Building is easy in Minecraft, without painful LEGO feet

The Minecraft-on-HoloLens demo is one of the coolest augmented reality experiences I’ve seen so far, but Microsoft’s HoloLens is still a long way out for the average consumer. In the meantime, Microsoft doesn’t want to miss out on new digital reality experiences, so it is bringing Minecraft to virtual reality via the Oculus Rift.

At its spring Xbox showcase, Microsoft showed off a host of upcoming games that will be released this spring, but the Minecraft announcement was a bit of a surprise. The VR experience will let players explore their pixelated worlds as if they were actually there.

However, moving around a world rendered in such low resolution may not make for the best first-person experience. Nick Statt over at The Verge said the first-person view delves into the uncanny valley.

Since there’s much less processing power needed to render the low-def Minecraft world, there’s no blur or lag. But since you’re still using a controller to move around, your brain can get a little confused by the lack of movement that your eyes say should be happening.

Luckily, Microsoft is also shipping a mode that puts Minecraft on a big virtual screen. We’ve seen this with the Gear VR version of Netflix, which puts you in an alpine cabin to binge the latest season of House of Cards or catch up on Gilmore Girls. Playing video games on a giant screen enabled by a VR headset is a logical next step.

Microsoft already has a connection to Oculus, with an Xbox controller included in each Rift kit. But this new Minecraft announcement shows that Microsoft isn’t shying away from virtual reality just because they’re working on augmented reality, and reinforces Xbox’s goal of making games playable on more Microsoft devices. While the Oculus isn’t a Microsoft device, it will require a powerful Windows computer to construct virtual worlds.

Minecraft will be available through the Oculus and Windows stores this spring. It’ll be an update to the Windows 10 edition of the game already on the Windows Store.

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