AR support for engine

[InterPotato]

Yeah, this might be supported on mobile Minetest versions only, but I think it might be pretty cool.

So yeah, you probably know about MineCraft Earth. The game that was wasted potential imo, and it was discontinued in June 2021. I think that implementing AR into Minetest support might someone want to make a mod or fork of some games to support AR features (just like MC Earth did: real world generated via OpenStreetMap or something, AR support and maybe an additional feature for security called the camera view might be cool as well).

What do you think about mine idea?

[littlePrettyCat]

Awesome idea, just do it :)

[InterPotato]

I wish I could... I have zero programming experience, I only code in Turbowarp (a better version of Scratch programming language)... but yeah, I need to learn true programming someday.

[hex]

OpenXR support shouldn't be hard, but the server also needs to query the client's location services for this to work, which is a privacy nightmare that requires a robust permissions system. We'd also need some way of making the dependency optional, not every device has an OpenXR driver installed.

I suppose this would work more or less like current clientside movement does, except now it's transmitting real life position data and the server needs to place it in a particular reference space. The current coordinate system isn't that well suited to this, but it's also a good excuse to fix that. OpenXR also handles VR so that's another good reason to think about it.

One problem I can think of is that even if someone goes and makes this, you still need two coredevs to test this for PR approval, and they're unlikely to have their own glasses. Now if any of them do, I invite them to step forward and post here.

Another issue is that without SSCSM it's gonna be impossible to leverage advanced XR features such as hand tracking in a robust way, so until then it would just be a fancy demo.

[FreeLikeGNU]

I have a pair of Xreal glasses and Minetest's SBS (side-by-side) stereoscopic mode works well enough in game. The glasses also have 3DoF motion sensing that can be translated to mouse movement, also working well. The problem is that the menus do not support SBS and it's really hard to navigate them.

[InterPotato]

Yeah, it's cool as well, but this is not what I meant. I mean, a support for mobile API's to make something like "Mineclonia Earth". Imagine building, for example, an amusement park in your garden, and then going to work/school, build a place to play with friends etc. And then you're back to home to amusement park again! Isn't that amazing?

There are few MC Earth revivals, but most of them are either early access or already were DMCA'd by Mojang (I guess they don't want to bring this back, but in better version).