Virtual reality is a popular topic for 2016. More tools, platforms, and content are now available to give users a wildly immersive, integrated, and powerful experience. From YouTube videos to search engines, virtual reality is becoming more and more the norm.
The same is true for one of the most popular video games of all time: Minecraft.
To play the virtual reality mode, players need to be wearing a Samsung Gear VR device. For best results, players should also turn on 3D rendering. A brush of the gamepad puts the game in full virtual reality mode.
The virtual reality version benefits in many ways from the original game’s simplistic design. The original Minecraft is a rather pixelated visual experience…intentionally. For players who are used to seeing rather flat renderings of the mountains, airplanes, battleships, and castles they build, the virtual reality mode brings those structures to life. Mountains tower over users. The scale and scope of larger items becomes far more dramatic.
John Carmack, chief technology officer at Oculus, praises the game, stating, “Experiencing (Minecraft) in virtual reality changes it from an abstract activity to a visceral one,” Carmack wrote in a blog post that announced the game in April 2016. “It goes from a sense of playing the game to one of being inside your world, and spinning around to find a creeper sneaking up on you leaves a powerful impression.”
The game includes all the features of the Minecraft Pocket Edition, including the Creative and Survival modes. Skins and multiplayer functions transfer as well to Minecraft: Gear VR.
Reviewers rave about the sensory experience of the new game. “Minecraft in VR can throw you for a serious loop. You’re standing inside a world you know is not real, and yet you’re being blasted with stimuli telling you otherwise,” writes Nick Statt for theverge.com. “It’s the sensation of presence, the feeling that you’re physically somewhere else.”
To play Minecraft using the Gear VR, you’ll need one of a handful of specific Samsung phones, the list of which is growing. This version also requires a paired gamepad in order to take full advantage of the features used to build structures and fight off creatures.
Check out this Minecraft Crafting Guide Video to learn more about building in Minecraft!
This article was originally published on 4th August 2016.
