South Park, Now In Virtual Reality

Ready to head on down to (virtual) South Park, and have yourself a (virtual) time?

Looking to brush up their virtual reality skills, a team of designers going by the name of Tool has recreated everyone’s favorite quiet little mountain town for exploration with the Oculus Rift.

Now, before you dive in: remember that this is just a fun proof of concept — so it’s a bit simple, and there’s not exactly hours of interactive entertainment crammed in here. Once you’ve bumped into a few of the townsfolk and found Officer Barbrady rolling around in his cruiser, you’re pretty much done. (With that said: there’s at least one easter egg level hidden in there.)

south park

Getting a proper map of South Park to base the geography on was something of a challenge, as the town’s layout has shifted around a fair amount over the show’s 247 episodes. For this case, the designers based their town on a mix what’s shown in the recently released South Park: Stick Of Truth game, and what’s visible in the overhauled, 3D intro that debuted in Season 17.

And with that, South Park joins the likes of Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment, Spirited Away’s Boiler Room, and the bus stop from My Neighbor Totoro on the list of famous scenes/sets that have been recreated in VR. As predicted by Ready Player One (a damned good book, by the way), people seem to love the idea of using VR to explore fictional worlds they already know and love. Just wait till someone gets around to recreating Hogwarts.

You can find the simulator for Mac and PC right over here.