Star Wars gets help from Google's new VR tool
The new tool, called Seurat, could help create immersive Star Wars experiences.
- She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
The next Star Wars film might be just that much better thanks to a new technology from Google.
The search giant unveiled a new tool called Seurat at its Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California, on Thursday. It partnered with ILMxLab, the branch of Star Wars maker Lucasfilm that's focused on new technologies, to come up with a better way visualize scenes in virtual reality.
Seurat, which yes is named after the famous painter, can take a high-fidelity scene like something you might find in a high-end video game, and run it on a low-power mobile VR headset. The result: cinematic realism in VR.
It's unclear from Google's presentation what this technology will ultimately be used for, whether its aimed at filmmakers or developers making VR experiences for fans -- or both.
"When I see people in our demo looking at the floor on their hands and knees, down to inspect the curvature of every bend and twist, I really think we're onto something," said Lewey Geselowitz, a senior UX engineer at ILMxLabs, in a video.
Google and ILMxLab said this is the first time they've been able to take high quality, cinematic images and turn them into something that can be looked at in real time. To them, this is a breakthrough.