I have been on this forum pretty much 24/7 since I got minecraft Xbox 360 edition. Just now decided to regester to post, so if this has already been posted, or answered sorry for the repost.
I have looked all over this forum and the pc forum and didn't see anything about it, but I was wondering what is the best way to make tunnels and or houses under water?..
I helped a friend build a house underwater and I'm pretty positive we did it completely wrong, turned maybe a 2-3 hour build into a 2 day build!!
I was expanding my train station last night and istead of making another bridge over the big span of water, I decided to make a glass tunnel under. Im about 200 blocks across now and took all night to get that much done.
It is a 3 by 3 tunnel with sandstone floor and the walls and roof glass. The roof is 5 wide glass and 4 high walls. Im starting making a floor say 10 blocks long and then fill the walls and roof in with glass, then i have to fill the entire tunnel with dirt (cause its fast and easy to remove) and then take out the dirt to remove the water.
It seams to be working really well for me but it is taking a while( which I don't mind) but if someone knows a better, smoother way of doing this any tips will be greatly appreciated!
I use this same method, or if it's a larger structure I'll mine into the dirt under the lake and build it underground. Then I will essentially dig it out frOm the bottom of the lake. This way also makes structures even deeper in the water, so it's cool.
For the underwater house we had kind of a brain fart...we made the walls, then "tried" to bucket the water out! You can imagine how that went...after a solid hour or better and not much improvement, I decided to try lava. I made multiple lava falls above the house area, which not putting the source in the water, the lava turned to cobblestone and we then mined out all the rock. The lava worked out really great, except for the few obsidian block made by accedent. Lol
After we finished the house and cut down the dam walls we built, it made waterfalls and not the lake like planned. So then another couple hours putting water back in with buckets.
So the plan I'm going for now on the tunnel is the best idea I can think of ATM.
I will hit up YouTube when I get home to see some ideas, because I am not a very talented mincrafter...YET!!!
I just finished an underwater structure and it was certainly a learning experience. I’m pretty sure I took every opportunity to create additional work for myself. =)
The way I did it was to map out the general structure all the way to the surface, dig down into it, and then remove all of that excess sand when I was done. I thought the water would just pour right back in but it didn’t work that way. I ended up having to put sand back in but only up until one block below the surface, which eventually (when I did that along my entire structure) smoothed the water out. Well at least it did on the surface. When I’m inside my structure it looks like water is running down the outside of it, which is a little distracting and not what I hoped for.
Anyway the next time I do one, this is how I plan to do it. For starters I won’t break the surface of the water. In fact I want to spend more time planning out my ultimate design so I don’t fill in any water spaces unnecessarily. If you put a block down underwater it replaces the water block. Remove that block and water from the surrounding area fills it in. I believe it is this filling in which is causing the “running water” effect on the outside of my current structure. Technically I believe there is a current out there.
So for example, for simplicity sake, I want to create a structure that is 3x3 of useable space. That means technically the entire structure will be larger due to the glass that will surround it. So I would dive down and drop sand in a pattern of 3 long, 3 wide and 3 high. Once this box is complete I would surround it with glass leaving an opening in the top centre.
The next part I’d have two options. I can dive down with a ladder (or sign) and put it in the gap I left. This should create an air pocket for you. This is a good method if you want to have temporary (or I suppose permanent) swimming access to your structure as you work on it.
The other option would be to simply dive down to that open area, dig down into the sand enough to stand, and then plug the hole above me filling it with glass and completely the dome. This will also give you an air pocket. From here I would just dig out the sand, removing it all and leaving me with just my glass structure.
I haven’t tested the above but it’s my hope that the water on the outside of the structure won’t look like it’s running down the walls anymore because no water ever filled the space of a block placed temporary. The only temp blocks would be those on the inside of the glass so it wouldn’t matter.
Anyway I’m hardly an expert on the matter. I’m a total Minecraft n00b and have only been playing as long as the 360 version has been available. This is just how I would proceed next time, having built an underwater structure already and learning from it. I spent a lot of time placing and removing temporary sand blocks, so the above method would save a lot of time with that for sure.
I think I've figured out the last stage (I'm doing something quite similar to this)...
Once the project is done, cover over the whole area with a single layer of dirt at sea level. Then starting from the edges, cut back one block at a time in a staggered (like sawtooth) pattern. You may get sourceblocks at surface level naturally, but if not it's easy to drop one in place.
I was experimenting near my build site. Haven't figured out how to take out the outer retaining wall yet... blasting maybe? But this method should make it easy to cover a build site with water sourceblocks so you don't have "holes" in the lake.
Yeah the whole placing a temporary block outside of the structure did screw with the end result, in turn added a long task of refilling the lake with water sources.
I like the idea of placing a dirt skelaton of the structure the making a sand structure on top of it 1 block smaller than the intended design. It sounds pretty straight forward, but might be a little tricky.
As for my train tunnel I'm not worried about having a visable current running down the outside of the walls. I haven't really placed any blocks outside the walls, except maybe a few by accedent.
From what I have seen on you tube this is pretty much one of the strait forward ideas on making under water tunnels.
Tip to all, never build a dam wall around the build site...once build is complete and wall is removed, it looks like Niagra Falls...not the intended lake look!!! Learned from my mistakes!!! Lol
Tip to all, never build a dam wall around the build site...once build is complete and wall is removed, it looks like Niagra Falls...not the intended lake look!!! Learned from my mistakes!!! Lol
Yeah that's what happened to me. I was all excited to tear down my "dam" and let the water pour in but it wouldn't work right. I was disappointed. Fixed it by added sand again up to one block below the surface of the water (never breaking the surface) and the water sorted itself out on the surface. Then removing the blocks everything was fine (except the way it looked outside my glass walls).
Man did doing that add a lot of extra work for me. =)
Lol wish I would have thought about that on the under water house project I did.
I also just found a loop-hole in clearing out the land underwater with TNT. I read in an earlier post about TNT not destroying everything if it is underwater... Which is true!! TNT underwater WILL still kill you (found that out lol) but will NOT destroy surrounding blocks. If the area you want cleared is at least 3x3 square, dig a hole 3 deep in the center where you can go inside and cover the hole and the water retreats. Don't acctually go inside the hole, that= instant death with TNT!!! Lol but have a hole 3 deep and place TNT covering the hole, and switch to a different material (not sand) and when you detonate the TNT, physics still apply underwater with TNT, and quickly after it detonates and drops to the bottom of the hole place a dirt block over the hole. It plugs off the water and the hole dries up with a live TNT quickly counting down inside. Swim up and away as fast as possible and boom big chunk of ground underwater gone in 30 seconds vs 5 minutes. Although if you are worried about the current flowing down the outside of the glass wall, this technique is not recommended.
This technique probably has already been noted across the Internet, but I haven't ever seen it anywhere. So I just hope it can help someone else out in future underwater builds, until we get the update to set off TNT with redstone.
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I have looked all over this forum and the pc forum and didn't see anything about it, but I was wondering what is the best way to make tunnels and or houses under water?..
I helped a friend build a house underwater and I'm pretty positive we did it completely wrong, turned maybe a 2-3 hour build into a 2 day build!!
I was expanding my train station last night and istead of making another bridge over the big span of water, I decided to make a glass tunnel under. Im about 200 blocks across now and took all night to get that much done.
It is a 3 by 3 tunnel with sandstone floor and the walls and roof glass. The roof is 5 wide glass and 4 high walls. Im starting making a floor say 10 blocks long and then fill the walls and roof in with glass, then i have to fill the entire tunnel with dirt (cause its fast and easy to remove) and then take out the dirt to remove the water.
It seams to be working really well for me but it is taking a while( which I don't mind) but if someone knows a better, smoother way of doing this any tips will be greatly appreciated!
After we finished the house and cut down the dam walls we built, it made waterfalls and not the lake like planned. So then another couple hours putting water back in with buckets.
So the plan I'm going for now on the tunnel is the best idea I can think of ATM.
I will hit up YouTube when I get home to see some ideas, because I am not a very talented mincrafter...YET!!!
The way I did it was to map out the general structure all the way to the surface, dig down into it, and then remove all of that excess sand when I was done. I thought the water would just pour right back in but it didn’t work that way. I ended up having to put sand back in but only up until one block below the surface, which eventually (when I did that along my entire structure) smoothed the water out. Well at least it did on the surface. When I’m inside my structure it looks like water is running down the outside of it, which is a little distracting and not what I hoped for.
Anyway the next time I do one, this is how I plan to do it. For starters I won’t break the surface of the water. In fact I want to spend more time planning out my ultimate design so I don’t fill in any water spaces unnecessarily. If you put a block down underwater it replaces the water block. Remove that block and water from the surrounding area fills it in. I believe it is this filling in which is causing the “running water” effect on the outside of my current structure. Technically I believe there is a current out there.
So for example, for simplicity sake, I want to create a structure that is 3x3 of useable space. That means technically the entire structure will be larger due to the glass that will surround it. So I would dive down and drop sand in a pattern of 3 long, 3 wide and 3 high. Once this box is complete I would surround it with glass leaving an opening in the top centre.
The next part I’d have two options. I can dive down with a ladder (or sign) and put it in the gap I left. This should create an air pocket for you. This is a good method if you want to have temporary (or I suppose permanent) swimming access to your structure as you work on it.
The other option would be to simply dive down to that open area, dig down into the sand enough to stand, and then plug the hole above me filling it with glass and completely the dome. This will also give you an air pocket. From here I would just dig out the sand, removing it all and leaving me with just my glass structure.
I haven’t tested the above but it’s my hope that the water on the outside of the structure won’t look like it’s running down the walls anymore because no water ever filled the space of a block placed temporary. The only temp blocks would be those on the inside of the glass so it wouldn’t matter.
Anyway I’m hardly an expert on the matter. I’m a total Minecraft n00b and have only been playing as long as the 360 version has been available. This is just how I would proceed next time, having built an underwater structure already and learning from it. I spent a lot of time placing and removing temporary sand blocks, so the above method would save a lot of time with that for sure.
Once the project is done, cover over the whole area with a single layer of dirt at sea level. Then starting from the edges, cut back one block at a time in a staggered (like sawtooth) pattern. You may get sourceblocks at surface level naturally, but if not it's easy to drop one in place.
I was experimenting near my build site. Haven't figured out how to take out the outer retaining wall yet... blasting maybe? But this method should make it easy to cover a build site with water sourceblocks so you don't have "holes" in the lake.
I like the idea of placing a dirt skelaton of the structure the making a sand structure on top of it 1 block smaller than the intended design. It sounds pretty straight forward, but might be a little tricky.
As for my train tunnel I'm not worried about having a visable current running down the outside of the walls. I haven't really placed any blocks outside the walls, except maybe a few by accedent.
From what I have seen on you tube this is pretty much one of the strait forward ideas on making under water tunnels.
Tip to all, never build a dam wall around the build site...once build is complete and wall is removed, it looks like Niagra Falls...not the intended lake look!!! Learned from my mistakes!!! Lol
Yeah that's what happened to me. I was all excited to tear down my "dam" and let the water pour in but it wouldn't work right. I was disappointed. Fixed it by added sand again up to one block below the surface of the water (never breaking the surface) and the water sorted itself out on the surface. Then removing the blocks everything was fine (except the way it looked outside my glass walls).
Man did doing that add a lot of extra work for me. =)
I also just found a loop-hole in clearing out the land underwater with TNT. I read in an earlier post about TNT not destroying everything if it is underwater... Which is true!! TNT underwater WILL still kill you (found that out lol) but will NOT destroy surrounding blocks. If the area you want cleared is at least 3x3 square, dig a hole 3 deep in the center where you can go inside and cover the hole and the water retreats. Don't acctually go inside the hole, that= instant death with TNT!!! Lol but have a hole 3 deep and place TNT covering the hole, and switch to a different material (not sand) and when you detonate the TNT, physics still apply underwater with TNT, and quickly after it detonates and drops to the bottom of the hole place a dirt block over the hole. It plugs off the water and the hole dries up with a live TNT quickly counting down inside. Swim up and away as fast as possible and boom big chunk of ground underwater gone in 30 seconds vs 5 minutes. Although if you are worried about the current flowing down the outside of the glass wall, this technique is not recommended.
This technique probably has already been noted across the Internet, but I haven't ever seen it anywhere. So I just hope it can help someone else out in future underwater builds, until we get the update to set off TNT with redstone.