Minecraft EARTH: Fostering a new generation of 3D builders in AR+MR?

3D space is an easy place to be. We’ve evolved into it, after all.

Desktop computing really became common-place after the rise of the internet, but the 2D space they’ve presented to us has always been… a limitation.

You might say that screen technology – computer screens – have only ever been a half-way house to the ultimate computer interfaces.

And these are arriving with VR but even more so, with AR and MR. While VR will always be the most impressive for fantastical transportation, AR (Augmented Reality) and MR (Mixed Reality, which is a step beyond) will be huge in application to our real world.

In Minecraft EARTH, you can build objects that don’t exist in the physical world. You can build them together at the family table, using you smartphone as the AR (Augmented Reality) interface. It’s thanks to these kind of popular but groundbreaking games that AR/MR moves a little closer.

It’s another reminder of just how big AR may become, where our physical world is mapped accurately to a virtual one, and the latter space manipulated to present an ‘augmented’ version of reality.

But not as big as when we get rid of our smartphones and carry MR glasses instead.

When these non-tethered MR glasses arrive, via projects of today like Microsoft Hololens, it’s possible to see how 3D design (and so much more) could become common-place and accessible.

Keyboards will materialise before us anywhere, scenes will appear mapped to spaces around us, and we can start to put that incredibly limiting feature of computers – the mouse or touchpad – into the dustbin of history.

We’re seeing today the impressive and rapid evolution of VR, and hopefully we’ll get to see MR blossom in our lifetimes.

Check out my latest overview on Minecraft EARTH (launching v. soon) for Gaming Impact.com