Jaguar Paw Temple lies deep in the Guatemalan rainforest, part of the ancient Mayan ruins of El Mirador. Three days walk from the nearest road, itâs almost inaccessible. And yet here I am.
I get down on my knees to examine a sculpture of a jaguar. I see jungle dirt in the crannies. Dead leaves have collected at its feet. I can see it all, right in front of my face.
But my bodyâs back in San Jose, at the GPU Technology Conference, with a screen strapped to my face and two motion-tracking cameras watching my movements. Iâm exploring the latest destination offered by virtual reality company , which lets you visit some of the worldâs most beautiful and striking places without leaving your living room.
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Going off-road
CTO and founder David Finsterwalder made the Jaguar Paw Temple reconstruction just two weeks ago. After flying to Guatemala City, then catching a local flight to the small town of Flores, he and a team from the Global Heritage Fund took a 30-minute helicopter ride into the jungle. Armed with a high-definition still camera and a tape measure, they stayed long enough to take a few hundred photos and record key measurements. They then stitched it all together into a virtual reality for anyone to explore.
Most people who visit the site are archaeologists â Finsterwalderâs original occupation. The Guatemalan authorities do let tourists visit, but unless they take the expensive helicopter they must hike through the jungle for three days. âThey want to let tourists go there, but they donât want to have roads,â says Finsterwalder. âWith roads you will have loggers, and this is the last part of Guatemala where the rainforest is really complete.â
Instead of bringing people to such places, his small start-up is bringing the places to people. The Mayan ruins are just one of the destinations on the companyâs books. I also explore the ruins of Castle Hohenrechberg in southern Germany and gaze up at the ceiling of 10th century Cluny Abbey in SaĂ´ne-et-Loire, France. Then I poke around in a room of the abandoned Beelitz-Heilstätten hospital, where Adolf Hitler recovered after being wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Hooked on realism
I canât touch the places I visit, but I can teleport around them with the click of a button. Pointing a controller to where I want to go, I zip through the environment. Stone walls blur past as I zoom to the top of Hohenrechberg. Thereâs a broken beer bottle on the floor and I can see the brand.
âThe photorealism hooked me,â says media researcher XĂĄrene Eskandar at the University of California, Santa Barbara. âYou can look in holes, behind doors and under chairs.â
I watch other people step into Finsterwalderâs worlds. âOh my god, oh my god, this is so cool,â says a woman. She gasps in wonder as she looks up. âI feel like Iâm really in here.â
