ViveCraft, an experimental project from Facepunch Studios, has somewhat departed from the blocky Minecraft style and gone full Rollercoaster Tycoon in their newest video.
James King, a developer from Facepunch Studios, has taken a new experimental approach with the HTC Vive Minecraft clone. The latest version, which puts you towering over Minecraftia with SteamVR controllers in hand so you can build up structures and terrain like Legos, looks to have ditched the blocky mine carts for a much more fluid track system that can be manipulated into steep curves, vertical loops, and hair-raising drops.
See Also: ‘Vivecraft’ Demo Shows Just How Amazing Minecraft and More Will Be with Natural Input
The best part is that the player can toggle into their creation just like in the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise, but this time with the ability to experience the thrill of the ride in a way only VR can offer.
The SteamVR controllers allow the player to manipulate the world in a natural way. Having used them myself in several demos (my favorite was the Dota 2 ‘Secret Shop’ experience) it was immediately apparent that the two wireless controllers I had in my hands were being tracked 1:1 to my real world movements. Saying that the controllers are extremely intuitive isn’t being generous in the least, because with the sort of natural movement you can recreate in virtual spaces means that VR first timers will have instant access to the control scheme, as it mimics the way you grab, throw, and place virtual items—which in the case of ViveCraft means playing with blocks like a child (no cleaning up afterwards!).
The same goes for Oculus’ Touch controllers, albeit lighter and smaller devices that use an optical ‘constellation’ tracking solution. You can read all about our impressions of both SteamVR controllers and Oculus Touch.
If you’re one of the lucky few to own an HTC Vive dev kit, you can download the previous version of ViveCraft (no rollercoaster) at WEARVR. We’ll be on the look out for future releases that include the new rollercoaster add-on and post the update here.