ILMxLAB and Magic Leap: Coming Soon to a Galaxy Near You

Droids in your living room, with Magic Leap. (Image courtesy of StarWars.com).

Disclaimer: I am a massive Star Wars nerd, so please excuse the squealing. When Knights of the Old Republic was released on the first Xbox, I played it for 18 hours a day for three weeks, until my physical body had deteriorated to the point where I had begun to resemble my in-game (Dark side) character.

So with that out of the way, let’s talk about Star Wars and virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR).

We have already been teased with a couple of snippets of what a VR/AR Star Wars world may look like with the Star Wars app on iOS and Android, the Trials on Tattooine experiment on HTC Vive and the promise of a Star Wars Battlefront VR X-Wing mission coming soon to PlayStation VR (you can watch the new X-Wing teaser here).

Adding to this bounty of goodies is the recent announcement from ILMxLAB, which has released a short video showing a couple of familiar droids as seen through the lens of the mysterious Magic Leap mixed reality system.

The video reveals the formation of the ILMxLAB and Magic Leap partnership, which promises to push mixed reality (MR) storytelling to mind-bending new heights. Additionally, the new partners have announced the creation of a research lab at the Lucasfilm campus in San Francisco.

“The future of mixed reality and immersive entertainment holds incredible promise and we are honored to work with Magic Leap to shape that future,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “At Lucasfilm and ILM, innovation has always been in our DNA; through this collaboration, ILMxLAB further propels our legacy of exploration and leadership on this new platform for experiential storytelling.”

Of course, it should come as no surprise that Lucasfilm wants to invest so heavily in VR/AR/MR, since it has been a driving force in the use of CGI from the very beginning. The studio’s recent acquisition by Disney for the reasonable sum of USD $4 billion may also play a role—jumping right onto the VR/AR train before it has even left the station seems like a good way for Disney to recoup some of that investment.

Come the end of 2016, it seems that there will be no shortage of options where it comes to getting your 3D Star Wars fix, whatever platform you choose to invest in.

If anybody needs me, I will be the neglected skeleton wearing goggles in the corner.

For more Star Wars engineering stories, check out our roundup for May the Fourth.