by Stone Marshall | Mar 22, 2016 | Minecraft News |
Microsoft is opening up the world of ‘Minecraft’ to Gear VR
Next step for the game: Samsung’s virtual reality headset.
The Oculus Rift isn’t the only virtual reality platform getting a piece ofMinecraft’s pie. Today, at a GDC 2016 event, Microsoft and Oculus are set to announce that the open-world phenomenon is also coming to the Gear VR, a spokesperson for the companies confirmed to Engadget. For many people, Samsung’s headset is a far more accessible option than the consumer Rift, so this is good news for anyone who wants to playMinecraft in VR without breaking the bank.
This new version is expected to be similar to the one from an Oculus Rift, which we played recently and found quite impressive. As of yet, there’s not any information on how much Minecraft for Gear VR will cost or when you can download it, but we’ll let you know as soon as we have those details. At least now you’re aware it’s official, not just a thought.
Microsoft is opening up the world of ‘Minecraft’ to Gear VR
by Stone Marshall | Mar 22, 2016 | Minecraft News |
If it was tough to pull the kids away from their screens while playing Minecraft, it’s going to get even tougher when they’re completely lost in the game while wearing a VR headset.
The first major virtual headset manufacturer to pull off a truly immersive Minecraft world is Samsung. Announced in San Francisco during the annual Game Developers Conference, theMinecraft virtual reality experience is coming to the Gear VR this spring.
Microsoft bought the game franchise two years ago along with Mojang, the studio that developed it, for $2.5 billion. Since then the company, which also has its own augmented reality headset called HoloLens, has pushed the game onto as many platforms as it can.
Minecraft in virtual reality is seemingly the last frontier in terms of platform play to bringing the block-building universe as close to real life as possible. It’s like playing Legos but in a video game that players can actually lose themselves in, and that’s an entirely plausible reality.
Three years ago, Microsoft announced that Minecraft players have spent countless hours playing the game on the Xbox 360. That’s just on the Xbox and that’s just on a 2D screen. It will be interesting to observe its impact in a virtual reality environment on multiple virtual reality and augmented reality systems.
Samsung got first dibs, and first movers always tend to get a nice, big lead, but some reviewers have deemed the Samsung port of the game rather “mehhh.” It could be that in order to push that game out quickly, Microsoft simply slapped a 2D version of Minecraft onto the Gear VR’s eyepieces. Reports of a wonky in-game camera, unfriendly inventory and health menu UIs as well as small text were some of the complaints.
After the Gear VR, however, Minecraft will be coming to Facebook’s Oculus Rift headset, which has considerably more computing power behind it than Samsung’s smartphone-connected VR solution.
Of course, the Oculus Rift is without a doubt incredibly expensive compared to the Gear VR and that’s just for the headset. The added cost of a PC that’s powerful enough to run the device is another expense to consider. Nonetheless, Minecraft on the Oculus Rift is expected to offer a much more immersive experience.
Microsoft, too, probably has even bigger plans to bring a bigger version Minecraft to its HoloLens headset. Since HoloLens offers an augmented reality experience, the device will meld our real world with Minecraft’s block-building world. Of that, reporters have described early builds of the game on the HoloLens as “so damn cool.”
Immersive ‘Minecraft’ Experience Ready To Hit Samsung Gear VR This Spring
by Stone Marshall | Mar 21, 2016 | Minecraft News |
“I think this is going to be the most important game in VR this year”
Minecraft for Samsung’s Gear VR is happening, and here’s the weird part: there’s no official announcement. It’s just happening, sometime this spring, which is also the timeframe Microsoft has promised to roll out a version for the much pricier Oculus Rift.I had a chance to take a near-final version of the game for a spin at a special Oculus-helmed Game Developers Conference event in San Francisco on March 15. It looks fantastic—effectively as sharp and responsive and immersive as on the Rift. Considering the Rift is going to cost $600 when it launches on March 28 and require a high-end PC to boot, that’s kind of a big deal. Gear VR costs just $100, and requires a Samsung Galaxy smartphone you may already own.
At one point Oculus VR chief technology officer John Carmack (co-creator of video game classics like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake) addressed those gathered to demo the game, explaining why he got involved withMinecraft on Gear VR. He said that he thinks the budget VR headset already trumps Rift because you can swivel 360 degrees without tangling yourself in cables.
Oculus’ original vision for virtual reality had focused on designing comfortable experiences that “minimized the likelihood of anyone getting sick,” said Carmack. “So we had all these experiences where people sat down and things happened around you.”
“I kept rebelling against that, saying ‘That’s not what I want to do in VR,’” explained Carmack. Instead, he said he wanted to explore new worlds, adding that “Minecraft hits all of those buttons very very well.”
Getting it off the ground was another matter. “The drama in all of this, the way development went up and down through all of this was… ‘It’s going to happen! It’s not going to happen. It’s going to happen! It’s not going to happen. We really think it’s going to happen now.’ And now it finally is happening,” he said. He then boldly declared: “I think this is going to be the most important game in VR this year.”
Microsoft isn’t saying whether existing Minecraft mobile owners will get the VR version for free, or if it’ll be sold as something standalone. But spring is right around the corner.
John Carmack Told Us What Makes Minecraft VR So Special
by Stone Marshall | Mar 21, 2016 | Minecraft News |
Minecraft in all its blocky glory is setting up shop on mobile virtual reality on the Samsung Gear VR.
I had a chance to demo the game at an Oculus media event during GDC in SF this week and there was a decent amount of hype surrounding the wildly popular game making its mobile VR debut. Microsoft is already set to launch a version of the game for the Rift sometime this spring.
My VR Minecraft experience left a bit to be desired.
Gameplay takes place in full VR and cinema modes and requires an external bluetooth gamepad, which does give the mobile headset a substantially beefy gaming feel. I will say that Gear VR is probably not a good platform on which to start playing Minecraft if you’re not used to the way the game operates.
When it comes to porting existing game experiences to virtual reality, one of the toughest things to do is nail camera angles, and this title was largely hit or miss in that regard. The camera moves in jumpy ticks, so there are no smooth transitions, despite having a gamepad that should easily let you move the camera the way you desire.
The most bothersome feature of the game is the lazy way they chose to add inventory and health menus to float in space in front of you. It doesn’t work that well and, unless you have the headset positioned perfectly on your face, it’s pretty impossible to read any of the info as it’s far too small.
Full VR mode is oddly a bit disorienting despite the fact that it’s such an iconically basic blocky game, but there was something odd-feeling about it. Cinema mode is the most comfortable to play through, but, as with other games, there’s the nagging feeling that playing in 2D is a waste of the platform.
It was fun to experience such a major title on Gear VR, and its launch speaks to the clout Gear VR is earning as an actual piece of gaming hardware. But porting the same experience of console VR to mobile VR is a pretty dangerous move here. Hopefully the teams at Microsoft can make some updates before there is a full release on the Oculus store.
Oculus shows off first-look of Minecraft for Gear VR and it’s mehhh
by Stone Marshall | Mar 20, 2016 | Minecraft News |
Minecraft may have started out as a crafting and survival game, but it’s evolved into a wonderfully complex virtual environment. Now, a team from Sweden has turned it into an amazing tool for teaching about geology.
The basics were already there, of course. You could mine rock to fashion tools and weapons or build structures, turn iron ore into a suit of armor, and stockpile sand to make into glass. BetterGeo expands on what’s already there in a major way. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a mod that was developed by a group from the Geological Survey of Sweden. BetterGeo adds numerous minerals and metals, including aluminum, feldspar, garnet, titanium, tourmaline — and even lithium and rare earth elements (both useful for those of you who plan on manufacturing cell phones from scratch inside Minecraft).
What about rocks? BetterGeo has those, too. Igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary — they’re all accounted for. You can stockpile basalt, gneiss, limestone, and shale. And for any Minecraft players out there that share my dad’s penchant for combining geological puns and potty humor, you’ll be glad to know that BetterGeo will let you make a big pile of schist.
A kimberlite pipe with diamond deposits, just like the ones they work in Africa.
As for how they’re placed throughout the world, SGU tried to keep things authentic. “Ore deposits are limited to realistic geological sequences,” they say, “which increase(s) the thrill of exploration.” No true geek can argue with that logic!
The mod doesn’t stop there, though. There are a bunch of new items that you can craft, too. Don the fire proximity suit, mix metals in the alloy furnace, or whip up some rechargeable batteries and a charger that can supply power to your new defribillator. You can even build display cases to show off the rare specimens you mine.
What are you waiting for? Download BetterGeo now and install it to add its geological wonders to your Minecraft world.
BetterGeo turns Minecraft into an immersive tool for teaching geology
