Josh Gregory - Minecraft: Virtual Reality

Published in the United States of America by Cherry Lake Publishing
Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.cherrylakepublishing.com

Reading Adviser: Marla Conn, Read With Me Now
Photo Credits: Cover and pages 6 and 11, Tinxi/Shutterstock; page 8, Ken
Ishii/Stringer/Getty Images; page 9, IhorStudio/Shutterstock; page 10, PR
Image Factory/Shutterstock; page 12, Tom Cooper/Stringer/Getty Images;
page 15, Gavrylovaphoto/Shutterstock; page 16, catwalker/Shutterstock;
page 17, bearinmind/Shutterstock; page 18, Phils Mommy/Shutterstock;
page 19, v74/Shutterstock; page 20, izusek/Getty Images; page 21, Du
san Petkovic/Shutterstock; page 24, LightField Studios/Shutterstock; page
25, Inti St Clair/Getty Images; page 26, mihailomilovanovic/Getty Images; all
other images by Josh Gregory

Copyright 2019 by Cherry Lake Publishing
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Chapter 1

A New Way to
Explore

I f youve ever played Minecraft , you know how fun
it can be to explore the games huge worlds. There
are lush, green forests and sprawling, sandy des-
erts. You can climb to the top of a snowy mountain

There is always another hill to climb or
underground cave to explore in Minecraft .

You can build your own houses, castles, and
other places to explore in Minecraft .

peak or tunnel through an underground cave system.
Along the way, you might befriend a variety of wild
animals or do battle with dangerous enemies. And
because no two Minecraft adventures are the same,
there is always something new to see or do when you
start a new game.

Of course, Minecraft s most exciting feature is that
it gives you the ability to reshape the world however
you like. You can build a tower that reaches high into
the sky, or you can tunnel deep under the surface. You
can build any kind of building or landform you can

imagine, from a massive castle to a mountaintop lair.

Traveling through a world youve built by yourself
can be a lot of fun. Today, there is a way to explore
your Minecraft creations in even greater detail. Thanks
to the power of virtual reality (VR) technology, you can
get up close and personal with the world of Minecraft .

Instead of looking at the game on a screen, you
wear a headset that puts the virtual world right in
front of your eyes. It takes up all of your vision. There

A VR headset can completely change the way you
see the world of Minecraft .

A Virtual Living Room

Playing an immersive video game like Minecraft in VR can be a surprisingly tiring
experience. Luckily, the game comes with a built-in feature that lets users take a break
from the full VR experience without stopping their game or even removing the VR
headset.

With just one button press, VR Minecraft players can switch to a view called the
virtual living room. Instead of feeling like they are in the world of Minecraft , players will
see a comfy living room all around them. The living room has a big TV with Minecraft on
the screen, so the game can continue even while players relax!

are no distractions from the real world. It is like you
are really there. If you want to look in a different direc
tion, all you need to do is move your head. Everything
you look at seems life-sized. It is not a flat image.
When a creeper or some other mob comes running
at you, it really looks like its getting closer! When you
climb to the top of a tower and look off the edge, it
really feels like youre high above the ground.
VR headsets are some of todays hottest tech
devices. They can be used for everything from
playing video games to watching movies. Have you
ever wanted to see the Grand Canyon or the Great
Wall of China? VR lets you travel to exciting locations

around the world without leaving the house. With all
VR has to offer, its no wonder that it has become so
popular.

There have been many updates and changes to
Minecraft since it was first released in 2009. From
multiplayer mode to enemy mobs, each one of these
updates has made the game even more fun and
interesting to play. Virtual reality could end up being
one of the biggest, most incredible additions in

VR technology can really make you feel like youre
in another world. For example, this controller is
designed to feel like riding a motorcycle.

When you first start using VR, youll probably
try to reach out to touch things that arent
really there!

Minecraft history. After all, it combines an exciting
area of technology with one of the most popular video
games ever made. What could be more exciting
than that?

Are you curious about virtual reality? Whether
youve tried it before or youre only just hearing about
it for the first time, there is a lot to learn about this
amazing technology. But before you know it, youll be
exploring the virtual world of Minecraft and your
other favorite games as if youd been doing it your
whole life.

Chapter 2

Virtual Worlds

V irtual reality is one of todays most talked about
forms of cutting-edge technology. But believe
it or not, the basic ideas behind VR are not new
at all. Scientists and engineers have been researching
the possibilities of virtual reality for decades. In fact,
the idea for a wearable device that puts video screens
right in front of users eyes was first dreamed up way

Today, many developers are working to create
new ways of using VR technology.

Modern VR headsets are lightweight and much
easier to use than earlier VR technology.

back in the 1960s. This idea wasnt all that different
from the VR headsets we use today!

VR technology has improved a great deal over
time. One reason for this is that computers have
become more powerful. They are able to create real
istic graphics that fool your brain into thinking they
are real. Another reason for VRs improvement is that
engineers have built better hardware . The earliest VR
headsets were heavy and uncomfortable. Some even
weighed so much that a users head could not support

A NASA test pilot tries out a VR simulation of a
high-speed airplane.

the weight. Instead, the headsets were mounted to the
ceiling.

In the 1970s and 1980s, VR became a popular
way for the military to train pilots. Instead of jumping
into the cockpit of a dangerous, expensive airplane,
student pilots could use VR equipment to go through
realistic training lessons. The National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) used similar
technology to train astronauts. As a result, military

More Than Minecraft

Minecraft isnt the only best-selling video game to take the VR world by storm. In fact,
video games are one of the most popular uses of VR technology today. Some, like
Minecraft , are VR versions of games that were already enjoyed by millions of players.
Others are brand-new experiences built from the ground up to take advantage of VR
features.

Because VR technology has only recently become popular for home use, many of the
games available today are still fairly simple. However, developers are already hard at