Increase Maximum Build Height?

[Christopher Brendel]

Greetings Everyone,

I ended up posting this on the Google+ Community page, but thought it better being posted here.

I have started a solar system project, and would like to try and build the Sun and planets to scale; however, being a novice, my students informed me of the 256 max build height. I've searched to no avail for mods and/or settings to increase build height. I've dabbled with Galacticraft, and was curious if it was possible to accomplish our goal using it.

If such a task is impossible, does anyone have suggestions? I am beginning to realize my grand scheme may not be feasible due to MC's build limitations. I really don't want to have mercury be a single block, but that may be the only real solution.

Thanks!

[Matt Coia]

Hey Christopher,

I was about to answer you on G+.  :)  

You're right, there are no mods to do this.   I guess you will have to make some concessions on whether you include the whole Sun or not since if you made the Sun 256 blocks in diameter, then Mercury, Mars and Pluto(if you are including our little dwarf) will all be 1 block or less in size.  Not too dramatic considering that if you also scale the distance from the Sun, they will also be thousands of blocks apart (Mercury would be a lonely little block 10,000 blocks from the Sun and that is the closest.  Neptune would be nearly a million blocks away.).

Now if you make Jupiter at the height limit of 256 then Mercury becomes about 9 blocks in diameter and Earth is about 23.  Not too bad.  You will either have to remove the scaled orbital radius from the lesson or make teleport stations between very far places (which could really lag your server).  Maybe an extension would be for them to calculate how long it would take to walk to each planet in Minecraft at scaled distances.  They would need to calculate an average walking speed then.

Good luck!

Matt

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[Lawson Johnson (Minecraft Assistant)]

On Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 11:23:30 AM UTC-4, Christopher Brendel wrote:

mods and/or settings to increase build height.

There are some older mods that did exactly this but searching around it looks like they all died back around 2012 or so.  There were definitely some really impressive ones (6000+ blocks high) but mod installation was a lot more complex back then and it seems the mods in question  are all from before any Edu versions were created.  If you really wanted to, you could download the standard Minecraft launcher, use your accounts you bought, and create profiles for the old versions (around version 1.0 from the looks of it) and install the mods to those.  But this would be really complex, especially for just one individual lesson.

On Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 11:23:30 AM UTC-4, Christopher Brendel wrote:

If such a task is impossible, does anyone have suggestions?

An alternative could be using some of the mods for Forge that add "mini-blocks."  There's one that makes it so you can place 1/16th a normal block sized pieces and that could let you at least make Mercury spherical in shape.  Also using the mod Ye Gamol Chattels adds a chisel capable of chiseling away 1/8 a block sized bits which would achieve a visually similar effect, the mod itself is a decoration mod but you needn't use the other features unless you want to.  I have tested this mod with MinecraftEdu 1.7.10 and I believe it worked, but that was several builds ago.

Good luck to you, this sounds like a really cool project to help students visualize the scale of our solar system!  Maybe you could even make a bit of a planet facts scavenger hunt out of it?

[Christopher Brendel]

Yeah, I may end up having to scale down. I was going to use a different scale for distance to accommodate, less than ideal, but the only true option. The last thing I want is "If the Moon were 1 pixel."  I am currently looking into the mods Lawson mentioned.

[Christopher Brendel]

I researched your suggestion on the little blocks mod, and only found 1.7.2 version which is causing server to crash. According to 9minecraft, SlimeVoid Library is required to run little blocks, which I also installed. I have slimevoid and littleblocks 1.7.2 versions loaded in server's server mod folder as well in client's client mod folder. No Luck. This would be a perfect solution to my dilemma if I could get it to work!

[Christopher Brendel]

Update, I tried LittleBlocks-2.2.4.4.jar and SlimeVoidLibrary-2.0.4.7.jar, which I picked up from SlimeVoid. Server crashes.

Here's a shot of the message I receive when trying to load the client with mods in place:

[Matt Coia]

The forge version currently in MinecraftEDU is 10.13.1.1208.  An update to the forge version is in the works as we speak and should be released soon if there are no problems with it.  Once that happens, it may just work!

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[Christopher Brendel]

Dang, I do appreciate the information, though! I'll have to rethink my scales on this iteration of the project.

[MisterA]

Hey Chris,

Although the idea of mods to solve issues can be appealing, keep in mind that mods come and go. Beyond that, the more you mod the more likely one of those mods will cause issues with another mod. I have seen this more than enough times. Just a word of advice to be careful when using too many mods.

One thing you could do with your project is to have them build half spheres instead of the entire sphere. It would be a very functional representation of the solar system, would allow for various objects beyond planets, and effectively doubles the height you can represent.

Just a thought..hope it helps

Shane

[Christopher Brendel]

Thanks, Shane. When you say half spheres, I think domes. Yes? No? Something different?

Truly, my idea, for simplicity sake is to create the planets as cubes, a la galacticraft.

[Matt Coia]

Using the built in WorldEdit features, making spheres or domes are really easy.   You can make them any size, hollow or solid, and of any material in one simple command. 

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[Christopher Brendel]

Matt,

If this is student-geenrated, though, would you (can you) give students worldedit abilities? That's something I've struggled with: make students do it the hard, tedious way, or allow them  some type of worldedit privileges. I have some MC pros who keep asking for various mods to make things easier, but I am undecided as to whether or not to grant those requests.

</wrongtopicdiscussion>

[Matt Coia]

Ah, I was thinking you were making this for them to explore in/around. I personally would not give them any powers beyond what is normal. It's just too easy for one click to ruin the whole experience. 

On Tuesday, March 17, 2015, Christopher Brendel <christoph...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[MisterA]

Hey Chris,

Yeah that is what I was thinking. Domes...I think it would make it awesome. Also imagine the math and complex thinking you could add to the project if they had to use say this website to figure it out for themselves...

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-A-Glass-Dome-On-Minecraft/

Although you CAN give them WE abilities using the /op name command, I agree with Matt, stay away from that at this time. This is your first run with it...let them "earn" those abilities by showing you they can be responsible and respectful first.

I have maybe 5 kids in the entire school I let have /op status, and they are my build team members. The kids that help me build for other class lessons.

One thing you definitely have to sit them down and explain is the difference between Minecraft at home and Minecraft at school. The difference is something you need to decide upon and what your goals are for the lesson/unit/course.

Hope that helps.

Shane