Zeph's Next Project: Britannia in Minecraft
Zeph — whom most of you should recognize from his Ultima-themed texture pack for Minecraft — sent me an email this morning to announce a new project that he has been working on. Yes, it’s still a Minecraft-targeted undertaking, but it’s something a little bit bigger (and a little bit more awesome) than a new set of textures:
So, with updates to Minecraft’s texture files becoming more infrequent, I’ve decided to break ground on a new, but related project. I had made reference to this project a while ago, but started in on it for real only recently. What you’re looking at in that attached image is a program called WorldPainter which is used to essentially paint landscapes for Minecraft. Elevation hightmaps, surface blocks, bioms and the like. And I don’t think I have to tell you what the map I’m making is.
Here, by the way, is said attached image (of said map):
Yup. That looks like Britannia.
Zeph continues:
This is going to be a long long LONG process. As it stands, I’d generously say I’m maybe 1/3 finished on the map, but probably less than that, and that’s just the sculpting. From the Skara Bre achipelego, to the marshlands between Trinsic and Brittan, from Dagger Isle, all the way down to the Isle of the Avatar, I hope to do this justice. I’ll probably put out the map once the landmass is finished, but then will begin the hard part, going into creative mode and doing detail work and adding the cities (the dungeons make me shudder). Not sure I’ll make it that far, but I want to at LEAST get the landmass done. To give a sense of scale, the map is 5888 meters across, making the whole of Britannia 34668544 square meters. So far the mountains are around 120 meters above sea level. The Serpent Spine will probably be a little higher than that though. This cities will be only slightly bigger than their representations in 4 and 5 I think, and I doubt you’ll even be able to see the Serpent Spine mountains from Brittany Bay because of the distance. It’s still a ways away from any of that, and I debated long and hard…ok, not that hard…about whether to reveal my efforts yet. Finally I figured I could use a little feedback to keep me going, and maybe think of things I hadn’t yet.
As you can all see, the tool looks fairly powerful, at least for generating overland details (manual dungeon creation would be a pain). Zeph hasn’t released the map as a download just yet, as he notes above, but hopefully he can find some encouragement to get it done and released.
By the way: if you’re curious about WorldPainter, check it out here.
You can use this image of Britannia as you like, BSD-style (because I made it). Fauklands was made by me similarly, but using USGS data instead of cloth maps and game map dumps (IV & V).
http://www.eightvirtues.com/sanctimonia/images/map_templates/ultima_5_littoral_template_high.png
If you adjust the contrast you can see the sea level and other elevations better. Needs an erosion filter to give it character, but a good starting point.
Damn. So could of used that before I started. We even both used the U5 map! XD I appreciate it though. I made my own, but frankly didn’t have a lot of experience, and it only sort of worked. It’s alright though, I’m actually enjoying sculpting the mountains by hand. If you’ve done thins kind of thing before, any tips? I’m pretty much just making it up as I go. Getting pretty good results, but I have to keep going back and redoing parts to apply what I learned later.
Looks like an interesting tool, and a great project! I look forward to seeing more.
Quite a massive job to complete though. I’d probably go by Ultima VII if I were going to map it, but that’s just personal preference.
It doesn’t seem to be showing my previous post so I’ll just reiterate.
Sanctimonia: Would have loved to of had that before I began! I made my own, but it only sorta worked. I don’t have a lot of experience at this sort of thing…or any actually, so I was winging it, and it turned out too rounded. I’m however enjoying flattening it out some, and re-sculpting the mountains by hand. Getting pretty good results. If you have any experience in this sort of thing. I could use some tips. I’m learning as I go, and having a blast doing it, but knowing enough to do it right the first time would definitely be a bonus. Interestingly, we both seem to have picked Ultima 5 for our base maps.
Andy: The size is actually the point. As much as I loved 6 and 7, I often lamented the apparent shrinking of the map. When I was just a kid, and still questing to become the Avatar, I often fantasized about getting lost in Britannia’s forests, and having to journey for days across it’s rolling plains. This is really an expression of that childhood fantasy. I wanted a world big enough to really get lost in. Honestly, I’d almost like to go bigger, but I’m not quite that crazy yet. Maybe that’ll be the next project.
Ah ha! So this is the meat behind the texture pack eh? Looks pretty good so far. 34.6 million square miles sounds like a lot. Is that the land area or the total map area?
I’m surprised there’s no team on this yet when they have a lotr world mod for minecraft.
I would totally comment here UA would quite eating my attempts.
I’ve de-spammed your comments, so hopefully your point gets across now.
If I had to guess, I’d wager that Akismet got hung up on the URL you supplied for your homepage; it probably thought it looked too spamish. Especially because it has the word “forum” and a string of numbers in it.
@ZEPHANIAHGREY Yes, the Ultima V map is a good reference map as it’s not too distorted like the later ones.
The main thing to pay attention to is the littoral definition, or the coastline (above/below sea level transition) and the mountains. The foothills, plains, and swampy regions are secondary though important. Once you’ve defined the above/below sea level number, you may create swamps, continental shelves, etc.
If you increase the contrast of my map you’ll see that white is land and black is water. I defined river banks, so you may narrow the rivers further if desired. If you’re manually editing the features, just try to make them natural looking and to-scale as much as possible. If you can save it it a format that 3rd party applications can modify then all the better (erosion algorithms for example).
Also rock out to this shit:
http://www.eightvirtues.com/sanctimonia/music//inspirational/Heaven%20on%20their%20Minds%20-%20Edited.wav
Thanks for getting me back up and running WtFD! Figured it was something being finicky like that.
Thanks for the tips Sanct! As of now, I have about 90% of the primary landmass sculpted to where I want it. Doing in by hand is time consuming, but I’m learning a lot, and this being Minecraft, I’m offered up certain interesting options to consider. Not the least of which is the ability to place rivers well above sea level, and let them actually flow into the sea. If I do go that rout (haven’t decided yet) I’ll have to do it from within Minecraft itself. I know I want to build waterfalls, just where and how many is the question. I have some seriously cool ideas for Cove. (Always one of my favorite villages)
Nice. It’s pretty rare when I’m impressed by a game’s features, but having water above sea level is about as awesome as awesome gets. Cove is one of my favs too. I’d live there if I could. Looking forward to more on this project, as if there will ever be a reason for me to play Minecraft it’ll be this.
Just curious if this is still going on.. I found this site because I’ve been working on something similar. If you’re still working on it, you’re way ahead of me, and I’d love to see your progress! Minecraft in Britannia would be like Ultima XI: If the Guardian Won, and the Britannia we know and love caved in on itself, leaving castles of rubble and creepers to ‘clean up’ the mess..
It’s been on hold for a bit due to “real life” issues, but Zeph is still working on it.