Minecraft has been described as one of the most influential and greatest video games in history, thanks to the ability for players to use a variety of different blocks in a 3D procedurally generated world. NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX ray-tracing technology, which uses real light sources to accurately illuminate the environment, gives this title a modern visual makeover while keeping the same aesthetics as the original. Read more for an extended gameplay video of the ray-tracing on Minecraft.
Microsoft announced today at Minecon 2019 that their augmented-reality mobile game Minecraft Earth is set to be launched in early access during October. Right now, the closed beta is only availability in a few large cities, including Mexico City, London, Seattle, Stockholm and Tokyo. For those who’ve never heard of this title, the AR game is centered around building structures, gathering resources, crafting and exploration. You augmented reality structures in collaboration with other players, gather resources using in the in-game map, and access “Adventures” (puzzles, tasks, virtual locations with entities to defeat). Read more for a video and additional information.
Facebook has teamed up with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for the world’s most popular video game, Minecraft. This isn’t an AI that will help you automatically build worlds, but rather one capable of multitasking and helping users with everyday tasks outside a gaming environment. Read more for a video and additional information.
Minecraft, the best-selling game yet, has just gotten more realistic with support for real-time ray tracing on Windows 10 PCs. This free update provides gamers with stunning visualizations of their self-created worlds, including direct lighting from the sun / sky / etc., emissive surfaces such (glowstone and lava), realistic hard / soft shadows, and even per-pixel emissive lighting. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Bob Ross was best known for “The Joy of Painting”, an popular television program that aired from 1983 to 1994 on PBS. Unlike Ross, whod uring his 20-year tenure with the U.S. Air Force developed a taste for painting after attending an art class at the Anchorage U.S.O. club, YouTube user “SmallishBeans” is not an artist by any means, but rather a Minecraft fan. So, he decided to attempt to recreate one of the late painter’s works in the game, which involved logging into a second account. Read more for a video of the process and additional information.
Similar to the original game, Minecraft Earth focuses on building structures, gathering resources, crafting and exploration. Unlike the original game, players can now build augmented reality structures in collaboration with other players, gather resources through tapping on “tappables” in the in-game map, and access “Adventure” which may be a puzzle or a specific task, or a virtual location with hostile entities to defeat. These quests reward players with in-game currency, while collaborative construction is completed on “build plates”, and players can share copies of their completed structures. Plus, Earth features a progression system with levels and experience points. Read more for the first live augmented reality demo straight from WWDC 2019.
Minecraft Earth is coming this summer, and it won’t cost you a penny, but it does require one thing, a smartphone. Microsoft wants to take the Pokémon Go concept to the next level, and players will “collect resources, fight mobs, and gain experience points” – and the game can be played in co-op mode with friends. It’s scheduled to be released this summer. Read more for the official trailer.
What happens when Minecraft meets augmented reality? This upcoming game from Microsoft of course. Set to be revealed on May 17th, it features the traditional inventory menu from the original game siting along the bottom of the screen, and the rest is filled with the world of “Minecraft.” If you’re already familiar with Pokémon Go, this new game should be very easy to pick up. Read more for the teaser video.
Apollow of “Disrupt”, a popular YouTube channel, wanted to experience the future of gaming firsthand. So, he loaded up VR Minecraft on his PC and spent 24 hours inside the game, and then turning the recorded footage into a documentary for the world to see. For those who don’t know, Minecraft’s day-night-cycle is shorter than the real world, as 24-hours in the real world equals 72-days in-game. During this time, he did take 3 short sleep breaks with the headset and headphones on. Read more to see exactly what went down.
Photo credit: Imgur
Just in case you don’t know what ray tracing is, this refers to a rendering technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light as pixels in an image plane and simulating the effects of its encounters with virtual objects, thus producing a very high degree of visual realism. Digital Foundry used the Sonic Ether’s Unbelievable Shadows mod on Minecraft to show what the blocky game looks like with modern 2019 graphics. Read more for the 30-minutes gameplay video.