Matt N
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- The Curse of Alton Manor
- its much darker finally, meaning the effects are like the opening day earlier this year
- brand new projection of blue and yellow fiery skull on the wall with new sound - im still not 100% on the projection as its not projected onto anything other than the wall, but its still an improvement to keep the hype and tension
- audio levels are much louder for the ghouls themselves, which is what we wanted, but the audio soundtrack with the violins is now lower and this really needs to be higher to keep the music soundtrack going which tells the story
- more bass tremble sound which makes the area feel more menacing and puts you on edge - perfect!
- impoved airflow from fans/air cannons as you ride past the ghouls
- the first flying ghoul was removed, but it is now back in place and seems much higher - school kids probably ripped it down during the school season before summer break
- the second ghoul sound seems alot louder and you only see it flash infront of you and then its dark/cant see it fly overhead but you can hear the audio as it swings into the corner
2023: The Curse at Alton Manor
Zeock
TS Member
It is not totally dark; there are 2 new mini-scenes.
TroySmith1
TS Member
Any ideas where the new animatronic is?
Also does the fire place still create a heat and smoke effect?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Also does the fire place still create a heat and smoke effect?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
JakeDLP
TS Member
What was the screen showing?
Zeock
TS Member
Yes, it still does.
TroySmith1
TS Member
Zeock
TS Member
It was just showing Emily Alton on the screen, but it sadly didn't look great.
Zeock
TS Member
It was extremely obvious that it was a screen. It looked quite out of place in an attraction like Alton Manor that has excellent theming.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
I can see why you think it looks light a screen. It's a Pepper's Ghost effect, with a digital projector. They just need to get the brightness levels under control a bit and it will look more in place. I'm sure it'll bed in better with a bit of tinkering!
Zeock
TS Member
That is good to know. Hopefully, it will look better soon.
Skyscraper
TS Member
It's had a lot of downtime today, only been open for just over two hours so far. Wouldn't be surprised if the new effects are to blame.
Zeock
TS Member
The 'new animatronic' is in one of the mini-scenes in the hide and seek section.
JakeDLP
TS Member
What does it do? also what is the second mini scene and what is Emily doing in the peppers ghost scene?
Zeock
TS Member
It doesn't do much, to be honest. It just lifts its head, unless I missed something. The animatronic is in the second mini-scene. In the Pepper's ghost scene, she just screams at you.
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JakeDLP
TS Member
Ohh interesting thanks! What was the first mini-scene in the hide and seek section if you don't mind me asking?
Zeock
TS Member
To be honest, I can't remember it very well. As far as I remember, it was Emily amongst some other objects.
Skyscraper
TS Member
From TS Facebook, the queue looks amazing in the dark! 
From: https://www.facebook.com/TowersStreet/posts/pfbid02NqCJFshMN6XxcXsfs2vNASepTx8V46LEWY1Gda4veetPwTHWwXCvgzs7RgZ8PaHWl?locale=en_GB
From: https://www.facebook.com/TowersStreet/posts/pfbid02NqCJFshMN6XxcXsfs2vNASepTx8V46LEWY1Gda4veetPwTHWwXCvgzs7RgZ8PaHWl?locale=en_GB
tom_taylor
TS Member
Visited on Saturday for the first day of Scarefest 2023, I've had a couple of days to process things!
These are my views, im happy to be challenged and you may disagree, but thats cool, we all enjoy this ride and we want the immersion to improve so we can enjoy it more and more!
There are spoilers in this post, upto you if you read now or another time once youve visited again!
The improvements are good to see, they were missing since launch so we cant complain MMM and AT are making constant improvements during this phase of the rides release and hand over.
We are still however, missing better projection mapping on the dolls and figures (especially in the finale when your trying to escape) - if you look at the projection mapping on the heads in The Dungeons, we need this on the characters throughout the rest of the ride to make the ride feel more immersive and possessed, otherwise these characters still feel flat and lifeless which feels a bit of a cop out - imagine those skeletons in the great hall with projection mapping of the spirits around them or on the walls in despair to what Emily has done when the curse hits the manor at midnight, before she appears and disappears!
There are lots of places where Merlin could engage with the partners Framestore and Conductr to improve the narrative through visual storytelling with the technology available!
On Saturday some of the video effects like when she levitates at the end of the great hall were glitching, and the ride was closed multiple times during the day to resolve these issues - it was more reliable at 7pm for the last 2 hours until 9pm.
It sounded like the pre show audio has been shortened and is voiced by a different actor now? Some things moved around and the lighting for the pre show also seemed better, although the tv for the peppers ghost effect fireplace is too close and needs moving back (or a new slim tv screen putting further back), otherwise you cant see the fire change colour!
Onboarding feels good still and the first part "this is my house" to the great hall scene seems good, but the audio has been lowered. Walk the wall time to die scene still feels good.
The grand fireplace and trommel scene smoke effect is working much better now and is alot more reliable, seems they've been trying different smoke machine/vaporisers, that need to have a constant heat of smoke fluid and fire every 10 seconds for hours and hours! The trommel UV lights at the start before the red lights and smoke really should be off and only activated as you ride through the first part of the trommel - this would make the fireplace look much darker before the smoke and red lights illuminate the entrance!
The hide and seek scene has been improved, such as when she turns into a bat/opens cloak (which was the old flying bat scene) as this is now as good as it was when the ride first opened, and now with the 2 new scenes with the peppers ghost and animatronic, as reported by others in previous posts. The only disappointment here is the blank wall between last hide and seek part before the my perfect family scene, but this has a fire escape door so it could be hard for them to do something here? Feels like something is needed to assist with transitioning from hide and seek scene to then controlling a big puppet show scene before the "found you" jump scare and attic scene.
Unfortunately some scenes such as the Attic scene at the start (after the My Perfect Family Scene) seems to have had the audio level lowered, whereas on the opening weekend it was alot louder and more bass which made the transition feel great - this needs turning up again! This area also glitched again and none of the effects fired off apart from the big spider at the end of the scene. It has been alot more reliable recently, clearly these issues are edge cases. The spider projection however has now been fixed and is working as it did on the opening weekend.
The flying ghouls scene before the garden scene is a big improvement, it would be great if they used projection mapping on the faces themselves with a fixed projector on the moving arms (a small £100 pocket projector would work!), and before Scarefest there was too much light (observation gallery above had a light stuck on for months, which we now see why as they were planning and executing the improvements!), and the improvements observed were:
The garden scene has had various improvements since opening with the peppers ghost on the funeral cart and the lighting flash, but again the volumes been lowered since opening so the transition doesn't feel as powerful.
The finale jump scare at the end has more compressed air, and the new jump scare in the station is good as there are different audio clips (where are you going? I only want to play!) but you hear it behind when the cars queue up in the station to exit the ride - would have been better using the direction speaker like they have in the queue line so no other car can hear it.
Whilst some of the scenes audio is still not as loud or good as the opening weekend back in March, Its great to see, hear and feel the improvements, - theres more that can/could be done and we can only hope these happen in the near future!
These are my views, im happy to be challenged and you may disagree, but thats cool, we all enjoy this ride and we want the immersion to improve so we can enjoy it more and more!
There are spoilers in this post, upto you if you read now or another time once youve visited again!
The improvements are good to see, they were missing since launch so we cant complain MMM and AT are making constant improvements during this phase of the rides release and hand over.
We are still however, missing better projection mapping on the dolls and figures (especially in the finale when your trying to escape) - if you look at the projection mapping on the heads in The Dungeons, we need this on the characters throughout the rest of the ride to make the ride feel more immersive and possessed, otherwise these characters still feel flat and lifeless which feels a bit of a cop out - imagine those skeletons in the great hall with projection mapping of the spirits around them or on the walls in despair to what Emily has done when the curse hits the manor at midnight, before she appears and disappears!
There are lots of places where Merlin could engage with the partners Framestore and Conductr to improve the narrative through visual storytelling with the technology available!
On Saturday some of the video effects like when she levitates at the end of the great hall were glitching, and the ride was closed multiple times during the day to resolve these issues - it was more reliable at 7pm for the last 2 hours until 9pm.
It sounded like the pre show audio has been shortened and is voiced by a different actor now? Some things moved around and the lighting for the pre show also seemed better, although the tv for the peppers ghost effect fireplace is too close and needs moving back (or a new slim tv screen putting further back), otherwise you cant see the fire change colour!
Onboarding feels good still and the first part "this is my house" to the great hall scene seems good, but the audio has been lowered. Walk the wall time to die scene still feels good.
The grand fireplace and trommel scene smoke effect is working much better now and is alot more reliable, seems they've been trying different smoke machine/vaporisers, that need to have a constant heat of smoke fluid and fire every 10 seconds for hours and hours! The trommel UV lights at the start before the red lights and smoke really should be off and only activated as you ride through the first part of the trommel - this would make the fireplace look much darker before the smoke and red lights illuminate the entrance!
The hide and seek scene has been improved, such as when she turns into a bat/opens cloak (which was the old flying bat scene) as this is now as good as it was when the ride first opened, and now with the 2 new scenes with the peppers ghost and animatronic, as reported by others in previous posts. The only disappointment here is the blank wall between last hide and seek part before the my perfect family scene, but this has a fire escape door so it could be hard for them to do something here? Feels like something is needed to assist with transitioning from hide and seek scene to then controlling a big puppet show scene before the "found you" jump scare and attic scene.
Unfortunately some scenes such as the Attic scene at the start (after the My Perfect Family Scene) seems to have had the audio level lowered, whereas on the opening weekend it was alot louder and more bass which made the transition feel great - this needs turning up again! This area also glitched again and none of the effects fired off apart from the big spider at the end of the scene. It has been alot more reliable recently, clearly these issues are edge cases. The spider projection however has now been fixed and is working as it did on the opening weekend.
The flying ghouls scene before the garden scene is a big improvement, it would be great if they used projection mapping on the faces themselves with a fixed projector on the moving arms (a small £100 pocket projector would work!), and before Scarefest there was too much light (observation gallery above had a light stuck on for months, which we now see why as they were planning and executing the improvements!), and the improvements observed were:
The garden scene has had various improvements since opening with the peppers ghost on the funeral cart and the lighting flash, but again the volumes been lowered since opening so the transition doesn't feel as powerful.
The finale jump scare at the end has more compressed air, and the new jump scare in the station is good as there are different audio clips (where are you going? I only want to play!) but you hear it behind when the cars queue up in the station to exit the ride - would have been better using the direction speaker like they have in the queue line so no other car can hear it.
Whilst some of the scenes audio is still not as loud or good as the opening weekend back in March, Its great to see, hear and feel the improvements, - theres more that can/could be done and we can only hope these happen in the near future!
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