A Pokémon GO even more realistic with the bite

Released in 2016 and developed by Niantic, the game Pokémon GO will introduce an occlusion system. The game owes much of its fame to its use of augmented reality. Players are fully immersed in the hunt for Pokémon. Whether on the street, in a park or at home, players have already been able to see Pokemon appearing all over the place in the real-life setting.

Next month, immersion will be even more realistic on mobile with occlusion technology. This allows you to play with lines of sight and angles so that a Pikachu can hide behind a rock, under a bench or in your bathtub. Only its tail or a piece of its ear could stick out, so you'll have to keep an eye out!

Huge but limited potential

Pokémon GO works with your phone's camera and allows you to geolocate your position, particularly with the famous Pokéstops. It is therefore easy to imagine that with this new technology, little wonders could be produced: a Pidgey perched on a tree, a Tentacool along the pier or a Oddish hidden among the flowers.

Ultimately, Niantic wants to give the game a true spatial and contextual awareness of the environment surrounding each player.

Initially, only the most powerful smartphones will be able to support occlusion. Examples include the Samsung Galaxy 9 and 10. If in the future more and more models will be concerned, it will be necessary to wait for the technology to be democratized. If not, you will have to invest to fully benefit from the Pokemon GO experience.

A questionable collaboration of players

Niantic, in order to integrate theocclusion on the phone as quickly as possible, has asked for the community's help. The community can send photos and scans of public places to help with modelling and mapping.

However, this practice can be a bit intrusive, especially if people who didn't ask for it end up in Niantic's databases... The company has promised not to store any personal information and that it will blur specific details (such as license plates). It's a nice promise, but it will have to be verified over time.