Polygon – Minecraft in Oculus Rift — Hands-On Gameplay

Hey Ben Kuchera hello I am your your kind of a resident VR guy right is that fair to say I’ve spent a pretty significant amount of time in cyberspace as they say I believe right kids I think that’s what they call it you’re gonna be I mean you

Have a you have a vibe free you you were a big big oculus fella I am an original Kickstarter I have a dk2 I have multiple gear VRS I’m all about it the guy so I think he would be the dude to show this off to I

Was in a Microsoft event just last month where they were demoing a Minecraft VR or minecraft VR edition which they say is based on Windows 10 edition when when we went on the title screen it actually said Pocket Edition but I think at this point all that stuff is the same thing

Like the Windows Phone stuff and the Windows 10 stuff but basically this is a VR enabled version of Minecraft as you can see and the weird thing about it or the weird thing about what you’re seeing here is that you’re watching Minecraft on a TV and kind of looking at things

And interacting with them while in VR and then you can hit this 102 zoom in and then you’re suddenly really in like the full-width except full immersion minecraft experience so a quick note about the kind of couch mode based on my very short time that I played this for

About 15 minutes the couch stuff was actually radically more comfortable and I think as stupid as it kind of looks in 2d – watch yourself play Minecraft on a couch there are some things you kind of can’t tell from watching the video of it

One oh there is a sense of death to it so it is still in 3d but – I think the bigger thing that’s kind of invisible to people who might be watching this video you’re aiming the cursor with your gaze right with your with your head so wherever you look that’s how you’re

Selecting the block so rather than using the right analog stick you’re just looking at stuff to affect it which I found actually really powerful and beneficial in that seated mode so it’s basically simulating a virtual living room while allowing you to control the game on a virtual TV using gaze yeah so

As I guess you could another way to describe it is like it’s it’s simulating you sitting in a living room with a 3d TV playing Minecraft with like eye tracking support which isn’t as exciting as my but it’s actually in my experience a lot more comfortable um I notice your angles

Jumping around a bit here what that is is because you can look around with the right analog stick or sorry you look around with your head and hold forward on the left stick to kind of run and it kind of just runs in whatever direction you’re looking which feels a little

Strange but you can actually since you don’t want to rotate your whole body while playing a vr game all the time you can use the right stick to kind of do these little I guess almost like 45-degree snaps left and right so when you see the the

Footage sort of jump that’s because I tap the left or right on the analog stick yeah and a lot of Virtual Reality programs have that and it’s usually called comfort turning or comfort mode or there’s something along those lines and it’s meant to it’s meant to help

With motion sickness and what kind of the unspoken thing going on here since you have this this virtual living room and you’re using the Comfort turning which is really jarring is we’re sitting here watching it yeah like I kind of get the idea that they were making this and

Realized minecraft in virtual reality is kind of not great a few things one I think like watching me build this wall is actually an example of one of the good things about it which is looking somewhere to place a block is like this very intuitive painless process so

That’s like a good thing about it um now the bad thing about it I think the biggest problem with it based on my limited time with it is I felt uncomfortable basically any time I was moving the left analog press in any direction I just felt and I don’t get queasy from

VR stuff like you should have put me in gear VR demos before that had these very sort of smooth ways of moving the way you move in Minecraft is actually very digital not very analog you’re kind of like either running or not and when you’re moving you’re moving while it

Doesn’t look that fast way playing the game on a TV in VR it feels like you’re hurtling forward at like 15 miles per hour on a skateboard so anytime I was moving just like you start and stop so quickly that it I just felt kind of

Sweaty and bad and then as soon as I move back to standing still I was actually fine see and that’s like when we talked about wanting to play Minecraft in VR I picture being inside Minecraft like I don’t the idea of having this kind of like pseudo living room where

It’s like yes you’re in VR but you’re in VR simulating playing it on a TV like even with gays it’s not a dream it’s yeah it’s like you have you have a decision between being ill or not living kind of the virtual dream we were promised it’s a great way of putting it

The way that the the Microsoft reps put it is when they sat me down on that couch mode they were like this is a great mode for if you want to just kind of kick back and relax and like not do the full immersion and just play for it

You could sit here for hours and play it and I’m like okay so the implication of that statement is kind of you cannot play this full immersion mode for an extended period of time without wanting to throw up it’s like if if they’re like oh and you can comfortably play this for

Hours while looking at a screen it’s like we have I have that on my iPhone like I have that on my TV yeah I have a version of Minecraft I can play for hours comfortably on a screen it’s the version of Minecraft on a screen like it

Exists but I think the tricky thing here I think they’re kind of in a tough situation because they did really seem from my conversations like they’re still trying to crack this nut um like you understand this was a really disorienting thing to do by the way

Jumping off a cliff in VR I just wanted to test my limits of my stomach here you get why they why why you would might want minecraft in VR it’s this very relaxed casual enjoyable experience you’ll gain where you’re like just spending time in a space and in theory

That sounds like the ideal VR candidate um but like yeah I’m still the jury still very much out for me just like the the process is as relaxing as it is putting VR or playing Minecraft on a couch with a controller playing it with your head in the world is a very

Different beast and I think that’s something that they’re gonna have to find a solution for I would love to know what the our minecraft would be like for example with the HTC vive where I had a small space I could walk around it and kind of walk around a structure and

Build it and look down at it almost like that hololens demo we saw last year where you’re kind of looking down on this like that could be really cool but I’m not sure that oculus with its kind of limited motion that you’re kind of like be in an office chair and playing Minecraft

I’m still not totally convinced that that’s the way to go like I’m watching this and I’m hearing you describe it and with the caveats in the way even the Microsoft rep was describing it it’s like VR is a bullet point like it’s neat and it seems like it’s a cool tech

Demo this doesn’t seem VR ideally should be something that makes you feel like you’re there in a seamless and comfortable comfortable way yeah I mean your your VR devs talk all the time about the the reality of VR game development being that it’s it’s very very actually rare that you can strap

The art of a game that already exists and make it good right yeah it’s tough though because I’m still I actually there’s a part of my heart though that doesn’t want to believe that like there’s a part of my heart that still thinks you could make a good Minecraft

VR experience and this part like right here I actually really kind of enjoyed the act of spelunking and lighting like the lighting feels so different when it’s in 3d and you’re looking through your eyes stuff like this was red but but just the core emotion is is is the big issue for

Me right now oh it’s that’s so disappointing to me because I’ve played so many demos where you can feel like you can get lost and you want to play for an extended amount of time and minecraft seems like it would be such a good fit and it’s such a

Popular game amongst every demographic and this just it’s not doing it for me man I still want to try it right but yeah based on my time with it like I you have to imagine there are a ton of people beating their heads against this exact problem of like making the biggest

Video game and the newest medium combined in a way that that is painless right like that’s and I don’t think like the couch smooth stuff those sitting on a Minecraft couch and playing it is a half-measure like that there’s no way they think that that’s the final

Solution and likewise I don’t think that this full immersion mode is the answer either um hopefully it’s a it’s a it’s enough that they can eventually crack so we’re done and this is kind of my first taste of the the multiplayer stuff which again like you can see how it would be fun

Assuming all things were equal and everything Foca there’s Deadpool for some reason of course like I thinking out with friends in VR in Minecraft is to me like that would be an idyllic VR experience if if the technology was there and if they nailed how it felt to be in this world

Yeah the idea of like hanging out with friends enrolling your own server and being able to like build a house together in virtual reality sounds amazing and like sadly this demo mostly is taking away my enthusiasm for that idea I I hope they’re able to get to a

Point where it’s a little bit more comfortable I god it’s a little bit more comfortable and impressive than what we’ve seen so far yeah III hope we get there too but just know it’s it’s it’s the type of thing but like obviously this isn’t out yet and obviously there’s

Still work to be done on it and I think for any like minecraft fan watching this video hoping that they can have this seamless VR minecraft experience eh I totally get that desire and I share it but B I I don’t think we’re there as of

Like March 2016 I think I have to imagine we’ll get there someday and if it’s not minecraft it’ll be a thing like minecraft with the I’m just gonna try to make this jump again here oh my god see that guy did it but that guy’s not

Wearing a headset so I think he’s a little more agile than I am but yeah that’s kind of a look at what minecraft is like in VR analysis has been co-developed by Mojang and oculus themselves and I don’t really think they’re any details out yet about win

We’ll be able to play this or if it’ll be free or Gilles owning Minecraft fans who already have Minecraft I don’t really know if that informations out there yet but like this looks terrible it doesn’t look good I think you know what I think I actually walked away from

It a little warmer on the experience than you are like I think I didn’t actually hate my time with it I just wished that it didn’t make me motion sick which I realize is a pretty big disclaimer to put on it but like I think the core idea

Is still known I think they could still make a good minecraft in VR experience fingers crossed that they figure this stuff out but yeah that’s a quick look at minecraft in VR thanks your type in thanks so much for having me