If it was tough to pull the kids away from their screens while playingMinecraft, 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 immersiveMinecraftworld is Samsung. Announced in San Francisco during the annual Game Developers Conference, theMinecraft virtual reality experience is coming to the Gear VR this spring.
Microsoftbought 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 thatMinecraftplayers 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 havedeemed 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 ofMinecraftonto 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,Minecraftwill 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,Minecrafton the Oculus Rift is expected to offer a much more immersive experience.
Microsoft, too, probably has even bigger plans tobring a bigger versionMinecraftto its HoloLens headset. Since HoloLens offers an augmented reality experience, the device will meld our real world withMinecraft’s block-building world. Of that, reporters havedescribed early builds of the game on the HoloLens as “so damn cool.”
“I think this is going to be the most important game in VR this year”
Minecraftfor 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 likeWolfenstein 3D,DoomandQuake) addressed those gathered to demo the game, explaining why he got involved withMinecrafton 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 existingMinecraftmobile owners will get the VR version for free, or if it’ll be sold as something standalone. But spring is right around the corner.
Minecraftin 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 positionedperfectlyon 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.
Minecraftmay 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 fromthe 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 insideMinecraft).
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 anyMinecraftplayers 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 BetterGeonow and install it to add its geological wonders to yourMinecraftworld.
Microsoft and Oculus VR held a press event yesterday to demo Minecrafton the Gear VR for the first time. Oculus’ chief technical officer, John Carmack, was on hand to give his thoughts, and it turns out he’s been strapping smartphones to his face for a while now. But the demonstration showed that the game is still not quite performing up to its potential.
“About a year ago I gotMinecrafton the Gear VR and I couldn’t tell anyone about it,” said Carmack. “And it was extremely frustrating because I was playing this game and I could spend hours playing. […] I thought it was the best VR experience that we had available. For anything.”
The reason the Gear VR is the ideal platform forMinecraft, Carmack said, is because there are no wires tethering the user to a computer. With all the processing power built into the headset itself — in the form of a Samsung smartphone — there’s nothing holding the user back from moving in any direction.
“In VR, I want to go explore the world,” Carmack said. “I think that the ability to be wireless, to spin around and have that freedom, really makes this a unique experience. […] Minecrafthits all of those buttons very, very well. It is the quintessential open-world game, and being able to explore that world in VR was what I always thought the core of this was all cracked up to be.”
To enable that kind of experience, the demo space was littered with spinning office chairs and Gear VRs fitted with Samsung Galaxy S7 phones.
But whileMinecrafthas been up and running on the Gear VR for some time, it still has no release date. Looking atMinecraft: Pocket Editionside by side withMinecrafton the Gear VR, it’s easy to see why; right now, the view distance is remarkably shorter in VR.
The play space designed for journalists to experience was very narrow. While the frame rate was acceptable — I had no issues with nausea — the grand vistas I’ve come to appreciate inMinecraftwere almost entirely absent.
Once I broke free from the prepared environment and ran off into the world, I immediately noticed how details were only visible out to a stone’s throw away, a distance of perhaps 40 or 50 blocks. Past that, the edge of the rendered space manifested itself as an opaque white wall. Underground, in the pitch dark, that wall actually lit entire caves, meaning I could glitch the game into giving me enough light to see.
RIGHT NOW, THE VIEW DISTANCE IS REMARKABLY SHORTER IN VR
Inside the prepared environment, it seemed as if I could see farther up and down than I could see out into the distance.
Despite these technical issues with view distance, the locomotion system was particularly well-refined. Jumps had been smoothed out, and felt more like mantling obstacles in a third-person shooter than leaping into the air.
That freedom of movement was a recurring theme in Carmack’s short speech.
“Knowing that you don’t simply control your character to turn 90 degrees this way, to move over here and turn around, but instead to actually turn your body all the way around [is powerful],” Carmack said. “You know that you’re 200 meters away this way down the hill and around the bend from where you started, and that sense of being in a big world is wonderful.”
Carmack closed by reaffirming his belief thatMinecraftwould be available in VR for consumers very soon.
“I said this was my grail for VR, that this was the most important gaming application that I could do, or that I could be involved with, and so I’m very proud for the part that I’ve had and I’m happy to have worked with Microsoft and Mojang to get this at the point that it’s at. I’m excited to be supporting it in the coming years as things continue to improve.”
Seeds are pretty important in Minecraft—and not just because they’re the key to amassing a mighty army of virtual chickens. World seeds, the magical strings of numbers that generate the game’s terrain, are an excellent tool to help you kick-start your adventure. Bored of spawning into flat, uninspiring plains? Wearing out your blocky booties searching for a decent spot to set up shop? Get seeding, and take advantage of exotic locations filled with possibility.
Whether you’re after unique strongholds to loot, floating islands to build upon, extreme landmasses to scale, survival challenges to face or simply a cosy spot for your swanky new pad, our essential list has you covered.
It couldn’t be simpler. Step one: check that the seed version matches up with the version of Minecraft you’re running. Step two: plug those delicious digits into the seed field when creating your new world. Step three: enjoy some of the best Minecraft world seeds ever discovered. (Optional step four: move in that sinister chicken army of yours.)
1. Gorgeous Extreme Hills
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Hope you’re wearing your enchanted flip-flops and have a hankering to scale ridiculous terrain. It could well take you several Minecraft days to climb these Extreme Hills… but justlookat the view you’ll be clocking on the way up. Waterfalls cascade through the air, enormous swathes of rock overhang verdant plains, and hollows in the mountain practically beg to be excavated and explored. Just imagine how awesome your base of operations would look built into this natural structure.
2. Flower Forest and Ice Plains,
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The Ice Plains Spikes biome is a rare variant of the Tundra biome, featuring huge sculptural pillars of Packed Ice and, er… not a lot else, actually. It doesn’t half make a lovely backdrop though—which is why this seed is so spectacular. You spawn in a picturesque flower forest, the ocean lapping at one side and a frigid paradise skirting the other. The perfect setting for an Adventure Time tribute build, perhaps.
3. Jungle Oasis,
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It’s worth uncorking this version 1.4 vintage for the chance to dip your toes in one of Minecraft’s most gorgeous natural pools. Jungle biomes are somewhat rare, and finding such an exquisite example of one as a randomly-generated archipelago rarer still. But this little looker is more than just a pretty place. It’s chock-a-block with animal life and rich in easily-accessible resources—a fine choice for playing Survival mode in style.
4. Giant Floating Island feat. Ominous Abyss
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Paradisiacal islands are all well and good, but if you fancy something a little more existential, why not try this highly improbable seed? A gigantic grassy landmass hovers in the air with a flagrant disregard for the laws of physics, overlooking the dark, hopeless maw of a perversely alluring ravine… But before you go flinging yourself in in search of treasure, we should mention there’s a jungle temple just across the river. Slightly less drastic.
5. Lava-filled Desert Mountain with Splash of Greenery
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Normally, I’d deem throwing all your favourite things into a blender and mixing them together madness (step away from your cat, please). With this particular seed, however, the Frankenstein fusion of biomes really works. A vast desert setting; an Extreme Hills mountain; a high-altitude forest; an inexplicably-lush base camp area; a village; a desert temple… It all comes together to produce endless potential for a variety of adventures.
6. Beautiful Mesa Forest
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As if layer upon fudgy layer of colourful clay wasn’t a tasty enough prospect for you, this mesa seed boasts several other interesting quirks. You start in a ravine where thick clusters of oak trees grow: a short stroll up onto the plateau, and you’ll notice a wide-ranging mesa forest with a lake inside a deep crater. Find the cave hidden around the rim of the crater, and you’ll drop right into an extensive system of underground tunnels.
7. Minimalist Survival Island
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As Gandhi once remarked, “To achieve true enlightenment, one must isolate themselves upon an unforgiving Minecraft survival island seed”. This pared-down setting might well inspire some soul-searching. Essential supplies are practically non-existent here, the nearby squid your only friends—not counting Mr. Grass, Mr. Sand and Señor Gravel. After some time you too may find yourself anthropomorphising inanimate blocks. Best survival seed ever; 10/10, would go mad there again.
8. Village Surrounded by Snow
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Best return to civilisation, eh? There’s no NPC village more scenic than this one, a diminutive hamlet nestled in a thawed patch of Cold Taiga biome. You’ve a friendly neighbourhood blacksmith, a quaint little farm for food, and there are even diamonds to, erm,borrow, if you poke about. If you’re after something to build a thriving metropolis off of, and are a sucker for a snowy backyard, this is the seed for you.
9. Landlocked Mushroom Biome
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Minecraft’s shroomy kingdoms are normally rather lonely affairs: tiny little landmasses far out to sea, with a few Mooshrooms sprinkled about for good measure. This seed, however, generates a uniquely landlocked Mushroom Biome. Upon spawning, you’re at liberty to leg it into the emerald wilderness, butarmed with just a wooden bowl and your wits, it’s possible to craft a fungal abode and live on infinite mushroom stew. Going veggie has never been so simple.
10. Hollow Mountain, Hello Zombies
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Being an aspiring Minecraft supervillain in this day and age is no picnic. In fact, it’s a logistical nightmare. Where to find room to install an intimidatingly large lava wall? How to conceal your TNT-powered superweapons? And the bodies? Well, this seed has a solution: a 244-block-high hollow mountain practically made for housing all your dastardly designs. There’s even an exposed zombie dungeon at the summit for unlimited XP farming.
11. Seaside Mega-Taiga
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Live out all your wildest lumberjackin’ fantasies in this Mega Taiga seed, which contains an absolutely massive redwood forest. You’ll spawn by the cave seen at the bottom of this picture, so you can get your shelter or mineshaft started quickly, leaving more time to enjoy your surroundings. One of the two paths inside the cave leads to a dead end—but the other leads you to a gorgeous ocean vista.
12. Crazy Crater
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I’m not entirely sure how Steve survived the End Times, but this seed proves that it must take a whole lot more than a piddling shower of flaming meteors to kill him. A giant, perfectly-circular crater in the earth leads deep down into an underground network of caves, ravines, and mineshafts. There’s tons of ore to mine, including plenty of sparkly diamond goodness. The crater’s also a handy natural mutton-generating trap. Sorry, sheep.
13. Mountainous Snowy Island
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Not all islands have to be tropical, you know. The highest points of this Extreme Hills island are dusted with snow and covered with clouds. The downside is that there are no animals living on the island, so your lunchtime BLT ain’t happening here. It’s far from a hostile place, though: there’s tons of exposed coal in the cliffs, and plenty of trees and grass to get you up and running.
14. Ravine Stronghold/Library
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Don’t be fooled by your spawn point—that’s not the ravine you’re looking for. Want a glimpse of a true underground wonder? Head towards coordinates 236 68 -704. Peeking into the chasm, you’ll spot an oaken, open-plan (alright, it’s just missing a few walls. Let us play estate agent) library intersecting a stronghold. Ladders and bookshelves line the walls: you might need a few tomes to enchant your gear, seeing as though the end portal is nearby…
15. Witch Hut on Stilts
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You’re probably used to coming across the odd Witch Hut (then booking it in the other direction lest you’re poisoned to a sticky pulp). But a Witch Hut onstilts? Well, it’s possible. Mosey on over to coordinates 207, 66, 614 and take a gander at those long, loggy legs extending into the ground. Heading southwest from spawn brings you to a village: there’s a loot-filled abandoned mineshaft directly below it.
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