Animated panorama of a stadium implosion -- from the inside!

Mack sez, "This is easily the single coolest video you will watch all month: Immersive Media captured the controlled-implosion death of the defunct Texas Stadium on video that can be viewed as a full 720-degree ~~Quicktime VR~~ Flash panorama. Spin around as the charges go off and the roof collapses around you. Giddy fun."

Stadium implosion video/QTVR (Thanks, Mack!)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Entertainment • implosion • panorama

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Since the link posted above got BB’d, here’s an alternative: http://www.dallascowboys.com/farewell/Texas_Stadium_Implosion.cfm .

Think I’ll try FreePV, the opensource panorama viewer, http://freepv.sourceforge.net/, after downloading the video…
Anonymous

Cool post. glad to see i wasnt the only one reaching for the w.a.s.d keys, AAAHHH!
Anonymous

Texas Stadium was an inside job
- dequeued
  
  You can clearly see blast squibs preceding the explosions — obviously this was a controlled demolition, and will be used to take away our freedoms and coral us into NWO death camps and get chips in our hands ;)
  
  Also, this would be an amazing half life 2 level.
dwdyer

Indeed interesting, but for me it would be more fun if it were a building that wasn’t a fixture of my childhood. I never went to a game — never entered the parking lot. But it was nevertheless a significant fixture.
TimmoWarner

That was much more exhilerating than I thought it would be.
Anonymous

Rounder than round?
eyemyth

They need to pipe this into the helmet on that Cyberwalk thing Mark posted a few days ago. I can’t even think of a better use for it.
mack

FYI, the Immersive Media guys emailed to correct me on the technology:

… we donâ€™t use QuickTime VR. This is our Flash implementation in real-time video.
Anonymous

This is a 360 degree live (real) video not an animation. BigLook360 spent an enormous amount of time and resources to pull this off with help from Immersive Media to make it happen.

I was at the stadium -what was left of it, this morning to see what was left of the camera system…stay tuned.
Snig

I keep dying. Is there a walkthrough for a newb?
d3matt

sweet! I couldn’t bring myself to show up to watch it implode. This is one of the best videos of that event!
Anonymous

Look straight up and watch the beam…
Anonymous

Maybe “720 degrees” is a standard misnomer in talking about panoramas, but 4*pi steradians would be the correct description.
PeaceNerd

Holy crap. Turn 90 degrees to one side, then look straight up to see what hits you…
Anonymous

Not as awesome as the Chinese blowing up their temporary dam for the three gorges project

it was insane!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_5050000/newsid_5051300/5051342.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&bbcws=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-wQ9Hm1jNQ
Anonymous

This is an awesome video but a sad statement of our culture. Would this be done in Athens France or Egypt? We build use up and destroy to build new.
- Anonymous
  
  why yes, actually, they would…and did. Especially Egypt.
- Anonymous
  
  #12: Happened all the time. Almost all the stones from Hadrian’s wall and its forts were re-purposed.
siradambeck

Agreed, the straight up view is best. I was wondering why they didn’t film long enough to watch the back half of the stadium collapse. Now I know why.
benher

I keep getting hit by the big girder.. any hints?
proto opus

minor quibble: it’s not an implosion.
andigopow

It actually DID feel like I was watching a computer game. I thought of Half-Life as soon as the first portion of the roof broke apart all the way until the girder killed me.
Anonymous

That was no controlled implosion. The stadium was hit by a fully laden Piper Cherokee.

Captcha Fun: fluid airliners :D
adwkiwi

This was good times :)
ethancoop

with all the explosive shock waves and ground vibration from the falling structure, how did they keep that camera perfectly still?
Dewi Morgan

I wonder how bad the damage was to the camera, and how expensive it was :)

For people wanting walkthroughs, here’s a hint: the girder swings down in an arc, because one side of the roof it’s connected to is still supported.

Full answer below (Rot13 SPOILER):
Hfr gur ECT jvgu gur snfg-erybnq zbq gb qrgbangr gur punetrf ng gur sne fvqr bs gur fgnqvhz sebz jurer gur rkcybfvbaf fgneg, va gur fnzr cnggrea nf gur sebag, fb gung gur tveqre nepf qbja gur bgure jnl. Be vs lbh whfg jnag gb purng, fvzcyl VQFCVFCBCQ bhg gur jnl.

If you’re too lazy to visit rot13.com, here’s it decoded after being disemvowelled (so, disembhnrv’d):
Use te PG wit te fast-eload mod to detoate te cages at te fa side of te stadium fom wee te explosios stat, i te same patte as te fot, so tat te gide acs dow te ote way. O if you just wat to ceat, simply IDSPISPOPD out te way.