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We need a compiler backend that outputs to Minecraft. This looks painful to assemble by hand. How is this even done? Through in game mechanics and creator mode

We need a compiler backend that outputs to Minecraft. This looks painful to assemble by hand. How is this even done? Through in game mechanics and creator mode? (never played minecraft myself)

CaliforniaKarl 7y ago
I believe so, yes. You can use creative mode, and create a ‘superflat’-type world (see https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Superflat https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Superflat). And in Creative mode, you can give yourself an unlimited number of pretty much anything. But indeed, it was probably put together by hand. The creator might have sketched out or planned things in advance, but it would likely have been built by hand. The nice thing is, the design seemed pretty modular: A column of gravel, note blocks with a tripwire, and the different launchers to recycle the gravel. Test it with one column, then duplicate. I expect the hardest part would’ve been building the ‘ROM’ containing the song. Of course, you can also get Minecraft, download the world (link is in the video), and explore! Or you can find a third-party map editor/viewer. But that’s the best part, it’s all there to see!
zeta0134 7y ago
Minecraft's in-game mechanics for building are surprisingly intuitive and easy to use. Coupled with flying in creative and unlimited inventory, making even relatively complex redstone contraptions isn't too difficult, though it can get a bit tricky with blocks that need a certain orientation, but also need to go in constrained places. The built in commands technically let you copy and paste, but they're cumbersome to use. Most creators (myself included) that do larger builds will use some kind of utility to copy/paste easily, and perform basic operations like rotations. It's been a while since I did a large build, but the gold standard for a while was a mod called WorldEdit, which let you do all of these things in-game with a lightly modded server, and an otherwise vanilla client. There are a handful of similar tools too, one of the cooler ones I've seen recently is this crazy thing SethBling built using command blocks and a vanilla datapack, no mods required: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdMg74ORvZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdMg74ORvZ0 It's not perfect (mostly w/ regards to rotations), but it's still surprisingly useful to cut down on the repetition during a large build. The community for this game is kindof amazing; it's just wild what folks have come up with.
reilly3000 7y ago
There is an item called a structure block that consists of a 2d array of block types and their relative positions. Once you've defined a structure block in-game you can place copies of it into the world. That can really help with some of these larger projects to have some boilerplate. Additionally, there are some really interesting ways to build minecraft content with various programming languages. I'm aware of a Python[1] Library, a mod that provides in-game Lua scripting[2], and even a Clojure library used with Overtone/Supercollider[3] - be sure to check out that video for some incredible live-coded music with generated visuals. [1] https://github.com/arpruss/raspberryjammod https://github.com/arpruss/raspberryjammod [2] https://github.com/dan200/ComputerCraft https://github.com/dan200/ComputerCraft [3] http://blog.josephwilk.net/clojure/overtone-driving-minecraft.html http://blog.josephwilk.net/clojure/overtone-driving-minecraf...
- gchamonlive 7y ago
  Ohh that seems to alleviate the problem. Place every single block individually would take forever

We need a compiler backend that outputs to Minecraft. This looks painful to assemble by hand. How is this even done? Through in game mechanics and creator mode? (never played minecraft myself)

CaliforniaKarl 7y ago

I believe so, yes. You can use creative mode, and create a ‘superflat’-type world (see https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Superflat https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Superflat). And in Creative mode, you can give yourself an unlimited number of pretty much anything. But indeed, it was probably put together by hand. The creator might have sketched out or planned things in advance, but it would likely have been built by hand. The nice thing is, the design seemed pretty modular: A column of gravel, note blocks with a tripwire, and the different launchers to recycle the gravel. Test it with one column, then duplicate. I expect the hardest part would’ve been building the ‘ROM’ containing the song. Of course, you can also get Minecraft, download the world (link is in the video), and explore! Or you can find a third-party map editor/viewer. But that’s the best part, it’s all there to see!

zeta0134 7y ago

Minecraft's in-game mechanics for building are surprisingly intuitive and easy to use. Coupled with flying in creative and unlimited inventory, making even relatively complex redstone contraptions isn't too difficult, though it can get a bit tricky with blocks that need a certain orientation, but also need to go in constrained places. The built in commands technically let you copy and paste, but they're cumbersome to use. Most creators (myself included) that do larger builds will use some kind of utility to copy/paste easily, and perform basic operations like rotations. It's been a while since I did a large build, but the gold standard for a while was a mod called WorldEdit, which let you do all of these things in-game with a lightly modded server, and an otherwise vanilla client. There are a handful of similar tools too, one of the cooler ones I've seen recently is this crazy thing SethBling built using command blocks and a vanilla datapack, no mods required: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdMg74ORvZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdMg74ORvZ0 It's not perfect (mostly w/ regards to rotations), but it's still surprisingly useful to cut down on the repetition during a large build. The community for this game is kindof amazing; it's just wild what folks have come up with.

reilly3000 7y ago

There is an item called a structure block that consists of a 2d array of block types and their relative positions. Once you've defined a structure block in-game you can place copies of it into the world. That can really help with some of these larger projects to have some boilerplate. Additionally, there are some really interesting ways to build minecraft content with various programming languages. I'm aware of a Python[1] Library, a mod that provides in-game Lua scripting[2], and even a Clojure library used with Overtone/Supercollider[3] - be sure to check out that video for some incredible live-coded music with generated visuals. [1] https://github.com/arpruss/raspberryjammod https://github.com/arpruss/raspberryjammod [2] https://github.com/dan200/ComputerCraft https://github.com/dan200/ComputerCraft [3] http://blog.josephwilk.net/clojure/overtone-driving-minecraft.html http://blog.josephwilk.net/clojure/overtone-driving-minecraf...

gchamonlive 7y ago
Ohh that seems to alleviate the problem. Place every single block individually would take forever