Not a game this time, but a 'deep' minecraft map renderer. There's quite a few minecraft map renderers out there, which typically work by doing some kind of raytracing to output a single huge image. For example, McMap produces output like this:


(actual size)

Tectonicus is different, it renders maps by generating the appropriate geometry and doing a proper 3d rasterisation:

(actual size)

This results in lots more detail. And since the resulting image would be too huge to view, it's carved up into sub tiles and then spliced together via the magic that is Google Maps. It's easier to see than to explain, so hit this link to see it in action:

[size=14pt]View Example Output[/size]

That's an untouched minecraft spawn area, so it's actually the smallest map possible. I've tested this on our multiplayer server (which is 70k chunks rather than the examples 500) so in theory it should be able to render any sized map.

Download here

It's command line only at the moment - just run it with no options to see the command line options available.

It's still very work-in-progress, but I'm sure there's a few minecraft fans around here, so it'd be great to see a few other people's map renders. I'd also like general feedback (does it run, does it crash, does it need extra command line options to work on your system, etc.) from the more techy types around here before I start letting less techy people get their hands on it.

Thanks.

Nicely done!  I might use this for my Minecraft server, once SMP is fixed to the point of playability and whatnot. 

There's still some things I'd like to see fixed, like tools/weapons/armor getting miraculously repaired after dropping them and picking them back up, plus not being able to pick up certain items, plus combat doesn't seem to work so well (lag issues).  It's playable, but it has a few updates to go before it is close to looking like single-player survival mode. 

I love the game though.  I wrote Markus a love letter with my bug report. 

Neat!

Cool, running it right now.

FYI, the console will look like this for Mac users:

Very cool, and nice work leveraging the Google maps API.

How do I put it up somewhere so that Google Maps or whatever actually uses the data? As of now I just get a bunch of images that I have to browse.

Ah cool, I didn't see it. Serves me right for having it process right into my downloads folder.

Aha! Fantasic.

A fellow underwater buider I see. I've gone a little nuts on our multiplayer server and have a whole network of underwater glass domes similar to yours. 

Yes indeedy. It would be nice if Tectonicus would render torches on the other side of the glass, as those domes are all filled with torches. :-)

Here is a fun hint- if you make a large array of TNT to the ocean floor and set it off, you will often create dead zones where there is no water for no reason (looks like a cool vortex). You can then incorporate these with your underwater structures to make interesting areas underneath the ocean.

The guys over at The Shaft rendered their multiplayer server, which apparently took two days to complete, since it's huge.

http://www.deadworkerspartynetwork.com/theshaft/map1/map1/map.html

The closest two zoom levels don't work IIRC to cut down on bandwidth, but it still looks awesome. 

I don't post about every new version, but v1.18 adds much-requested feature: cave mode!



Render your map and hunt out those underground constructions you made, or look for dungeons to explore.

Full details in the minecraft forum thread as always: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1022&t=95739

Hey, I don't play Minecraft but I like reading about what you're doing. Would be cool to see the 16-bit ALU as a Google map.

Long story short - I don't have time to work on this any more. So I've open sourced it (BSD):

http://code.google.com/p/tectonicus/