MILWAUKEE — There's a new virtual reality space coming to Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood that serves two unique purposes.
The first is a relatively new idea: a VR rec room. A place for you and your friends to hang out and play some VR video games and have a drink.
"It would be a great date night experience, for a group of friends, for a small birthday party," Ryan Spiering, the owner and operator of RSVR Milwaukee, said.
(VR gaming + VR presentation center) x affordable VR experience = RSVR Milwaukee. #quickmaths pic.twitter.com/OKQL6DDuO7
— James Groh (@JamesGroh_) December 3, 2019
The second purpose is a brand new and a little more in depth. Spiering is offering a service you might not have known you needed before.
"Create a space that would really elevate the content that you're presenting," Spiering said.
While at night, the space is for gaming, during the day it's a presentation space. Spiering wants people to harness the full immersive capabilities of VR.
Rather than using a portable less powerful operating system to showcase a VR rendering, Spiering is offering up his space for developers and corporations to use. Spiering, who has a background in architecture, said major construction projects like a condominium complex or hospital have large price tags. After all, developers are already making renderings of those large construction projects. If there is a place to view a VR design in a more engaging way to avoid mistakes, you might as well.
"We have the ability to sort of recreate those spaces virtually and allows people to kind of experience them and notice changes they might want to make in the design before they go through that expensive construction process."
RSVR Milwaukee can be used for any scale of demonstrations. The space can be fitted to the needs of the client.
Beyond the business side, he wants to provide an artistic space too.
"We think of ourselves as the art gallery where you can sort of display (VR art) here," he said.
VR art is anything created by graphic designers, 3D artists, anyone who has an interactive piece of digital work. It's a new concept, but one that Spiering thinks will take off because he can provide better VR equipment and more powerful computers.
RSVR is a reservation-based company. Corporations are only allowed to book times during the day, and parties can only reserve times at night. There is no party minimum. Rates for companies begin around $500 per group and rec rates are $60 per hour per group.
You can sign up here. The grand opening is Jan. 2, but there's a soft opening with a free 15-minute VR trial on New Years Day.
