David Attenborough's "Conquest of the Skies" VR movie traces the evolution of flight now in high-definition, stereoscopic 180-degree.
Micro Monsters and Kingdom of Plants are some of the most impressive VR movies for Meta Quest 2. Both draw from documentaries of the same names by famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough, adapted for virtual reality with a great deal of technical finesse. In VR, insects and killer plants appear even more vivid, larger and more threatening than on TV.
These two VR films and First Life are now followed by another collaboration between Meta and production house Alchemy Immersive. Conquest of the Skies covers the evolution of flying creatures from prehistory to the present. Like the earlier films, this production draws on an older 3D documentary by David Attenborough.
Old and new scenes show the evolution of flight
Conquest of the Skies was nine months in development into three VR films 6 to 8 minutes in length. Meta promises "face-to-face encounters with prehistoric creatures, insects, reptiles, and birds." The VR movie is a mix of stereoscopic real film and newly made 3D animations of flying lizards and past periods of the Earth.
"A considerable portion of Conquest of the Skies was created from archived material that was shot for a completely different medium of the past," director Lewis Ball says on the Oculus blog.
"We examined hours and hours of the archived stereoscopic material that we had at our disposal, and we carefully selected the key creatures and stories that we felt captured the most significant moments of the progression of natural aviation. Each and every single shot was selected with an immersive presentation in mind, only making the final cut when we were certain it could be enhanced and presented in a fashion that would do the immersive format justice."
New 3D animated scenes complement carefully edited archival footage transporting audiences to the prehistoric forests and canyons where dinosaurs lived.
Watch Conquest of the Skies in top quality
Here's how you can watch Conquest of the Skies with Meta Quest 2 & Pro:
- Open Meta Quest TV. If you can't find the VR movies directly in the selection, enter David Attenborough in the search window at the top right. Scroll through the search results until you find the VR movies.
- To view them in the best possible quality, follow these steps: Click the three dots in the image and select Save in High Quality first, then Cache. Give permission for caching if prompted.
- If you do everything right, the movie downloads in the best quality. This version has a higher resolution than the streamed version.
- Once the download is complete, click on Your Media in Meta Quest TV. After the download, the episode appears under Cached Media.
- To delete the episode from the device, click the three dots again and select Delete from Cache.
- Alternatively, add the VR movies to your watchlist via the browser.