I've noticed a lot of complaints, both here and on the GetSatisfaction site, about portals and how travel using them is a bit bugged at the moment. So in this thread I'm going to complile my knowledge about how portals work, and also list some of the common issues people encounter when using portals, and describe how to fix them and why the fix works.
(Note: I have not looked at the code or anything like that. All these observations come from my repeated experiments with portal placement, and all numbers given are a "best guess" based on these experiments.)
1. Portals: How do they work exactly?
1.1: The Nether-Overworld relationship
As most of us here know, the Nether is a compressed plane when compared to the Overworld. Specifically, the ratio between the two is 8:1. So for every 8 blocks moved in the Overworld, is the equivalent of moving 1 block in the Nether. This 8:1 factor only exists in the horizontal (x and z) directions. The vertical (y direction) is pretty much irrelevant when dealing with portal travel. If you have a working set of two-way portals, you can shift either of them any amount in the y direction, and they will still work.
1.2: The Co-ordinate system
Wherever you are in MineCraft, you can hold F3 to see debugging data. Amongst this, and relevant to our portal-placing interests, is your current position in Cartesian co-ordinates, centered on your head (although as mentioned, vertical doesn't really matter for portal placement). Once again, rememmber that the y axis is vertical, and the x and z co-ordinates relate to the two horizontal directions. Using these co-ordinates is how we build portals in "proper" locations in order to get them to link correctly.
1.3: What happens when you enter a portal?
When you step into a portal, the game first performs a search for nearby, activated, portals to connect to. Eg, unlit frames of obsidian will not be reactivated and linked to. Instead, the frame will be treated as an obstruction (more on this later), and a new portal will be generated. This search range is 128 blocks in both horizontal directions. This search range is the same regardless of which world you're portalling to. Keep this in mind as it's a cause of one of the bugs we'll meet later. =D
If the game cannot find any existing portals to link to, then it will try and attempt to create a new one, preferably in the "ideal" location found by taking the Overworld (X, Z) co-ordinates and dividing them by 8. However the game will only create portals on flat surfaces, not against cliffs, in Netherrack, and not floating above lava lakes. In these cases the game will shift from the "ideal" and place a portal nearby. This obviously shifts the co-ordinates, which is why the search range covered above is necessary, in order to account for any possible portal shifting.
2. Help! My portals don't work!
So far there are only 3 major issues with portals I see people reporting. If you have any others, please post them and I will do my best to try and come up with an explaination and fix. I will also then add it to the post.
2.1: "I entered my portal and reached the Nether fine, but when I came back, I emerged from a completely different portal!
The explaination: Let's go back to what was said about the portal search ranges. When going back to the Overworld from the Nether, the game will search a 128 by 128 area of space. This is equivalent to a small 16 by 16 area in the Nether, or a single chunk.
So what has happened here is, your original portal was relocated due to bad terrain in the Nether, and it was relocated more then 16 Nether blocks away. This caused the original Overworld portal to be outside the search range, resulting in the creation of this new, random portal.
The solution: You'll have to work out where the Nether-side portal "should" be, using the Overworld co-ordinates and calculating the spot yourself, and create it there. In the ideal case, this will be levelling a rough patch of Netherrack. However, do to the relatively large amount of relocation required, it is more likely that their is no terrain near where your portal would be, and the game instead adjusted to the nearest landmass. Otherwise, you may have to move your Overworld portal instead.
I'll take an example I encountered quite recently:
Overworld Portal built at (-556, 304)
Expected Nether Portal at (-69 or -70, 38)
Actual Nether Portal at (-69, 21.5)
As you can see, the Nether portal was in the correct x co-ordinate, but had been largely shifted in the z. 17 blocks away to be exact. This caused be to emerge on the beach, a short distance away from my house =\. The reason for this: A giant lava lake right in the middle of where it should have been. However, upon building out a platform to the ideal location and manually creating the portal, the gates worked fine.
2.2: I made my first portal in the Overworld, and it links to the Nether and back fine. But now I've created a second gate in the Overworld, and it just links me back to my first Nether portal! WTF?!
The explaination: Again, it's a problem with the search ranges. Remember that it is the same 128 blocks in either world. 128 by 128 blocks in the Nether is equivalent to 1024 by 1024 blocks in the Overworld. Meaning if the distance between your two portals is less then that in the Overworld, it will find the already-existing portal in the Nether while searching, and link to that without even attempting to make its own counterpart.
The solution: Most people would tell you to, again, pull out the pickax and calculator, and manually build one in the correct spot. However, a nifty trick I prefer to use, is as follows:
1) Portal into the Nether, and remove and obsidian block from the frame of your gate, causing it to deactivate.
2) Suicide in order to get back to the Overworld.
3) Enter the gate that was NOT two-way, or the one that linked to the incorrect gate.
Now, when the game does the search, the deactivate frame will not be registered. This will cause it to create one instead, which should link to the Overworld gate properly. Now you can replace the Obsidian Block and relight your first gate, and both your gate pairs will work properly. =D
2.3: I was walking around in the Overworld, and I found a portal on the surface, and it was was already activated! Is this normal?
The explaination: When you die in the Nether, you have to be moved to the Overworld, in order to get back to the spawn point. When the game moves you between the worlds, it runs the portal code again, treating the point you died as the "entry portal". Unless you're in range of another existing portal, this will result in a new portal, where you "exit" from before being taken back to spawn.
The gate you found is the result of one of these Nether deaths. Unless you were wandering a severely long way in the Nether, it will likely just link back to one of one of your existing Nether portals.
The solution: Just destroy it, it's free Obsidian. =D
If you find any glaring errors, or if there is anything I can clarify in the above, please do point it out. It's currently 2:30AM here and I expect there will be stupid mistakes (E.g, I just realized I never mentioned using F3 to find your current co-ordinates >_<). Thanks. =D<br/>
Also, I've posted a link to this topic on the primary "Portals don't work" thread on GetSatisfaction. If you found this thread helpful, please mark the comment as a solution so others will see it and be helped as well. Thanks again.
Enteresting, I am glad, I have encountered these myself. Thanks :smile.gif:
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And as the Nintendo Zelda team sat around the table, they started duscussing the 3DS Zelda plotline. Then they realized, they were only recreating it. They were all sad. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
A slightly better variation on your destroy-block-suicide trick to deactivate a portal is to instead dump your inventory into a chest in the overworld and take only a single block of obsidian into the nether. If you place this block touching one of the main 10 blocks of your portal (the corners don't count) then it will deactivate. Much faster than mining out the obsidian and you don't risk losing the block or a diamond pick. (Though you could use a nether-side chest to get around that.)
Also, if you go too far afield on your suicide quest, then you'll end up creating a death portal (as mentioned in point 3).
But I usually find it's both easier and better to just build the new Nether portal in the correct spot -- this way, you can clear obstructions as you go (to avoid problem #1 happening again), and you get to dictate the Y coordinate of the portal (meaning that you can have bedrock-level and sky-level portals in the overworld leading to a common lava-level enclosed corridor in the Nether, making trips a breeze).
Huh, really interesting.
I made a portal to the nether in my secondary house because I finally found diamond and managed to get some obsidian. But, the portal was making all these annoying sounds so I took it out and replaced it with a fireplace. So, using the obsidian I got back from destroying the portal, I made another one on a little Island a little bit away from the house and I ended up in the same spawn... I guess it still applies that you'll end up in the same spawn even if you destroy the first overworld portal, huh?
Can you post how to use the F3 Co-ordinates to fix portals? I got in my overworld -69, -61, etc., but in the nether, I went to a portal at -16, -1. Do I have to divide Co-ordinates by 8, or just go around and re-make a portal by counting, because it would be a pain to do this as my portal is underground.
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Quote from videofreak »
Hosting images on MediaFire? Are you high on cat urine?
Well first, make sure you're using x and z instead of x and y (I see you've got minuses so you're probably correct but no harm in checking).
Then yes, those Overworld co-ordinates are simply divided by 8 to find the Nether ones. Which should be -9 and -8. So it sounds like your exit portal got shifted quite a bit.
I'm not quite sure what your problem is though, as these two portals should still link fine.
Well first, make sure you're using x and z instead of x and y (I see you've got minuses so you're probably correct but no harm in checking).
Then yes, those Overworld co-ordinates are simply divided by 8 to find the Nether ones. Which should be -9 and -8. So it sounds like your exit portal got shifted quite a bit.
I'm not quite sure what your problem is though, as these two portals should still link fine.
Got it, and got a working portal! And it only took an hour searching for diamonds, mining, and figuring it out!
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Quote from videofreak »
Hosting images on MediaFire? Are you high on cat urine?
I have a portal question. I made my first portal to the Nether, which links to a nice spot in the Nether. I made a second portal in the real world, and it links to the same portal in the Nether, which is what I expected as they are close together in the real world. Now, if I destroy the first portal I built, would the 2nd portal I built still link to the portal generated in the Nether by the first portal, or will that one be erased and a new one be created close to the original?
If you destroy the first portal you built, the no, Portal 2 will continue to link to the same Nether portal that 1 created. If you want to fix them, Nether Portal 1 is what needs breaking, or temporary disruption.
On the other hand, if you just want to move portal 1, then I suppose that's a way to exploit this bug currently, although if 2 is a sufficient distance away 1 will keep spawning new portals whenever you use it to try and exit the Nether.
(Note: I have not looked at the code or anything like that. All these observations come from my repeated experiments with portal placement, and all numbers given are a "best guess" based on these experiments.)
1. Portals: How do they work exactly?
1.1: The Nether-Overworld relationship
As most of us here know, the Nether is a compressed plane when compared to the Overworld. Specifically, the ratio between the two is 8:1. So for every 8 blocks moved in the Overworld, is the equivalent of moving 1 block in the Nether. This 8:1 factor only exists in the horizontal (x and z) directions. The vertical (y direction) is pretty much irrelevant when dealing with portal travel. If you have a working set of two-way portals, you can shift either of them any amount in the y direction, and they will still work.
1.2: The Co-ordinate system
Wherever you are in MineCraft, you can hold F3 to see debugging data. Amongst this, and relevant to our portal-placing interests, is your current position in Cartesian co-ordinates, centered on your head (although as mentioned, vertical doesn't really matter for portal placement). Once again, rememmber that the y axis is vertical, and the x and z co-ordinates relate to the two horizontal directions. Using these co-ordinates is how we build portals in "proper" locations in order to get them to link correctly.
1.3: What happens when you enter a portal?
When you step into a portal, the game first performs a search for nearby, activated, portals to connect to. Eg, unlit frames of obsidian will not be reactivated and linked to. Instead, the frame will be treated as an obstruction (more on this later), and a new portal will be generated. This search range is 128 blocks in both horizontal directions. This search range is the same regardless of which world you're portalling to. Keep this in mind as it's a cause of one of the bugs we'll meet later. =D
If the game cannot find any existing portals to link to, then it will try and attempt to create a new one, preferably in the "ideal" location found by taking the Overworld (X, Z) co-ordinates and dividing them by 8. However the game will only create portals on flat surfaces, not against cliffs, in Netherrack, and not floating above lava lakes. In these cases the game will shift from the "ideal" and place a portal nearby. This obviously shifts the co-ordinates, which is why the search range covered above is necessary, in order to account for any possible portal shifting.
2. Help! My portals don't work!
So far there are only 3 major issues with portals I see people reporting. If you have any others, please post them and I will do my best to try and come up with an explaination and fix. I will also then add it to the post.
2.1: "I entered my portal and reached the Nether fine, but when I came back, I emerged from a completely different portal!
The explaination: Let's go back to what was said about the portal search ranges. When going back to the Overworld from the Nether, the game will search a 128 by 128 area of space. This is equivalent to a small 16 by 16 area in the Nether, or a single chunk.
So what has happened here is, your original portal was relocated due to bad terrain in the Nether, and it was relocated more then 16 Nether blocks away. This caused the original Overworld portal to be outside the search range, resulting in the creation of this new, random portal.
The solution: You'll have to work out where the Nether-side portal "should" be, using the Overworld co-ordinates and calculating the spot yourself, and create it there. In the ideal case, this will be levelling a rough patch of Netherrack. However, do to the relatively large amount of relocation required, it is more likely that their is no terrain near where your portal would be, and the game instead adjusted to the nearest landmass. Otherwise, you may have to move your Overworld portal instead.
I'll take an example I encountered quite recently:
Overworld Portal built at (-556, 304)
Expected Nether Portal at (-69 or -70, 38)
Actual Nether Portal at (-69, 21.5)
As you can see, the Nether portal was in the correct x co-ordinate, but had been largely shifted in the z. 17 blocks away to be exact. This caused be to emerge on the beach, a short distance away from my house =\. The reason for this: A giant lava lake right in the middle of where it should have been. However, upon building out a platform to the ideal location and manually creating the portal, the gates worked fine.
2.2: I made my first portal in the Overworld, and it links to the Nether and back fine. But now I've created a second gate in the Overworld, and it just links me back to my first Nether portal! WTF?!
The explaination: Again, it's a problem with the search ranges. Remember that it is the same 128 blocks in either world. 128 by 128 blocks in the Nether is equivalent to 1024 by 1024 blocks in the Overworld. Meaning if the distance between your two portals is less then that in the Overworld, it will find the already-existing portal in the Nether while searching, and link to that without even attempting to make its own counterpart.
The solution: Most people would tell you to, again, pull out the pickax and calculator, and manually build one in the correct spot. However, a nifty trick I prefer to use, is as follows:
1) Portal into the Nether, and remove and obsidian block from the frame of your gate, causing it to deactivate.
2) Suicide in order to get back to the Overworld.
3) Enter the gate that was NOT two-way, or the one that linked to the incorrect gate.
Now, when the game does the search, the deactivate frame will not be registered. This will cause it to create one instead, which should link to the Overworld gate properly. Now you can replace the Obsidian Block and relight your first gate, and both your gate pairs will work properly. =D
2.3: I was walking around in the Overworld, and I found a portal on the surface, and it was was already activated! Is this normal?
The explaination: When you die in the Nether, you have to be moved to the Overworld, in order to get back to the spawn point. When the game moves you between the worlds, it runs the portal code again, treating the point you died as the "entry portal". Unless you're in range of another existing portal, this will result in a new portal, where you "exit" from before being taken back to spawn.
The gate you found is the result of one of these Nether deaths. Unless you were wandering a severely long way in the Nether, it will likely just link back to one of one of your existing Nether portals.
The solution: Just destroy it, it's free Obsidian. =D
If you find any glaring errors, or if there is anything I can clarify in the above, please do point it out. It's currently 2:30AM here and I expect there will be stupid mistakes (E.g, I just realized I never mentioned using F3 to find your current co-ordinates >_<). Thanks. =D<br/>
Also, I've posted a link to this topic on the primary "Portals don't work" thread on GetSatisfaction. If you found this thread helpful, please mark the comment as a solution so others will see it and be helped as well. Thanks again.
http://getsatisfaction.com/mojang/topic ... g_properly
Thanks for your feedback everyone.
Also, if you go too far afield on your suicide quest, then you'll end up creating a death portal (as mentioned in point 3).
But I usually find it's both easier and better to just build the new Nether portal in the correct spot -- this way, you can clear obstructions as you go (to avoid problem #1 happening again), and you get to dictate the Y coordinate of the portal (meaning that you can have bedrock-level and sky-level portals in the overworld leading to a common lava-level enclosed corridor in the Nether, making trips a breeze).
I made a portal to the nether in my secondary house because I finally found diamond and managed to get some obsidian. But, the portal was making all these annoying sounds so I took it out and replaced it with a fireplace. So, using the obsidian I got back from destroying the portal, I made another one on a little Island a little bit away from the house and I ended up in the same spawn... I guess it still applies that you'll end up in the same spawn even if you destroy the first overworld portal, huh?
Then yes, those Overworld co-ordinates are simply divided by 8 to find the Nether ones. Which should be -9 and -8. So it sounds like your exit portal got shifted quite a bit.
I'm not quite sure what your problem is though, as these two portals should still link fine.
Got it, and got a working portal! And it only took an hour searching for diamonds, mining, and figuring it out!
On the other hand, if you just want to move portal 1, then I suppose that's a way to exploit this bug currently, although if 2 is a sufficient distance away 1 will keep spawning new portals whenever you use it to try and exit the Nether.