5 ms·

Matheminecraft: Where math and Minecraft meet

71 points by lelf 6y ago

tenaciousDaniel 6y ago
I suppose "mathcraft" was taken? :p
- tommsy64 6y ago
  A quick search shows MathCraft Security Technologies [1] and MathCraft(TM): Math In Action [2] by Cycorp both exist. On a similar note, I find it amusing that accidentally going to minecraft.com instead of minecraft.net brings you to the home page of a literal mining engineering consultancy [3]. "MineCraft Consulting provides innovative solutions and project management services for coal mining projects in Australia and Overseas." "MineCraft is a registered trademark of MineCraft Consulting Pty Ltd." [1] - https://www.mathcraft.com/ https://www.mathcraft.com/ [2] - http://mathcraft.ai/ http://mathcraft.ai/ [3] - http://www.minecraft.com/ http://www.minecraft.com/
freedomben 6y ago
Unfortunate missed opportunity to build on top of Minetest (an amazing open source clone of minecraft that works really well) instead of re-implementing the hard parts yourself (unless that was part of the fun, which I totally understand!). If anyone is thinking about doing something like that, you can develop entire games as "Minetest mods"[1] which would have allowed him to mostly just write "business logic." I've started writing a "game" using that myself. Nonetheless, great idea and I'm glad to see it happen! [1]: https://dev.minetest.net/Modding_Overview https://dev.minetest.net/Modding_Overview
- jtvjan 6y ago
  What do you mean with "re-implementing the hard parts"? Matheminecraft is an "adventure map", playable in Minecraft 1.12.1.
  - freedomben 6y ago
    Ah my mistake, I made a bad assumption based on the pictures (I couldn't read the language and Google translate wouldn't work for some reason, probably because of stuff I do with uMatrix). That said, still would have loved to see them use Mintest instead as a platform :-)
- xrd 6y ago
  I had never heard of Minetest before. Have you written up any of your experiences "writing a game" as you say? I'm looking over it and having a hard time thinking about the best way to dip my toes into it.
  - freedomben 6y ago
    I have not written anything up about it yetas I'm still in very early stages. I've never used Lua before so am learning that as well (tho having used Ruby/Python/JS extensively it's amazing how readable Lua is, just need to learn the APIs). If I get anything working tho, I'll put together a write-up to go along with the code :-)
- sdegutis 6y ago
  Wow, Minetest looks really cool: Minecraft clone with a Lua API for modding. This may get us back into using Minecraft modding as a way to learn programming. EDIT: Oh, it's a game engine. Is there a basic 'vanilla' Minecraft clone based on Minetest, for this purpose?
  - a1369209993 6y ago
    > Is there a basic 'vanilla' Minecraft clone based on Minetest, for this purpose? Yes, it's the default `minetest_game` that comes with the game (as well as `minimal`). Note that the redstone-alike mesecons is a separate modpack (which isn't a problem in practice) as is mob support (which is).
  - freedomben 6y ago
    It is also a basic vanilla Minecraft clone (the wording is kind of poor). If you install it you can play a basic game. It's also in the repos of every linux distro I've tried it on (Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian), and if it isn't it builds really easily (even built on my Chromebook with both crouton and crostini). You can also add "mods" to it that add a ton of rich features to the game. I recommend adding one at a time tho as they can make your server unstable (mods vary in quality). The minetest core is rock solid stable IME, but not all mods are. If there's any interest, I can write a blog post about this with getting started instructions at playing and configuring. I'm not affiliated with the project, but I'm a big fan and use it at home with my kids (and a server I setup on our LAN).
haolez 6y ago
One side project that's on my bucket list is to implement very far range of view on Minecraft-like games (e.g. Minetest[1] and Terasology[2]). Something like what we see in Battle Royale games or open-world shooters like Farcry. It's a little frustrating to have such beautiful worlds in these games and not being able to see a large part of it in a stunning landscape. I have no ideas what kind of techniques would be required. I'm not a computer graphics guy :) [1] https://www.minetest.net/ https://www.minetest.net/ [2] https://terasology.org/ https://terasology.org/
- sq_ 6y ago
  I set up a Minecraft server for some friends a few weeks ago, and I learned firsthand how huge of a performance improvement one can get by dropping the render distance. My basic understanding of the problem is that it's less of a graphics problem and more of a CPU one. Loading another chunk requires the game to actively simulate everything happening in that chunk, and, since the game is single-threaded, increasing the number of chunks loaded quickly causes the amount of work needing to be done per tick to explode.
  - didericis 6y ago
    I know nothing about the codebase and haven’t done any projects related to game engines/physics rendering, but I’ve seen a lot of games that seem to have “high level” and “low level” simulations. I’ve walked too far too quickly on older systems in open world games and have often noticed lower resolution models that are designed to be seen from far away. Am I right in thinking that Minecraft doesn’t do that? And that everything rendered uses the same resolution models for things far away as for things close up?
    - tommsy64 6y ago
      What you are thinking of is called Level of Detail (LOD). The principle being that 3D models further away can be rendered with fewer vertices/polygons, i.e., at a lower LOD. 3D models in Minecraft are almost all simple cubes or a collection of rectangles (e.g., torches, levers, slabs). There aren't really any extra polygons in these models that can be removed to create a less detailed representation, unlike, say in this [1] model of a rabbit. Thus, you are right in thinking that Minecraft doesn't implement a LOD by changing the resolution of the models; however, it does use progressively lower resolution textures for texturing models that are farther away. This is a common technique called mipmapping [2]. [1] - https://cathyatseneca.gitbooks.io/3d-modelling-for-programmers/content/3ds_max_basics/3d_representation.html https://cathyatseneca.gitbooks.io/3d-modelling-for-programme... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap
Tainnor 6y ago
The proof of the characterisation of Eulerian graphs is really neat and one of my favourites. It basically just starts with "choose a maximal trail" and the rest writes itself if you think about it long enough.

71 points by lelf 6y ago

tenaciousDaniel 6y ago

I suppose "mathcraft" was taken? :p

tommsy64 6y ago
A quick search shows MathCraft Security Technologies [1] and MathCraft(TM): Math In Action [2] by Cycorp both exist. On a similar note, I find it amusing that accidentally going to minecraft.com instead of minecraft.net brings you to the home page of a literal mining engineering consultancy [3]. "MineCraft Consulting provides innovative solutions and project management services for coal mining projects in Australia and Overseas." "MineCraft is a registered trademark of MineCraft Consulting Pty Ltd." [1] - https://www.mathcraft.com/ https://www.mathcraft.com/ [2] - http://mathcraft.ai/ http://mathcraft.ai/ [3] - http://www.minecraft.com/ http://www.minecraft.com/

freedomben 6y ago

Unfortunate missed opportunity to build on top of Minetest (an amazing open source clone of minecraft that works really well) instead of re-implementing the hard parts yourself (unless that was part of the fun, which I totally understand!). If anyone is thinking about doing something like that, you can develop entire games as "Minetest mods"[1] which would have allowed him to mostly just write "business logic." I've started writing a "game" using that myself. Nonetheless, great idea and I'm glad to see it happen! [1]: https://dev.minetest.net/Modding_Overview https://dev.minetest.net/Modding_Overview

jtvjan 6y ago
What do you mean with "re-implementing the hard parts"? Matheminecraft is an "adventure map", playable in Minecraft 1.12.1.
- freedomben 6y ago
  Ah my mistake, I made a bad assumption based on the pictures (I couldn't read the language and Google translate wouldn't work for some reason, probably because of stuff I do with uMatrix). That said, still would have loved to see them use Mintest instead as a platform :-)
xrd 6y ago
I had never heard of Minetest before. Have you written up any of your experiences "writing a game" as you say? I'm looking over it and having a hard time thinking about the best way to dip my toes into it.
- freedomben 6y ago
  I have not written anything up about it yetas I'm still in very early stages. I've never used Lua before so am learning that as well (tho having used Ruby/Python/JS extensively it's amazing how readable Lua is, just need to learn the APIs). If I get anything working tho, I'll put together a write-up to go along with the code :-)
sdegutis 6y ago
Wow, Minetest looks really cool: Minecraft clone with a Lua API for modding. This may get us back into using Minecraft modding as a way to learn programming. EDIT: Oh, it's a game engine. Is there a basic 'vanilla' Minecraft clone based on Minetest, for this purpose?
- a1369209993 6y ago
  > Is there a basic 'vanilla' Minecraft clone based on Minetest, for this purpose? Yes, it's the default `minetest_game` that comes with the game (as well as `minimal`). Note that the redstone-alike mesecons is a separate modpack (which isn't a problem in practice) as is mob support (which is).
- freedomben 6y ago
  It is also a basic vanilla Minecraft clone (the wording is kind of poor). If you install it you can play a basic game. It's also in the repos of every linux distro I've tried it on (Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian), and if it isn't it builds really easily (even built on my Chromebook with both crouton and crostini). You can also add "mods" to it that add a ton of rich features to the game. I recommend adding one at a time tho as they can make your server unstable (mods vary in quality). The minetest core is rock solid stable IME, but not all mods are. If there's any interest, I can write a blog post about this with getting started instructions at playing and configuring. I'm not affiliated with the project, but I'm a big fan and use it at home with my kids (and a server I setup on our LAN).

haolez 6y ago

One side project that's on my bucket list is to implement very far range of view on Minecraft-like games (e.g. Minetest[1] and Terasology[2]). Something like what we see in Battle Royale games or open-world shooters like Farcry. It's a little frustrating to have such beautiful worlds in these games and not being able to see a large part of it in a stunning landscape. I have no ideas what kind of techniques would be required. I'm not a computer graphics guy :) [1] https://www.minetest.net/ https://www.minetest.net/ [2] https://terasology.org/ https://terasology.org/

sq_ 6y ago
I set up a Minecraft server for some friends a few weeks ago, and I learned firsthand how huge of a performance improvement one can get by dropping the render distance. My basic understanding of the problem is that it's less of a graphics problem and more of a CPU one. Loading another chunk requires the game to actively simulate everything happening in that chunk, and, since the game is single-threaded, increasing the number of chunks loaded quickly causes the amount of work needing to be done per tick to explode.
- didericis 6y ago
  I know nothing about the codebase and haven’t done any projects related to game engines/physics rendering, but I’ve seen a lot of games that seem to have “high level” and “low level” simulations. I’ve walked too far too quickly on older systems in open world games and have often noticed lower resolution models that are designed to be seen from far away. Am I right in thinking that Minecraft doesn’t do that? And that everything rendered uses the same resolution models for things far away as for things close up?
  - tommsy64 6y ago
    What you are thinking of is called Level of Detail (LOD). The principle being that 3D models further away can be rendered with fewer vertices/polygons, i.e., at a lower LOD. 3D models in Minecraft are almost all simple cubes or a collection of rectangles (e.g., torches, levers, slabs). There aren't really any extra polygons in these models that can be removed to create a less detailed representation, unlike, say in this [1] model of a rabbit. Thus, you are right in thinking that Minecraft doesn't implement a LOD by changing the resolution of the models; however, it does use progressively lower resolution textures for texturing models that are farther away. This is a common technique called mipmapping [2]. [1] - https://cathyatseneca.gitbooks.io/3d-modelling-for-programmers/content/3ds_max_basics/3d_representation.html https://cathyatseneca.gitbooks.io/3d-modelling-for-programme... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

Tainnor 6y ago

The proof of the characterisation of Eulerian graphs is really neat and one of my favourites. It basically just starts with "choose a maximal trail" and the rest writes itself if you think about it long enough.