Pokemon Go gets VR demo during Microsoft event

Pokemon Go Hololens Demonstration Thumbnail

Microsoft is launching its new Microsoft Mesh mixed reality platform today, and part of the announcement includes a brief demonstration of Pokemon Go running on the HoloLens 2 headset.

Niantic has partnered with Microsoft to create this proof-of-concept version of Pokemon Go, demonstrating what might be possible for the game in the future.

”If you’ve been dreaming of a proper immersive AR experience from Pokémon GO, you’ll be happy to know that Microsoft and Pokémon Go developer Niantic is experimenting with the idea. Today during Microsoft Ignite, the companies showed off a proof-of-concept for a multiplayer version of Pokémon Go running on HoloLens 2.”

The demo shows how HoloLens users could spot a Pokemon in the wild and feed it berries ahead of a typical gym battle with another player. There’s a menu that HoloLens users tap to access different parts of Pokemon Go, but Niantic stresses it’s not a dedicated app or ready for consumers yet.

“While this demo is not intended for consumer use, it offers an early glimpse into the future evolutions in both software and hardware,” says John Hanke, CEO, and founder of Niantic. “We’ve only scratched the surface. We know the years ahead to be filled with important achievements which will serve as waypoints in AR’s journey to become a life-changing computing platform.”

The companies were careful to say that the demo “does not represent a consumer product,” but said it highlights “a new collaboration that will build on Microsoft’s and Niantic’s mixed and augmented reality capabilities.

For years, Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté received countless proposals for virtual reality technologies, but they couldn’t match the magic of his intensely visual and mesmerizing live performances. Now, with a new platform provided by Microsoft, he’s rethinking that.

On Tuesday, he appeared at Microsoft’s Ignite digital conference via holoportation, which uses 3D capture technology to beam a lifelike image of a person into a virtual scene.

Pokemon Go Legends Promo Key Art
Credit: Niantic

In the company’s first keynote experience designed entirely for mixed reality, people attending the conference from living rooms and home offices around the world could experience the show as avatars watching events unfold in a shared holographic world.

READ MORE: Microsoft & Niantic Show Off Multiplayer ‘Pokémon Go’ Prototype on HoloLens 2

It was the company’s first opportunity to showcase some of the experiences made possible by Microsoft Mesh, a new mixed-reality platform powered by Azure that allows people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences on many kinds of devices.

Pokemon Go Hololens Demonstration Thumbnail
Credit: Niantic/Microsoft

“This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning,” said Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman. “You can actually feel like you’re in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you’re not physically together.”

Kipman appeared on the Ignite virtual stage as a fully realized holoportation of himself, narrating the show’s opening experience in real time as rays of light that simulated his physical body.

James Cameron, the filmmaker and ocean explorer, and John Hanke, CEO, and founder of leading augmented reality company Niantic, Inc., also joined Kipman remotely to spotlight how Microsoft Mesh is helping them create shared experiences across the virtual and physical worlds.

READ MORE: Pokemon Go Promo Codes

Similar Posts