Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

dither8.xyz

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 226 posts

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#191

Post by globular-toast »

Hinrik wrote: post #62
globular-toast wrote: post #27

> I have stopped in recent years since I find it dangerously addictive I forgot this, but that's actually why I stopped playing it. I was in uni around 2007-08 and realised it was using a serious amount of my time and energy. I just quit cold turkey back then. I've barely played any video games since this point, in fact. What I loved about Minecraft initially was the exploration. I got into it during the beta (I thin…

>I was in uni around 2007-08 and realised it was using a serious amount of my time and energy. The first public version of Minecraft came out in May 2009.

Wow, that's strange, I could have sworn it was earlier. It must have been 2010-2011 when I stopped playing it then.

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#192

Post by globular-toast »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #169
globular-toast wrote: post #27

> I have stopped in recent years since I find it dangerously addictive I forgot this, but that's actually why I stopped playing it. I was in uni around 2007-08 and realised it was using a serious amount of my time and energy. I just quit cold turkey back then. I've barely played any video games since this point, in fact. What I loved about Minecraft initially was the exploration. I got into it during the beta (I thin…

Surely you could always punch your way out? And an unlit cave was never pitch black as far as I'm aware.

Maybe, but I think there was still a risk you'd end up under water? I don't think it ever actually happened to me as I was genuinely scared of getting stuck so I was always prepared and careful.

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#193

Post by ThalesX »

RugnirViking wrote: post #57
rland wrote: post #13

It's been a while since I've played Minecraft, so I can't speak to the newer terrain. But I always thought they could significantly improve the world gen. Perlin noise is cool, but why not try to fully simulate plate tectonics, weather patterns, drainage? It would go a long way if deserts were in the rainshadow of mountain ranges, islands corresponded to real volcanic activity, etc. I guess there is a limit to what y…

It is stunningly difficult to do something like this within procedural generation. Remember a given xyz coordinate has to generate given only the coordinate number itself and a seed. You couldn't do stuff like plate tectonics within an "infinite" world because that would require generating every block which is akin to generating every digit of pi

I also find it stunningly difficult, however, when I look at Sebastian Lague's channel [0] (no affiliation, just one of the best channels I follow), I feel like this could be a not so stunningly difficult project for him.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmtyQOKKmrMVaKuRXz02jbQ

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#194

Post by xboxnolifes »

goblin89 wrote: post #156
eropple wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, the Java edition doesn't really need additional development, though. It's absolutely nice to have, but the reason (for me) to play the Java version is the community.

The problem in this scenario will be feature disparity. If they want, they can add cool stuff to Bedrock, and make vanilla Java version feel old and obsolete just the way 1.12 (which probably has the most mods) looks now when compared with fresh 1.18. Then, by making Bedrock available to people who paid for Java, they would give a hassle-free way for players and modders to try it, and many will probably stick to the…

> Then, by making Bedrock available to people who paid for Java, they would give a hassle-free way for players and modders to try it

It would be hassle free for vanilla players, but certainly not for modders. There are years of community support built around the Java version that would need to be moved to bedrock to make moving the modding scene hassle free.

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#195

Post by II2II »

ninth_ant wrote: post #53
MildlySerious wrote: post #50

Man. I really do want to like it, but this update is the first one that gives me the Microsoft-finally-took-over vibes. Traversal and with that exploration just became so much harder. The landscape is now riddled with holes that you either build scraggly bridges over, or lead to massive detours. The sides of bodies of water are much higher and steeper on average, making it impossible to see the landscape you're passi…

I'm no Microsoft apologist, but I believe you've misunderstood the intention and the effect of the changes. Previously, the time-optimal strategy to acquire iron and diamonds was to dig a hole deep into the earth and then bore straight paths. This was exceptionally grindy (fans would say zen, detractors would say tedious), but effective. With 1.18, the optimal strategy is now to enter a cave and find the resources th…

One of the great things about Minecraft is game play can be tailored to a player's particular tastes. In this instance: if you want to dig straight down and build a branch mine to get diamonds and iron, you can; if you want to take the more risky route of exploring caves, you can. Personally, I fall into the former category since my main interests lay in exploration and building. Dropping down to the bottom of the world is a quick way to get the resources required to craft an enchantment table and suit up in armor, leaving more time to explore the surface for things like jungles, mesas, sunken ships, and anything else that will provide the resources for my latest build.

Does 1.18 change things? I'm trying to keep an open mind, trying to convince myself that the new ore distribution adds nuance to my opening moves. When that conviction fails, I look for other things that hold promise. Something that I've toyed around with doing in the past is creating a Zork-esque underground empire, but have always held back on those plans since the old cave networks were bland and cramped. Yet the new underground biomes make such a project more appealing.

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#196

Post by zesterer »

axefrog wrote: post #78
littlestymaar wrote: post #14

If you like voxel world generation, I strongly advise you to check out Veloren[1], it has a much much deeper worldgen that what Minecraft offers. [1]: https://veloren.net/ the game is still under development but it has been playable for more than a year now.

The Veloren developers seem to have forgotten to provide a page of information _anywhere_ giving a non-negligible overview of what the game is about. The main website has little more than a paragraph listing some other games as inspiration, followed by some Minecraft-like screenshots. It also has a manual which is clearly focused on developers and contributors, as it provides next to no information for a new person w…

Have you checked out the wiki? There is a 'Getting Started' guide: https://wiki.veloren.net/wiki/Getting_Started

The game is extremely open-ended: there is no overarching objective, and you are free to interact with the world as you please. For most players, this means a combination of exploring, crafting, conquering challenges (dungeons, caves, etc.), finding rare items, and socialising with other players.

The game is 100% free so you have no reason not to jump in and give it a go if you're curious!

> How is it similar to Dwarf Fortress?

Veloren has an open procedural world with a history generation system. Although work on the history simulation is still very much ongoing, the world already more cohesive than those of many other voxel games. Our end goal is a world that feels as rich and as complex as that of Dwarf Fortress. Whether we end up succeeding is still to be determined!

> How is it similar to Minecraft?

Veloren is a voxel game, so... cubes and open-world exploration. Not much more to say about this one.

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#197

Post by zesterer »

sorenjan wrote: post #61
littlestymaar wrote: post #14

If you like voxel world generation, I strongly advise you to check out Veloren[1], it has a much much deeper worldgen that what Minecraft offers. [1]: https://veloren.net/ the game is still under development but it has been playable for more than a year now.

> Veloren is a multiplayer voxel RPG written in Rust. This is such a meme by now, I have to assume it's an inside joke. Even games mention that they're "written in Rust" in the first sentence in their official presentation, what other programming language communities does this? Why would anyone except other Rust programmers care?

We mention it because:

1) The player community and the dev community are not distinct: we involve players in the development process and actively encourage them to become contributors.

2) There are many people that are interested in working with Rust, and it's often a big pull factor for new contributors.

3) Veloren is by far the biggest public domain game written in Rust: it's a good demonstration of what the language can do and how it performs at scale (Veloren's game server scaled up to a 48-thread machine with 181 players online in the same world during the last release party: not many games, let alone voxel games, can manage these numbers). We want to encourage other game developers to consider using it too.

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#198

Post by Qub3d »

Tumblewood wrote: post #181
orbital-decay wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I recall correctly (I've played it years ago), efficient mining methods make use of 1x1 branches and optimized spacing between branches, which exposes more potential ore spots in less time than a simple 2x1 tunnel. Someone solved the optimization problem and calculated the optimal branch spacing to minimize the time spent on removing the blocks per one block of ore.

Feather mining (the style that uses the 1x1 branches) is more efficient per block mined, but it requires a lot more attention compared to a straight 2x1 hole because of all the turning you need to do. So 2x1 is what most people do. People who have enough resources to make beacons usually speed-mine instead, though. That's because with a beacon giving you Haste II and an Efficiency V pickaxe, you can mine stone blocks…

Straight mining also makes you pass through more chunks (16x16 section of the world) per block mined; since ore-gen happens based on chunking this gives you better odds.

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#199

Post by Qub3d »

brarsanmol wrote: post #185

I've been playing Minecraft on-and-off for the better part of the decade now (since I was 9 or 10 wow!), I've been amazed at some of the recent changes that Mojang has made with improving game engine performance and now this new caving update. I hope they once again push for a revival of modding multiplayer servers, although that is most likely a pipe dream because of the Bukkit DMCA issues in 2013-2014 :(.

Multiplayer modding is still very much alive and well. There is both the client-side route (where everyone uses a modpack tool like https://atlauncher.com/) or the successor to Bukkit, Spigot (and its High-performance fork, PaperMC: https://papermc.io/)

Spigot/Paper are bukkit-compatible and you can load modpacks from the spigot.org site, or even bukkit.org, which is still operational to this day.

Source: I run several instances myself and I help develop a server management tool for it: https://craftycontrol.com/

Re: One decade later, Minecraft world generation is interesting again

#200

Post by Qub3d »

jokoon wrote: post #66

They should really enable a sharded server networking protocol to allow some MMO elements. Each server would handle a limited area and players would automatically connect to a server when they go to a certain distance. I'm sure players would pay to access it if it worked.

Hypixel has done that to an extent. The way most servers do it nowadays with with a server proxy that shunts client requests to a specified server transparently -- you "world hop" using in-game mechanics (i.e. walking through a portal, clicking on a sign)

https://www.spigotmc.org/wiki/about-bungeecord/

And as others have already mentioned, WorldQL is an effort to transparently replicate and shard the world without even requiring "world hopping"

Post reply on HN