light and reflect it in a realistic way. The ability to fly across the entirety of the island on the back of a Quetzacoaltus is also impressive, with beaches, cliffs and rocky plains that are only accessible by air. However, once again it’s not a good idea to look too closely. Textures and environmental modelling is crude up-close, while the ocean surface looks like a tin of blue paint has spilled onto concrete. However, the frame-rate is always silky smooth on the Oculus Rift, ensuring the game is comfortable to play; while head and positional-tracking lets you lean in for a closer look at the dinosaurs.

It’s worth noting that we encountered a handful of bugs during our time with Dino VR. One information disc didn’t play any audio, the Quetzacoaltus can only be steered with the mouse, and during flight it’s possible to clip through the landscape, trees and other dinosaurs. However, if you’d like to learn more about these eight types of dinosaurs while exploring a large open-world island, then Dino VR is certainly an entertaining and educational way to go about it.

Unimersiv Website  |  Dino VR