Edit: Or rather, What Microsoft NEEDS to do to make Minecraft playable for the masses with Ocolus...
... aside from simply "look in" to the game world using HoloLense, which is still pretty cool in its own way. But I suspect what will truly grab kids and adults alike is VR putting you INTO the game. Where you can move around, mine, build, etc from the same perspective they are already familiar with.
VR comes with major challenges to put you into a game world using VR... especially when it involves freely exploring an open environment. On-Rail experiences where you are sitting or standing in one spot are much more natural. But this E3 has shown us one very simple and basic method that can be applied to almost ANY FPS experience to make it simply "Work"!
So here it is:
So... why the robot suite? It's actually incredibly important... this image was a stolen example from the internet with some photoshop applied, but when playing with a controller (Mouse KB in VR will likely not be feasible) I believe we are going to learn that games where you are simply "walking around with your virtual feet" in VR games (using controller with analog stick) will be rather immersion breaking, nausea inducing, and likely take some adjustment... while some people may never be able to adjust to it at all.
While you are playing a game, you are not walking around in the real world, but rather you are typically sitting down on a sofa or in a chair. It's important to match in the VR world what you are doing in the real world. SO, if you are also "sitting" in the VR world, and controlling a vehicle with a virtual set of hand controls, that feels much more natural and less likely to invoke nausea. This is clearly a key factor to the future success of RIGS on Morpheus (wanted to post a gameplay perspective pic, but my limited image access at work isn't helping me out).
While in Mincraft using VR, simply place your avatar in a robot mech suite (something not too large so it takes up relatively the same space and provides same perspective), that you would in theory be controlling with hand controls (no need to make them visible in the game world). Pressing a button to swing a tool or weapon would feel natural from a gameplay standpoint, and also natural from an immersion standpoint.
Keeping a "locked environment" around your body is important to maintain a connection between your stationary and sitting presence in the world, and the surrounding explorable world itself. So as you look around with the headset, you would see various parts of your suite cockpit (shoulders, console, Tool/Inventory HUD, etc). Interacting with your inventory would happen within the suite HUD itself.
Going into free-flying mode to build would also be pretty natural... the robot suites could have jetpacks to give that a sense of realism and connection to the world. You won't feel like you are just freely flying, but flying in a vehicle.
Looking down to mine/build below you could be a challenge, since your mind expects to see your body... but looking down with your head would be different than looking down using the analog stick on your controller, which could instead "tip" your mech suite down so you can indeed see directly down. This part could be tricky to get right.
So this is how you make existing and moving around the Minecraft world using VR much more natural. Players can meet up and play/work together each using VR (Ocolus), while other players could look into that same world using AR (HoloLense).
You can have that one for free, Microsoft / Majong. Your experts should have already considered this, I would hope. But if you are trying to just have a normal Minecraft avatar walk around in VR and it is encountering problems, I would suggest this approach.
... aside from simply "look in" to the game world using HoloLense, which is still pretty cool in its own way. But I suspect what will truly grab kids and adults alike is VR putting you INTO the game. Where you can move around, mine, build, etc from the same perspective they are already familiar with.
VR comes with major challenges to put you into a game world using VR... especially when it involves freely exploring an open environment. On-Rail experiences where you are sitting or standing in one spot are much more natural. But this E3 has shown us one very simple and basic method that can be applied to almost ANY FPS experience to make it simply "Work"!
So here it is:
So... why the robot suite? It's actually incredibly important... this image was a stolen example from the internet with some photoshop applied, but when playing with a controller (Mouse KB in VR will likely not be feasible) I believe we are going to learn that games where you are simply "walking around with your virtual feet" in VR games (using controller with analog stick) will be rather immersion breaking, nausea inducing, and likely take some adjustment... while some people may never be able to adjust to it at all.
While you are playing a game, you are not walking around in the real world, but rather you are typically sitting down on a sofa or in a chair. It's important to match in the VR world what you are doing in the real world. SO, if you are also "sitting" in the VR world, and controlling a vehicle with a virtual set of hand controls, that feels much more natural and less likely to invoke nausea. This is clearly a key factor to the future success of RIGS on Morpheus (wanted to post a gameplay perspective pic, but my limited image access at work isn't helping me out).
While in Mincraft using VR, simply place your avatar in a robot mech suite (something not too large so it takes up relatively the same space and provides same perspective), that you would in theory be controlling with hand controls (no need to make them visible in the game world). Pressing a button to swing a tool or weapon would feel natural from a gameplay standpoint, and also natural from an immersion standpoint.
Keeping a "locked environment" around your body is important to maintain a connection between your stationary and sitting presence in the world, and the surrounding explorable world itself. So as you look around with the headset, you would see various parts of your suite cockpit (shoulders, console, Tool/Inventory HUD, etc). Interacting with your inventory would happen within the suite HUD itself.
Going into free-flying mode to build would also be pretty natural... the robot suites could have jetpacks to give that a sense of realism and connection to the world. You won't feel like you are just freely flying, but flying in a vehicle.
Looking down to mine/build below you could be a challenge, since your mind expects to see your body... but looking down with your head would be different than looking down using the analog stick on your controller, which could instead "tip" your mech suite down so you can indeed see directly down. This part could be tricky to get right.
So this is how you make existing and moving around the Minecraft world using VR much more natural. Players can meet up and play/work together each using VR (Ocolus), while other players could look into that same world using AR (HoloLense).
You can have that one for free, Microsoft / Majong. Your experts should have already considered this, I would hope. But if you are trying to just have a normal Minecraft avatar walk around in VR and it is encountering problems, I would suggest this approach.
