6 ms·

The new worldgen is incredible, both above and below the surface. Hats off to everyone at Mojang that worked on this! One of my favorite game memories of all t

by ykl 5y ago

The new worldgen is incredible, both above and below the surface. Hats off to everyone at Mojang that worked on this! One of my favorite game memories of all time was the first time I played Minecraft during the alpha days and immediately got lost in the world. For me, going into a 1.18 world and finding a giant mountain chain and then finding a cave on the peak of the mountain that falls all the way into a giant underground ocean at the bottom of the world in a huge cavern complete with underground vegetation… it brought me right back to that sense of exploration and wonder that I remember from the very first time I played Minecraft. Also, I found this datapack (sort of like a mod but doesn’t require patching the game since the game natively supports loading datapack files) called Terralith [1] that extends the 1.18 worldgen with even more cool stuff. Wandering around the new 1.18-style mountains is incredible, and then stumbling across something the resembles Yellowstone National Park added by Terralith is even more incredible. It’s worth a try if you like just wandering around in Minecraft marveling at the scenery. [1] https://www.planetminecraft.com/data-pack/terralith-overworld-evolved-100-biomes-caves-and-more/ https://www.planetminecraft.com/data-pack/terralith-overworl...

Causality1 5y ago
I wonder how many if those alpha worlds are preserved. I started when the alpha was free and the beta was pay, and the scope of those alpha worlds was just incredible. There wasn't much in the way of nature in the alpha so all those worlds were more art project than construction.
- ykl 5y ago
  With the current launcher, you can actually pick which version/update to play, including old versions. For Java Edition, it lists versions all the way back to alpha as options.
  - rightbyte 5y ago
    This is so user-unhostile I wanna cry. Most companies just want the power to force antifeutures on the users nowadays.
    - RugnirViking 5y ago
      The Microsoft acquisition of Minecraft is inexplicably one of the few big tech acquisitions that hasn't completely destroyed the product. It's impressive
      - rightbyte 5y ago
        Ye well MS can't wish the old offline installers out of existence I guess.
        Wowfunhappy 5y ago
        ...is there an offline installer for Java Minecraft? I think it always downloads most of the real game at first run.
      - fnord123 5y ago
        Eh, aside from making java and bedrock incompatible, requiring Xbox live accounts to play, deleting customer accounts in the transition to Xbox live, making realms which are different somehow from java and bedrock (many parents had a devil if a time figuring out how to setup a server for kids playing on all the platforms during lockdown)... Aside from this they didn't ruin it.
        goblin89 5y ago
        IMO the worst among the things Microsoft is doing to Minecraft is introducing an in-game currency (to an already paid game!). They target Bedrock for this, and I strongly suspect once it starts bringing in extra money they will essentially kill further Java edition development.
        eropple 5y ago
        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.
- trotFunky 5y ago
  Minecraft is one of the biggest games of my teenage years, starting in Alpha, and I always was a bit paranoid, making backups and copies of things. As the sibling comment points out, you can go back in versions from the game launcher itself and I recently did a nostalgia trip loading up those worlds again, seeing how the game has evolved, how my playing style evolved... By loading them into a few intermediate versions, you can even get them to load in the latest one ! I really appreciate to be able to do that. (Even if I still have a couple of copies of the older versions I could play with !)
matthberg 5y ago
I also recently (today in fact) encountered the Terralith datapack, it's rather impressive and I'm tempted to try it out. From what I know it doesn't add any new blocks, instead it just reuses existing vanilla ones. There's a trailer they made for a recent update that shows off some of the terrain results: https://youtu.be/zmIvURR_-eg https://youtu.be/zmIvURR_-eg
tehbeard 5y ago
The one thing that always stuns me is how in the hell did they (both Mojang and terrain pack creators) figure this out from math? Like, it's perlin noise and a bunch of algorithms and it makes mountains and caves and overhangs that are all decorated and such and a river bleeding into a ravine that leads into a giant cave network.
- morsch 5y ago
  Don't underestimate the role of the human observer focusing and exploring the most interesting parts.
  - radicalbyte 5y ago
    Didn't we all do that as kids with the Mandelbrot set viewers? Just explore it to find some cool visualizations.. then zoom in and repeat %)
    - mr_cyborg 5y ago
      I can’t say I’m familiar with those myself! Sounds cool though.
    - pavlus 5y ago
      I go through this every time I setup a new computer. Personal unique cool wallpaper for only a few minutes of work!
- lmilcin 5y ago
  It is not that difficult if you apply yourself. Just yesterday I watched this fantastic explanation of how to generate realistically looking ocean surface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGEqaX4Y4bQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGEqaX4Y4bQ The fantastic part about this video is just how little of actual physics you need to know to create convincing, complex waves. You can skip entire fluid dynamics and condense it to "water molecules move in circles when subjected to a wave". Forget about Perlin noise, it is useful to getting something but it is IMO dead end if you are for realistic looking world. There isn't a way to fix it because, fundamentally, it is completely disconnected from how land features are created in real life. To get asymptotically to realism you have to start taking into account more and more of physics and passage of time and Perlin noise just completely ignores this. To get realistic representation you need to build a little model that knows a little bit about how the features are created. You can even go Dwarf Fortress direction and model processes that create various features of the world over time.
toastedwedge 5y ago
Thank you for mentioning this. I've been out of the "MCraftsphere" for a long time now, so jumping from ~1.6.4 to 1.18, alongside the plethora of mods (data packs now?) is absolutely mind blowing. I had no idea the depth to which it has been taken, but it looks like I now have an afternoon project.
teekert 5y ago
I added the Terralith datapack to a new world on my server, but am I not getting it? Everybody gets the same world right? Yo have to download other seeds? I don't see massive changes, any coordinates that are particularly interesting in the default world? Edit, I think I found something nice (a cave) at -281, -15, 436, that's not something 1.18 generates by default I guess?

by ykl 5y ago

Causality1 5y ago

I wonder how many if those alpha worlds are preserved. I started when the alpha was free and the beta was pay, and the scope of those alpha worlds was just incredible. There wasn't much in the way of nature in the alpha so all those worlds were more art project than construction.

ykl 5y ago
With the current launcher, you can actually pick which version/update to play, including old versions. For Java Edition, it lists versions all the way back to alpha as options.
- rightbyte 5y ago
  This is so user-unhostile I wanna cry. Most companies just want the power to force antifeutures on the users nowadays.
  - RugnirViking 5y ago
    The Microsoft acquisition of Minecraft is inexplicably one of the few big tech acquisitions that hasn't completely destroyed the product. It's impressive
    - rightbyte 5y ago
      Ye well MS can't wish the old offline installers out of existence I guess.
      - Wowfunhappy 5y ago
        ...is there an offline installer for Java Minecraft? I think it always downloads most of the real game at first run.
    - fnord123 5y ago
      Eh, aside from making java and bedrock incompatible, requiring Xbox live accounts to play, deleting customer accounts in the transition to Xbox live, making realms which are different somehow from java and bedrock (many parents had a devil if a time figuring out how to setup a server for kids playing on all the platforms during lockdown)... Aside from this they didn't ruin it.
      - goblin89 5y ago
        IMO the worst among the things Microsoft is doing to Minecraft is introducing an in-game currency (to an already paid game!). They target Bedrock for this, and I strongly suspect once it starts bringing in extra money they will essentially kill further Java edition development.
        eropple 5y ago
        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.
trotFunky 5y ago
Minecraft is one of the biggest games of my teenage years, starting in Alpha, and I always was a bit paranoid, making backups and copies of things. As the sibling comment points out, you can go back in versions from the game launcher itself and I recently did a nostalgia trip loading up those worlds again, seeing how the game has evolved, how my playing style evolved... By loading them into a few intermediate versions, you can even get them to load in the latest one ! I really appreciate to be able to do that. (Even if I still have a couple of copies of the older versions I could play with !)

matthberg 5y ago

I also recently (today in fact) encountered the Terralith datapack, it's rather impressive and I'm tempted to try it out. From what I know it doesn't add any new blocks, instead it just reuses existing vanilla ones. There's a trailer they made for a recent update that shows off some of the terrain results: https://youtu.be/zmIvURR_-eg https://youtu.be/zmIvURR_-eg

tehbeard 5y ago

The one thing that always stuns me is how in the hell did they (both Mojang and terrain pack creators) figure this out from math? Like, it's perlin noise and a bunch of algorithms and it makes mountains and caves and overhangs that are all decorated and such and a river bleeding into a ravine that leads into a giant cave network.

morsch 5y ago
Don't underestimate the role of the human observer focusing and exploring the most interesting parts.
- radicalbyte 5y ago
  Didn't we all do that as kids with the Mandelbrot set viewers? Just explore it to find some cool visualizations.. then zoom in and repeat %)
  - mr_cyborg 5y ago
    I can’t say I’m familiar with those myself! Sounds cool though.
  - pavlus 5y ago
    I go through this every time I setup a new computer. Personal unique cool wallpaper for only a few minutes of work!
lmilcin 5y ago
It is not that difficult if you apply yourself. Just yesterday I watched this fantastic explanation of how to generate realistically looking ocean surface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGEqaX4Y4bQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGEqaX4Y4bQ The fantastic part about this video is just how little of actual physics you need to know to create convincing, complex waves. You can skip entire fluid dynamics and condense it to "water molecules move in circles when subjected to a wave". Forget about Perlin noise, it is useful to getting something but it is IMO dead end if you are for realistic looking world. There isn't a way to fix it because, fundamentally, it is completely disconnected from how land features are created in real life. To get asymptotically to realism you have to start taking into account more and more of physics and passage of time and Perlin noise just completely ignores this. To get realistic representation you need to build a little model that knows a little bit about how the features are created. You can even go Dwarf Fortress direction and model processes that create various features of the world over time.

toastedwedge 5y ago

Thank you for mentioning this. I've been out of the "MCraftsphere" for a long time now, so jumping from ~1.6.4 to 1.18, alongside the plethora of mods (data packs now?) is absolutely mind blowing. I had no idea the depth to which it has been taken, but it looks like I now have an afternoon project.

teekert 5y ago

I added the Terralith datapack to a new world on my server, but am I not getting it? Everybody gets the same world right? Yo have to download other seeds? I don't see massive changes, any coordinates that are particularly interesting in the default world? Edit, I think I found something nice (a cave) at -281, -15, 436, that's not something 1.18 generates by default I guess?