Europe In The Air

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JBusch16 said:
Just wondering, what is the deal with this simulator? I've heard so many negative things over the past year and a half, and I want to know why it's so mediocre in the eyes of ParkFans?
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I think the video doesn't live up to/is the quality that they bragged about. I remember the last general manager said it was supposed to be the sharpest quality of video available. Unfortunately the video quality isn't that great and seems pretty standard. In some cases, people have complained it gets fuzzy and blurry in some parts.

Another common complaint is the programmed motion. When the ride opened, it was extremely smooth and slow motion. Then the following year they decided to simulate 'turbulence' and the motion got more unnecessarily rough. I thought the motions were perfect slow and smooth. It was more of an easy going ride experience much like riding the Rhine River Cruise. Sadly, people complained that they took away Corkscrew Hill and I think that is one of the reasons why they decided to make the ride more rough.

And finally motion sickness. Some people just get sick and hate it. I've never had motion sickness on the ride but I've heard many people get it. It could be caused by the low quality video mixed with the rough motions.

Oh and people just loved Corkscrew Hill so much more; therefore, they naturally feel like its successor is terrible.

The music, as Luke said is amazing. I really do love it.
 
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Bring back King Arthur's Challenge! It took gumption and charity to cast a homeless man as Merlin. We should honor that.

Actually I would love a totally revamped Questor. I've said this before but Questor was the one incarnation of that ride system that used copious amounts of (1) real-world footage and (2) a plot. Both work extremely well in that setting.
 
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It is my understanding that they made significant changes to the ride when they switched from KAC to Cork Screw Hill.

In my opinion all of these versions were boring, but Questor was the least "meh" of the 4.
 
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Applesauce said:
JBusch, It's not just a ParkFans thing. There is quite a bit of dislike from outside these forums for the ride.

As for what's wrong with it, there are quite a few videos on youtube that show the visuals if you want to see it from that point, to make your own judgements on that. I'm sure somewhere in this thread is a clearer video, with out a camera recording a screen. (For the record if you want a quick list, the problems are, the video footage is constantly sped up and then played in real time, then sped up again. And it's a constant stop and go feeling. Combined with PowerPoint transition between the various scenes.)

As for the motion itself, it's jerky. Too jerky. Combining with the stop and go theme of the visuals, it's an easy recipe for motion sickness. I'm not prone to motion sickness myself, and can withstand a lot. But EitA pushes that too far.

For me, there's also the issue of the screen it's being projected on too. Because it's a similar screen to Soarin'. While Soarin' doesn't make me motion sick, it does give me headaches because the screen is too large and too close to me. Plus it's curved, so it can really mess with a person.
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From what I understand it creates more "harm" and unpleasant visual quality than a normal simulator. I guess they need a total visual makeover and technical configuration of this ride...
 
Joe said:
Applesauce said:
I'm sure somewhere in this thread is a clearer video, with out a camera recording a screen.
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Here's the official ride video, courtesy of BGWFans. For JBusch:
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Just from the first 3 minutes of the ride, I could already tell my eyes hurt from staring at the poor graphical quality. Also, while I can't say it was jerky because I've never been on the ride, I could tell in some parts of the movie would give me a headache if I actually experienced it.

Thanks for all the insight guys!
 
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Just so you know, the graphics are bad, but they are not as bad as that video. The video that the park plays is a much higher quality as far as pixel dimensions. The problem is that some of the scenes were shot at a very slow frame rate. Add to that the fact that the projectors are really not much of a step up from Corkscrew Hill. With the number of budget cuts that were made literally in the first quarter of making this ride, I would say that bringing back Corkscrew Hill would be very justifiable.

The company that made the film would not actually have to start from scratch to re-render the film in HD. The textures on everything will still look mainly the same, but that will eliminate the problem with the black bars on the sides. If you need something for reference, search for Konami's HD re-release of Silent Hill 2 and 3. The only difference is that it can be played on a bigger screen without losing overall quality. The same old textures are still there however. Since the film was way ahead of its time, I would say that the film would look five years old today. Most of the tricks that you see in the film were not used until 2007 at the earliest. For example, rendering the entire film in one take on one map was and still is pretty impressive. Just to entertain another idea, if Corkscrew Hill does not return, Europe In The Air should not return. It simply does not generate enough guests per hour to constitute running something that takes so much energy and maintenance.
 
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Zimmy said:
It is my understanding that they made significant changes to the ride when they switched from KAC to Cork Screw Hill.  
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That is my understanding as well... I had no idea that the park had essentially peeled the walls and roof off of the original simulator platforms until I walked in there for the first time post-KAC, to behold a more open-air configuration and massive stationary screen. I was (no pun) floored.

To say nothing of the projectors and audio, surely representing a complete change-out from Questor/KAC which I assume was rear projection on that smaller original screen.

One little thing I enjoyed about the Questor ride experience was the constant presence of the elf on the small video monitor mounted next to the side of the main screen. It worked better than the disembodied narrator voice in some other simulator rides of that era.
 
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Considering we were supposed to be in a box for Corkscrew Hill, keeping the capsule ride vehicle might have been a better idea...
 
Spot the missing attraction on the 2015 map.

OCrGnas.png

Mistake or...?
 
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While a couple of things such as Josephine's are missing on the map but on the website it states "Europe in the Air is currently closed." Le Scoot also states something similar to that. I imagine EITA will have small modifications such as new seat belts, ETC.
 
Connor said:
I imagine EITA will have small modifications such as new seat belts, ETC.
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Um, I think the park's just broke, or they're recycling a map from late summer last year and haven't changed the attraction page since then either.

EDIT: I actually think this might be a severe case of the park not updating their site.
 
If I can pick Oscar's Whirly Worms instead, I'll be all over that. Also, I think someone needs to make a thread for this task of mine. I feel bad having it invade other random threads all the time. :p
 
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