What would Pokemon GO look like if it was on Microsoft’s augmented reality HoloLens headset? Not quite as good, apparently – but still pretty cool.
A company called CapitolaVR messed around the Unity engine and the HoloLens SDK just to see what such a project might look like – but it’s a work-in-progress, and nothing more.
In the video below, the player puts their index finger and thumb together to throw a Pokeball and hunt down Pikachu, Squirtle, and Charmander (presumably Bulbasaur was busy).
CapitolaVR boss David Robustelli told UploadVR that the Pokemon are randomly generated within a mapped environment for now. Finding out how to enable Google Maps API for HoloLens would be something of a challenge, apparently.
Robustelli remained optimistic though:
But I’m sure that in the upcoming years when more and more people are developing for this hardware also, more things will be standard to use in tools and apps
He added that his team is working on including different gestures to specific interactions like opening your inventory. But despite their work, this is simply an experiment – CapitolaVR has no connection to Pokemon GO developer Niantic Labs.
Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told CNBC that the massive success of Pokemon GO could really benefit the HoloLens. I’m sure Nintendo will be thrilled.
Nadella explained:
This Pokemon interest hopefully will translate into a lot of interest in HoloLens. I think it’s fantastic to see these augmented reality applications getting built, because the best thing that can happen when you’re creating a new category is for applications that are these killer apps, whether it be game or in the industrial scenario, to get invested in.
Further proof that Pokemon GO is slowly taking over the world: If you’re not playing it, you’re trying to make it yourself.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.