Minecraft in 3d virtual reality

As a little experiment with the Oculus Rift I wondered if I could view a Minecraft world through the oculus Rift. The answer is yes and relatively easily (certain easier than I though it was going to be).

Download Minecrift from: https://share.oculusvr.com/app/minecrift

Unzip the files and run the installer file.

figure 1

You should get something similar to figure 1. All I did then was press OK.

Figure 2

Run the Minecraft launcher and create a new profile. After creating a new profile, edit it to change Use version to release minecrift-1.6.4-b12-nohydra which can be found in the drop down menu now. Now save the profile.

Now play the Minecraft normally but with the Oculus Rift on (it helps to have two people one wearing the Oculus Rift, the other pressing keys to control the movement).

Figure 3

Most people who have tried enjoyed it but could only play for a short while. If I was susceptible  motion sickness I wouldn't try this.


Related links
http://minecraft-vr.com/

http://www.theriftarcade.com/minecrift/

http://vrwiki.wikispaces.com/Minecrift 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/05/10/minecraft-is-the-latest-game-to-get-oculus-rift-support-with-minecrift-mod/

http://riftmod.com/how-to-setup-minecraft-for-oculus-rift/


All views are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisations the author is associated with in any way. Nor is post advocating the use of approach described above, but is reporting on an experiment.  

Immersive technology devices and field work: Oculus Rift

Who is your project team? Scott Turner and Naomi Holmes, School of Science and Technology, Adel Gordon, Learning Technology

How much funding did you receive? £1,200 Poster available at: http://slidesha.re/1kvvUuX  http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1054675 What is your project? The aim was to investigate the potential use and the student experiences of using virtual reality (Oculus Rift) devices for field trips. Virtual reality field trips have been used by a number of HE institutions for a number of reasons To give students the opportunity to prepare for a ‘real-life’ field trip (risk assessments, kit selection, project preparation etc) To allow students to reflect on a recent field trip To provide an additional field trip experience without incurring extra costs for the student or institution To improve accessibility to field work experiences To allow distance learning students to participate in field work Computer-based (virtual reality) field trips have in the past been perceived negatively by students, often due to a poor representation of reality. Currently these field trips take place in 3D environments on a 2D computer screen. There has been an emphasis on enhancing the realism of these virtual field trips. The recent release of Oculus Rift, a relatively low-cost virtual-reality headset which tracks the user’s head movements, allowing users to ‘walk through’ a virtual landscape immersively, offers an opportunity to further improve the virtual reality field trip experience. Thirteen Environmental and Geographical Sciences student volunteers tested the Oculus Rift. The students used the Oculus Tuscany Demo software to work around a landscape, spending between 10 and 30 minutes in the landscape. No students had used an Oculus Rift previously. After using the devices they fed back through a questionnaire their views on its use from a learner's perspective. Do you have any outcomes you can report? From the questionnaires: The students all saw the virtual reality as beneficial only if used alongside or in addition to actual field trip experiences Motion sickness was a common problem of using the devices and so limits the time it can be used Overall the response was positive for the testers Other applications such as studying plant structure, looking at past environments and cell structure were suggested by the students The work has been disseminated. The results were discussed and participants had a chance to try the Oculus Rifts in a workshop at the recent Northampton Learning and Teaching Conference - Northampton 2018: Planning, Designing and Delivering Student Success.

virtual reality for environmental students

An ongoing project, which is a collaboration between the Dr Naomi Holmes (Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Northampton)  Dr Scott Turner (Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton) and Adel Gordon (Learning Technology Team, University of Northampton) looking at Virtual Reality devices to prepare for field trips. 

Virtual field trips are not a new idea, but with the release of the developer version of the Oculus Rift providing a more affordable immersive/virtual reality equipment, could virtual field trips become immersive virtual field trips at reasonable cost? Is this a good idea?


The Oculus Rift (http://www.oculusvr.com/), a device whose popularity with gamers is increasing, is under investigation of tool for preparing for field trips. The demo of a house and gardens in Tuscany that comes with the Oculus Rift (available through the Oculus Rift developer centre https://developer.oculusvr.com/) is being used as the basis of the test. 

Students come in, put the headset on, after an initial orientation, walk around the house, and gardens, later fill in a questionnaire on the experience, as well as talking to the two investigators. Part of the procedure is the students are told they can stop at any time and restart if they want at any time during the session.

The research questions revolve around
- Do students like the tool?
- Do students think this tool could be used for:
   - preparation before a field trip to try out ideas.
   - a way of describing a trip when they come back.
   - a replacement for field trips.
- What are the limitations of the approach?
- Where else could it be used, if anywhere?
- Is there some procedures that need to be put in place to enable effective use of these?



Preliminary results will be released in the near future.

Funding for this work has come from the University of Northampton's Innovation Fund.




Related Links:

Update from the Innovation Fund Panel