Niantic to Bring Immersive Theater to AR

San Francisco-based creator of Pokémon Go, Niantic has partnered with Punchdrunk, the UK-based creators of immersive theater productions like the acclaimed Sleep No More, to develop “multiple projects that will reinvent storytelling for a 21st-century audience and further expand the horizon of interactive entertainment. While the immediate consequences for adult entertainment may seem quite obvious – dream of attending an Eyes Wide Shut-style bacchanalian orgy? – there’s more to Niantic’s latest venture that could bode very well for VR and AR porn fans.

The Occlusion Illusion

After initially teasing its development in 2018, Niantic introduced occlusion to its Pokémon Go AR toolset in late May of 2020. This “Reality Blending” mode allows trainers to place their buddies, shinies and favored ‘mons not just in real-world environments but among real-world elements. Hold your Eevee in the palm of your hand. Keep track of your excited Pikachu as it runs through a crowded park. Play hide and seek with your Bulbasaur among real trees. Already earning raves from trainers, Go’s AR occlusion also bodes well for the development of AR porn.

The ability to place humanoid characters in real-world locations has been available for via AR long enough that it’s starting to seem a bit old hat. Without accurate occlusion, any virtual entity was held back from being perceived as actually in a physical space. When someone or something isn’t hidden by a larger object in the observers’ foreground, our senses know something’s not right. Moving through a series of rooms and discovering different “people” inhabiting each offer a strong case for social AR use in a variety of contexts. When it comes to adult use, this could be the virtual doorway to immersive AR porn the likes of which we’ve never seen – and barely imagined.

A New Adult Theater

Porn wasn’t always a home-viewing phenomenon. Brick-and-mortar cinemas ran rampant throughout Western urban centers from the 60s to the 80s, and their appeal to a contemporary porn viewer is more than simple nostalgia. A sense of discovery lured adult cinema patrons to buy tickets, not quite sure of what they’d get. Today’s instantly gratifying system of porn distribution doesn’t exactly dwell on the romance and thrill of discovery. Imagine, then, an AR cinema with dozens of screens, each in a theater decorated to suit the style of the film showing – all privately available to you. This, of course, doesn’t really make full use of the latest occlusion tech. For that showcase, things will get a hell of a lot hotter.

Everyone loves a whorehouse – see the classic season 8 Simpsons episode ‘Bart After Dark’ for evidence – but legal and health and safety concerns have put the future of that industry in doubt. Enter AR occlusion and (hopefully soon) comprehensive haptic feedback systems that allow headset-wearing patrons to enjoy the company of AR courtesans in more than just a visual sense.

Sleep No More’s work bringing immersive theatrical experiences to evocative locations like Manhattan’s McKittrick Hotel offers the perfect background to aid Niantic’s pursuit of fully engrossing entertainment. As such experiences develop and reach the adult industry, the idea of viewing porn will forever be changed. Yes, VR and AR porn can be “experienced” now, but it’s a far cry from ushering viewers into a rich, stylized virtual world, transforming them from viewers into participants.