If you have an Oculus Rift, you can now use it to explore and build in the world of Minecraft.
Microsoft-owned Mojang has updated its Lego-like virtual world game to support the new virtual-reality headset from Facebook's Oculus unit.
Bringing a virtual-world game to a virtual-reality headset is likely to benefit the companies behind each product, analysts said.
"It's definitely a good fit," said Billy Pidgeon, an independent game-industry analyst.
Users will be able to play the new Rift-compatible version of Minecraft with a keyboard and a mouse or an Xbox One controller. They will also be able to experience the game in two different ways.
They can immerse themselves in the virtual world they are building. Alternatively, they can shift to something Mojang calls the "Virtual Living Room," which allows them to play Minecraft as they would in the real world, by viewing it on a screen in a room in their house — in this case, a virtual screen in a computer-generated house. The mode was designed to "give players a break" from being fully immersed in their Minecraft worlds, said Saxs Persson, a studio manager at Microsoft and a member of its Minecraft team.
One of the tweaks Mojang made to the game was to make it move less smoothly when users turned their heads quickly. Instead of shifting their view seamlessly, the game jumps in 22.5-degree increments in an attempt to make the game less disorienting and uncomfortable to players.
There's an active debate in virtual-reality circles about how long gamers can endure virtual-reality experiences. Some people are particularly susceptible to simulator sickness, which happens when users do things in a virtual world that don't correspond with the motions of their actual bodies.
