Minecraft

groan wrote:

At the moment my Son is playing the tablet version of this on my Android tablet and has asked for it on his PC.
does it ever go on sale or should I just man-up and buy it full price? Are there any coupons? Deal, sales going on now?

/signed, Mr. Cheap

I'm guessing for the amount of time your kid will probably play this game it'll be worth the price. I've never played Minecraft but if it's anything like Terraria (which I only spent $4 on and have played over 200 hours on) he'll love it and play it till he wears out his computer. :]

NSMike wrote:

Despite its seemingly simplistic look, Minecraft is a beefy sucker, mostly because the engine runs in Java and is hardly as optimized as it could be.

Just FYI, Java is wicked quick. It's not as fast as C, but the last numbers I saw suggested that it's about half that speed, way faster than just about any of the other bytecode or interpreted languages, and keeping up well with many of the compiled offerings. Microsoft's C# is a little slower, while languages like Perl and Python and Ruby aren't even close.

Now, I have no idea what the Minecraft code quality is like, but Java programs can be extremely fast.

Malor wrote:
NSMike wrote:

Despite its seemingly simplistic look, Minecraft is a beefy sucker, mostly because the engine runs in Java and is hardly as optimized as it could be.

Just FYI, Java is wicked quick. It's not as fast as C, but the last numbers I saw suggested that it's about half that speed, way faster than just about any of the other bytecode or interpreted languages, and keeping up well with many of the compiled offerings. Microsoft's C# is a little slower, while languages like Perl and Python and Ruby aren't even close.

Now, I have no idea what the Minecraft code quality is like, but Java programs can be extremely fast.

It can be fast and still have beefy requirements. Even the best written Java stuff out there is going to be a massive memory hog, in comparison to something equivalent done in C/C++ or even some the common interpreted languages.

Well, you've got the overhead of the Java environment, but you only have to pay that once, and it's only, what, a hundred megs or so? (heh, only.) Would the actual in-memory data be that different?

Minecraft leaks memory like a sieve, and I don't know what they're using for garbage collection but they leave a ridiculous amount of stuff behind in memory. It's gotten better since Alpha, but it's still far from good.

Java does its own GC!

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Java does its own GC! :lol:

Then their destructor is on strike. I'm just sayin'.

I doubt poor GC would hit anyone but the severely addicted or people running servers. I had half a mind to run it on my linux box and throw some java mem monitoring at it just out of interest.

Most games don't have to constantly render/light everything you see as well as everything you can't within a large radius. Since a lot in Minecraft happens outside your immediate view (mobs spawning/wandering, water and lava flow and interaction, trees and crops growing, day/night cycle, grass spreading, etc.) it's fairly unique in this regard. When I consider the amount of things being updated and monitored at once, it doesn't surprise me that Minecraft is a resource hog.

Is this code optimized? Hardly. A lot of work keeps going into it patch by patch, but new features are also being thrown in the mix which make rendering/lighting more complex. For instance, in the upcoming release the lighting system is seeing an overhaul. It also includes directional lighting as a new feature.

Yeah, lighting is one of the things that kills Minecraft's engine. Most games only worry about lighting what you can see, Minecraft has to check lighting for every exposed block within a radius of you for things like mobs spawning or trees growing even if there is a wall between you and it or even if the block is in a sealed underground cave. That's why it starts chugging when you get near complex structures.

Maq wrote:

I doubt poor GC would hit anyone but the severely addicted or people running servers. I had half a mind to run it on my linux box and throw some java mem monitoring at it just out of interest.

Or people running this on my antiquated difference engine.

I used to get an error dump file every time it closed because of a bug that had all sorts of info in it. That didn't stop until 1.2. I don't know if it stopped because they fixed the problem, or because I did a major hardware and software update on this machine.

momgamer wrote:
Maq wrote:

I doubt poor GC would hit anyone but the severely addicted or people running servers. I had half a mind to run it on my linux box and throw some java mem monitoring at it just out of interest.

Or people running this on my antiquated difference engine.

I used to get an error dump file every time it closed because of a bug that had all sorts of info in it. That didn't stop until 1.2. I don't know if it stopped because they fixed the problem, or because I did a major hardware and software update on this machine.

It was fixed. Minecraft did that on every machine I tried it on until that point.

LouZiffer wrote:
momgamer wrote:
Maq wrote:

I doubt poor GC would hit anyone but the severely addicted or people running servers. I had half a mind to run it on my linux box and throw some java mem monitoring at it just out of interest.

Or people running this on my antiquated difference engine.

I used to get an error dump file every time it closed because of a bug that had all sorts of info in it. That didn't stop until 1.2. I don't know if it stopped because they fixed the problem, or because I did a major hardware and software update on this machine.

It was fixed. Minecraft did that on every machine I tried it on until that point.

That's good to know.

momgamer wrote:

Minecraft leaks memory like a sieve, and I don't know what they're using for garbage collection but they leave a ridiculous amount of stuff behind in memory. It's gotten better since Alpha, but it's still far from good.

You can leak memory in most languages, though, not just Java.

I usually run Minecraft in 64-bit Java...this would likely increase its memory load, not decrease it, but it won't run out of memory until your machine is actually out. I was having big issues with it crashing with OOM errors in one of the earlier GWJ worlds, in 32-bit mode.

64-bit enables you to reliably run the Far viewing distance too.

I like using Magic Launcher because it makes it dead simple to allocate more system RAM to Minecraft. The difference between the default RAM allocation and 2 or 4 GB allocated is pretty noticeable.

Yea I set it to 4 gig (on a 12 gig system) and it ran must better.

I need to upgrade. either my video card, or my OS + ram, or something. I'm running win7 32bit with 4 gigs of ram and a crappy 1gig video card, my old 1gig video card was fine with it, but it browned out too many times and quit working. I replaced the powersupply with something much more powerful, but had to get a cheap 1gig card, which isn't cutting the mustard anymore. blech.

Episode 3 of the live-action Minecraft series finally showed up.

Super awesome. These always have such great quality! I can't wait for the next one.

Holy Fraksticks.

Jeb said today that Minecraft will soon no longer use left-clicks as well as right-clicks to interact with doors, trapdoors and buttons. It's a minor change, but one put in place to (I think) stop you activating them when you're trying to break them, I guess.

Running Technic and suddenly my cheats disappeared

Edit: I think I found a solution, looks like they turned them off by default in the nei.cfg file. Can't wait to get home and try it Although, all things considered, I probably had more fun actually doing the work to get what I wanted. Gold needs to be more plentiful though!

CY wrote:

Jeb said today that Minecraft will soon no longer use left-clicks as well as right-clicks to interact with doors, trapdoors and buttons. It's a minor change, but one put in place to (I think) stop you activating them when you're trying to break them, I guess.

Seems to me that is less frustrating than accidentally pouring lava everywhere if you try to open a door by right clicking it with a bucket of lava.

I wish I could make minecraft look that sexy on my computer. But I am 200% sure that it would instead, fry.

Minecraft 360 got a huge update today. Sweet.

Creative Mode
Superflat world type
Hunger
NPC Villages, Abandoned Mineshafts, Strongholds and Ravines
12 Music Discs
New Combat Mechanics

■Chargeable bows
■Critical hits
■Sprinting
■Players can parry with a sword

Ability to change the name of your world save
Chain Armor
Pressure Plates can now be placed on fences
New mobs

■Endermen
■Cave spiders
■Silverfish

New Food Items

■Apples
■Raw Chicken
■Cooked Chicken
■Raw Beef
■Steak
■Melons
■Melon seeds
■Rotten Flesh

Cobwebs
Fence Gate
Iron bars
Glass pane
Stone Brick
Stone Brick Stairs
Stone Brick Slabs
Brick Stairs
Brick Slabs
Pumpkin Seed
Vines
Pumpkins and Melons grow from stems much faster, and do not require farmland around the stem to grow on
Sponges(Creative only)
New biome
Swamp biome
Ocean biome
Ocean floor now consists of Clay, sand and dirt, this makes clay easier to find
Mountain biome
River
Rivers flow through/in between biomes
Passive mobs will randomly flee if attacked by the player or other mobs (such as Cows)
Pig has 3D snout.
Sugar Cane can now be placed on sand
Chest has opening and closing animation
User-placed leaf blocks no longer decay
Skeletons hold full size bow
Shears can now collect Tall Grass and Vines
Exclusive Superflat option for the Nether
Option to turn clouds off
Large changes to Xbox 360 tutorial mode
Bonus chest world option
Option to turn PVP off
Option to turn fire spread off
Option to make TNT not detonate
Option to trust players (to op players)

Bug fixes:
Fix for duplication glitch.
Fix for aspect ratio of things in hand when in splitscreen mode.
Fix for issue with player data not saving (player starting world with no items they had when they saved)
Fix for redstone tiles burning out when they shouldn’t.
Fixed issue with Minecart with Furnace not being able to move another Minecart.
Fixed particle code for flipped 3rd person view.

.

Oh man oh man oh man...I think I found a stronghold.

sithload wrote:

I like using Magic Launcher because it makes it dead simple to allocate more system RAM to Minecraft. The difference between the default RAM allocation and 2 or 4 GB allocated is pretty noticeable.

For what it's worth, I've found the opposite to be true. Java only collects garbage when the allocated memory is full, so it will happily fill up that 2gigs whether it really needs it or not. Realistically Minecraft only needs 250megs plus some for Java overhead. Allocating 350MB in Magic Launcher really smoothed out performance for me, as well as using Optifine. This worked on both a formerly high end PC (circa 2009) and a low end rig from the same period. From 15-20 fps to 50-60fps on both systems, plus more stable multitasking.

MojoBox wrote:
sithload wrote:

I like using Magic Launcher because it makes it dead simple to allocate more system RAM to Minecraft. The difference between the default RAM allocation and 2 or 4 GB allocated is pretty noticeable.

For what it's worth, I've found the opposite to be true. Java only collects garbage when the allocated memory is full, so it will happily fill up that 2gigs whether it really needs it or not. Realistically Minecraft only needs 250megs plus some for Java overhead. Allocating 350MB in Magic Launcher really smoothed out performance for me, as well as using Optifine. This worked on both a formerly high end PC (circa 2009) and a low end rig from the same period. From 15-20 fps to 50-60fps on both systems, plus more stable multitasking.

I will try this on my modest laptop, perhaps setting it to 500MB.