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Wildlife may now be thriving in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but it's not always been so scenic. After the 1986 nuclear reactor disaster, the area was completely deserted, leaving buildings empty and in disrepair. Now, a VR tour allows you to experience the before and after of the disaster.
The Chernobyl VR Project, developed by Polish games company The Farm 51, is the "first ever virtual tour of Chernobyl and Pripyat intended for VR devices".
The project was filmed using high-resolution stereoscopic cameras and includes shots from inside houses, amusement parks and offices. The Farm 51 team say the project is intended to "tell the story" of the victims of the disaster.
****: On April 26, 1986, the nuclear reactor in power unit 4 overheated, leading to an explosion of hydrogen, spreading fire and radioactive substances around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s site.
****: A vast stretch of land around the power plant was polluted, including areas in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.
****: The radioactive cloud also travelled to other European countries. Just after the disaster, Polish authorities stopped giving milk to children at schools and pre-schools, fearing that it might be contaminated.
****: As a result of the disaster, around 350,000 people were relocated from the Chernobyl and the city of Pripyat.
"We decided the dramatic story of the Chernobyl disaster should not be relegated to the level of action games," vice president Wojciech Pazdur explained. "We wanted to show VR can be used not only for entertainment, but also for things that are socially important".
Virtual reality has been used in similar educational projects – David Attenborough fans can now dive the Great Barrier Reef with the broadcaster in VR, and a VR film released earlier this year gives a first-person view of a Palestinian family who lost two sons to Israeli bombing.
The Chernobyl VR project is out now on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung's Gear VR.
This article was originally published in April 2016.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
