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    posted a message on Foliage draw distance is too low.
    Quote from TheMasterCaver»


    Even at the time of writing the OP, I felt that saying "they did it for performance" was maybe too generous, but I wanted to lend some benefit of the doubt. It could've very well been the case at a time, as the article about cave culling on mobile leads me to think that perhaps the developer atmosphere was "do anything and everything to make this game run well on (what was) today's low/mid-range phones, no matter how small (comically so in this case, as alluded to in your post)," with the various tricks implemented having since been left intact for reasons that I'd guess amount to lack of priority.


    Whatever the case may be, if the end result is this...



    ...to call it ugly wouldn't be too far off, IMO anyways. Since yesterday, I've also noticed that, on Bedrock, even tree leaves lose their transparency (think switching graphics from Fancy to Fast) at roughly the same point as the vine/grass cutoff. On 360, the mip-mapping is so aggressive that the leaves become almost unrecognizable, but they at least are still transparent.


    God, the more I talk about this, the more ridiculous I feel. I need a nap. -_-

    Posted in: Discussion
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    posted a message on Foliage draw distance is too low.

    To start off, yes, I know this is a huge nitpick, and yes, I know that you can circumvent this entirely in non-realm worlds provided your chunk view distance is high enough (as foliage rendering scales up with it). This "issue" only presents itself on Realms or if you play at a chunk view distance below 10 or so.


    Here's a screenshot of Minecraft running on Xbox 360. Hardware that's 17 years old now.

    Yeah, it runs at an upscaled 1080p and is running a much older, simpler build of the game, but even at the edge of its 8-9 chunk render distance, vines are still rendered on jungle trees. The same of course applies to grass, reeds, etc. If the chunk is rendered, so are the details.


    Here's a screenshot from my Realm that I took today.

    Yes, that's really a jungle biome. Realms, similar to the Xbox 360/PS3 Edition, have their view distance locked at 8 chunks, however it seems grass, vines, and even bamboo only render within roughly 4-5. I play the game on both a PS4 Pro and a decent-ish PC (i7-4790/GTX 1650/16GB) and both yield the same result, so I don't think platform is relevant here.


    The result of such a short draw distance for foliage is that from even short distances, jungle and plains biomes look quite ugly (it is especially bad if you are high-up and overlooking a plains biome, just empty slabs of green), and just walking through them exhibits a degree of pop-in that I'd compare to a PlayStation 2-era game, as seen in this pitifully recorded GIF taken from the same world:

    For reference, the tree under my crosshair is located at roughly X-1655, and I start walking at X-1731. 70-75 blocks of distance.


    We at the very least should be able to adjust this in the game's Video settings. Realms already has to settle with a paltry view distance. Why make it worse? Worse than a version running on 2005 hardware, even?


    Yeah, it's a side effect of the fact that draw distance for various things has been separated from chunk view distance. As Bedrock is essentially a mobile game (with its phone-grown roots making appearances in more than just this, but that's another topic...), I can see how this would yield some performance boosts on phones/tablets/etc, especially older ones, but such a compromise should not be present on more powerful hardware, is all I'm saying.


    /rant

    Posted in: Discussion
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    posted a message on Why should I play on PS3?

    Old thread here, but I'm mostly commenting just in case anyone in the future stumbles across this and wonders the same thing.


    Content-wise, it's a no brainer. The PS3 edition was left behind at 1.13. At this point, it's missing a gigantic portion of modern Minecraft. There's no real reason to gimp yourself by continuing to play the PS3 version unless you are in some unique circumstances.


    I have a survival world on the PS3 edition that was (and still is) by far my most "successful." Unfortunately, due to my own negligence, I missed the cutoff window for transferring PS3 saves to PS4, and then migrating them to Bedrock, so that world is forever stuck in the past. I load up that world every so often and play around on it a bit for nostalgia. That world was generated in either 1.11 or 1.12 too, so it doesn't even have the aquatic stuff to explore, but it did have enough for me to get the game's Platinum trophy.


    I also revisit all of my old creative world projects, since, again, transferring saves is no longer possible. The biggest is a world wherein I was trying to create a network of major cities/towns/roads/etc across an entire map (and I covered about 30-40%). This is probably my oldest still-surviving project as it was created when the PS3 edition first released in 2013, and I'll still come around every once in a while to make small additions while listening to a podcast or something.


    Those are the only reasons I play on the PS3 edition these days. Gives my console a workout, and I get to re-live the greatness of 4J Studios' vastly superior game interface.


    Other than that, unless you have a friend or two who can only play on PS3, I can't see why you should start a new world there, unless you want to experience Minecraft in an older, simpler state (which is not unprecedented as many OG PC players are Minecraft Alpha loyalists).

    Posted in: MCPS3: Discussion
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    posted a message on More PS3 Game Updates?

    I don't think it's necessarily that they couldn't handle it or lack the power. In fact, I'd guess that the PS3/360/Wii U could run Bedrock versions (like what PS4/XONE/Switch have now) even smoother than the 4J Studios versions we have now, although maybe with some limitations in areas like mob caps and simulation distance.


    The main reason is that, as of 2018, less than 5% of Minecraft players were still playing on these platforms, as stated here.

    It became too small of an audience to cater to with the extra developer time and cost associated with optimizing the game for the 360/PS3's "exotic" (especially in the case of the PS3) hardware setup.

    Posted in: MCPS3: Discussion
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    posted a message on [PS3] Daib's World

    It's been a while (again). Between moving 800 miles down to Florida and taking on new life commitments, I haven't had much time to post, but I've still managed to do quite a bit with my aging PS3 world. As mentioned in the previous post, one of my goals was to settle in to the southeast corner of my map. I chose that area in particular because I believe it to be the only area left on my map with untouched caves and ore veins. I've accomplished not only that, but I've also rebuilt (and improved) my Nether base, and made some other additions to my main/central settlement.



    Starting with my house. In the previous post, I mentioned that my house has a semi-automatic food cooker/storage system. If you look on the top right side, you'll see what looks like an extension hanging off the side of the house. This is the food cooker/storage system. This was built around the time the previous post was made, so I don't remember exactly, but I believe I was originally trying to do something more complex and automated, but gave up due to a lack of room, so just settled for something simple.


    More on the food cooker/storage system:


    It's pretty simple. I put the raw product in at the top, it gets hopper'd in to a furnace, the cooked product gets placed in the chest at the bottom. There's no sorting capability, so there's nothing really stopping you from putting Potatoes in the Beef section or vice versa, but why would you do that? On the outside (bottom picture), the inner workings are exposed and this allows me to refuel the furnaces as I need to (which won't be often, they're stocked with Coal Blocks). I've used this quite a few times surprisingly, but not much. I have an absurdly huge food supply, and rarely find myself waiting around for it.


    More overworld updates:


    I think in my first post about this world, I mentioned that an NPC village was nearby, and that I made attempts (and failed) to protect the villagers that remained (all of them died). I'm now planning to "revive" the village with the cure method, although that could take ages, so I'm really only aiming for about 5 villagers. I've got the entire perimeter walled in, added some trees, a large shared building full of beds, restored/repaired the buildings that were already there, and created some iron golems inside that patrol around. Truthfully, I don't expect to get far with this, but at least the interior looks cool, I guess.



    My auto-harvesting wheat farm is now 3 floors. It basically uses pistons to inhibit/release a channel of water to harvest the wheat, then it gets pushed in to long chains of hoppers that bring it down to my collection chest. The bottom floor only has one "plot," while the second and third floors have two plots (two water channels/piston arrays on each side). Five 6x10 plots (300 blocks total) yielding me at least 100 bread per harvest, but usually a bit more. Potatoes are my main food source now (used to be Fish for a large part of my playthrough), but bread makes a good backup. Side note: Harvesting with this incurs a framerate drop so severe it's actually hilarious. Thankfully it only lasts until all the wheat is harvested and passing through hoppers.



    Behind the wheat harvester is my world's newest addition: the train station/hub. My world has a lot of little bases and points of interest I've built over the 2.5 years I've played on it, and rather than walking to all of them, I'd like to connect them all with a vast minecart network.


    Inside:


    Inside is pretty simple. I've got seven slots/destinations/stations for tracks, as well as one in the back (bottom picture) that goes to my first house. It's the only track finished so far. 8 destinations sounds like a lot, but I'll probably need more to give all of my world's cool buildings/bases/etc some connection.


    Here's some shots of the first track (connecting my settlement to my first "house"):


    It tunnels underground pretty much immediately, just to the side of the wheat harvester. It's not very deep underground - in the second picture you can see just how close it is to the surface (it's the only track underground in the picture). It's so shallow I thought I was gonna end up accidentally carving out some of my paths. Beyond that, in the third picture you can see it finally emerge out of the back of a mountain, where it bridges very close to my Random Y/N Machine (the large glass box poking out). It returns underground beneath a smaller hill, emerges again, and then finally arrives at my first house, the entrance to which you can sort-of make out on the right side of the bottom picture. My first base is actually a lot closer to my main settlement than I thought. Really the only thing separating it is that mountain and small hill that the track cuts in to.



    In my last post, I mentioned showing what the "Wither Battleground" looked like. I call it that because all (2) of my Wither fights have taken place here, in the desert just outside the my settlement (stupidly, dangerously close). Obviously, I added the netherrack and fire for aesthetic, but other than that, all of that destruction and terrain mangling was caused by two angry withers. In the bottom picture you can see my laughably small obsidian shack I used as a spawn point and for protection. It's only right that all future wither battles take place here as well, even if it puts my settlement and all its surrounding infrastructure in jeopardy.


    On to the Nether:


    Here's my fortified nether. Going in through my main base's portal will take you to the tiny cobblestone building seen in the top image. From there, you can see the Netherwart farm directly in front of it, a bridge connecting the area to the nearby Nether Fortress, and the actual "Nether House" in the far back. The Nether House is where I go to enchant all my gear mainly, but I've also got some crafting benches, storage chests, food, supplies, and other things in there, so I could stay for prolonged periods of time without going to the surface if I wanted to.



    In the above images you may have noticed some what looks like some stairs going down in to something. This is the entrance to my "trenches." They're self explanatory. Two blocks deep from the surface, and they allow me to navigate to other areas of the nether without being a feast for Blazes. Before I reset my nether (to fix what I thought was a mob spawning issue), the network of trenches I had down here was actually quite massive. I actually depended on/used them too, since, at that time, I didn't have the powerful weapons/armor that I do now. Plus, I always play on Hard difficulty, so the Nether was pretty risky overall. Nowadays, with the gear I have, these won't really do anything for me, I'm just including them to be faithful to my original creation.



    Terribly concealed, the minecart track that emerges from my Nether base runs to the other side of the Nether to a small cobblestone building that houses another portal. This portal takes you straight to my recently finished desert base (in the aforementioned "final area of interest" at my map's southeast corner). It's pretty useful for getting between both settlements quickly, although the desert settlement will also have its own overworld rail connection as well.


    Now, finally, on to the desert settlement:


    As far as my "secondary bases" go (see previous post for details), this is by far my largest and most well-equipped. It's walled-in on all sides except the front entrance, and I could easily live here permanently. Included is a cacti farm, potato farm, two story house (which in my opinion, is far nicer than the my primary house), a nether portal, and small "garage" (the stone slab roofed building left of the nether portal) where I parked my two llamas, and also have the station post set up for eventual connection to my train station.



    Here's the inside. On the left of the house (and back of the image) is my bed room, with the work room across from it. You'll notice some stairs that go up to the second floor, but there's nothing up there. Literally nothing. Unused. There are some extra furnaces beside the back of the stairs though, as well as a small closet underneath. Wish I grabbed more pictures while I was taking them, but I'm lazy.



    Outside there isn't much to see. This was just to give a better angle of the farms/mining shack. You can also see my house's neat little patio. It's got one upstairs, too.


    So, to reiterate: I built this to give myself a place to live long-term while I clear out the last area of my map with fresh caves and ore veins. Originally, I told myself that once the objective of this settlement was complete, I was just about finished with this map - I had seen all there is to see - but now, I'm thinking I'll give my world the benefit of the doubt. Here's why:


    There are a few tiny areas of my world that I think may have some untapped caves/resources. While some areas of my map are dense with "civilization," (particularly the center and upper areas), there are some that are relatively empty, and I can't help but think that maybe I missed something. Here are the areas I'm talking about specifically:



    As for why I feel I might've missed something, it's either because not much underground mining was done in that area at all (i.e., the snow-tipped mountain region on the far west edge), or not all directions were covered in the mines that already exist (i.e., the Emerald Mine only goes south and a little north, hence why the northwest area is circled. Secondary Base #3's mine mainly goes east, not very far north/northwest). I plan to revisit these areas to see if I'm right or wrong. Only then can I say I've seen all there is to see.


    Unfortunately, my world seems to lack abandoned mineshafts entirely. I'll never see those, at least for now.


    For the time being, I'm gonna milk the southeast region for all it has. Simultaneously I'll be supplying rail connection to all of my bases and connecting them to the station at the main settlement. I have huge reserves of iron, gold, and redstone, but I'm almost positive that this project will deplete nearly all of it, so mining will actually be productive for more than just hoarding.


    I'll also make my way through the circled areas, maybe building some decent housing on the level of the desert settlement in them, rather than the shacks I usually do. Maybe some additional expansion of the main settlement. I'm thinking of building a new house to replace the ugly box that currently sits there, but it would likely be built near the secondary beacon, near what I consider the "entrance" to the base.


    After that, there's not much left for me to do. The PS3 version of the game was left behind at 1.13, and this world was created on what I think was 1.11 or 1.12, so I don't even have the aquatic stuff to explore. There is lots that this world is missing out on. After I clear all of the above objectives, I plan to finally attempt (I say attempt because I've had difficulties uploading this world before) to transfer this world across to the PS4 edition, where I can then finally convert it to bedrock. Ideally, I'll be able to enjoy the benefits of the infinite world/nether while keeping what I already have - particularly the Nether. On PS3 edition, it's just 256x256 in size (IIRC), surrounded on all four sides by bedrock walls. Hopefully I'll be able to just overwrite the edge chunks, but that's still some time away.


    As for why I've stayed on the PS3 edition so long to begin with (other than the issues I've had uploading the world to PS4 before), it just gives me a reason to use the PS3 I have in my home office. I also quite like the PS3 controller, and of course playing on the PS3 means I get to enjoy the 4J version of the game, mostly their UI, which - even on a platform as old as the PS3 - responds lightning fast, in stark contrast to the Bedrock version running on a PS4 Pro. This is inexcusable, but I've already ranted about that in another thread, so I will let it go.


    That's all for now.

    _______________________________________________________


    Update (October 29th, 2020)


    It's been a while, again. I don't have any new images or significant world updates to discuss, so I didn't think this warranted a new/separate post. My desert settlement's mineshaft has grown to be super big and complex, I've discovered more untouched cave systems than what I previously speculated, and I'm so rich that it's ridiculous. Truthfully, continuing to play on this world is a challenge. The PS3 version is now three major updates behind in terms of content, and I've done just about all there is to do.


    To remedy this, I was gonna go against my original plans (which were to mine this world clean/develop it more before bringing it to the newer versions). I jumped ahead and attempted to upload it to the PS4 version, where it could then be converted to Bedrock, but I discovered that Microsoft, for reasons beyond me, actually disabled this functionality for PlayStation consoles (not Xbox, as far as I know) back in April of this year. Maybe it's my fault for not paying attention and missing the deadline, but the reality is this: Daib's World is forever trapped on PlayStation 3.


    Bringing this world to modern Minecraft would've given me the motivation I needed to continue playing on it; to see the world that existed beyond the PS3's size limit, and have access to all the new biomes, mobs, blocks, and items. While the PS3 version was left behind at 1.13 (the Aquatic update), this world was generated on either 1.11 or 1.12, so it even lacks Aquatic Update features like sea grass and temples.


    Since I am unable to bring this world to the present and future with me, coupled with decreasing interest in it after having done everything, this will be the conclusion/closure of this world journal.


    I will never delete the world or get rid of my PS3 (and I'll even continue playing this world here and there), but I have already moved on to a new world on the Nintendo Switch version, so I can play in bed/on the go. Since I also own the game on PS4 and PC (a desktop and laptop), I can use my Switch as a portable server of sorts to play this new world anywhere or any way I want to. That's one thing I'll give Bedrock credit for.


    I lament the obsolescence of my PS3 world. It was my most successful by far, and was my last excuse to play 4J's vastly superior console implementation of Minecraft. If 4J was able to keep their version on PS4, expand in to infinite worlds, and lighten up on the mob/entity caps, I'd be playing that version now, but I digress. I can rant about this for ages (and have already done so in this thread, funnily enough), but I'll stop there.


    I hope this new world can come close to how developed this one was, and I hope I have just as much fun getting it there.


    This is the end. Thanks for reading, if you did.

    Posted in: Minecraft: Editions Show Your Creation
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    posted a message on Bedrock on PS4: The Pros and Cons

    Bedrock on PS4 has been around for a while, but I'm only just now giving it a proper chance. I'm pleased with a lot of things, but also displeased with just as many. I'm curious to see the consensus here.


    Pros:

    • Removal of limitations (like the entity/mob cap. I don't know for sure if Bedrock has one that's just super high, or it doesn't have one at all)
    • Infinite worlds. This is a big one for me.
    • More timely updates
    • Crossplay and servers (though I don't think the latter is available on PS4 yet).
    • Graphics and FOV options, more options in general, really.
    • There are some nice QoL touches, like being able to "craft all" at once, among others I probably haven't come across yet.

    I like those things a lot. What I don't like, however:

    • The UI. Another user in a similar thread stated that the UI exists as it does because it's for multiple platforms. That just doesn't make sense. With the likes of Microsoft backing Mojang, I see no reason why resources couldn't be put towards creating a UI (at least for the console ports) that doesn't feel straight out of a mobile game - because when playing the game, that's what it feels like. Like I'm playing a phone game with my PS4 controller. The UI is also overall slower to respond. Anything from accessing the pause/settings menus to opening up chests and furnaces incurs a delay that I can't help but notice. It's almost like the CPU is struggling to handle it, when it absolutely shouldn't be. I had to go back to Editions for a short time to copy one of my pre-Bedrock worlds, and 4J's UI is just so fast and snappy in comparison (not to mention much more thoughtfully organized with more tabs/sections, and easier to navigate) that I couldn't believe it. It's also just much nicer to look at, and feels like it was properly crafted for the console experience (because it literally was). The new one, not so much. This is perhaps my biggest issue with bedrock, highlighted by just how often you have to engage with the UI throughout the course of play.
    • I'm not a fan of the sky distortion/enlargement when staring at the sunset, nor the dimming when staring at the sun mid-day. I wish there was an option to disable it. Movement overall also feels more floaty than in Editions.
    • Needlessly short draw distance on other players, and their animations are noticeably not as smooth as in Editions.
    • The changes to redstone mechanics is another big one for me.

    Overall, there are more things I like about bedrock than dislike, and, other than the UI problem, my issues are minor at best. It's just the fact that when I play it, I feel like I'm playing a game that was not at all created for the platform it runs on. It has "phone/tablet" written all over it, and feels like I'm playing a passionate fan's mostly-faithful interpretation of Minecraft, not Minecraft. It's mostly all in my head, and having grown up with the Java edition for nearly ten years and 4J's versions for 8 has spoiled me, I guess.


    What are this forum's thoughts?

    Posted in: MCPS4: Discussion
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    posted a message on What Biomes Are In Minecraft Wii U?

    As far as I know, based on some quick glances at the wiki, it would seem the only biome not present in the Wii U version is the Bamboo Jungle. I'm sure there are a few others, but the Wii U version was discontinued only 2 updates ago, so there shouldn't be much.


    Edit: Just realized this was from January. Woops.

    Posted in: MCWiiU: Discussion
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    posted a message on Weren't they called 'Redstone Delays'?!?! Mandela effect or madness?!?!

    They might've been referred to as delays informally (i.e. "you'll want a delay right here" in a tutorial video, or something) but never officially.

    Posted in: MCX360: Discussion
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    posted a message on Weren't they called 'Redstone Delays'?!?! Mandela effect or madness?!?!

    They were never called Redstone Delays. It's always been repeaters. Sometimes I've heard "diode," but before repeater blocks, even those two-torch contraptions people used to extend redstone signals were called repeaters.

    Posted in: MCX360: Discussion
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    posted a message on Daib's Retrospective Survival World
    Quote from Joey_San»

    I had been playing Beta 1.0 and was amazed at how much the feel of the game has changed. Though I did play Minecraft Classic when it was a thing for a hot minute, I joined well after the official release, at 1.4.2, so I missed a lot of stuff. Old Minecraft really feels much more like a zen sandbox than today's game, because there is no pressure to complete anything. Now, we have boss mobs, raids, advancements, and big generated structures which somewhat "force" us towards an end goal (even though there isn't one). Not so with pre-1.0, and I think that's why I enjoy playing it. You literally have to create your own goals - something I have always enjoyed about this game. Seems like you're doing that well here.




    Indeed. The feel of the game is certainly different. I started playing in either August or September of 2010, so the change in "feel" has been so gradual for me that I don't quite notice it until I go back and play these old versions. I know exactly what you mean; it's certainly not forced, but you almost feel funneled in to something. I find it easy to ignore though. The way I play here is pretty much identical to the way I play modern Minecraft.


    Anyways,


    Entry 3 - Infdev


    I've been busy. The tower looks dumb, I know, but it's supposed to be a beacon for navigation purposes, and, since there is no sneaking yet, I didn't dare to build anything more complex that high up. There's a bit to go over, so I'll start at what I've designated as the "gate," seen in the bottom left.



    First up and to the right is this cave system - the first cave system I explored in this world, and one that's actually pretty extensive. I've rung it pretty dry, so at this point it's a landmark if anything.



    Next up is my house. I wanted an excuse to use the signs (which, in this version, were absolute units compared to what they are now), and couldn't think of anything else, so we are left with "HOUSE." Out front is a fountain of sorts, but really it's just an easily accessible infinite water source, which came in handy when constructing the greenhouse right next to it (more on that later). Behind the fountain is a staircase leading up to the second floor entrance, with the first floor entrance being down on the left.



    Here's the view from the second floor entrance. Fences didn't exist yet, so I just used half slabs in their place. That hole in the ground to my left is a ladder to go between floors, since there's no staircase inside.



    Views of the second floor, and its connection to the greenhouse (the only way to access it). As you can see, it's in pretty poor shape. I can only imagine because passive mobs weren't limited to grass only when spawning.



    The bottom floor is pretty empty - I'm not sure what to do with it. The staircase to my right connects to a network of tunnels underground that connect various things throughout my base. More on that later.



    To the left of my home - this odd looking structure - is the entrance to my underground mushroom farm. It doubles as an entrance to the aforementioned underground network as well. Climbing down and heading to the right takes you to the mushroom farm. I actually don't know for sure if the mechanics for this even existed at the time, but I tried anyways. Doesn't matter either way, as I've already got mushroom stew out of it.



    Heading down and going left instead will take you to this - the "garage." It's essentially a minecart station, although minecarts aren't ride-able yet. Eventually, other bases will connect here via rails.

    That's pretty much all there is to the "underground network" portion. It's laid out like this:



    Next - just outside the garage - I've added some more pathing, and off in the distance there is a dock for when I travel to and from this base via the eventual addition of boats. Curiously, this thrown-together farm fares better than the dedicated greenhouse.



    Finally, the tower. It's accessed via my original base/mine. A ladder takes you to the top, where it offers a pretty nice view.


    --



    Here's some shots of one of the larger cave systems I've come across. This brings me to the subject of caving in general. Perhaps I just got unlucky with my world, but modern Minecraft truly spoils us. I've come across less than 5 notable (aka, deep/extensive enough to find gold/lava lakes/fountains) caves. Ore veins aren't as common, and the veins I come across aren't as fruitful. I've yet to find diamonds in a cave - I only found three, and that was in my strip mine. Strip mining is how I usually find my caves in the game. I mine at various levels (but rarely above 40) and just happen to come across them. Doing so in this world, however, has yielded very poor results. No caves, just mostly small rooms with lava lakes in them. It's disappointing, but I'll continue to strip mine until I at least find enough diamonds to have both a pickaxe and sword.


    That is the point at which I will update to the next version.


    I'm unsure at this point if I will go through each and every update or skip around. I'll likely do every other update, or skip two, unless I find a reason to do otherwise. In any case, the next version will be Alpha 1.0.4, the next one up in the launcher. For now, I will stick to this, but not for much longer.

    Posted in: Survival Mode
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    posted a message on Daib's Retrospective Survival World
    Quote from TheMasterCaver»

    This was a bug which was fixed in Beta 1.8, with the same issue affecting caves in the Nether until release 1.5:

    MC-7196 Nether cave/tunnel generator produces incorrect/cut tunnels (caused by using the same common RNG, rather than a separate one for the tunnels themselves, which unpredictably changes the sequence due to an optimization which checks if a tunnel can reach the current chunk, aborting if it can't to save CPU cycles)

    Notably, there are similar bugs that still exist as of the latest version (as far as I know my own mods are the only ones that fix them, or in the case of the last one, never had them):

    MC-7200 Cave/tunnel generation may cut tunnels a bit too soon (fix included) (caused by an incorrect distance calculation in the aforementioned optimization, easily fixed)

    MC-125033 Caves and ravines cut off unnaturally on chunk borders when near water (caused by the cave generator not able to see across chunk borders and the water check excluding entire segments; I changed this to be per-block and have a post-generation step that fixes water next to caves along chunk borders. This is particularly noticeable with other cave mods that produce large caves, while in TMCW they smoothly follow the contours of water)

    MC-172887 Circular caves below lava level in the Nether do not align at chunk boundaries (caused by caves not generating if there is any lava in their way, including lava placed by caves themselves; I avoided this by only checking for lava above layer 15, above cave lava level but below the deepest lava seas. Also, this does not happen in older versions, including 1.6.4, the version I mod, since Nether caves didn't have lava, while I added it using the same checks I use in the Overworld, which only checks for water within the depth range of oceans to save on calculations)


    Should've known I'd summon TheMasterCaver when I mentioned cave generation. ;) That's odd. I didn't think the bug was around for that long, as I can't recall it presenting itself as commonly in the later Beta versions. My memory could just be bad. I do slightly recall reading some patch notes around the time Beta released (maybe a few updates after) that pointed out cave continuity; specifically addressing the thin, sometimes porous walls that would intersect/separate tunnels, which I talked about up there. I'd have to double check the wiki to make sure I wasn't dreaming that up, though.


    --


    Entry 2 - Infdev


    Did some sight-seeing to see what I have to work with. My "house" is around the top left of the bottom picture. While biomes weren't officially a thing yet, it's pretty clear to that some rudimentary form of them still existed, though there isn't much more than dense forests, plains, and of course the ridiculous, often deformed mountains that everyone fondly remembers. I'm trying not to explore too much outside of my base area, as I don't want to have to venture far to find new chunks for things like the upcoming additions of redstone and dungeons.



    Later on I got to experience how adorably awful the mob AI used to be. The creeper didn't pursue me like a heat-seeking missile as they do in modern Minecraft, but instead moved its head around erratically while walking in my very general direction. Below that you can see how ridiculously short the skeleton's arrow range was. They're hardly a threat in this version. Also of note is that, here, skeletons walk with their arms constantly outstretched, but do not have a bow visibly equipped. The arrows just sort of appear from their ribs.



    Back inside my house, I added a room and began this 3x3 vertical mine. I usually always just do staircases to Y-11 and branch mine from there, but I wanted to do something different. This particular design always reminds me of:


    the series that introduced me to the game. The "particular design" appears at 3:38 onward.

    Had to put that in a spoiler because trying to text-link the YouTube video just made the entire video appear instead. Anyways,



    I've built this peasant-tier farm. I will of course do something better later, but this is fine for now.


    Some interesting things I discovered while building:


    1. Grass grows back really fast. That grass you see in the top picture grew just seconds after mining away the grass block above it.
    2. I haven't checked the wiki, but tool durability definitely seems worse across the board. In the bottom picture, this entire field I tilled (which was required, as the only way to obtain seeds as of this version was via random drops when tilling grass) went through two iron hoes, almost three, as you can see. To be fair, I went over this same area at least three times, but the same is true of pickaxes, shovels, and axes - nothing lasts as long.
    3. I forgot stairs weren't in the game yet, so settled for half slabs when I realized the crafting recipe for stone slabs called for cobblestone instead of stone.


    So, here's where my "settlement" stands as of now. It's truly hideous - almost laughable. I plan to construct something similar to what I did in my original thread, but I've been more or less focused on mining and exploring the "quirks and features" (as Doug Demuro would say) of this version. Maybe I'll start on that next time.

    Posted in: Survival Mode
  • 1

    posted a message on Daib's Retrospective Survival World

    A few years ago I made this thread, wherein I began with Minecraft Infdev, and moved through the updates with each journal entry. The goal was to play all the way up until the current version, and have a large explored area above ground so you can see the changes in terrain generation as the game developed, among other things.


    After getting a new laptop recently, I decided to give that another go, except a bit differently. Rather than have each entry roll over to the next version, I will play on a single version for as long as necessary until I feel I've gotten the most out of it (meaning a single version could encompass multiple entries).


    Entry #1


    We begin, again, with InfDev. Particularly the build released on June 18th of 2010, as the numbers in its name (provided in the launcher) would indicate. This is neither the first or last InfDev build, but it is the build that contained the very first Seecret Friday Update. In my original thread I mentioned the Brick Pyramids, and the possibility of seeing them in the available Infdev build, but I am unable to find anything concrete pertaining to when they were removed. This website says March 27th, 2010, in my original thread I somehow came up with June 27th, 2010, and this forum post shows a user discovering one in June of 2018. Perhaps that forum user is able to run even older Infdev builds; otherwise, I can't imagine how he found that. In spite of my confidence the first time around, it seems Brick Pyramids won't be a possibility here, but there's plenty to look back on, experience, and compare to what we have now.



    This update (Seecret Friday Update 1, infdev061810) added the following to Minecraft:


    • Minecarts and Minecart Tracks added.
    • Gravel and sand fall realistically.
    • Falling off bottom of map kills the player.
    • Sky rendering tweaked.




    Something very interesting about minecarts that I did not know when making my original thread: originally, minecarts could not be ridden. Instead, they were used as storage (source), with a rising amount of dirt inside the minecart indicating how full it is (example). I'm definitely gonna get my hands on that, but first, I'll need a home:


    It isn't much right now, but my primary focus is on mining. There's a few interesting things to note early on.

    • This game likes to spawn tons of pigs.
    • White wool (and you didn't need shears to get more than once piece) appeared more gray than white. In addition, wool was used to craft leather armor (called cloth armor) instead of leather, as cows didn't exist yet.
    • The door's inventory thumbnail was completely opaque, though the door model itself is still roughly the same as it is today.
    • The top side of furnaces did not have their own texture, instead just using the stone texture.

    Sorry if the flow of this post seems disjointed, it's mostly because I type the post up while I play along. Anyways, some interesting things about caves in ancient Minecraft.



    A lot of cave branches end in thin corridors like this, where one side of the wall is clearly the "cave" (rugged walls) and the other appears to be almost completely flat, as if the cave tried to generate across to a neighboring chunk but couldn't for whatever reason. This reminds me a lot of running in to the world border underground in the old console versions of Minecraft, except in this case it's obviously not the world edge.


    Sometimes you'll even get this:


    Instances where the cave appears to end, except for a hole precisely one block large that clearly shows that the system continues. I see this just as frequently as I see the aforementioned thin/flat cave corridors. Caving overall is a very different experience to modern-day Minecraft, to no one's surprise I'm sure. Ore veins specifically are much less generous, with less blocks per vein.



    A couple more shots of my short caving trip. At the top is what appears to be a "circle room," I didn't think those were implemented this far back. I took the next picture because I always favored the older lava texture.


    The cave goes on and gets much larger, but I didn't feel confident going forward until I could go home and stock up. While there, I had enough iron to create this:


    That...is a Minecart. Seriously, I have no idea what that is supposed to even be. It's most certainly a Minecart though, as confirmed when I placed it down. I even checked the wiki to make sure the icon actually looked like this at one point and wasn't a glitch.


    And here we have it,

    Minecart chest, without the chest.


    It's as unexciting as it looks, but it's just so quirky I couldn't help myself. I also like the appearance. I stacked it full of dirt, and will leave it here as is. I'm curious to see what will happen to the storage once this system is removed and they are replaced with Chest minecarts.


    That was my goal for this session - I might actually use these minecarts for more than just experimentation; if you check my thread for my PS3 world you'll find I'm a huge fan of rails. With that out of the way, this entry is concluded. For the next entry, I will remain in Infdev, and work on properly settling in my surrounding area.


    Misc tidbits and quirks from my original thread:


    • There is no sound. To my knowledge, the oldest version of Minecraft with functioning sound is Alpha 1.1.2_01. Whether a fix has been found, I wouldn't know. For now, my game is played in silence.
    • Dropped items did not have a rotating 3D model like they do now.
    • Instead, they were flat sprites that rotated based on the direction from
      which the player was looking at them.
    • Right clicking a door yields no animation from the player. The door simply opens/closes.
    • Left clicking also opens doors, with the added bonus of player
      animation.
    Posted in: Survival Mode
  • 0

    posted a message on [PS3] Daib's World

    A lot has changed in the world since last time I've posted about it. I played on it in bursts from January-February and then through Summer of 2018, with breaks in between. I've come back to it recently, and decided to show how much it's grown.



    There's a lot going on here, so I'll just list off all the things in my settlement:

    • Main Base. A simple two-story house. Not a looker. Downstairs: Primary work area (crafting bench, furnaces etc), most of my storage, brewing station with "built-in" unlimited water source, fenced-in area for dogs, basement, cacti-powered trash hole. Upstairs: bed, storage for valuables, semi-auto food cooker/storage system.
    • Nearby Skeleton Spawner. Nearby is no exaggeration, it's literally in the cave to the immediate right of my house. It's so close that right out front I have a minecart track that takes me to it, which you might be able to make out.
    • Egg Farm. Basically just a name-tagged chicken trapped in a cage with a hopper. This was super important to me early on, but since I've got all the arrows I could ever need, a bow with Infinity, and 27 stacks of eggs, I don't really rely on it anymore, like, at all. Maybe I'll let the chicken go.
    • Nether Portal. Self explanatory.
    • Farm District. Where you see the Chorus growing is where I keep most of my farm's. There's of course Chorus, but in the larger building behind it I grow melons, pumpkins, potatoes, wheat, and carrots. Potatoes take up the overwhelming majority of space in there now, whereas before it was mostly wheat. Behind that larger building is a smaller annex where I grow beets.
    • Dock. Behind the farm buildings is the dock. Early on this didn't get much use, until I started expanding more and building things in places across that body of water.
    • Random Yes/No Machine. On the bottom left, you'll see some redstone. To the right of that is a staircase that goes a few blocks underground to a Yes/No machine I've built in to a shallow cave. It's basically a random number generator that returns a 3-bit output. If the output is even or zero, the answer is yes. If it's odd, no. Serves me no purpose, but I thought it was cool at the time nonetheless.
    • Sugarcane Farm. Pretty easy to identify this one - it's at the bottom. This is small but I've never needed more sugarcane than what I get out of this.
    • Cacti Farm. Super small. Only gives me 6 cacti per harvest, but I never found myself needing more than that.
    • Cobblestone Generator 1.0. This was made way early on, before I even had a nether portal, so it operated using a clock. It got the job done, but wasn't the most efficient.
    • Cobblestone Generator 2.0. This one was built once I had gone to the nether and could craft an observer block. Better in every way. Nowadays I spend most of my time mining/caving, so I end up with so much cobblestone that neither of these two generators are really needed anymore.
    • AFK Fish Farm. Having this so early was clutch. Most of my enchantments came from books received through this, my primary food source was fish for a very long time because I'd come out with so much. I was hitting level 40+ before I ever had more than one diamond tool, so accessing even better enchantments and combining the ones I already had provided me a massive boost. I've read that the aquatic update broke many AFK fish farm designs. It either didn't break this particular design, or the new water mechanics weren't implemented in their entirety on PS3, because I tested it before posting this and it still works fine. That said, I have pretty godly enchantments on everything now, and I have a ridiculous abundance of potatoes that have replaced fish as my primary food source, and I can get more levels in less time by just resetting the End and killing the dragon again, so I don't really need this anymore either.
    • Mob Pen (Front). In the front I plan to keep one of every ride-able mob in the game. So far I've got two llamas and a pig.
    • Mob Pen (Back). I planned to breed animals and keep them in the back half. Never really got around to it, and honestly don't see the point now.
    • Item Sorter. The huge cobblestone rectangle to the left of the white beacon. Sorts in to five categories: Coal, Iron, Gold, Diamond, and then everything else that isn't Cobblestone. Was built as a proof of concept really, I never used it for anything beyond testing it out.
    • Semi-Automatic Harvester Thing. Just behind the item sorter is a multi-story wheat farm. With the flick of a lever, some pistons rise up, water flows, and all the wheat is harvested. The wheat, along with the seeds, are then thrown in to rows of hoppers. I don't rely on it or anything. It, like the item sorter, was a proof of concept. However, also like the item sorter, I'd like to incorporate it a more delicately designed version in to massive, decked out successor to my house someday.
    • Fountain. Fountain.
    • Food Storage Building. The weird shaped building near the bottom right (with stone slabs on the roof) is where I will eventually store my excess food. I have so much of it, I'd like to walk in to a building and have it all there, organized by type, so it isn't taking up space in my house. It'll kinda be like a big, pointless fridge or pantry. I keep four stacks of potatoes on me at all times, so it's not like I'll go there too often, or that the time it takes to get from the house to the storage building will ultimately matter.
    • Cocoa Farm. Near the center of the image you may be able to make out the cocoa farm. A path runs through it. It's super small, but I can't imagine needing much. There's no jungle on this map, and I didn't come across any in Dungeon chests (I don't think they can be found that way anymore, though), so I did have to cheat. I gave myself some jungle tree saplings, a few jungle logs, and 8 cocoa beans. In my defense - this is the first time, I had already platinum'd this world, "beat the game," and established myself quite nicely, and I couldn't help that I didn't get a jungle biome. I have sort of an honor system though - if I have to cheat, I sacrifice something. In this case, I threw away 16 diamonds in exchange for all that.
    • Primary Beacon (Purple) and Secondary Beacon (White). Most of the expansion of my settlement took place in one direction - east. Didn't feel like moving my first beacon (purple) and its area of effect cut off once I got to the food sorter/wheat harvester area (what I call the "Experiments district"), so I grinded out some wither skulls and built another, smaller beacon, so that this area of my settlement could receive bonuses as well.
    • Guest House (incomplete). The unfinished building just below the white beacon will be a guest house. I plan on having friends join this world and should they not want to build a house of their own, they'll have this well-equipped guest house to use instead.
    • Minecart system. I don't have a hub or anything where all of my various tracks meet. Instead I just have small stations (consists of a stone pillar, powered rail, and a button) scattered around, and quite a few of them.
      • #1. Takes me to the aforementioned skeleton spawner.
      • #2. Takes me to the dock.
      • #3. Takes me to my mini-base in the mountains, where I have my emerald mine.
      • #4. Takes me to my stronghold.
      • #5. A shortcut line that goes from my house, to the white beacon, so I can get back to that area quickly if I don't feel like walking.
      • #6. A 500 meter track that I needed for one of the trophies.

    That's pretty much all there is to talk about regarding my settlement. I used to have a rather fortified nether as well - which is where I always put my nether wart farms and enchanting rooms - but I reset my nether because I noticed a huge decrease in the spawning of hostile mobs. Resetting it seemed to fixed the issue, which I needed done so I could farm wither skeletons for skulls. Lost all that I had built down there though, so I'm in the process of reconstructing that.


    I don't have anything noteworthy built in the End either. I don't like to waste space, and to not build anything cool or useful in the End/Nether feels like waste to me, so eventually I'll do something with the End as well.


    On to my map:


    Once the underground/caves around and beneath my main base had been stripped of just about everything, I had to go elsewhere to mine to avoid running in to already-explored caves and whatnot. This is why there are so many Secondary Bases. I'll go over all the points here:

    • Main Base. See previous bullet list.
    • Stronghold. Self explanatory.
    • Emerald Mine. A small base built in to the side of a mountain which goes down to a mine. Located in a Hills biome of course, so I can find emeralds. An interesting quirk of this place is that the base is built right next to an above-ground spider spawner.
    • First House. Self explanatory. Wasn't really much of a house, it was kinda underground with a natural moat.
    • Secondary Base 1. A birch wood cabin with its own little farm. I put effort in to the construction of this one, as I planned to be stationed here for a long time, hence the inclusion of a small farm. It's built on the water and has its own dock, giving the dock back at my main base some use.
    • Secondary Base 2. Another cabin (spruce). No farm this time, but behind the cabin is a cave I found that's pretty much a straight-down pit to Redstone level, opening up in to a massive cave system. This was the "mine" for this base. It too had effort put in to it, as I planned to stay here a while.
    • Secondary Base 3. This one is just an underground base built in to the foundation of a woodland mansion. No real amenities beyond a bed, furnaces, crafting bench, mine, etc.
    • Secondary Base 4. A small fort built in to a hill.
    • Secondary Base 5. Just a staircase that goes down to Y11 with a checkpoint for furnaces, crafting, storage. Not even a bed. Hardly passes as a base.
    • Base 1 was built super early on, probably before I went to the Nether. I actually stayed here for quite a while. Base 2 and 3 were built a while after that, but I didn't really stay at either of them for longer than a few game days. Base 4 and 5 were built very recently, within the past couple weeks. They were each inhabited for only a few days. Base 1 was the only one I properly "lived" at for a while.
    • Wither Battleground. This is where both of my wither fights took place. Absolutely destroyed the land. I thought this was far away enough from my main base that there was no danger, but I had some close calls with stray projectiles. This is also where I'll host all of my future wither battles, for tradition. Maybe I'll post a picture because this war-torn desert is quite a sight to see.

    I've done just about all there is to do. So what's next? Well, I don't have a water temple in this world, so that's out. Nor do i have any of the new structures brought with the aquatic update. I do want to find a fossil, and I'd like to utilize potions more (but don't really see the need to). In addition, I plan to reconstruct the fortifications I had in my nether, continue the expansion of my settlement in all directions, re-slay the dragon and clear the end city, and settle what I've marked as "Next Area of Interest."


    This is the last corner of my map that I believe is truly untouched, with fresh caves, ore veins, and all. Everywhere else I've rung pretty dry, in terms of caves at the very least, as well as the Y4-Y15 layers (where I always make my branch mines). Beyond walking around to uncover the map, I've never done anything here, so I've flattened a rather large area and plan to build a proper home, where I will live for a while, eventually connecting it to my main base. Of course the main goal is to take full advantage of the untapped underground. My plan is to not return home until I have a stack of each valuable ore's block - 64 iron blocks, 64 gold blocks, 64 diamond blocks (this one may not be possible). And of course tons and tons of coal, lapis, and redstone.


    I'll post again once my new base is built and I'm all moved in.

    Posted in: Minecraft: Editions Show Your Creation
  • 1

    posted a message on Do you think ps4 will come to bedrock?

    I hope not. Having played the Xbox One port of Bedrock, it just looks and feels awful. Camera and player movement feels off, the UI is ugly, being very "smartphone/tablet" in its design and slower to respond than Legacy Console/PS4 version (maybe that's console specific, though), and I'm not a fan of the discrepancies in the redstone and visual departments (although that last bit is subjective).


    Unfortunately, for cross-play to exist, the PS4 version will have to make the transition. All other platforms on the LC codebase have been discontinued. Surely Mojang will want to unify their workflow and focus only on Bedrock and Java. PS4 is the only remaining outlier, as far as the "main games" are concerned. I can see it making sense financially to make the switch.


    Shame though. Redstone oddities, world size limits, structural generation advantages, and things like entity caps aside (all of which I feel can be fixed), 4J's truly was the superior looking and feeling console version.


    Maybe playing the Java version since mid 2010, and 4J's versions across multiple consoles since 2012, has made Bedrock's differences feel gross to me. I'm sure to newer players it makes no difference.

    Posted in: MCPS4: Discussion
  • 0

    posted a message on UPDATES ON XBOX 360 ON MINECRAFT

    The "problem" won't be solved. The Xbox 360 Edition, along with the PS3, Vita, and Wii U, were discontinued some time after they got the Aquatic update. Mojang commented some time ago that less than 5% of active Minecraft players did so on these last gen consoles. It was no longer profitable to keep them up to date. It was honestly very good-hearted on 4J's part that last-gen consoles got the Aquatic update at all.


    Source

    Posted in: MCX360: Discussion
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