Star Wars Episode VII: Facebook reveals exclusive 360-degree clip from The Force Awakens

Facebook has hinted at its future virtual reality plans, with the release of the Star Wars video

AN EXCLUSIVE Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens clip is one of the first 360-degree immersive videos posted on Facebook.

 

The Star Wars clip was created by Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic's Experience Lab, or ILMxLAB for short – and allows viewers to peer around the desert planet Jakku.

The viewer is sat in a Land Speeder, which rockets along the arid landscape towards the ruined hull of an Imperial I-Class Star Destroyer, which appears to have crash landed.

When viewed on a computer, clicking and dragging the mouse on the video pane moves the view.

But the experience is much more immersive on mobile, where the viewer can physically move their smartphone around to alter the perspective.

Watch the video below – 

ILMxLAB have also hinted that they are hard at work on a longer, more complete virtual reality Star Wars experience.

Other 360-degree Facebook videos include clips from GoPro, NBC, Discovery and Vice News.

In a statement about the innovation, Facebook said: "In the future, imagine watching 360 videos of a friend's vacation to a small village in France or a festival in Brazil - you'll be able to look around and experience it as if you were there.

"Along with updates from your friends and family, you will also be able to discover amazing new content on Facebook from media companies, organisations, and individual creators."

 

The 360-degree Star Wars clip is the first hint of what the hugely popular social network has planned for the Oculus Rift headset, which is bought for $2billion, some £1.3bn in March last year.

Oculus Rift is planning to ship its first commercial virtual reality headset next year.

The Sony Morpheus and HTC Vive are also expected to begin large-scale shipments in 2016 as well.

YouTube has also added the ability to host and view 360-degree videos, which can be controlled with a computer mouse, smartphone or using the US technology firm's cheap Cardboard headset.