Apple’s new augmented reality kit makes Minecraft look magical in AR

Thanks to Apple and its new augmented reality framework for mobile, one resourceful game designer has managed to render smash-hit title Minecraft in AR – and it looks infinitely fun.

Toying around with Unity 3D and the recently released ARKit, AR enthusiast Matthew Hallberg has come up with a way to use Apple’s new framework to blend his physical surroundings with the virtual world of Minecraft.

Much like the real thing, the game lets you mess around with various tools to build and break blocks – only this time around you get to do this in the backdrop of the real world.

As you can observe in the video demo, the improvised Minecraft game offers several different tools, including the notorious pickaxe, as well as a few other objects like torches and trees.

One thing that avid players will notice is that the scale might be a little off from time to time: for instance, a torch is nearly as big as two blocks. But hopefully Hallberg can iron out these inconsistencies in future versions.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

To build his AR-powered Minecraft app, Hallberg used the beta versions of Xcode 9 and iOS 11, as well as the latest patch version of Unity (5.6.1p1). The developer promises he will soon release a tutorial video to demonstrate how he built the game.

Meanwhile, this is hardly the first time Minecraft gets the virtual treatment.

Back at the 2015 edition of E3, Microsoft showcased a demo version of Minecraft AR for HoloLens. The company eventually went on to release a more detailed research focused on rendering the game in VR.