I had a dream last night, that I built a universe.
May 24, 2011 6:20 PM Subscribe
minecraft : metafilter :: papercraft : boing boing
posted by nathancaswell at 6:31 PM on May 24, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by nathancaswell at 6:31 PM on May 24, 2011 [3 favorites]
If by serious, you mean completely awesome.
posted by empath at 6:32 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by empath at 6:32 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
I think I just figured out the attraction of it all. This is related to the current retro-fascination with old-style 8-bit graphics, where the palette was limited and the pixels were huge, in which people take on the challenge of trying to create fascinating images within the considerable limitations this imposes.
Minecraft is the same thing, except in 3 dimensions. Where in some other system you create using bezier curves and polygons, in Minecraft everything has to be made out of cubes -- and large ones, at that, with relatively limited coloring options. (Plus a very small set of other primitives e.g. railroad tracks.) The challenge is to see what cool stuff you can create within the discipline this imposes.
Is that what's going on?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:39 PM on May 24, 2011
Minecraft is the same thing, except in 3 dimensions. Where in some other system you create using bezier curves and polygons, in Minecraft everything has to be made out of cubes -- and large ones, at that, with relatively limited coloring options. (Plus a very small set of other primitives e.g. railroad tracks.) The challenge is to see what cool stuff you can create within the discipline this imposes.
Is that what's going on?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:39 PM on May 24, 2011
minecraft : metafilter :: papercraft : boing boing
I'm OK with this.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:48 PM on May 24, 2011 [11 favorites]
I'm OK with this.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:48 PM on May 24, 2011 [11 favorites]
Chocolate Pickle:
Sort of. But it's actually an increase in freedom rather than a restraint, when compared to how adaptable the worlds are, in-game, in other 3D games. In the latest Bulletstorm or Medal of Honor, you can't decide to break up a building and use it as aterial to build train station. To create in those systems, you need to pre-edit the game, and once done, it's fixed into that world.
It's the difference between a beautiful oil painting, and a set of paints (with only your fingers to use as a brush).
posted by -harlequin- at 6:49 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
Sort of. But it's actually an increase in freedom rather than a restraint, when compared to how adaptable the worlds are, in-game, in other 3D games. In the latest Bulletstorm or Medal of Honor, you can't decide to break up a building and use it as aterial to build train station. To create in those systems, you need to pre-edit the game, and once done, it's fixed into that world.
It's the difference between a beautiful oil painting, and a set of paints (with only your fingers to use as a brush).
posted by -harlequin- at 6:49 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
The song the guy made for this video, btw, is currently the #1 trance song on Amazon after being out for one day.
posted by empath at 6:49 PM on May 24, 2011
posted by empath at 6:49 PM on May 24, 2011
I went from "Oh, that's a pretty nice use for GLSL Shaders" to "HOLY CRAP SPACE". So yeah, nice video.
posted by Memo at 7:00 PM on May 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Memo at 7:00 PM on May 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
that's the mod I use! I can't stand seeing non-dancing mountains any more!
posted by rebent at 7:03 PM on May 24, 2011
posted by rebent at 7:03 PM on May 24, 2011
Not that familiar with Minecraft, except videos, so:
WHY IS THERE FIRE SHOOTING OUT OF THAT PIG'S ASS?
(And yeah, I know it's so it can fly, but is building rocket-pigs really something you ever need to do in this game?)
posted by Mister Moofoo at 7:20 PM on May 24, 2011
WHY IS THERE FIRE SHOOTING OUT OF THAT PIG'S ASS?
(And yeah, I know it's so it can fly, but is building rocket-pigs really something you ever need to do in this game?)
posted by Mister Moofoo at 7:20 PM on May 24, 2011
I went from "Oh, that's a pretty nice use for GLSL Shaders" to "HOLY CRAP SPACE". So yeah, nice video.
Exactly the same thought.
Awesome link which makes me happy.
posted by Artw at 7:22 PM on May 24, 2011
Exactly the same thought.
Awesome link which makes me happy.
posted by Artw at 7:22 PM on May 24, 2011
is building rocket-pigs really something you ever need to do in this game
That's not a rocket, that's pure magic shooting out of the pig's ass.
And no, it's not something you do in the game.
Yet.
posted by empath at 7:24 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
That's not a rocket, that's pure magic shooting out of the pig's ass.
And no, it's not something you do in the game.
Yet.
posted by empath at 7:24 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
That's how spaceflight works in Barter Town.
posted by Artw at 7:30 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 7:30 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
empath: "The song the guy made for this video, btw, is currently the #1 trance song on Amazon after being out for one day."
Hah, Armin van Buuren is probably dying inside right now.
posted by boo_radley at 7:38 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
Hah, Armin van Buuren is probably dying inside right now.
posted by boo_radley at 7:38 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
what mod is rocket pigs, mans
posted by LogicalDash at 7:40 PM on May 24, 2011
posted by LogicalDash at 7:40 PM on May 24, 2011
no mod yet, but wait until notch sees it.
(then we will get badly implemented rocket pigs)
posted by boo_radley at 7:42 PM on May 24, 2011
(then we will get badly implemented rocket pigs)
posted by boo_radley at 7:42 PM on May 24, 2011
I think I just figured out the attraction of it all...in Minecraft everything has to be made out of cubes -- and large ones, at that, with relatively limited coloring options. (Plus a very small set of other primitives e.g. railroad tracks.) The challenge is to see what cool stuff you can create within the discipline this imposes.
This is actually kind of backwards. As harlequin points out, the appeal of Minecraft is that there is so much more freedom than in other games.
In most of the video games you see with amazing graphics, the objects are like stage sets. If you see a beautiful mountain, it's actually a hollow facade made of polygons with fancy textures painted on top. The beautiful mountain range in the distance is essentially a stage backdrop painting. There's nothing inside the mountain unless the developers make additional "stages" inside. If you can go into the mountain at all, it's probably just one tunnel, made specifically by the designers, and like the mountain, the walls of the tunnel and everything in it are all those hollow facades.
In Minecraft, the mountain is actually solid. You can dig into it and it's actually made of dirt, rock, and ores. The tunnels in the mountain are real tunnels. And the mountains in the distance are just as real, you could walk literally for years and continually see new landscapes that you can dig into just like that first mountain. And of course you can also build stuff with the raw materials you dig out of the mountain.
All this unprecedented freedom and detail comes at a price. To create such a world in a program that current computers can run, you have to make the building blocks very coarse. So while the low-res graphics may have a retro appeal to some players, I think that for most people the fact that the world is so big and composed of "real" building blocks that you can take apart and re-assemble makes the game seem magnificent and spectacular in spite of the low-res graphics.
The one other aspect in which I think you're on to something about the low-res appeal of Minecraft is that the coarse block size (a subjective meter-cubed) seems very well tuned so that mining large tunnels and building large structures can be done fairly quickly. If the basic building block were much smaller, I think you'd need a different kind of building interface because placing individual blocks would be too tedious even to build a small shack, much less the amazing castles that some people create.
posted by straight at 7:57 PM on May 24, 2011 [7 favorites]
This is actually kind of backwards. As harlequin points out, the appeal of Minecraft is that there is so much more freedom than in other games.
In most of the video games you see with amazing graphics, the objects are like stage sets. If you see a beautiful mountain, it's actually a hollow facade made of polygons with fancy textures painted on top. The beautiful mountain range in the distance is essentially a stage backdrop painting. There's nothing inside the mountain unless the developers make additional "stages" inside. If you can go into the mountain at all, it's probably just one tunnel, made specifically by the designers, and like the mountain, the walls of the tunnel and everything in it are all those hollow facades.
In Minecraft, the mountain is actually solid. You can dig into it and it's actually made of dirt, rock, and ores. The tunnels in the mountain are real tunnels. And the mountains in the distance are just as real, you could walk literally for years and continually see new landscapes that you can dig into just like that first mountain. And of course you can also build stuff with the raw materials you dig out of the mountain.
All this unprecedented freedom and detail comes at a price. To create such a world in a program that current computers can run, you have to make the building blocks very coarse. So while the low-res graphics may have a retro appeal to some players, I think that for most people the fact that the world is so big and composed of "real" building blocks that you can take apart and re-assemble makes the game seem magnificent and spectacular in spite of the low-res graphics.
The one other aspect in which I think you're on to something about the low-res appeal of Minecraft is that the coarse block size (a subjective meter-cubed) seems very well tuned so that mining large tunnels and building large structures can be done fairly quickly. If the basic building block were much smaller, I think you'd need a different kind of building interface because placing individual blocks would be too tedious even to build a small shack, much less the amazing castles that some people create.
posted by straight at 7:57 PM on May 24, 2011 [7 favorites]
Hah, Armin van Buuren is probably dying inside right now.
He makes more in a night than I make in a year, i think he's probably okay :)
posted by empath at 7:59 PM on May 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
He makes more in a night than I make in a year, i think he's probably okay :)
posted by empath at 7:59 PM on May 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
The Badly Implemented Rocket Pigs is a pretty good band name.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:02 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:02 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
That was fun. I especially enjoyed the part at the end, where the guy and the pig share a meaningful look just long enough for it to get uncomfortable, and they have to both look away into the sunrise. It's like they both had the same crazy-ass dream, and neither one is exactly sure who should be more embarrassed.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:10 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:10 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
In space, no one can hear you ssssssssSSSSSSSSSSS
posted by anotherbrick at 8:34 PM on May 24, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by anotherbrick at 8:34 PM on May 24, 2011 [3 favorites]
I'm guessing this isn't the place to ask where you guys get all that iron to build train tracks, or what can I do with obsidian now that I've got a bunch?
posted by msalt at 8:37 PM on May 24, 2011
posted by msalt at 8:37 PM on May 24, 2011
Come over to mefightclub, we'll supply your fix help you out.
posted by boo_radley at 8:39 PM on May 24, 2011
posted by boo_radley at 8:39 PM on May 24, 2011
Eric Fullerton/Nailhead's other "minemusicraft" (?) video is interesting too. So much time and human effort into pixels, I guess it's the equivalent of people drawing in sketch books.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIhs8_m5qPc&feature=related
posted by Jan Coztas at 8:44 PM on May 24, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIhs8_m5qPc&feature=related
posted by Jan Coztas at 8:44 PM on May 24, 2011
The challenge is to see what cool stuff you can create within the discipline this imposes. Is that what's going on?
Like other people have said it's not limitations but freedom. Think of it as Lego meets a sandbox game with weird physics as well as a built in world with comical/surreal but absolutely threatening "enemies" and chaos baked into it. (If you're not playing on peaceful, etc.) You can also escape and change the rules any time you wish through various mods. Someone made a Portal-in-Minecraft mod that's most of the levels of Portal 1 and has a working Portal gun and everything.
So, you don't actually have to sit there and mine all your materials if you want to make something different or complicated.
It's rare to see a sandbox game that's "Turing complete", in that you can actually make simple computers and other tools.
Like Lego the "world" is a bit wonky and has a texture and a sort of charm built into it. I don't really even play it but it's really fun and charming to see what people have done with it.
It's basically what games like Spore and Little Big Planet and other construction-set worlds were trying to be, but quirky and glitchy and really just about the newest gameplay since Tetris.
posted by loquacious at 8:52 PM on May 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
Like other people have said it's not limitations but freedom. Think of it as Lego meets a sandbox game with weird physics as well as a built in world with comical/surreal but absolutely threatening "enemies" and chaos baked into it. (If you're not playing on peaceful, etc.) You can also escape and change the rules any time you wish through various mods. Someone made a Portal-in-Minecraft mod that's most of the levels of Portal 1 and has a working Portal gun and everything.
So, you don't actually have to sit there and mine all your materials if you want to make something different or complicated.
It's rare to see a sandbox game that's "Turing complete", in that you can actually make simple computers and other tools.
Like Lego the "world" is a bit wonky and has a texture and a sort of charm built into it. I don't really even play it but it's really fun and charming to see what people have done with it.
It's basically what games like Spore and Little Big Planet and other construction-set worlds were trying to be, but quirky and glitchy and really just about the newest gameplay since Tetris.
posted by loquacious at 8:52 PM on May 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
what can I do with obsidian now that I've got a bunch?
Some obsidian contructions on Aporkalypse
posted by Bonzai at 9:01 PM on May 24, 2011
Some obsidian contructions on Aporkalypse
posted by Bonzai at 9:01 PM on May 24, 2011
I'm guessing this isn't the place to ask where you guys get all that iron to build train tracks, or what can I do with obsidian now that I've got a bunch?
Heh, why not.
I started a new world under Beta 1.3 (I think), and iron is far more plentiful in it than it was in my worlds created during alpha. It appears the geology algorithm numbers have been tweaked to be more generous. So if you're using a year-old world, that might have something to do with it.
As to obsidian... it's coolest use is building portals between worlds.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:19 PM on May 24, 2011
Heh, why not.
I started a new world under Beta 1.3 (I think), and iron is far more plentiful in it than it was in my worlds created during alpha. It appears the geology algorithm numbers have been tweaked to be more generous. So if you're using a year-old world, that might have something to do with it.
As to obsidian... it's coolest use is building portals between worlds.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:19 PM on May 24, 2011
Some obsidian contructions on Aporkalypse
Um... giant replicas of the 2001 monolith? IBM office towers? Some kind of insane 600 foot tall electrical circuit?
Portals to other worlds sound cool. I was excited to build a boat recently though, so might be a bit past my level.
Iron -- around level 47 I guess?
posted by msalt at 9:34 PM on May 24, 2011
Um... giant replicas of the 2001 monolith? IBM office towers? Some kind of insane 600 foot tall electrical circuit?
Portals to other worlds sound cool. I was excited to build a boat recently though, so might be a bit past my level.
Iron -- around level 47 I guess?
posted by msalt at 9:34 PM on May 24, 2011
Other than portals to the Nether, obsidian is useful for building panic rooms, since the blocks are extremely durable and a double layer of obsidian will withstand an exploding creeper.
I've built a simple obsidian farm on Aporkalypse that everyone is welcome to use. Makes 7 blocks per lava pour. Bring your own diamond pick and if you want to restock some redstone, that'd be cool, but there should be plenty there. Shovel's in the chest and please put water and lava back into their respective receptacles.
I really should be more active on the mefightclub minecraft forum....
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:52 PM on May 24, 2011
I've built a simple obsidian farm on Aporkalypse that everyone is welcome to use. Makes 7 blocks per lava pour. Bring your own diamond pick and if you want to restock some redstone, that'd be cool, but there should be plenty there. Shovel's in the chest and please put water and lava back into their respective receptacles.
I really should be more active on the mefightclub minecraft forum....
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:52 PM on May 24, 2011
Yes, you should, sir. Everybody should! It's FUN!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:43 PM on May 24, 2011
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:43 PM on May 24, 2011
Did anyone play Terraria? I was thinking of getting it at the weekend if only to enjoy the cognitive dissonance of Final Fantasy sprites and freedom to do things.
posted by ersatz at 5:45 AM on May 25, 2011
posted by ersatz at 5:45 AM on May 25, 2011
I got it, played for a couple of hours, got bored. It doesn't scratch the creativity itch that minecraft does, and it's kind of aimless.
posted by empath at 6:12 AM on May 25, 2011
posted by empath at 6:12 AM on May 25, 2011
Um... giant replicas of the 2001 monolith?
Yup. You got a problem with monoliths?
posted by Bonzai at 7:17 AM on May 25, 2011
Yup. You got a problem with monoliths?
posted by Bonzai at 7:17 AM on May 25, 2011
I wonder if the whole song was made using the Minecraft musical blocks?
Or is that just getting my hopes up?
posted by midnightbarber at 7:56 AM on May 25, 2011
Or is that just getting my hopes up?
posted by midnightbarber at 7:56 AM on May 25, 2011
The beginning of it was done with minecraft noteblock sound effects, but it was sequenced outside the game.
posted by empath at 8:06 AM on May 25, 2011
posted by empath at 8:06 AM on May 25, 2011
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posted by m@f at 6:27 PM on May 24, 2011 [2 favorites]