
The ArdaCraft project seeks to recreate Tolkien’s Middle-earth in Minecraft - smackay
https://ardacraft.me/
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Jaruzel
There's lots of great efforts out there of people building big open worlds in
their platforms of choice. What worries me is when these platforms are no
longer in vogue, all this work will be lost in time[1]. Once VR, in one way or
another, is mainstream we're going to look back at this era of creativity and
be saddened at what was lost, unless there is an effort to standardise all
this 3D data (and assets) and archive it all off somewhere.

\--

[1] like tears in the rain.

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Cthulhu_
I don't know exactly, but, I think the Minecraft storage format is pretty
straightforward - a 3D bitmap, effectively. There were loads of 3rd party
applications interfacing with the application years ago, ranging from external
design applications, a live Kinect-into-minecraft thing, etcetera; I have no
doubts that the Minecraft data format will be very archivable and that an open
source viewer will be relatively easy to make. See also:
[https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Programs_and_editors/Mapping](https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Programs_and_editors/Mapping)

~~~
zaarn
NBT and the newer compressed mapformat Anvil (developed from MCChunks mod if
memory serves correctly) is not that straightforward to parse and lots of
tools easily corrupt Minecraft worlds. In addition to that, you can then
compress again using gzip or zlib (with little indication of which you picked
other than "try and see which one crashes"), in some cases certain NBT files
cannot be compressed in others only one compression is allowed.

The data is also big endian, unlike most computers use internally (unless you
use Pocket version then it's little endian, and again, isn't specified which
to use).

The current anvil format isn't a simple 3d bitmap either, it uses various
method to compress out empty space from the 3d bitmap and leaves out any
chunks that weren't changed at all since generated.

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kawsper
That map thing is pretty cool, I found two people running around chatting on
the server, and I was able to watch their conversation in real-time
[https://cdn.servnice.com/screenie/6HM6m94cN5r9rev.jpg](https://cdn.servnice.com/screenie/6HM6m94cN5r9rev.jpg)

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calessian
A vaguely similar project, for the world of George R. R. Martin:
[http://www.westeroscraft.com/](http://www.westeroscraft.com/)

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darekkay
The site is not loading for me (too much traffic?).

Here is an archive version:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20180731090017/https://ardacraft...](https://web.archive.org/web/20180731090017/https://ardacraft.me/)

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S4M
As someone who never played Minecraft, I am curious how many men hours it took
to build all of this. It's beautiful.

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hyperion2010
What an amazing effort. Now what would it take to entice the creation of
Númenor and Beleriand....

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JoeDaDude
Very cool. I tinkered with creating a mini-game of Barsoom, the Mars of Edgar
Rice Burroughs' John Carter series, in Minecraft. It would be great to create
the whole planet.

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akuji1993
I think the site is experiencing the Hug of Death a bit.

~~~
sohkamyung
Curious: is "Hug of Death" the 'official' term given to sites that suddenly
experience a huge load after being featured on HN, like the "Slashdot Effect"
in the past?

~~~
Dylan16807
If you're asking whether it's a common term, yes.

If you're asking whether it's the _most_ common term, that sounds hard to
figure out.

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yreg
It's the most common one on reddit at least.

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ekianjo
It's not Tolkien's Middle-Earth, it's Peter's Jackson's version of Tolkien's
Middle-Earth. The movie(s) is/are NOT the book.

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Fornad
Hey - project admin here. We're recreating it based on the book. Our Rivendell
for example is very different to the one in the film:
[https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/rivendell-4035048/](https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/rivendell-4035048/)

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FlyMcFly
Are those blocks? That’s adorable! Toddlers love this.

Personally the blocky/pixel look is dated, but it’s new to someone, kids.

~~~
wingerlang
Do you know what Minecraft is? Asking because you seem surprised at the style.

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_Codemonkeyism
"ArdaCraft seeks to recreate J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth"

Could someone fill me in if it's JRR Tolkien or Jackson Middle-earth? Couln't
find it on the site or from the images.

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chii
Why are they different?

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KineticLensman
Some differences are due to the intrinsic difference between film and print
media[e.g. 1], others are due to Jackson’s changes to the plot [e.g. 2]

[1] using visual cues in place of narrative

[2] compressing multiple characters into one, changing the places where
certain events happen, making some characters the token comedy guy or token
kid

