If you’ve ever wanted to scale the top of Mount Everest but lack the motivation, wherewithal, or physical means to do so, Solfar Studios has just the thing for you. The developer painstakingly recreated a to-scale and highly detailed representation of the tallest peak on the planet. Everest VR made its debut on HTC Vive in 2016, and in February the company added support for Oculus Rift with Touch controllers. Now, PlayStation VR owners can take in the breathtaking sights, too.
“When we set out to develop EVEREST VR, our mission was to traverse a new frontier for virtual reality,” said Kjartan Pierre Emilsson, co-founder, and CEO of Sólfar Studios. “We wanted to push the boundaries of what VR technology is capable of doing and create an immersive experience so realistic that it evokes an emotional response. Since its initial release for HTC Vive last year, we have continued to expand upon EVEREST VR with exciting new content. We’re thrilled to be able to have PlayStation VR users summit Mt. Everest in VR, starting today.”
Solfar Studios’ Everest VR experience takes you on a guided tour up to the summit of Mount Everest. You’ll make stops in several key rally points along the way, such as the famed Everest Base Camp, the Khumbu Icefall, the Hillary Step (which may no longer exist as it was), and the Lhotse Face.
In the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift version of Everest VR, players must use motion controllers to interact with the environment. The PlayStation VR version of the experience supports PlayStation Move controllers, but you can also go through the experience using a Dual Shock 4 controller.
The PlayStation VR version of Everest VR includes all the content found on the Vive and Rift versions, including the God Mode update that lets you fly over the landscape and zoom in up to 1500x (made possible by the Granite SDK) the standard resolution so you can observe every detail about the mountain. God Mode also allows you to experience 18 different historical routes up the mountain, including the first successful route, taken by Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay in 1953.
Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
