An Old, Modern Tent: Experience Your Dreams

An Old, Modern Tent: Experience Your Dreams

Samantha B. McGarity

Harrison High School

An Old, Modern Tent: Experience Your Dreams

An Old, Modern Tent: Experience Your Dreams

My tent is a virtual tour through world that millions of people would like to visit but are

not able to because the worlds are fictional. To produce an effective ride that makes the rider feel

as though they really are in the world of their dreams, mechanics behind the ride and how to

create such a virtual reality are key parts to consider. When considering how to create a virtual

tour, the first thing that came to mind was a ride with a rotating base, no roller coaster tracks

involved. Rides like this include “The Simpsons Ride” in Universal Studios, one of the favorite

rides for guests at that park. These rides do not move forwards or backwards at all, merely just

left or right and can face the riders facing towards the ceiling or the floor. To create such a ride,

first a rotating base needs to be set in the ground and have a sequence to follow for every ride,

matching up with the time of the virtual reality film the riders will be watching. On top of the

rotating base needs to be a seat where the riders would observe the film playing around them.

Seatbelts would not be needed for this ride, being that the ride is slow and calming, and it is very

similar to the Stargazer tent in the circus because, “it glides forward slowly, and Bailey can see

nothing but darkness” (Morgenstern, 2011, p. 261). After the seating is done, it is important for

the riders to have the correct atmosphere to correspond with the virtual tour they are in. A dome

structure is created around the ride to make sure the virtual reality appears three-dimensional,

with the projector on the back of the ride’s seating playing the virtual reality scene. Elements

such as weather and temperature are important to consider as well, so there is a wind and heat

blower on the ground as well as a fog machine. According to “How the Best Rides at Universal

Studios Work, all of these things can come from one element: “tanks of nitrous oxide creates

atmosphere effects like wind and fog” (“How the Best Rides at Universal Studios Work,” 2016,
An Old, Modern Tent: Experience Your Dreams

par. 5). The only other factor to the mechanics of the ride is how the sequence of scenes will

work together to create a random and new experience for each viewer. In Walt Disney World’s

ride, “Star Tour’s: The Adventure Continues,” a similar effect is used to create over 500 different

possible ride experiences. The engineers at Disney World, “settled on a ‘storytelling slot

machine premise” (“Behind the Ride: 5-Mind-Bending Tricks Employed by Star Wars: The

Adventure Continues,” 2019, par. 8). This slot machine idea basically settles on one random

beginning scene chosen, one middle, and one end, and I would use this idea to create a unique

experience for riders of my tent, as well.

For the actual virtual reality aspect of the tent, I considered what the audience I wanted to

attract would be most interested in. It is said by Morgenstern (2011) that when the circus opens,

“Some smile knowingly, while others frown and look questioningly at their neighbors. A child

near you tugs on her mother’s sleeve, begging to know what it says. ‘The Circus of Dreams,’

comes the reply. The girl smiles delightedly” (Morgenstern, 2011, p. 6). To keep this spirit of

“dreaming” alive while keeping the tent new and modern, I decided to let the guest of the circus

be able to visit their favorite fictional world that they would not be able to in real life. They

would go through a calming tour of these worlds, switching from one another in a unique pattern.

Though there are many fictional places people want to visit, the most popular one is Hogwarts

School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is most people’s, “fantasy [of ours] to receive a letter

by owl with the chance to attend Hogwarts” (Ursula Nizalowski, 2018, par. 3). Keeping this in

mind, I decided to do the opening scene of my virtual tour starting at Hogwarts. I got 2 videos

off YouTube, one walking up the staircase to Hogwarts and one walking to the Gryfinndor

Common Room and combined them with effects to make the beginning of my scene. The other

places my ride would visit would be Asgard, Neverland, Narnia, and Middle Earth. This would
An Old, Modern Tent: Experience Your Dreams

create the full magical effect for the rider because even if they were unsure as to what these

places are, their surroundings would still be astonishingly beautiful. My tent offers an escape

from reality for anyone wishing to ride and journey into the fictional world of their dreams.
An Old, Modern Tent: Experience Your Dreams

Work Cited

Nizalowski, Ursula, (2018, December 23). 15 Fictional Places We Wish Existed In Real Life (10

That Actually Do). https://www.thetravel.com/fictional-places-we-wish-existed-in-real-

life-dream-real/.

How the Best Rides at Universal Studios Work. Gizmodo. (2016, April 14).

https://gizmodo.com/how-the-best-rides-at-universal-studios-work-1762505782.

Behind the Ride: 5 Mind-Bending Tricks Employed by Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.

Theme Park Tourist. (2019, August 5).

https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20150503/30224/behind-ride-5-mind-

bending-tricks-employed-star-tours.

Danimoreno3D, “Hogwarts common room at 360 | ¡¡GRYFFINDOR!!,” YouTube,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-JQrCNKIUY&t=243s

Danimoreno3D, “Hogwarts castle 360 stairs of the shed (More tours in the Canal),” YouTube,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc1A9FYwlq0&t=36s

Secondary Sources

Morgenstern, E. (2016). The night circus: a novel. Vintage Digital.