South African startupSpeak Geek?recently teased an update to their project that aims to replicate the official Microsoft version of Minecraft for HoloLens, the company’s $3000 AR headset, and put it on mobile devices capable of running Google’s ARCore and Apple’s ARKit.
This is the company’s second attempt at bringing Minecraft to AR, the first taking place in 2015 right after the multiplayer version for HoloLens was unveiled. Now, with the release of Google ARCore and Apple ARKit, Speak Geek? says they’re streamlining their first attempt to make a smoother experience for users to view their worlds in AR.
The app interfaces with Minecraft via Forge and the Raspberry Jam Mod. You then find an open world via WiFi and display it.
While the prototype only incorporates a viewer function at this time, the company says they have their eye on building a complete Minecraft client which would include a way to interact with the map via “minions” who you could order to collect resources while away from the PC. The company maintains that these ideas aren’t currently implemented, but could become a reality in the near future.
With enough support, Speak Geek? says they’ll release a version soon to a select group to start playing. Keep an eye on the MinecraftAR for more updates.
Mojang is running a beta test for Minecraft's Better Together update and the preview revealed plans for keyboard and mouse support to be added to the Xbox One version of the game.
There are tons of mods available for Mojang's building title. We've sifted through the masses and found all of the best Minecraft mods compatible with v1.18.
As recently as May 2017, one of the main problems in the burgeoning virtual and augmented reality market was that the base of users was too small. For the most part, people simply did not have access to hardware that would enable them to experience immersive experiences. In June 2017, Apple completely changed the game with the introduction of ARKit, which turned millions of iPhones and iPads into augmented reality (AR) capable devices overnight. In the weeks that followed, developers around the world began producing some creative demos with ARKit.
3D drawing in AR:
AR measuring tool:
Moon Landing:
While these AR demos are legitimately impressive, at some point mobile AR’s novelty factor will disappear. When we reach this point, what happens next? How will mobile AR become a consistent part of our daily lives?
One possibility is in AR mobile gaming. Mobile gaming is a huge sector that was worth $41 Billion (USD) in 2016. In this piece, we’ll share how mobile AR has created the possibility of an entirely new type of game experience, a new type of social experience, and the constraints that companies will face as they enter this space.
A new type of gaming experience
In the history of gaming thus far, we’ve largely been confined to sitting or standing in front of 2D screens while remotely controlling characters in a virtual and isolated environment.
No more. As shown in this AR tribute to Space Invaders, with mobile AR gaming, your real environment becomes the game environment. You become the protagonist.
This new level of immersion breeds an entirely new type of gaming experience in which you must navigate and dodge real world obstacles, such as tables and chairs, to emerge victorious. What is possible in the realm of digital gaming when the real world becomes part of the gaming experience? Moreover, how will our lives change once these mobile AR games become social and enable us to connect with people in the real world?
A new type of social experience
Multiplayer gameplay has been around since the Pong and Atari-era of video games.
However, with the rise of games such as Minecraft, gameplay increasingly became social on an entirely new level. By building virtual worlds in Minecraft and sharing these spaces with friends and strangers alike, users could show off their unique creations that reflected their identities. It didn’t take long for the Minecraft phenomenon to hit early ARKit demos:
The desire to express oneself and connect to others is, and always will be, innate to humans at an individual and global scale. Experiences like Minecraft, applied to mobile AR, will add a social gaming layer on top of the real world and enable individuals to leave their unique mark on the real world for others to find and share.
This behavior was best demonstrated by the meteoric rise of Pokémon GO. Despite its subsequent collapse in usage, the explosive growth of this app proved that mass scale social AR gaming was possible to implement from a user experience perspective. That is: people were willing to get off their couches and walk around to capture AR monsters and then meet strangers for battle.
Ultimately, Pokémon GO was an encouraging example of how AR mobile games could compel people to go explore the world and interact with a social layer built on top of the real world.
Constraints for AR Gaming
It’s worth pointing out that smartphones are not the ideal form factor for an AR experience. However, since the iPhone is currently the only mass-market AR device available on the market, this is where the industry will have to focus until AR smart glasses become a widespread consumer phenomenon.
As such, AR mobile gaming will face many of the constraints that traditional 2D mobile games faced: battery life issues, short attention spans, and a reluctance to hold a smartphone for long periods of time, among others. Additional constraints specific to AR include learning, from scratch, the best practices for user experiences in an imperfect medium.
Since smartphones are an imperfect and incomplete form factor for AR experiences, mobile game creators will also be constrained by the limitations of mobile AR generally – with the most obvious issue being the tiny field of view on iPhone screens. This field of view problem can be somewhat resolved by focusing on iPads, which in turn dramatically reduces the potential addressable market while also forcing the user to hold a heavier device to experience AR games.
Moving Forward
Despite these constraints, there will be early winners in the mobile AR gaming space. Game developers who can creatively work within the boundaries of mobile AR while creating a compelling user experience will find short term success. Long term success in this space will be determined by an ability to transform a game into a sustainable global phenomenon like Minecraft, while being able to successfully adapt to the inevitable transition to AR smart glasses.
As well as being up for the Game of the Year at this year's Games for Change Awards ceremony, Minecraft: Education Edition faced off against stiff competition in two distinctly different categories but lost out in all of them.
If we’ve learned one thing over the years it’s that if it has a screen or some way of display visuals, then it can and will probably play Minecraft. All modern smartphones, tablets, game systems, computers, and more all have Minecraft. In fact, it’s already spread to VR devices like the Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and even HTC Vive. But since we’re still waiting on the big augmented reality (AR) breakthrough to take the tech into the mainstream it hasn’t been implemented on that level yet in a consumer-facing way.
YouTube user Matthew Hallberg utilizes Apple’s new ARKit to experiment with what it might be like to play Minecraft in AR. Anyone that’s played the popular sandbox building and creation game know that you typically start by having a world (or “seed”) procedurally generated. No two game worlds are ever the same. You then explore, mine, and build things as you fight to survive. In the case of Minecraft AR though, the world you’re building in is just the real world around you with modern AR technology layered on top of it all. Check it out in the prototype video he made right here:
Sometimes it’s tough to imagine gaming-focused use cases for AR, but Minecraft seems like a great example. Imagine an official LEGO app that utilized AR displays — you’d never have to clean up those pesky blocks ever again.
Let us know what you think of the idea down in the comments below!
Minecraft proved to be a valuable tool during pre-production of Ben Wheatley's latest film Free Fire, as the game was used to build virtual sets that helped the crew visualize its action sequences.
Microsoft kündigte in seiner Pressekonferenz auf der E3 dieneue Konsole Xbox OneX und diverse neue Spiele an. Doch auch ein älterer Erfolgstitel bekommt einige Verbesserungen, denn Minecraft erhält mit dem Better Together Upgrade Cross-Plattform-Support, In-Game-Server und ein komplett neues Grafikpaket.
Better Together Upgrade: Cross-Plattform-Support
Das Open-World-Spiel Minecraft vom schwedischen Spieleentwickler Mojang erfreut sich größter Beliebtheit und wurde Ende 2014 von Microsoft aufgekauft. Kein Wunder, denn Millionen von Spielern lassen auf Konsole, Handheld oder PC ihrer Kreativität freien Lauf und bauen mit unterschiedlichen Blöcken alles, was ihnen in den Sinn kommt.
Nun kündigte Microsoft das Better Together Upgrade an, was die Spieler auf den unterschiedlichen Endgeräten dank Cross-Plattform-Support endlich vereint. Dies macht Sinn, da das Spiel auf Teamwork, gemeinsame Bauarbeiten und eine starke Community setzt. Die neue Edition wird für Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Smartphonesund die Oculus Rift unter dem Titel Minecraft veröffentlicht, während das Originalspiel zukünftig den Namen Minecraft: Java Edition trägt. Das Update erscheint kostenlos innerhalb des Sommers 2017. Zusätzlich werden die DLCs über die unterschiedlichen Endgeräte kostenlos übertragen. Besitzt man beispielsweise eine Version von Minecraft für die Xbox One und Windows 10 und kauft ein DLC für die Konsole, so überträgt sich dieses ebenfalls kostenlos auf den PC.
Better Together Upgrade: In-Game Server
Ein Herzstück des Spiels sind die unabhängigen Server, welche von Spielern innerhalb der Community betrieben werden. Um den Spielern die Wahl der Server einfacher zu gestalten, bringt das neue Update einen Server-Browser mit. Dieser befindet sich zukünftig im Startmenü des Spiels. Dadurch werden Server in einer Liste angezeigt und Spieler können sich per Mausklick verbinden.
Better Together Upgrade: Beeindruckendes Grafikpaket
Etwas später im Herbst des Jahres erscheint ein weiteres kostenloses Update, welches es in sich hat. Minecraft erhält 4k HDR Grafik inklusive verbesserter Licht-, Schatten- und Wassereffekte! Das Update ist zugänglich für Spieler auf Xbox One, Windows 10, Smartphonesund VR-Brillen.
Zusätzlich erscheint das Super Duper Grafikpack, welches weitere Feature wie dynamische Schatten, neue Texturen für Mobs, u.v.m. enthält. Dieses Paket erscheint für die Xbox One X und Windows 10 und soll von der Hardware von High-End PCs und der neuen Konsole profitieren. Wann das Update erscheint, steht noch nicht fest.
Wer kein Update benötigt, der muss sich keine Sorgen machen. Die Entwickler wollen das 4K-Gaming lediglich als Option anbieten und das Spiel wird auch weiterhin in seiner ursprünglichen Form spielbar sein.
Microsoft’s conference at E3 2017 was as bombastic as ever, and their announcement of the Xbox One X came with a few exciting game announcements. As ever, Minecraft took some time on centre stage to announce some new features such a 4K support and cross-platform play – but seemingly, PlayStation owners will be left out in the cold on this one.
That means that although there are several options for players to immerse themselves in a virtual reality (VR) Minecraft experience, PlayStation VR will be the version that restricts multiplayer to only other PlayStation players.
It was theorised this was the case, following the lack of mention of PlayStation during the Minecraft segment, and then confirmed on Twitter by @JezCorden. The Windows Central blogger tweeted “Yes to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation refused” regarding cross-platform play with Minecraft.
In a follow-up tweet, Corden stated; “If you want cross platform Minecraft for PlayStation, bug Sony. @Playstation”
Sony’s track record for allowing cross-platform play has been good so far, but perhaps they didn’t want to offer it with their key competitor in the console space. Either way, it’s disappointing that PlayStation VR fans won’t be able to immerse themselves in Minecraft along with their friends on PC, who can use HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets.
Still, if Microsoft were to make the Xbox One X compatible with a VR head-mounted display (HMD) it would become the best place to play Minecraft on console – and with 4K support, it’s already one of the best. We know we want VR on the Xbox One X.
Minecraft’s Xbox One X update and more features will become available in Fall, but we may never see cross-platform play on PlayStation 4.
For more E3 2017 and Xbox One X news, stay on VRFocus.
Constraints for AR Gaming
