Looking Outwards 6 – Minecraft Map

By Eamonn Burke

https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/File:Map_Zoom_4.png

This is a map from the video game Minecraft developed by Markus Persson. Every time a new “world” is started, the map is randomly generated to include a variety of biomes, oceans, and other features. What I admire about this computational art is that it makes the game infinitely engaging and fun. You never know exactly what kind of map scape you’ll get, which lends to never-ending exploration every time you start a new world.

Minecraft worlds are built on a grid, so I would guess that each map has a random amount of “blocks” designated for each biome (including 0) centered around random x and y coordinates. I would also guess that the terrain height has a random range, but are biased in ways so that mountains and caves are created with Perlin noise. As far as non-landscape features, like villages and temples, these are probably plotted randomly as well, with more common features like villages having higher probability distributions.

Persson’s creative sensibilities came in knowing how to bias the randomness -creating realistic landscapes using appropriate ranges and logical conditions. He also was able to create an incredibly immersive game conducive to exploration and creation, despite choosing “outdated” graphics.