Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt Isn't the Soarin' system patented or copyrighted in some way? I think I read that somewhere.
Originally Posted By woody >>In terms of the overall experience, Soarin' has them beat hands down, for me anyway. I love thrill rides, but thrill sims are too often just noisy, rough, sound-and-fury-signifying-nothing things.<< I agree that Soarin' is a great experience in terms of having a basically fun ride without a lot of bombast, but there wasn't much there behind the travelogue film, nor much attempt at integrating the ride to the ride vehicle. Sometimes you go up and sometimes you go down. That's all there is to the Soarin' ride. I do think Soarin' may survive the test of time with this simplicity of presentation. Maybe that's the major benefit. However, I think the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton presents the best simulator ride experience in story, special effects, and ride experience. It is just marvelous. I enjoyed both the Klingon Encounter and the Borg ride.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I liked but didn't quite love the ST Experience (only rode one of the two), and I can see if you were a ST fan (which I'm not particularly) that it might be even better. They did do a good job. Simplicity, as you say, is often a benefit. Despite a couple of city scenes, Soarin' is basically about natural beauty, and natural beauty doesn't really get old. They do pretty impressively simulate right and left also, not just up and down. It's subtle and gentle, which works perfectly in context.
Originally Posted By SuperDry I think Soarin' is a great ride. But, IIRC, the film is rather grainy. I recently saw a feature movie in IMAX, and was shocked at just how clear the film was - I never saw any enlargement artifact whatever. Can someone that knows more about film comment on the Soarin' print?
