Ridley Scott’s 1984 science fiction action noir, BLADE RUNNER, is without a doubt one of the most influential films of the genre. For years, fans have cosplayed Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard, built the 2019 Los Angeles cityscape out of legos, and written countless fan-fictions about the gritty underbelly of Philip K. Dick’s strange, neo-techo world. All that being said, software engineer Quentin Lengele has taken his love of BLADE RUNNER to a new level by meticulously re-creating the interiors of replicant detector Rick Deckard’s home by way of a virtual reality tour.
Lengele calls his creation “Blade Runner 9732,” which he built for VR using the Unity engine. In the tour, players are granted the ability to peruse every room in Deckard’s apartment – all while listening to the tune of Vangelis’s “Meomories of Green”. Addtionally, included in the walk-through is Deckard's balcony, which overlooks a busy 2019 LA with all of its skysraper-sized billboards and frantic street traffic.
In his latest update for the VR tour, Lengele has introduced “finetune particle systems, city mod & texturing enhancement, new Police spinner animation & textures and better global fog settings”. As someone who went to school for Video Game & Web Development, I can tell you first-hand that what Quentin has created is quite remarkable – especially when you consider that, in crafting this engrossing tour, Lengele only had access to the first-generation Oculus Rift dev kit. Not only will it be interesting to see how the project improves over time, but also how Quentin’s efforts will stack up when compared to the planned “Blade Runner 2049” VR project currently in development at Disney.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, produced by Ridely Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, the long-anticipated sequel to Scott's original BLADE RUNNER will star Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Robin Wright, Jared Leto, Barkhad Abdi, Lennie James, Mackenzie Davis and Sylvia Hoeks.
Gird your loins, replicant enthusiasts, because BLADE RUNNER 2049 is set to hit theaters on October 6, 2017.