Minecraft

[Robert Maxwell]

I actually do wish they'd simplify the crafting system so you don't have to use an outside reference. It's a bit silly that they haven't yet added that to the PC version. They could even just make it an option, so the purists could keep playing as they have been.

[TheGodBen]

Cutter John wrote:

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Large Biomes is an okay feature. But lord, does that mean even BIGGER oceans??

I hope so. Huge oceans are good, but mega oceans would be fantastic!

I know that large biomes aren't for everybody which is why I'm glad they've made it a world option, but I think that biomes should take time to traverse. It encourages exploration and makes resource gathering more challenging. A desert should be a vast, empty wasteland, forests should be easy to get lost in, and mountains should be an obsticle to cross, not something that can easily be circumnavigated. Larger biomes also make Nether portals more important.

Then you'll start to wonder whats just beyond that hill over there.

An invisible wall, sadly. That kinda kills the Xbox version for me. As you can tell by what I said about biomes, I like huge worlds, and while I know that a 1km² world is pretty big and will probably contain all required resources, it's just too small compared to what I'm used to.

[Cutter John]

TheGodBen wrote:

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An invisible wall, sadly. That kinda kills the Xbox version for me. As you can tell by what I said about biomes, I like huge worlds, and while I know that a 1km² world is pretty big and will probably contain all required resources, it's just too small compared to what I'm used to.

Whoa, epic fail.

*hugs his pc*

[Owain Taggart]

That's definitely disappointing, but I suppose they did that to keep the framerate high enough, even in the nether.

As for the crafting, what happens when you want to build something but don't have the required items? Does it show you what you need?

[TheGodBen]

Yeah, it shows you the crafting recipe and the missing ingredients are displayed in red. It would be good to have something like that in the PC version for new players, but I'd probably stick to building things manually.

As for the limited world size, if I were to guess I'd say it's probably something they did to stabilise multiplayer. From the videos I've seen there's no block lag, no missing chunks, and no glitched-out mobs, it's really well polished and optimised compared to the PC version.

[Robert Maxwell]

Let's not forget, the Xbox 360 has only 512MB of RAM. Minecraft is an extremely memory-intensive game. Limiting the world size probably went a long way toward cutting down its memory usage. 1024x1024x128 works out to 134,217,728 blocks, and if they're using 16 bits per block, that works out to 268,435,456 bytes (256MB) for the whole world. It's probably compressed on the hard drive but the game probably loads the whole thing into memory, leaving the other 256MB to remaining game data and the core code. I imagine it took some tight programming to work within those constraints. Probably helped that it wasn't written in Java.

[137th Gebirg]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Probably helped that it wasn't written in Java.

QFT

[Saturn0660]

Went boating last week and found a nice little set islands to play with.

View from the lava powered lighthouse I made.



From the Island looking out to lava lighthouse

[Owain Taggart]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Let's not forget, the Xbox 360 has only 512MB of RAM. Minecraft is an extremely memory-intensive game. Limiting the world size probably went a long way toward cutting down its memory usage. 1024x1024x128 works out to 134,217,728 blocks, and if they're using 16 bits per block, that works out to 268,435,456 bytes (256MB) for the whole world. It's probably compressed on the hard drive but the game probably loads the whole thing into memory, leaving the other 256MB to remaining game data and the core code. I imagine it took some tight programming to work within those constraints. Probably helped that it wasn't written in Java.

Yeah, what I said...


It wasn't written in Java? What was it written in? I wonder if they'll eventually do the same thing with the PC version, unless it's XBox specific code they worked with. Java can sometimes work against it as a disadvantage.

[Itisnotlogical]

I just wish there was a way to automatically generate however many of a crafted item you have the supplies for. It's a pain in the ass trying to create something complex like pistons, because there's a lot of supplies involved and you're always having to refill the crafting squares.

[TheGodBen]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Let's not forget, the Xbox 360 has only 512MB of RAM. Minecraft is an extremely memory-intensive game.

That's something I'm curious about, is the game on the 360 hosted locally? Eight people in one world with only 512MB of memory on the host console is amazing performance for Minecraft. Limiting the world size is understandable under those circumstances, though still disappointing for PC players.

Owain Taggart wrote:

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It wasn't written in Java? What was it written in?

C++ or C#, and it was probably built using Microsoft's XNA toolset.

I wonder if they'll eventually do the same thing with the PC version, unless it's XBox specific code they worked with. Java can sometimes work against it as a disadvantage.

Xbox games typically don't require too much work to port to Windows, so it could be done, but there'd be issues with it. One of the benefits of programming the game in Java is that it runs on any computer that has the Java Runtime Environment installed, so they only need to code one version for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Sadly, we're probably stuck with Java now, but hopefully merging the singleplayer and multiplayer into one will allow greater optimisation in the future.

[Owain Taggart]

Ahh, I see. Yeah, that's very true. And with the XNA toolset, they likely had to work within some constraints to put out something in the XBL, which is likely another reason for the small map size.

[Cutter John]

Good job on the lighthouse and bridge Saturn! Nicely epic. Hmmm, I suddenly have to urge to build a science lab with a couple of giant vacumn tubes on the roof...

You know, since we have writable books, and starter chests coming up in 1.3, the obvious thing would to put a 'beginners recipe book' in the game and have it appear in the chest.

[Sheep]

Before trying it I was really doubtful splitscreen couch co-op would be THAT significant of an addition to the game. Seven hours later, I'll eat my words. My buddy and I played for that long co-op style last night. Apparently digging through all manner of mines to find rare minerals and hidden chasms feeds into his "collecting" OCD (which also manifests itself in games like Skyrim or anything else that has some sort of gameplay element where you have to find resources), which was handy for me because he dug up a ton of minerals and materials for me to use to build a watchtower on my mansion AND a bridge from said mansion to the Minecraft sign.

Winding down the night he also made a gigantic diving platform that went above the cloud line just to see what would happen if you jumped off. Even on Peaceful mode with no enemies and regenerating health (a.k.a. Minecraft for Dummies) you CAN still die falling on to land. Oops. Much better result with falling into water, though...

I guess I'm officially a convert to the game.

[Cutter John]

Hoorah! We gots another one!