Virtual reality roller coaster

[1] The setup has been widely said to have been invented[2] by Thomas Wagner, who has also produced most of the worldwide installations with his company VR Coaster GmbH & Co. KG since late 2015.

[10] In order to test if this could be overcome by synchronizing virtual reality movement to real motion, a research group of the University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserslautern, led by Thomas Wagner, together with roller coaster manufacturer Mack Rides and Europa-Park, has been conducting experiments on actual roller coaster facilities since early 2014.

Most of all, mounting a computer on a coaster train would not have worked due to the continuous heavy vibrations; also the usual cable connection of a classical virtual reality headset like the Oculus Rift would have meant a serious safety hazard.

The very first virtual reality roller coaster installations have been opened to the public in late 2015,[12] starting at Europa-Park, Germany, followed by Canada's Wonderland[13] and Universal Studios Japan,[14] all of them developed by the startup company VR Coaster, which originated from Wagners Research Group.

In other words, a virtual cockpit must always turn and travel in exactly the same direction as the real coaster car, which would not be possible without an automated synchronization.

Still, as the human sense of balance can't detect absolute velocities but only acceleration and turns, speed and dimensions can be altered in virtual reality.