Red Bull's Rampage freeride app puts a virtual mountain in your living room

Red Bull Rampage app

Picture credit: Red Bull Media House

Red Bull has released an augmented reality app for its Rampage freeride tournament, letting you follow 21 of the world's best mountain bikers in real time as they make their way down a virtual replica of the course. The app uses augmented reality to place a photo-realistic replica of the mountain in your home, which you can zoom and rotate with two fingers to track each rider's progress.

Four 360-degree cameras will be positioned around the course during the event, allowing you to watch the action from any angle by rotating your phone and get a unique perspective on each rider's lines.

The model also features several 'points of interest', which you can tap to access behind-the-scenes video, 360-degree images, interviews and other content exclusive to the app, and the model also features a live in-app 'billboard' showing the live broadcast stream.

Trick shots

The virtual mountain was created using a process called photogrammetry. An automated drone flew specific paths over the course and captured over 12,000 high-res aerial photos.

These pictures were processed using Intel's Insight Platform (a cloud service dedicated to storing and managing data gathered by drones) to create a three-dimensional model.

Red Bull Rampage

Picture credit: Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull Rampage takes place on October 26 in Utah, USA, and will be streamed live online and via the Red Bull TV app . The augmented reality course is included as part of the app for iOS and Android.

Cat Ellis

Cat is the editor of TechRadar's sister site Advnture. She’s a UK Athletics qualified run leader, and in her spare time enjoys nothing more than lacing up her shoes and hitting the roads and trails (the muddier, the better)