Recreational Hologram Environments
Sarna News
A popular form of home entertainment technology available across the thirty-first-century Inner Sphere, Recreational Hologram Environments consist of interactive holovids and props that allow the viewer to be an active participant in the recording, giving them the sensation of really being there.[1][2][3]
Overview
While holovid or trivid technology allows three-dimensional viewing from any angle, Recreational Hologram Environments place the viewer literally in the recording. RHEs are generally recorded from the viewpoint of a person or role which the viewer then takes on, with each RHE package including the holo itself and a series of small props which thanks to sophisticated computer modeling of the RHE player allows the viewer to interact with the narrative. This combination allows viewers to experience firsthand such things as the sensation of piloting a BattleMech or aerospace fighter, of climbing a mountain, or hunting a klimabest in the jungles of Karakiraz all without leaving their homes.[1][2][3]
The effect of Recreational Hologram Environments is often so realistic that individuals with vivid imaginations often find themselves as sweat soaked and exhausted from after viewing a physically strenuous RHE as if they had taken part for real. Criminal organizations such as Man-TLE provide narcotic means to enhance the effect of RHEs yet further, including the addictive hallucinogen "Can-Do" with their bootleg "True Life Experiences".[1]
While available across the Inner Sphere, Recreational Hologram Environments are especially popular in the Free Worlds League, as of 3025 it was estimated that 40% of homes in the Free Worlds League possessed a functional RHE viewer system. A large reason for this popularity is thanks to the marketing efforts of Gibson-based Kensai Holographiks, the largest of numerous RHE producers in League space. Producing both RHE recordings and the viewers to play them, Kensai effectively controls the RHE equipment standard in League space, frequently developing new hardware (and attractive new recordings that can only be played on it) and forcing its competitors to play catch-up. Neighboring families in the League often circulate expensive holo/prop packages or hold parties to celebrate the release of a particularly long-awaited RHE.[1][3]
The ComStar Order considered Recreational Hologram Environments to be a decadent and mentally debilitating use of technology according to the teachings of the Blessed Blake, but admitted that aside from fostering an unthinking passivity in their viewers, RHEs did appear to make the lives of the average Successor States citizen a bit more bearable during the Succession Wars era.[1]
The largest example of the principles of Recreational Hologram Environments is the Universal Terrain Generation System of Boreal Reach, the famous Federated Suns Solaris Games arena on Solaris VII. Built on a BattleMech scale, the UTGS differs from most residential RHE setups by utilizing a large number of individual holoprojectors rather a single unit, as well as including a powerful climate control system to make the illusion of the location generated as realistic as possible.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 130: "Socioeconomics - Other Major Industries - Kensai Holographiks - Man-TLE"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Handbook: House Marik, p. 117: "Society and Culture - Media and the Arts - Media"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Handbook: House Marik, p. 140: "Economy - Services - Kensai Holographiks (KnHolo)"
- ↑ Solaris VII: The Game World – Player's Book, pp. 45–46: "Boreal Reach"