3rd May 2016: RealVNC®, the original developer and provider of VNC® remote access and control software, has released an alpha version of VNC for the Raspberry Pi. This alpha contains new technology that, for the first time, enables Minecraft for Pi to be seen and controlled from a remote computer or tablet at a fast enough rate to be playable.
The alpha follows RealVNC’s successful launch of VNC for the Raspberry Pi in February 2015, allowing users to securely and seamlessly access their Pi via VNC.
By using hardware accelerated screen capture, applications that previously could not be remoted, such as Minecraft, the Pi Camera, media players and even the text console, can now be accessed via VNC. This makes it possible for the Raspberry Pi to be used in a far wider range of home, project and educational scenarios than ever before, since it’s no longer necessary to have a dedicated monitor, keyboard and mouse available for each Raspberry Pi.
“We see this as useful in the classroom as a way of using existing computer resources to access the great educational tools that are available on the Pi, without having to invest in new kit. Now you can connect to your Pi with VNC from any existing computer or tablet, and do anything on the Pi as though you were sitting in front of it, including learning to program Minecraft with Python” says Andy Clark, Engineering Manager, RealVNC.
He continues “This also opens up more options for controlling a Pi-powered robot – just connect in with VNC and you’ll be able to run applications on the robot without fear of seeing a black screen. Robots and schools don’t always have the latest and fastest models, so we’ve tried to use hardware acceleration where we can to make it usable on even the lowest-powered Raspberry Pi – but there’s still more tuning we’d like to do.”
RealVNC encourages the Raspberry Pi community to download and try the alpha, and provide as much feedback as possible to help shape future improvements to VNC on Raspberry Pi.
The free alpha and full instructions are available now from RealVNC’s GitHub page.
