SOARIN

[DisneyChris2016]

We never saw the original version, but my family LOVES the current SOARIN'! We found it easy to rope drop, and we were out really quickly. For what it's worth, we've ridden multiple times in various seat locations, and if you sit front and center, it is an entirely different ride than if you are off to one side. If you are on the far left or right, the entire screen "feels" curved, like you're in a giant fish bowl. You get A LOT of distortion. Plus you see the edge of the screen, so it takes away a lot of the effect. If you sit in the middle (and front row is preferable, because you don't see feet dangling in front of you) everything looks much better. The Eiffel Tower still leans a bit, but not nearly as bad.

If you have a few extra minutes (and especially if you're only going to ride it once) I highly recommend that you request the front row of the center section. Even if you have to wait a bit, it's worth it. We did this last time we were there - the CM looked at us like he had no idea why we would ask such a thing, but then he just told us to go stand by the other family that had already made the same request. If you don't have the time (or inclination) to wait, you might luck out and get the center section anyway.

We also had good luck getting SOARIN' as a 4th or later FP+ starting in mid-late afternoon. Good luck!

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We never saw the original version, but my family LOVES the current SOARIN'! We found it easy to rope drop, and we were out really quickly. For what it's worth, we've ridden multiple times in various seat locations, and if you sit front and center, it is an entirely different ride than if you are off to one side. If you are on the far left or right, the entire screen "feels" curved, like you're in a giant fish bowl. You get A LOT of distortion. Plus you see the edge of the screen, so it takes away a lot of the effect. If you sit in the middle (and front row is preferable, because you don't see feet dangling in front of you) everything looks much better. The Eiffel Tower still leans a bit, but not nearly as bad.

If you have a few extra minutes (and especially if you're only going to ride it once) I highly recommend that you request the front row of the center section. Even if you have to wait a bit, it's worth it. We did this last time we were there - the CM looked at us like he had no idea why we would ask such a thing, but then he just told us to go stand by the other family that had already made the same request. If you don't have the time (or inclination) to wait, you might luck out and get the center section anyway.

We also had good luck getting SOARIN' as a 4th or later FP+ starting in mid-late afternoon. Good luck!

The screen doesn't feel curved, it actually is curved. And Disney was supposed to use the appropriately curved lens in the filming. The curve on the lens matches the curve of the screen so that everything looks straight and correct. My best guess on why they chose not to was that it would probably have been hard/expensive to get the same curved distortion on the CGI elements so they would also show up properly. IMO, they made a bad choice, but some people aren't bothered by it (my DH is one of them).

 

[rteetz]

The screen doesn't feel curved, it actually is curved. And Disney was supposed to use the appropriately curved lens in the filming. The curve on the lens matches the curve of the screen so that everything looks straight and correct. My best guess on why they chose not to was that it would probably have been hard/expensive to get the same curved distortion on the CGI elements so they would also show up properly. IMO, they made a bad choice, but some people aren't bothered by it (my DH is one of them).

The majority of this film is CGI and not actually filmed.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

The majority of this film is CGI and not actually filmed.

The transitions and the animals are CGI, the imagery and scenes were filmed with digital cameras on location (and took a year).

https://d23.com/the-technology-of-soarin-over-the-world/


Although now I wonder if they didn't film it correctly and then 'flatten' it to put in the CGI and couldn't' recreate the distortion based on the story that they supposedly had a quarter sized dome built to view dailies. I don't believe for a minute that imagineers would have looked at the daily of the curved Eiffel tower or oblong Epcot ball and said, 'Yep. Perfect!'

 

[wendlle]

never liked soarin' and never understood the hype.
just dangling in front of a screen doesn't do it for me.

 

[rteetz]

The transitions and the animals are CGI, the imagery and scenes were filmed with digital cameras on location (and took a year).

https://d23.com/the-technology-of-soarin-over-the-world/


Although now I wonder if they didn't film it correctly and then 'flatten' it to put in the CGI and couldn't' recreate the distortion based on the story that they supposedly had a quarter sized dome built to view dailies. I don't believe for a minute that imagineers would have looked at the daily of the curved Eiffel tower or oblong Epcot ball and said, 'Yep. Perfect!'

I’m fairly certain the Eiffel Tower is all CGI. I don’t believe they filmed that live.

I will also say they are aware of its complaints.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I’m fairly certain the Eiffel Tower is all CGI. I don’t believe they filmed that live.

I will also say they are aware of its complaints.

The Eiffel Tower is not CGI. See discussion of filming in Paris at the very bottom of the article.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...at-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-soarin/amp/

 

[Robo]

The screen doesn't feel curved,
1. it actually is curved.
2., And Disney was supposed to use the appropriately curved lens in the filming.
3. The curve on the lens matches the curve of the screen so that everything looks straight and correct.
4. My best guess on why they chose not to was that it would probably have been hard/expensive to get the same curved distortion on the CGI elements so they would also show up properly. IMO, they made a bad choice, but some people aren't bothered by it (my DH is one of them).

1. True.
2. Not exactly.
3. Well... not really.
4. The CGI images and photographic images are both correctly represented and
aspect appropriate for the screen curve.

The problem is that the unique design of the Soarin' seating forces everyone into close proximity of the screen.
The seats move up and nearly "into" the screen.
In a normal "Omnimax" theater, seating is much more conventional in that most seats, especially the seats
farther from "center" are also farther from the screen edges.
So the curvature of the screen is not as "forced perspective" as is the case with the Soarin' edge close-in seating.
The problem is not with using a "wrong lens" (or incorrect aspect computer rendering,) but one of
seating design that tries to use too much of the edge, too close to the edges of that specialized screen.
(If they "de-curved" the image of the film to look "straight" to the guests seated near the outside edges
of the screen, guests who were seated more toward the center of the screen would see a "bulged-in-the-center" image.)

The major problem with the current film is that there are too many nearly "straight and vertical" physical objects
as the primary subject of the images. (Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal as examples.)
The previous (original) Soarin' film had scene images that simply were not so noticeable to the outer seats
regarding their "curvature."

 

[stinkpickle]

If the Taj Mahal scene isn't completely fake, they did a FANTASTIC job of making it look that way.

 

[Robo]

If the Taj Mahal scene isn't completely fake, they did a FANTASTIC job of making it look that way.

Hah!
I see what you did, there.

And, I completely agree.

Below is a link to the show, and the Taj Mahal scene does appear to be 100% CGI.
(The scene begins at 4:57 deep.)

 

[jkh36619]

Would be really cool if there was some randomization like in Star Tours. I preferred the old film but it was time for for something different. Now I'm ready for a new one.

 

[monkyby87]

I think many of the scenes have CGI aspects to them, but I don't believe that any scene is completely CGI.

EDIT: I read an article online just now though that says the Taj Mahal was the only location they couldn't gain access to film like they wanted, so they chose to CGI it instead. So, I was wrong lol.