Fulfilling a promise made nearly 12 months ago, Microsoft has finally delivered a virtual reality version of popular block-building game Minecraft for the Oculus Rift headset.

The new Oculus Rift virtual reality-friendly version of Minecraft comes by way of a new free update to Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition beta, and will deliver what the company describes as a comfortable, engaging VR experience.

In a blog post announcing the support, Microsoft said the Windows 10 DX11 performance has been optimized to augment the VR experience, and includes a “ton of new options” on top of those previously made available for the Gear VR Edition of Minecraft.

New features are said to include innate support for keyboard and mouse, a variety of VR control options for immersive comfortable turning with the Xbox One controller, along with support for Multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA) for crisp visuals and new render distance settings that will put a powerful VR graphics card to good use.

Customization is also on offer with VR-specific options that can be tweaked to adjust comfort and rendering performance on an individual install.

To play the new version on the Oculus Rift headset, owners of Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition are required to download a custom launcher from the Oculus Store in order to play the game in VR.

Hit title

The launch of Minecraft on the Oculus Rift follows the launch of the Gear VR Edition in April, which at the time, we wrote could possibly be the first big virtual reality hit.

While Gear VR sales have been steady, they still haven’t gone wild. Yet Minecraft on that platform has remained a top title since it launched, and it’s conceivable the same will likely occur with the Oculus Rift now that it’s available for that platform again.

The key to Minecraft being a hit on the Oculus Rift is that it already has a massive install base globally and while sales of Rift headsets are not massive yet the offer of a familiar, and more importantly highly popular game on the platform can only see increased interest; despite its price tag if only a small number of Minecraft players decided they want to experience the game on the Oculus Rift and don’t currently own one it’s a given that sales of the headset will increase.

For more details on Minecraft in virtual reality visit the Minecraft VR page here.

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