A video (opens in new tab) of someone walking around in what looks like a strange sci-fi set while using a VR headset recently made the rounds on TikTok as new evidence that we are slowly moving toward a Star Trek holodeck fantasy. The follow-up video (opens in new tab) explains that the staff is testing an upcoming attraction at a gaming bar and cafe called Aaru in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Aaru (opens in new tab) is a VR bar, cafe, and development studio with a tabletop lounge and private VR rooms. Here is the only commercial version of the Omnideck built for the public for VR gaming; the Omnideck (opens in new tab) is a giant motorized treadmill that spins 360 degrees, allowing users to safely walk, run, and crawl around in VR without bumping into walls. (The man in the video is not running because he is waiting for a safety harness to be attached.) Omnideck is made by W5 Solutions, a Swedish company that has been designing "high-level military training and simulation" hardware for over a decade. The headset used in the VR room is a wireless Vive Focus 3 (opens in new tab), paired with a wireless hand controller and running through a mishmash of custom software for each game. The headset is a wireless Vive Focus 3 (opens in a new tab) paired with a wireless hand controller and runs through a mishmash of custom software for each game. We chose Omnideck because it was the best VR locomotion hardware available today," Shai Kaiser, CEO of Aaru Games, told me. He explained that they tried something like KATwalk (opens in new tab), a concave slidemill, but it could not provide the full-motion VR experience they wanted because it required users to shuffle their feet rather than walk

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Omnideck, according to Kaiser, is good enough to "trick the inner ear and avoid the discrepancy between what you see and what you feel, which can cause virtual motion sickness/bedsores."

There is a bit of an adjustment period before the player steps foot on the omnideck. According to Kaiser, it takes about five minutes before they feel comfortable enough to play. The recently added harness system "provides a huge mental comfort benefit and greatly reduces the time it takes to get out of your own head and start moving naturally."

If a guest drinks too much, the staff will not allow them to use that system. Says Kaiser, "If someone pukes on my nice equipment, I cry."

Games that can be played in VR are the rhythm-based shooter Pistol Whip and one of my favorite games, Superhot VR. If you don't want to shoot anything, you can create 3D art with Tiltbrush; Aaru plans to offer at least 10 different games in a standard VR room; the Onmideck room is reserved for games that take advantage of the room-scale experience with as little menu as possible .

"What we're trying to do is not what VR is, but what VR can be," says Kaiser. He sees VRcades as "an important part of the journey" into the future of VR. Even if VRcades will become less useful "when people have accessible choices and enough content to drive the market."

"Our long-term focus," says Kaiser, "is content generation and VR esports venues built for that future." My ideal scenario is to be able to match a solid and fair franchise model so that quality VR gaming centers can spring up all over the place like pop tarts."

Aaru had its grand opening on October 21, so the combination of booze, tabletop gaming, and fully immersive VR shenanigans is now open for business. However, the on-mi deck is still awaiting safety certification and is not yet available for public use.