Minecraft Reality App Arrives For iOS, Brings Your Creations Into the Real World

An anonymous reader writes "Following the news that Minecraft has been ported to the Raspberry Pi, Mojang has announced a new augmented reality iOS app. The app uses your iOS device's camera to track your surroundings before projecting creations onto the landscape. Not only can you see the results on your screen, but you can change their size as you please, and also walk around them to view from different angles."

Comments

Wait for it...

[sixtyeight]

So, next is checking into 4Square from your Minecraft bunker.

Re:Wait for it...

[SeaFox]

Well the most appropriate place to check into a social networking service called FourSquare would be a structure made entirely of cubes I would think.

Minecraft on OSX

[tonywestonuk]

Has anyone managed to get Minecraft working on OSX Mountain Lion? - Apple removed the java plugin, and Oracle Java 7 doesn't appear to be compatible with OpenGL. The closest Ive managed is to get it running in Windows 7, under virtual box. But, its far from ideal.

Re:Minecraft on OSX

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe when you try and run a Java app for the first time, it prompts to install, and does so. I'm running Minecraft using the .app launcher and I don't remember having to fight it on a brand new MacBook Air with Mountain Lion.

I'm not sure about running it in-browser; I've never felt a need to.

Re:Minecraft on OSX

[Bing Tsher E]

The Slashdot way is to suggest an upgrade. Wiping OSX and installing Linux or Windows 7 is an upgrade on any Mac.

Well, not Power Macs (all hail the sacred Altivec... oops, nevermind) and not my SE/30.

Not exactly real-world

[Anonymous Coward]

This doesn't bring anything into the real world. You just get to look at it on a different screen. I guess I'm impressed with the app's ability to track where you're standing and pointing the camera, but "brings... into the real world" should really be something more like a system to format your creations for use with a 3-D printer.

Re:Not exactly real-world

[wonkey_monkey]

You wouldn't be very good in marketing.

That's a compliment.

Re:Not exactly real-world

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would you be impressed by that? Any app can do that by using GPS, compass and/or accelerometer. I use an astronomy app on my Android phone that does much of the same thing.

Re:Not exactly real-world

[Trepidity]

"brings... into the real world" should really be something more like a system to format your creations for use with a 3-D printer.

That exists also. In fact it seems that there are a number of projects working on the basic idea of exporting from Minecraft to a 3d printer.

Re:Not exactly real-world

[abies]

I think it is more about the direction it can evolve into. Add wearable AR glasses, less blocky models and 'laser' tag guns and you might get quite interesting variations on cooperative outdoor 'paintball' (think Starship Troopers).

This is how it starts - and we end up with cyberpunk, cover-your-person-in-AR-avatar world where you don't know if something is real before your touch it. Plus obligatory http://xkcd.com/331/ becomes true...

Re:So that's why

[GuruBuckaroo]

Completely different team working on the PE version. Not directly part of Mojang, if I'm remembering correctly - just like the XBox version.

King Kong

[Nuke Bloodaxe]

We seriously need King Kong with Biplanes placed on the Empire State building!

Buiilding Facade Construction

[Brulath]

It'll be interesting to see if this spawns some new creative building options in Minecraft - specifically tailoring a construction to act as a facade for a building. Theoretically you could transform a street when viewed through your device, which could be an interesting building challenge or competition.

The AR tracking component is about what you'd expect - requires localised areas of high contrast to track from and doesn't work well on non-flat surfaces - but for what it is, it could be pretty neat. Perhaps it'll end up working with Google Glass or similar later.

They advertise that they're using the PointCloud library for the tracking component, which is apparently free if you wanted to build your own app.

Whoops

[MacGyver2210]

You could put an exploding creeper in your school

In other news, Mojang's Notch was arrested today on suspicion of conspiracy to commit terrorism. Reportedly, he used augmented reality to design a 6' green creature containing an undetermined amount of explosives. The designs explained that when a student got near the creature, it would release a hiss. If the student was unaware and did not then leave, the creature would detonate leaving a crater full of loose brick, stone, and dirt.

Police are currently investigating this claim, as well as claims that tripwire-launched arrows and various other TNT-based traps were also designed and disseminated to the students via YouTube. At the time of publication, we have heard rumors of an other-worldly creature wandering the halls of the Mojang studio. It appears to be a sort of zombie, clad only in a pair of tight jeans and a dark turtleneck growling and murmuring something about a 'walled garden'.