Virtual reality or virtual realities (VR), also known as immersive multimedia or computer-simulated reality, is a computer technology that replicates an environment, real or imagined, and simulates a user's physical presence and environment to allow for user interaction. Virtual realities artificially create sensory experience, which can include sight, touch, hearing, and smell.
Most up-to-date virtual realities are displayed either on a computer monitor or with a virtual reality headset (also called head-mounted display), and some simulations include additional sensory information and focus on real sound through speakers or headphones targeted towards VR users. Some advanced haptic systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback in medical, gaming and military applications. Furthermore, virtual reality covers remote communication environments which provide virtual presence of users with the concepts of telepresence and telexistence or a virtual artifact (VA) either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove or omnidirectional treadmills. The immersive environment can be similar to the real world in order to create a lifelike experience—for example, in simulations for pilot or combat training—or it can differ significantly from reality, such as in VR games.
erraria is a sandbox2D game with gameplay that revolves around exploration, building, and combat.[1][2] The game has a 2D sprite tile-based graphical style reminiscent of the 16-bit sprites found on the SNES.[2] The game is noted for its classic exploration-adventure style of gameplay, similar to titles such as the Metroid series and Minecraft.[2][3][4]
The game starts in a procedurally generated world. The player starts with three basic tools: a pickaxe for mining, a shortsword for combat, and an axe for woodcutting.[1] Many resources, notably ores, can be found while mining or exploring underground caves. The player begins with 100 health, which can eventually be increased up to 500 by finding special items underground.[1] Some resources, and most items, may only be found in certain areas of the map, stored in common and rare containers, or dropped by certain enemies.[1] The player uses resources to craft new items and equipment at an appropriate crafting station for that recipe. For example, tables or other items can be crafted at a work bench, and bars can be smelted from ore at a furnace. Several advanced items in Terraria require multiple crafting operations where the product of one recipe is used as an ingredient for another.
The player can encounter many different enemies in Terraria such as simple slimes, zombies, demon eyes, and various region-specific enemies. The occurrence of certain enemies depends on several factors including time, location, random events, and player interactions.[1] The player can fight against enemies with swords, bows, guns, magic spells, and other weapons. Each map will have several zones with unique items and unusual enemies.
The player may also summon powerful boss monsters with a number of different combat mechanics such as the Eye of Cthulhu and King Slime that drop rare items and large amounts of in-game currency. All bosses can be summoned by using certain items, destroying blocks through the world, or when certain criteria are met. Several of the bosses can spawn naturally in certain places and times. The defeat of these bosses is often tied to in-game progression. For example, the Dungeon is inaccessible before Skeletron's defeat, and it is unaffected by the activation of Hardmode until Plantera is defeated. Upon defeating Plantera, the difficulty of Dungeon enemies rises drastically with new enemies. Occasionally, the player will have to defend their base against invasions such as the Goblin Army and the Martian Invasion, or against events that affect the entire world, including the Frost Moon and the Solar Eclipse.
By completing specific goals (such as defeating a boss or finding a gun item), characters can attract non-player characters (NPCs) to occupy structures or rooms they have built, such as a merchant, nurse, or wizard.[1] Some NPCs can be acquired by finding them throughout the world and will then reside in the player's house. Characters may then buy or sell items and certain services from NPCs with coins found in the world. Other examples of NPCs include the clothier, the truffle (a sentient mushroom), and the tax collector. Some NPCs cannot currently be found in the mobile versions of the game.
The game includes a currency system in the form of coins that can be used to complete transactions with NPCs, used as decorations, or used as ammunition in some weapons. The coins, listed in order of value and rarity, are copper, silver, gold, and platinum, with copper used as the base unit. The coin system is similar to real-life currency systems, as a certain amount of one currency (i.e. 100) will amount to another and will be automatically converted. One platinum coin is worth 1,000,000 copper coins. Coins can be obtained by slaying monsters, breaking some blocks, and selling items to NPCs.
The player is able to construct contraptions made from wires and mechanisms collected around the world or purchased from NPCs. These systems allow for easier gameplay and gaining the upper hand in combat by performing helpful tasks such as disguising buildings, instantly teleporting the player long distances, and dealing damage to enemies. These machines can also be randomly generated underground and in dungeons where they can harm reckless players.
The game recognizes many different biomes and areas, defined by the blocks that exist in the vicinity, each home to a unique set of enemies. The most prominent biomes on the world map are the Forest, Jungle, Desert, Snow, the Hallow, the Dungeon, Oceans, the Underworld, and the two evil, corrupted biomes known as the Corruption and the Crimson. However, only one of these evil biomes will appear naturally in a world. Other minor biomes exist and affect the variety of enemies that spawn, expanding the list to include: Floating Islands, Spider Nests, Outer Space, Glowing Mushroom Caves, Granite Caves, Marble Caves, and the Lihzahrd Temple. Some of the biomes have bosses associated with them such as the Dungeon (Skeletron) and the Lihzahrd Temple (Golem).
The Corruption and Crimson biomes gradually spread across the world, converting many normal block types to their Corruption or Crimson counterparts. The Hallow acts as a good equivalent to the world's evil biome, and will also spread across the world. Both the Hallow and the evil biomes cannot spread over each other, over empty space, or over blocks with no biome equivalent. These biomes can also merge with some other biomes to form hybrid biomes (e.g., Corrupted Desert, Hallowed Ice) with unique enemies and blocks. The evil biomes will slowly convert the Jungle into plain Corruption or Crimson, but the Hallow cannot convert it.
By summoning and defeating a boss called the Wall of Flesh, the player activates "hardmode". Hardmode causes drastic changes to the player's world, including stronger enemies and more bosses to challenge.[5] The change to hardmode adds many new, and harder-to-defeat, enemies to the game in all biomes, as well as new NPCs, bosses (including tougher, robotic versions of pre-hardmode bosses known as the Mechanical Bosses), new ores, and items available for crafting or acquiring from enemy and boss drops. A much larger part of the world becomes corrupted by the world's evil biome and the Hallow biome emerges. Spreading biomes are also able to convert more block types at a faster rate than before hardmode.
After Golem is defeated, new NPCs appear outside the Dungeon called Cultists.[6] The Cultists will not attack the player unless provoked. If they are killed, their leader, a boss called the Lunatic Cultist, will attack the player. Upon defeat of this boss, four space-themed minibosses called the Stardust, Vortex, Nebula, and Solar Pillars will appear throughout the world, and the player is free to destroy them in any order. The pillars do not attack the player directly, but they are defended by powerful enemies. After the fourth pillar is destroyed, the final boss, the Moon Lord, will attack the player.
The game also features an expert mode difficulty.[6] Enabled when creating a world, expert mode increases the difficulty of the game by increasing the strength of monsters and bosses, further increasing the strength of weaker enemies after hardmode, giving the bosses new attack patterns, and other tweaks. In addition to the higher difficulty level, expert mode increases the chance for enemies to drop rare items, and adds new items that can only be obtained by defeating the bosses on expert mode.
Terraria was developed by Re-Logic beginning in January 2011,[7] and is built on the Microsoft XNA framework.[8] Re-Logic was composed of Andrew Spinks, who designed and programmed the game, Finn Brice, who along with Spinks did the graphic design for the game, and Jeremy Guerrette, who was a production assistant at Re-Logic, but left shortly after the game's release.[citation needed] The music was composed by Scott Lloyd Shelly.[9] The game was released for Microsoft Windows on May 16, 2011.[10]
Post-launch, the game has been updated on multiple occasions. In December 2011, Re-Logic updated Terraria to version 1.1, adding new monsters, bosses, NPCs, and items. The update also included improvements to the game's world generation technology and lighting system.[11] In February 2012, the developers announced that they would not be continuing active development, but would release a final bug-fix patch.[12] However, development resumed in 2013 with Spinks asking the community for ideas and features to include in a future content update.[13]
In September 2012, Spinks announced that Engine Software and 505 Games would be porting Terraria to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.[14] The game was released for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade on March 27, 2013.[15] The PlayStation 3 version was released via the PlayStation Network in North America on March 26, 2013[15] and in Europe and Australia on May 15, 2013.[16] Shortly after the initial console release, 505 Games announced Terrariafor PlayStation Vita;[17] it was released in Europe on December 11, 2013, and in North America on December 17, 2013.[18]Spike Chunsoft localized the PlayStation 3 and Vita versions for release in Japan, including exclusive items such as a costume based on Monokuma from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.[19][20] In May 2013, 505 Games announced a mobile version of Terraria ported by Dutch studio Codeglue for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.[21] It was released for iOS on August 29, 2013,[22] and for Android on September 13, 2013.[23] The Windows Phone version was released on September 12, 2014.[24]
In October 2013, Re-Logic released version 1.2 for Terraria on Windows after nine months in development. The update added a host of new mechanics, gameplay changes, and graphics adjustments.[25] After the 1.2 update was released the game returned to receiving continuous updates, including Halloween and Christmas updates which expanded the endgame significantly.[26][27] The console and mobile versions received update 1.2 in 2014.[28][29]Terraria became DRM-free on October 2, 2014, when it was released on GOG.com.[30]
A downloadable version of Terraria was released for PlayStation 4 on November 11, 2014, and Xbox One on November 14, 2014,[31][32] with a retail release on December 2, 2014.[33] In September 2014, Re-Logic announced that Terraria would be coming to OS X and Linux.[34] They were both released on August 12, 2015.[35] The Nintendo 3DS version was first released on the Nintendo eShop on December 10, 2015.[36] A Wii U version was released on the eShop in June 2016.[37]
It was announced that version 1.3, the game's third major content update, would be the last on which Spinks would work personally, and that the developers Yorai Omer and Skiphs would take over programming, and Whitney Baird (a.k.a. Cenx), would take over as lead designer.[citation needed] Version 1.3 was released on June 30, 2015, adding even more items, events, enemies, bosses, and gameplay feature
