Microsoft has been showing Minecraft on Hololens since it’s unveiling, but the live demo shown today was the most comprehensive yet. After showing how Minecraft could be played on a hovering 2D screen, the real fun began. Moving over to a table, the demoer loaded the Hololens version of Minecraft. Matching the surface area of the table, a Minecraft world materialized. From a god view, the demoer was able to look down at the town he had created, leaning in and looking around as is expected from an AR/VR device. Additionally, he could scroll to different parts of the landscape using a simple touch gesture, while using voice commands to zoom in and out.
Hopping around in the town was a second demoer, playing live via her Surface Pro 3. The significance of this is obvious: players using Hololens and traditional interfaces will be able to coordinate together in a way like never before. It’s not a big leap to imagine someone playing as a god character or dungeonmaster while a group of players fight eachother or their proprietor. This early implementation already had a lightning strike which the Hololens player could call down at any moment, as well as the ability to mark areas on the map for other players to see. Now imagine the types of functions a Hololens player could call with modding, and you start to see how awesome this will become.
Hololens is going to open up a whole new way of playing Minecraft, giving longer legs to one of the biggest games of the last decade. I’m reminded of playing legos on a table, but with Hololens those lego’s have come to life.
You can check out the demo yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=14&v=xgakdcEzVwg
