08:53, June 26, 2026

It will be tested at the Sverdlovsk Region Championship

A unique VR sports rowing simulator will be tested for the first time next weekend at competitions in the Sverdlovsk Region. The virtual reality simulator was developed as a result of cooperation between the "GameDev Laboratory and VR" of the UrFU IRIT-RTF, the Rowing Federation of the Sverdlovsk Region, and the Uralkiberfest Federation of Computer and Digital Sports of the Sverdlovsk Region.

The first-ever seamless digital rowing tournament will be held on June 27 in Sysert as part of the Sverdlovsk Region Rowing Championship. Eight athletes from two teams will go through two stages: first, a race on a rowing simulator in a VR helmet, then classical rowing in the waters of the Sysert pond.

The "seamless digital" formula implies that the transition between stages is carried out without pauses, creating a single race at the junction of physical and digital realities.

The content of the VR game is kept in secret, it is only known that the rowing track is an exact digital copy of the water area of the Ekaterinburg city pond, where athletes train and compete in reality.

Delfina Zakharova

Ural Federal University is one of the leading universities in Russia founded in 1920. UrFU is located in Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Ural region, an economic, industrial, scientific and cultural center of Russia. The university is the project office of the Ural Interregional Research and Education Center "Advanced Industrial Technologies and Materials" designed for solving tasks of "Science" National Project.