'Minecraft' could be the killer app for HoloLens

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,255   +192
Staff member

Virtual reality has captivated imaginations for generations but only recently has technology caught up to our dreams. Products like the Oculus Rift and the Vive VR headset have gamers and technology enthusiasts licking their chops but Microsoft is quick to remind everyone that augmented reality is just as compelling (and in some situations, even preferred).

Some lucky members of the press got an opportunity to try out HoloLens following its announcement at Microsoft’s Windows 10 event back in January. One of the demo experiences involved Minecraft, the game Microsoft bought from Mojang last September for a colossal $2.5 billion.

microsoft minecraft hololens gaming e3 mojang virtual reality vr augmented reality e3 2015

During Microsoft’s E3 press conference, we finally got a good look at Minecraft running on HoloLens.

Minecraft for HoloLens is a completely different experience compared to the traditional game. Sure, you’re basically doing the same thing (building stuff using virtual blocks) but with augmented reality, your room suddenly becomes the canvas. While Minecraft was featured during the January event, it didn’t look this refined.

microsoft minecraft hololens gaming e3 mojang virtual reality vr augmented reality e3 2015

Truth be told, there probably aren’t a ton of existing games that would work well in the augmented reality world; Minecraft is an exception. It’s still early, but I’ll go out on a limb here and say Minecraft could very well be the killer app for HoloLens.

Microsoft has yet to reveal how much HoloLens will cost or when it’ll be available. All we’ve heard is that it’ll launch “in the Windows 10 timeframe.” Considering Windows 10 is the last version of Windows according to Microsoft, that could be… well, anytime at all.

Permalink to story.

 
This is pretty much exactly as I imagined how people in the future would interact with 3D topographic maps when I was a kid. Mind you it wasn't with a headset but this is still pretty sweet. You could use the same method to map practically any object in 3D space and cut away as needed, or break out into individual parts. There could be many applications I'd think for the science, medical, and education fields...
 
Last edited:
I thought that the Hololens cant tell if something is in the way yet of what you see, so I dont know how he is using is hand to point at anything because if he did the object would appear infront of his hand not behind like it is.
 
This is pretty much exactly as I imagined how people in the future would interact with 3D topographic maps when I was a kid. Mind you it wasn't with a headset but this is still pretty sweet. You could use the same method to map practically any object in 3D space and cut away as needed, or break out into individual parts. There could be many applications I'd think for the science, medical, and education fields...

You should lookup the BUILD 2015 hololens demo! They showed applications for the hololens that are already being used and were live-demo'd for education, medical, science, construction, and manufacturing :)

Exciting stuff!
 
I thought that the Hololens cant tell if something is in the way yet of what you see, so I dont know how he is using is hand to point at anything because if he did the object would appear infront of his hand not behind like it is.

If I understood their presentation at BUILD correctly, hololens watches your eyes as well as your hands. It also has great special awareness...so it already knew that based on where he was standing the table the minecraft world was on was at point a....so even if he moves his hand in front of it, the hololens still knows it's there and doesn't have to see it. Presumably...after placing the minecraft world there on the table, you could remove the table and have it just float in space as if the table was still there because the hololens doesn't NEED to continue seeing it.
 
You should lookup the BUILD 2015 hololens demo! They showed applications for the hololens that are already being used and were live-demo'd for education, medical, science, construction, and manufacturing :)

Exciting stuff!
Basically, I missed the memo and completely forgot about BUILD 2015? Very nice.
 
Knowing microsoft..
any patents in the pipes regarding iris scans, user biometrics, face recognition, media restriction etc. tied to this?
will it require internet access?
 
Fantastic stuff.. nice game. teaches a lot. although I'm not so good at it. minecraft gives a whole new dimension to gaming.
 
Back