Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...
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It's not normal Minecraft, it's a different version that isn't compatible with the main Minecraft game or the dedicated server, meaning I and my friends would never buy it. Also, it seems Microsoft dropped Mojang's promise that Alpha buyers would get all future versions for free, because I can't find any way to get the Gear VR version without paying. (Granted, the Gear VR version is only $7 or so, but it's utterly incompatible with our existing server.)
:smh:
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@mott555 said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Mojang's promise that Alpha buyers would get all future versions for free
Does that apply to, for example, the Android and Xbox ports?
The Ocoulus version is more similar to a new console port than it is to an update to the PC game.
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@blakeyrat I don't know. I haven't had an Xbox in years and Minecraft on a cell phone sounds like a terrible idea so I've never looked into them.
Reading more, it looks like the Android/Xbox/Oculus/Gear/Win10 versions might all be multiplayer-compatible, but there's no dedicated server software so it's peer-to-peer only. That kind of worries me about the "legacy" Minecraft, like Microsoft might be ditching it and probably going in a bad direction while they're at it.
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@mott555 said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
because I can't find any way to get the Gear VR version without paying.
To get the free Win10 version, you had to generate a key from the Mojang website before Windows 10 was released, and already own Java Minecraft. Like the free Windows 10 upgrade itself, that promotion ended. BTW the Tom Shardware site says "The VR edition of the game is a free update for the Minecraft Windows 10 Edition Beta. The update is free, so if you have the Window 10 version already, you won’t have to pay for the VR version. You do have to install a new game launcher through the Oculus Home store, though."
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@blakeyrat said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Does that apply to, for example, the Android and Xbox ports?
I don't think so.
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@mott555 said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Reading more, it looks like the Android/Xbox/Oculus/Gear/Win10 versions might all be multiplayer-compatible
They weren't at first, but they're all based on Minecraft PE (the Android version) now.
@mott555 said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
"legacy" Minecraft, like Microsoft might be ditching
I'm pretty sure they said they had no intention of doing so, when they released the original Win10 beta. And Minecraft's had at least two major releases since they bought it (1.9 and 1.10).
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@FrostCat I guess I don't understand why they would come up with a new set of mutually-compatible Minecraft editions that are incompatible with the original, if they also intend to continue maintaining the original. I'd expect it to be less work if all of them were common and could play together. It certainly would be better for the users.
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@FrostCat I've been hoping they'd rewrite it and ditch the Java version, so I could finally play the game. But that seems unlikely, probably because of mod breakage.
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@mott555 Probably the answer is "lack of planning". I don't think Mojang wrote the Android port.
The Windows 10 version was always much more performant than the Java version. Frame rate, for example, was always much higher.
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@blakeyrat I doubt mods are the reason. A huge part of the community is still on a version years old (1.7.X) because so many big mods never got updated, because the long-promised mod API never happened.
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@mott555 said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
I don't understand why they would come up with a new set of mutually-compatible Minecraft editions that are incompatible with the original
It's probably mostly incompetence. Most of the incompatibilities over the years have stemmed from MS's intense fondness for the use of serialized objects as the core of their formats and protocols, which makes creating tooling easy (for them) but handling compatibility much more difficult. What you end up with is someone who doesn't really know what they're doing making some “tweaks” that break everything and nobody really knows why. This sort of thing utterly infests almost everything that MS does.
The evil part is that they hardly ever see it as a problem, and think it benefits them as a business to operate this way.
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@FrostCat They seem to have got most of the performance issues fixed though. I don't think Java is holding it back. I get 45 - 50 fps on a Haswell Celeron running Linux on integrated graphics, so any real PC is more than powerful enough.
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@mott555 Doesn't matter if it runs at 500 FPS, I ain't ever putting Java on any computer I own.
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@blakeyrat said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
I've been hoping they'd rewrite it and ditch the Java version, so I could finally play the game
I'd be surprised if they ever did, because of mods, as you say.
Further, I'm pretty sure they can't do that with a store app. You could certainly do it with a .Net one in general, but the store doesn't let apps modify each other, and Microsoft goes out of their way to hide any details about store apps, starting with where they are on your hard drive.
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@dkf said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
It's probably mostly incompetence.
Yes, but not because of what you said. The Windows and Xbox ports were among the later ones (well, Xbox was the third port, after Android and iOS). PE was written in C++ because there was no Java on iOS. I believe that the Xbox and Windows versions (and maybe the Pi and PS ones) were all incompatible at first, but are all based on the Android PE port now.
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@mott555 said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
They seem to have got most of the performance issues fixed though. I don't think Java is holding it back.
Yes and no, in that order. The problem was always bad coding. 1.8 included some kind of major engine rewrite that caused drastic performance improvements.
Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Intel spends time tuning their iGPU to work better with it, too--it plays quite a bit better on a Ivy Bridge laptop i3 than it did on a first-generation i5. (I've tried it on laptops with a 430m, an i3-2320m, and an i5-3230m. And on Iris Pro 580, well, it's almost as good as on a gtx950 or so.)
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@blakeyrat said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Doesn't matter if it runs at 500 FPS, I ain't ever putting Java on any computer I own.
That's certainly your prerogative.
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You'd think they'd make a version for HoloLens....
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@Tsaukpaetra Is there not a version of HoloBuilder out yet?
Anyway, they're definitely working on it.
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@Magus said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
@Tsaukpaetra Is there not a version of HoloBuilder out yet?
Anyway, they're definitely working on it.
Yeah, HoloBuilder (when I tried it, if memory serves) is rather... limited.
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This is like if someone invented a new car and made it incompatible with roads and people, then advertised that it had the ability to brew coffee.
Good luck with your VR game where you run around and jump several meters into the air. Have fun realizing that VR as a medium doesn't work very well when the game area isn't a flat square about the size of a bed.
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@mott555 said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Also, it seems Microsoft dropped Mojang's promise that Alpha buyers would get all future versions for free
Minecraft for Windows 10 is MInecraft Pocket Edition ported back to desktop. It's bizarre.
Minecraft classic is still being updated, and those updates are coming out for free for everyone who bought it.
@mott555 said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
t looks like the Android/Xbox/Oculus/Gear/Win10 versions might all be multiplayer-compatible, but there's no dedicated server software
They're going to bring Realms to it, so you can rent a server from them but not run one yourself, at least not standalone.
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@ben_lubar said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Good luck with your VR game where you run around and jump several meters into the air. Have fun realizing that VR as a medium doesn't work very well when the game area isn't a flat square about the size of a bed.
So many VR games seem afraid of allowing free movement from a seated position. I understand some people get motion sickness, but I seem to be nearly immune to it, and I'm sick of playing crippled games. At least give me the option to free move (some do; most don't).
Also, I don't think every VR game needs to be first person. There are a few games where you're just observing a scene from within the scene itself, and it works very well.
I'll definitely have to give Minecraft VR a try. Eventually. When I get around to it.
Honestly I'm starting to think of my Oculus as a very nice monitor rather than as a gaming device. From that perspective, the price tag is pretty reasonable. Much cheaper than buying a 10 foot screen.
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@error said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Also, I don't think every VR game needs to be first person. There are a few games where you're just observing a scene from within the scene itself, and it works very well.
Dota 2's VR spectator mode sounds pretty cool. I'm probably never going to have a Vive, so I won't be able to use it, but it apparently lets you spectate as if you're standing on the ground or as if you're watching a chess board, or as if you're in front of a virtual screen showing the game.
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@FrostCat said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
starting with where they are on your hard drive
\Program Files\WindowsApps
Microsoft.MicrosoftMinesweeper_2.5.1603.2101_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.MicrosoftMinesweeper_2016.321.1039.470_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe
(etc)And
C:\Users<user>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftMinesweeper_8wekyb3d8bbwe:)
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@FrostCat said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
@dcon said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Minesweeper
*cough*
Really. I just randomly picked something! (Besides, the Adventure game is fun)
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@dcon said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Really.
I didn't find an MC entry in %appdata%. Then I went poking around in WindowsApps and don't have permissions and didn't feel like unravelling that this morning.
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Has anyone here had enough time on the Oculus to determine if it isn't really an Annulus?
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@FrostCat said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
@dcon said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Really.
I didn't find an MC entry in %appdata%. Then I went poking around in WindowsApps and don't have permissions and didn't feel like unravelling that this morning.
I do it with an admin cmd prompt. (easy to get by r-click on start)
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I tried it. It's implemented fairly sanely.
- I was forced to install the Anniversary Update to Windows 10 first. Maybe I'm cynical, but I doubt the proximity of these releases was coincidental.
- Defaults to no-motion-sickness, but I was able to crank it up to Hurt Me Plenty.
- I was able to accidentally clip my view inside of the level geometry. There's a re-center feature available to correct this.
- The re-center only works for yaw, not pitch (like 99% of titles). No Minecraft on my ceiling.
- The keyboard layout has changed, and you can only remap to a few preset schemes. The game won't show you what the bindings are, just mash keys until stuff happens (it doesn't help that you can't see your hands either).
- If you're moving forward, you have to come to a complete stop to change what direction "forward" is. This makes sense but is annoying.
- You have to look at blocks to mine/place them. As in, use your physical head as a pointing device. I'm anticipating some eventual neck pain.
I can deal with most of these. Overall, better than expected.
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@error said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
You have to look at blocks to mine/place them. As in, use your physical head as a pointing device. I'm anticipating some eventual neck pain.
Having dealt with this as the modus operandi for Hololens, I can concur that if you're not careful, this can indeed happen.
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@Tsaukpaetra said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
@error said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
You have to look at blocks to mine/place them. As in, use your physical head as a pointing device. I'm anticipating some eventual neck pain.
Having dealt with this as the modus operandi for Hololens, I can concur that if you're not careful, this can indeed happen.
I wonder if the second generation HMDs will have eye tracking along with head tracking. I know such technology already exists for disability assistance. Being able to "glance" at objects and highlight them would feel almost like telepathy.
(I'm honestly not too optimistic about there being a second generation. Not because I dislike it, but rather, I'm afraid to get my hopes up.)
Edit: d
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Hmmmmm. Regular Win10 version--didn't get the VR version launcher, because I don't have a Vive or anything.
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@error said in Yay, Minecraft for VR...but...:
Edit: d
Yeah, we'll see how legitimate this one is:
Supposedly the SDK is fully functional as of July, and there was a demo at ComicCon. We'll see.