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Danish government builds Minecraft world of Denmark from geodata
- Svip 13y agoTranslation: The Geodata Agency's data is now free, and we have inserted them into Minecraft. That means that the whole of Denmark proper is now available as a virtual world in 1:1 in Minecraft itself, so you can freely move around in Denmark, find our own neighbourhood, construct and deconstruct like in any other Minecraft world. On this page, you can read more about the free data in the Minecraft world, and how you get started playing or download the free data. According to this page[0] the map is divided into three regions, each which has their own server: * Northern Jutland: server1.gstcraft.dk * Southwestern Denmark: server2.gstcraft.dk * Eastern Denmark: server3.gstcraft.dk [0] http://www.gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/spil-her/ http://www.gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/spil-her/
- ManAboutCouch 13y agoThe OSGB in the UK did something similar last year: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/innovate/developers/minecraft-map-britain.html http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/innovate/developers/minecraf... Apparently it was built by an intern, it took him two weeks to create the 22 Billion blocks: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/news/2013/minecraft-map-of-great-britain.html http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/news/2013/minecraft-ma...
- Svip 13y agoIs it 1:1? It doesn't appear 1:1, given how tiny the A/B-roads are. I am just curious, there are not a lot of screenshots (or information on the scale in fact).
- bbrks 13y ago> Each blocks represents a ground area of 50 square metres. The raw height data is stored in metres and must be scaled down to fit within the 256 block height limit in Minecraft. A maximum height of 2 500 metres was chosen, which means Ben Nevis, appears just over 128 blocks high. Although this exaggerates the real-world height, it preserves low-lying coastal features such as Bournemouth's cliffs, adding interest to the landscape. It seems to be a 1:50 scale.
- NAFV_P 13y ago> The raw height data is stored in metres and must be scaled down to fit within the 256 block height limit in Minecraft. Well, I'm a cheapskate I play Minetest, not Minecraft. I'm fairly certain that Minetest has a larger height limit, but it can freeze like a bastard. The other day I went for a dig, and I used the compass to work out my position. I was over 500 blocks under the surface, I kept running into lava flows(!).
- bovermyer 13y agoI'm now curious enough about Minetest after viewing its website that I might want to contribute. I love Minecraft and have played it since alpha, but it's always bothered me that it's built in Java - and that it runs horribly slow once Feed the Beast comes into play.
- NAFV_P 13y ago> I love Minecraft and have played it since alpha, but it's always bothered me that it's built in Java - and that it runs horribly slow once Feed the Beast comes into play. I have never played Minecraft, so I can't comment, but Minetest does slow, it has a lot on its plate. I just signed up with flickr, look for user "mrtucker257". I've uploaded some photos of my upmarket real estate.
- Karunamon 13y agoThis problem is what finally pushed me away from the game once and for all after a couple years. Minecraft itself is pretty heavy and slow given enough player load (sometimes not even that.. forest fires, lava flows and such can also bog everything down) - mods exacerbate the problem to the point of unplayability. Which is really too bad, because things like Feed The Beast add an insane level of extra functionality and downright awesome things to the world. Somehow I think it would be a different game if not for Java overhead. I've spent a truly ludicrous amount of time tweaking heap sizes, obscure garbage collection flags and such trying to keep the blasted thing from consuming all of the memory and crashing (and therefore corrupting the state of the world) on a relatively low-popularity server.
- oliveoil 13y agobuilding whole cities and landscapes by putting together small bricks piece by piece? would be surprised if they were not all over it in DK, the land of lego.
- axx 13y agoI'm wondering how they did it? Is there some kind of converter to transform GEO data to Minecraft Worlds?
- Svip 13y agoGST itself has a very detailed explanation in Danish.[0] But basically, two of their employees worked to created the converter. They even include a table list of GST's own descriptions of terrain types and what Minecraft biomes they were converted to. They don't have underground data, so some simple steps have been taken for each area based on a general idea of the underground (e.g. Bornholm's underground becoming stone). As for buildings, they know the shape of buildings, but not their texture, so they are merely randomly generated in 'unrealistic colours' (as they describe it). As the map data is updated each quarter (3 months), the Minecraft data will also be updated. It's a very interesting read, I recommend you learn Danish and read it! [0] http://www.gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/om-frie-data-i-en-minecraft-verden/ http://www.gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/om-frie-data-i-e...
- w1ntermute 13y agoOr just use Google Translate: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/om-frie-data-i-en-minecraft-verden/&edit-text=&act=url http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=...
- fetbaffe 13y agoWhat a waste of tax payer money.
- Svip 13y agoThe intent of this data release is to help children explore Denmark in a virtual environment in class. This is to help Danish children at least to better grasp Danish geography.
- bananas 13y agoIsn't that what Google Earth is for as an example? Putting it in Minecraft is a hack and a PR thing, nothing more.
- Svip 13y agoI won't presume that their arguments are completely air tight in regards to its educational usage. But I'd argue that exploring Denmark from a more close up view (than a map) is more appealing to school children. Google's Street View can only go so far.
- fetbaffe 13y agoYes, it is PR. Read the FAQ http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/ofte-stillede-spoergsmaal/ http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/ofte-stillede-spoerg... Hvorfor lukker serveren den 23. oktober 2014? ’Danmarks frie geodata i en Minecraftverden’ er et demonstrationsprojekt, hvor Geodatastyrelsen vil vise de mangfoldige muligheder i brugen af geodata. Derfor er serveren kun midlertidig. Der vil fortsat være mulighed for at downloade mindre bidder af Danmark på Kortforsyningen efter denne dato. It is a demonstration project to show the possibilities of geodata. The minecraft server closes 23 of October 2014.
- fetbaffe 13y agoThere is nothing wrong with the intention, the problem is result. I hope I'm wrong, but on my experience of these kind of things is that the popularity is short lived. Soon, some new idea comes along and removes the just implemented old new way. How about a school trip instead?
- lesingerouge 13y agoEven if this is a minor "show-off" project, it's a good reminder for the power of open data. Location services, emergency planning software, tons of other stuff benefit enormously from this kind of openness. [Crazy fun idea]:Basically, given Denmark's open geographic data one could potentially build an MMORPG which takes place in Denmark and have the terrain pre-generated. I think I would call this one Hamlet: The revenge.
- zxexz 13y agoWouldn't Hamlet: The Revenge just be Hamlet? :P Imagine a Hamlet roleplay server
- drsintoma 13y agojust yesterday I was searching for publicly available administrative geodata of European countries. it's not an easy task due to language barriers and fragmentation. Does anyone know where to download the source data of this project?
- fetbaffe 13y agoDownload here http://download.kortforsyningen.dk/ http://download.kortforsyningen.dk/ Instructions here http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgst.dk%2Femner%2Ffrie-data%2Fminecraft%2Fdownload-data%2F&edit-text=&act=url http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=... Edit: You need a user to be able to download from Kortforsyningen. Not sure what the user agreements says about foreigners because the sign up form is in danish and the options are like if you are a danish city, citizen, ngo etc. What I can see you only need to supply user name and email address. What surprises me is that I can't find any pages in English. So good luck navigating if you don't understand danish.
- 6cxs2hd6 13y ago> What surprises me is that I can't find any pages in English. So good luck navigating if you don't understand danish. The American expat community hasn't grown large enough to form an effective separatist group and demand that the Danish government translate everything into English? How awful. /s
- fetbaffe 13y agoHere is the Swedish equivalent. Seven languages supported. https://www.lantmateriet.se/ https://www.lantmateriet.se/
- _delirium 13y agoThe Danish government does translate a pretty large amount of stuff to English, not specifically for Americans but because it's the lingua franca used to interact with anyone non-Danish, even fairly nearby people like Finns and Germans (Finns are officially supposed to know some Swedish, which is similar to Danish, but in practice English is used even for intra-Nordic communication). Not everything is translated, but it's sort of trending in that direction. I would guess most "scientific" type stuff, like this data, will eventually join that group. On the other hand Google Translate tends to work pretty well with Danish anyway, because sentences are fairly short without complicated German-style clause structures that confuse the translator, and the grammar is not too different from English.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- zenon 13y agoDidn't Mojang already do this? http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Superflat http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Superflat
- DanBC 13y agoI'd love it if we could get things like this for the moon, or Mars, or deep sea Earth. And I'd really like 3D printed toy models of Mars or Moon too - I haven't found anything that does this.
- morsch 13y agoWhat, like this? https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:26311 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:26311 Somehow event at 10X/50X exaggerated height I don't find these particularly interesting. Planets, even Mars, are for the most part really smooth. A somewhat exaggerated model of the Matterhorn was one of the first things I printed and it's pretty cool, though.
- rs232 13y agoNot Minecraft per se, but close: http://www.voxelmars.com/ http://www.voxelmars.com/
- kator 13y agoIs there a way to download the maps rather then connect to the servers? I keep poking around but it's not jumping out at me..
- ominous 13y agoThis seems to be it: http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/download-data/ http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/download-data/ And in google translate http://goo.gl/07to7J http://goo.gl/07to7J
- wlesieutre 13y agoominous answered this but was marked as dead. Not clear why, but my best guess is that people use Google Translate to bypass spam filtering? Here's the link he posted. I'm leaving out the google translate link: http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/download-data/ http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/download-data/
- sp332 13y agoIt was almost certainly the link shortener that got ominous's post autokilled by HN code. Here's the translate link: https://translate.google.pt/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgst.dk%2Femner%2Ffrie-data%2Fminecraft%2Fdownload-data%2F&edit-text=&act=url https://translate.google.pt/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pre...
- wlesieutre 13y agoAh good catch, I didn't notice he'd linked it through goo.gl
- wil421 13y agoI never really got into minecraft, do people just mine and build things or do you actually have a story/things to complete?
- duiker101 13y agoThere is no story but I enjoy the adventure mode. It's a totally different game but we can compare it to and Sims game, any other simulator or the more recent Dayz. It doesn't have a story but it's enjoyable to play. You need to survive the night, create a shelter, get stronger by obtaining rare block, build a nice house etc....
- exDM69 13y ago> There is no story but I enjoy the adventure mode. Well depends how you look at it... it doesn't have a narrated, scripted storyline but it most definitely has a kind of an open ended story these days. It was added gradually over the years so every update was a bit more to explore. <SPOILERS> It is quite epic, really... you have to journey to the center of the earth, then descend into hell and finally ascend into the heavens. </SPOILERS> Nothing forces you to do so, though. You can spend your time farming cows if that's your thing.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- kapsel 13y agoI have to say that I am quite impressed by their work. I spent 30 minutes earlier, walking around in the neighborhood where I grew up, and it was extremely easy to navigate and recognize roads, houses, and large buildings. Even the train tracks through the city were there as rails in Minecraft (although not fully connected and working). Very cool, the guys at GST did some amazing work here.. But as far as I can tell, there is no way to download the full 1TB world?
- andyidsinga 13y agoIf they included Hans Island in this, any canadians are obliged to go there, build an inukshuk and leave a bottle of canadian whiskey for our Danish friends - i mean enemies! ;) - who happen by. see also : http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4797368 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4797368
- hyp0 13y agoI've long been surprised that real-world places weren't modelled more often in minecraft (and fps games). My tentative conclusion was it might be too helpful for e.g. actual shooting. Though, height data is generally available anyway (e.g. google maps' "terrain", council planning databases), just not as easy to work with.
- Snail_Commando 13y agoI think it's more likely to be a design decision. If you try to model a large real world area, some people will immediately notice how it is unlike reality; so the constraints of computational power, design skill, and developer ability are multiplied. The differences can be truly jarring. My guess is that there is more upside to creating unique areas. This affords more creative freedom and the luxury of changing the simulation in accordance with constraints and resources.
- Moru 13y agoWe tried this in ActionQuake 2 thinking it was a great idea. When we were halfway done with our town we realized it was very boring to play in something realistic. The real world doesn't always present such an interesting landscape for FPS shooters compared to the ones that are designed to be fun to play.
- oldmanjoe 13y agoOn the Denmark minecraft server someone has placed nazi insignia all over Amalienborg (Warp there to see).. I think the server admins should have made it impossible to break and place blocks...
- devindotcom 13y agoThere is a "the" Denmark Minecraft server? It looks like the map data is just being provided. Is there an official server hosting a live game?
- oldmanjoe 13y agoEastern Denmark: server3.gstcraft.dk