This system will not increase lag! The entire point of this system is to avoid the lag caused by higher height limits.
Table of Contents:
Overview
Changes in how things work
Data storage
Changes to world features
Coping with sunlight
Changes to servers
Render/Load distance alterations
Frequently Asked QuestionsChanges to world features
Coping with sunlight
Changes to servers
Render/Load distance alterations
[WIP] The Cubic Chunks Mod!
Gallery
Supporting this suggestion
Special thanks
[spoiler=Tl:dr]Q: Won't this increase lag?
A: Absolutely not. The title of this suggestion and big red letters at the top of this post aren't lying. If you want to know how, then I suggest you actually read this post.
Q: Will this change terrain? Will this break existing worlds?
A: No. Terrain change is not necessary. Existing worlds can be converted fairly easily with a process described later in this post.
Q: How can sunlight or rain work with infinite vertical space?
A: I suggest you read Coping with sunlight, because it's too complex for a tl;dr.
Q: I have a different question but still don't feel like reading this post. What do I do?
A: Too bad, read the FAQ. I put way too much work into this for the entirety of it to be ignored.[/spoiler]
Overview:
In Minecraft, the sky is the limit - literally. It doesn't matter how many thousands of blocks a player has traveled, or what dimension they're in, or even if they're playing in creative or survival, the highest they can ever build is up to a height of 256. Why is that? If Minecraft can have a world that's infinite in the north, in the south, in the east, and in the west, why can't that world be infinite up and down too?
In Minecraft's earliest days, in Classic and Indev, the world was not infinite in any direction. This was because the entire world needed to be generated at the same time, and the entire world needed to be simulated at the same time as well. This led to a conundrum - the bigger the world, the more it lagged.
Notch didn't like this. He knew his players liked to explore and build large creations, so he found a way to make the world truly infinite. When the Minecraft '' class='bbc'>Infdev came out, it brought with it truly infinite worlds. Suddenly, players could travel hundreds of thousands of blocks in any direction, and never encounter a barrier, or become too laggy.
The Infdev update brought about a very large change to Minecraft worlds to accomplish this feat. For the first time, instead every world being just a single huge piece, they were broken up into a two-dimensional grid of pieces, called chunks. Through breaking the world up into pieces, this 'chunk system' enabled infinite worlds by letting Minecraft create new pieces and simulate them only when it needs to.
Why does that not apply to the vertical axis? Because the type of 'chunk system' Minecraft uses right now is a linear one, which, by using only a two-dimensional grid to map out chunks, means that it is impossible for chunks to stack on top of one another, and by extension, meaning that a single chunk must cover the entire vertical space. This brings back the problem that the Infdev update was supposed to eradicate, now only with chunks, instead of an entire world; the bigger a chunk is, the more laggy it is. You can't just increase the height limit and make chunks taller, because it will become laggier, and laggier, and laggier to do it.
That's why, to fix this, Minecraft must change over to a cubic chunk system. Under this system, 163 block chunks are aligned on a three-dimensional grid, completely eliminating maximum height as an aspect of lag.
The immediate benefits:
•Minecraft worlds become as virtually infinite vertically as they are horizontally: The absolute limit being Y = ±30,000,000.
•A large FPS increase: Alpha testers report an FPS increase of 100~200%.
•Increase in running capability: Computers running Minecraft on Tiny render distance will handle only 30% the blocks they do now.
The possible features:
•Spherical render/load distance: Reduce handled blocks by up to 30% by cutting corners made of unneeded chunks.
•Server chunk occlusion/exclusion: Reduce bandwidth usage and defeat hackers by only sending data for visible chunks.
•Three-dimensional biomes: Save biome data per chunk rather than per block column, create volcanoes with magma chambers, underground rivers, tropical skylands floating over icy taigas, and more.
The disadvantages:
•Unloaded gravity-pause: Falling non-player entities and fluids will be forced to pause their fall if they reach unloaded chunks, but will resume falling when those chunks are loaded.
•Slow falling-pause: Players with slower computers and smaller render distances will have falling occasionally paused as they fall into unloaded chunks, until new chunks can be loaded.
The problems:
•Current sunlight and rain calculation methods cannot work with infinite vertical space: The solution to this is described here.
•Current BiomeDecorator cannot work with multiple vertical chunks simultaneously: The BiomeDecorator code must be altered to function correctly with this, or removed.
•Current cave generation method is executed an extra time for each vertical chunk created simultaneously, leading to lag spikes on world generation: Cave generation's method must be altered to suit this system more.
•Current grass/dirt generation algorithm forces additional chunk requests when chunks are loaded, causing chunks to load slower than they should: This algorithm must be replaced with something else.
Changes in how things work:
Obviously, the implementation of this new chunk system will change quite a few things. These changes are mostly either necessary or in the interest of increased efficiency. Such changes are categorized and explained below.
How worlds will be stored:
[spoiler]How the current storage works, and what changes:
Interestingly enough, the current method of storage, the Anvil format, is derived from the storage method that the original Cubic Chunks mod used. The Anvil format stores individual chunk as a series of 163 quasi-cubic chunks. These 'fake' cubic chunks allow for easier reference of specific data, but they still can't be separated from each other, meaning that it fails to reap the full benefits of this system. Even so, the change allowed Mojang to double the maximum height with no performance hit. Chunks are stored in groups of 322, inside 'MCRegion' files, for a total of 1024 chunks.
By nature, cubic chunks does away with the 'quasi-cubic' nonsense. In terms of chunk grouping, instead of using groups of 323 chunks, new "3DRegion" files would contain groups of 163. This means each 3DRegion file contains 4096 chunks, four times as many as MCRegion files. However, each 3DRegion contains only one fourth the amount of blocks. For per-chunk positional metadata, 3DRegion files would use the same number of bits as MCRegion files, after compression. Calculations show that the same area encompassed by a single MCRegion file would consume 64 kilobytes of extra space with 4 3DRegion files, which is nothing.
Converting existing worlds:
Most people are probably wondering something like "But won't this totally destroy all existing worlds?". Absolutely not; conversion could not be simpler. When a non-cubic world is loaded after the implementation of this system, a conversion process will begin and convert the entire world at once(To avoid making chunk loading take longer during play). First, all existing MCRegion files will be divided into quarters to create 3DRegion files. Then, all existing chunks are divided into sixteenths using the quasi-cubic properties to identify boundaries. After that, conversion is done.
The "isEmpty" flag optimization:
A 1-bit flag is added to each chunk, named "isEmpty". If the chunk consists of 100% air blocks, this bit is 1, any other case makes it 0. When the bit is 1, all data for the chunk besides the isEmpty flag is deleted and ignored, which reduces filesize. Empty chunks are never loaded, and locations where they occur are merely simulated as entities reside in them. The chunk will only load when something requires saving inside it.[/spoiler]
Changes to terrain, ores, etcetera:
[spoiler]Terrain:
By default, nothing will change. Small bits of terrain generation code need to be reconfigured to work properly with Cubic Chunks.
Biomes:
By default, nothing will change.
Ore generation:
By default, nothing will change.
Structures:
By default, nothing will change.
The Void:
After conversion to Cubic Chunks, the void and bedrock layer will still exist and generate as they always have. However, the void(Not the bedrock layer!) will not exist as a hard limit and is able to be moved, but not removed, by editing an associated NBT data tag inside a world's level.dat. This feature, that allows for increasing the maximum depth, is intentionally disabled without external programs, to prevent terrain change of any sort. It is intended to be used by experienced mapmakers and world generation mods only.
Superflat settings:
Existing superflat worlds will not change. However, new superflat worlds will gain a new decoration parameter, 'void'. Inclusion of this parameter will cause the void to form below the lowest defined layer. Exclusion of it will cause all layers below the lowest defined layer to copy the settings of that layer.[/spoiler]
Coping with sunlight:
[spoiler]There used to be a solution here, but it wasn't deemed good enough by Jeb. Suggest solutions in this thread.[/spoiler]
Changes to servers:
[spoiler]Settings:
There's a setting inside the Server.properties file called 'max-build-height'. The setting makes it impossible for any player to place or remove blocks above that height.
With the implementation of Cubic Chunks, a new setting named "maximum-generation-depth" would be added. The void, bedrock layers, and magma layers will generate normally at and above the Y level designated by the value of this setting.
Chunk occlusion/exclusion:
Using the raytracing methods already available in the code and used for explosion calculations, servers can identify which chunks are visible to a player, within safe assumptions, and only send the data for those chunks. This both reduces bandwidth usage, and cripples the usefulness of X-Ray cheats.[/spoiler]
Render/Load distance alterations:
[spoiler]After the implementation of Cubic Chunks, view distances' radii will apply to the vertical axis too. This reduces handled blocks in the cases of tiny and short render distances, and increases them in the cases of normal and far render distances. This can be optimized by utilizing a spherical render distance instead of a cubic one, which would reduce handled blocks in all distances except Far.[/spoiler]
Frequently Asked Questions:
[spoiler=FAQ]Q: This is impossible.
A: No it's not. See below.
Q: Is this available as a mod?
A: Not yet! But it will be!
Q: I like X-ray! What if I don't want it to be broken?
A: First of all, breaking X-ray hacks will only be possible to do in multiplayer. That said, the system that would break X-ray would be possible to disable by the server owner. If the owner doesn't disable the system, then they don't want you using X-ray, and you should not be doing what the server owner doesn't want in the first place.
Q: I play on a PvP/Anarchy/Raid/Faction server. Won't this system let people pillar up into the sky and create a base thousands of blocks in the air and never be found?
A: No.
Q: I like Minecraft's current height limits. What if I don't want to have an infinite sky or infinite underground?
A: If this system is added, all worlds will not automatically gain an infinite underground. As stated below, the Void will remain in all worlds, even after the conversion to Cubic Chunks. The ability to remove the Void will simply be there. As for infinite space in the sky, the current build limit is over one hundred blocks above any terrain that vanilla Minecraft can possibly generate. It is ENTIRELY your decision on whether or not you take advantage of this height. If you play on a server, like stated above, the server owner can set a maximum build height. If s/he doesn't, then don't play on their server - you don't play on servers where the server owners allow things you don't like. Why would you play on an anarchy server if you hate being stolen from and killed?
Q: Will this affect Redstone at all?
A: No. This system will simply make it possible to make larger redstone circuitry than before.
Q: Won't this break existing worlds?
A: No. Existing worlds can be easily converted by dividing each MCRegion file into 4 pieces, then slicing the existing 256 block-high chunks inside them into 16 individual chunks.
Q: Won't this affect mods? Won't mod authors have a hard time updating their mods?
A: The answer to this question depends solely on the answer to the following two questions: Do parts of the modification code rely on chunk data/metadata? Does the mod author want to take advantage of the features of the new chunk system? If the answers to the first and second question are both "No", then updating a mod to this system should be very easy and quick. If the answer to the first question is "Yes", then those parts of the code will need to be rewritten somewhat, but in most cases, the changes should be fairly quick and easy. The only time that it should be hard to update a mod to this system, is if the answer to the second question is "Yes".
Q: Won't this require a total rewrite of the mod API if that's released first?
A: No. Whether or not even a small part of the mod API needs to be rewritten depends on the way that it is implemented and whether or not there are API inclusions for chunk handling and other chunk-related behavior.
Q: Could a player fall into unloaded chunks if chunks aren't loaded fast enough?
A: No, they could not, and for several reasons. Minecraft has a terminal velocity, though it might not seem like it. This velocity is slower than it should take to load new chunks below the player. In cases with exceptionally slow computers, even if the player did manage to reach an unloaded chunk, their fall would be paused until that chunk can be loaded.
Q: What would happen when water, sand, or a mob falls into an unloaded chunk?
A: Nothing. The water/sand/mob would freeze in place until the chunk is loaded and it can continue moving. You can already see this same thing happening on the horizontal axis.
Q: What will happen to the Void?
A: It will still exist, along with all its effects. The only difference is that the Void is no longer a hard limit and it can be moved. After the conversion to Cubic Chunks, the Void's location will be stored in a world's ' class='bbc'>level.dat, and this location can be changed with NBT editing tools. When and where the Void exists, chunks will cease to generate.
Q: Will this affect terrain?
A: No. However, terrain generators will gain the ability to use infinite height.
Q: Will this affect ore generation?
A: No. Ore is a part of terrain generation. As stated above, terrain will not be changed.
Q: Won't all current terrain generators be incompatible with this system and need to be rewritten?
A: No. Terrain generators work independently of chunks. When a chunk is generated for the first time, it calls the terrain generator and receives a specific section of the resultant terrain to save inside itself. Because of this, some custom terrain generators can generate steep terrain all the way to Y256, where you can experience a large, flat cut-off. Since there are no chunks above Y256 to call the terrain generator for terrain, no terrain exists there.
Q: What would happen if there's a huge solid ceiling so far above you that it is unloaded? Wouldn't you just see the sky, just with everything being completely dark?
A: Yes. This already happens on the horizontal axis, and it is an issue with sky rendering, not this chunk system. As such, this has nothing to do with this suggestion. Please do not post about this.
Q: If you go deep underground, will your plants grow/ores smelt/animals grow?
A: No, because those chunks would be unloaded, just as if you had walked far away. This is a flaw with any chunk system, regardless of shape. It is a necessary evil that allows Minecraft to have infinite worlds. The only way to fix this would be to introduce a separate new system that works with chunks as they are loaded and unloaded. This suggestion deals with the chunk system itself, and not sister processes. Because of that, that is outside of the scope of this suggestion. Please do not post about this.[/spoiler]
[WIP] The Cubic Chunks Mod! (Tall Worlds Mod):
Cuchaz has taken it upon himself to bring us the glorious Cubic Chunks, since Mojang refuses to do so.
Cuchaz is using a API of his own creation to help assist in the making of this mod, and he's quite far along, as seen in these two tech demo videos:
[spoiler=T-Demo 1: Vertical chunk loading][/spoiler]
[spoiler=T-Demo 2: Broken height cap and no lag!][/spoiler]
With the basic functionality in place - a complete overhaul of the basic chunk system, and height limit removed - this whole concept can already be considered proven. What remains is making sure everything else functions correctly under the new chunk system. In any case, stay tuned for future updates if it interests you(If it doesn't, then you are the weakest link - goodbye!).
You can follow the mod's development in much more depth in its very own topic!
Gallery:
[spoiler=A mountainside with an experimental engine using Cubic Chunks designed by Nocte. 960 block view radius, and 30 FPS.][/spoiler]
[spoiler=A different view of the mountainside with the same engine by Nocte. This time, with 1600 block view radius and 15 FPS.][/spoiler]
[spoiler="A video demonstrating Nocte's engine."]
Support & Submission to Mojang:
If you support this, hit the rep button in the bottom-left corner of this post. It is the only good way of accurately measuring support here.
If you wish, you can put the following banner, courtesy of laz2727, into your signature. It helps to attract support from all parts of the forum!
[url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1707097-cubic-chunks-infinite-height-elimination-of-x-ray-and-more-60-supporters/page__st__0][img]http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/443/hov.png[/img][/url]
Please help us get word out of this suggestion! Share this with your friends, with Minecraft celebrities if you're familiar with them, or even with Mojangsters like Jeb or Dinnerbone! (Do not share this with Notch. Notch doesn't work with Minecraft anymore.)
The purpose of this suggestion is to have Cubic Chunks implemented in Vanilla. Being available as a modification does not fulfill that purpose. The modification featured in this suggestion is to act as a proof-of-concept only(Note: Its being featured here is to act as a proof-of-concept. The modification itself is on its way to becoming a fully fledged modification).
Special thanks:
Cuchaz, for taking Barteks' proof and running with it, to give us a truly functional Cubic Chunks mod.
Barteks2x, for updating the Cubic Chunks mod to 1.6.2, proving that it is possible.
Azraile, for posting the original suggestion and allowing me to take ownership of it.
Nocte, for helping resolve flaws and designing Hexahedra.
MineCrak, for a large amount of valuable insight and enthusiasm into the topic of Cubic Chunks.
aaronfranke, for helping resolve flaws.
PanJouda, for creating the original banner.
Flexico, for creating the predecessor to the current banner.
laz2727, for creating the current banner.
Robinton, for creating the original Cubic Chunks mod.
The_Watchman13, for answering all those stupid questions so I don't have to.
Note: Many calculations and information can be found among the many posts of this topic. There are too many for me to cite here, but if you wish, you can search for them yourself.
1
I honesty don't know what to call this but it's been in the game for quite a while, but you know when you look out towards the horizon and the sun/moon just vanishes behind nothing? Well, apparently, Mojang decided to remove this "Void-Plane" from maps. I felt a bit strange starting my 1.9 world in 1.10, as I felt that my world somehow felt more "spacey" than normal and I noticed that the sun/moon are now visible at any height! Has anyone know of if it the same in other maps as well?
What a small thing that they changed, but no-one has ever noticed, it's not even on the wiki about it. The screenshot below shows that the sun/moon are visible at small Y values, but it disappears as usual if one falls into the void.
Isn't it a bit odd how they didn't mention it?
1
In Borderlined you're stuck inside a small 16x16 chunk section. This is nothing too special about it, it's just a chunk size section, as you look you may notice your precious wood outside the boundary, alas you can't acquire it....yet. As you delve into the chunk, you may encounter a couple caves and some...*ahem*....unwelcomed visitors, when you slay a mob, the boundary expands a bit. You must slay mobs to expand the border, but be careful, as NOT slaying any mobs will cause it to shrink back to the original size it was.
Screenshots:
--
--
--
--
-Wither
-Enderdragon
-A Cobble Farm.
-A Mob farm.
-A farm for er...farming...
-Complete the game achievements.
-Make it to the end city dungeons.
-Have the border 1000 blocks wide at least.
-Conquer and ocean monument.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/t2853hi3e8w8722/Borderlined-By+Littleman9Mew2.zip
1
I noticed that in 1.9, when the player sneaks, has there hitbox get smaller while sneaking. Under most circumstances, this didn't effect any gaps, you cannot go through a set of trap doors on the ceiling and floor. But you can walk through a gap with the trap door on the ceiling/floor without sneaking. However I noticed something when I build a entrance with a carpet and trap door combo:
--
The first screen shot is me standing up, nothing all too special about it. I have hitboxes on to demonstrate what my hitbox is:
--
The second screen shot is me sneaking, now look at the hitbox: It's smaller! Small enough for me to fit right on through!
--
It's really simple to build, all you need is:
1 Trapdoor (Wood/Iron, doesn't matter, but Iron is preferred for PvP)
1 Carpet/Redstone Repeater/2 Snow Layers stacked (All of these work well)
1. You place the Trapdoor on the top block.
2. You place the other item on the bottom of the block
And you're done, it's quite simple and all you do is hold sneak and go right on through! Two block tall mobs cannot get through!
(This is for 1.9, so it wont work in earlier versions)
Best place is for carpeted rooms, as it makes it hard to get through without sneaking
1
Because they take a big pill of "icontcare" in the morning and immediatly resolves it as a the persons fault and they can't do anything.
1
it's a bug that the chunks are rendering more worse than anything. I have to press "F3+A" to reload chunks everytime I venture far. This is the only workaround that temporary fixes the issue. This IS a bug, in the early 1.9 snapshots (about 15w93a) , it wasn't an issue. Now in and about 15w40's it came to be the issue. I load the snapshot right before and the chunks loaded fine like no problem. I even have a card that's up-to-date that's been running MC fine for the past 30 snapshots and 4 Major updates so it's not the card, it must be an ingame issue with rendering/culling of blocks.
1
The most coolest thing is to go on a very aplified or caves of chaos customized world and play this while flying.
6
EDIT: FOUND 2.1 LINKS!
2.1: http://www.mediafire.com/?jza5a4zayealz7x
2.1 Hardcore: http://www.mediafire.com/?0t7dzllkzs3i71n
4
After seeing both the Twitter feed and the hate/love mail of the combat update. I personally went around the community and try to pull as much stuff as possible to see what the community thinks. Whether if XXXXX feature is broken because of YYYYY is destroyed. But what would truely be effected?
I try to look at what the positives people have said both on and around the forums. Not only that, I also took a look into the negatives of what people didn't like about the update. Not just "I hate it" but truly what they think is just not too good for the community.Mojang has made some mistakes and people are going to say that. They know that they did and may or may not change it, but we all make mistakes. Right? Anyway to what many have said in a summed up topic.
Bountiful update? No, that brought something to mainly redstone users and ocean monuments to the table but not something to the player in terms of new game turning mechanics.
TUTCTW? No, but it did brought on the 30+ new biome types, along with packed ice, better chunk rendering and savanna villages.
Horse Update? Little bit, but not so much to the player, Horses were added and it brought forth new transportation and storage for items.
Pretty Scary Update? Well, it DID bring a new boss, but it DIDN'T bring a feature that was FOR the player. The Wither did make a nice addition to the family. It did brought forth the beacon, which did bring a new thing to brighten our day with new status effects and a cool beam of light.
1.1? Yes, this brought forth something that many people back then said the game is going to flop. It was the end of Minecraft as we know it. No I'm not talking about Duel Wielding, it was Brewing, enchanting, and (not really important) the Void! This has been the thing that would kill the game. Looking back at this version makes me laugh, because it was like "We had to do THAT?". With the enchanting mechanic added, it added new stats to armor, bows being more OP along with swords. New effects, new resistances and much more. Dinnerbone even caught on with this and said this:
https://twitter.com/Dinnerbone/status/634084676068614144
Shield-
The Shield really does add something to both passive gameplay and combat gameplay. That's been a new revelation, being able to be defended while blocking and not. Something in the 1.9 update is the new armor system as described below.
Armor System-
The armor system in 1.8 always been "Full Diamond Armor at 1% durability=80% damage resistance", now the armor points now are based on both Armor Point and Durability, and this means a (really) worn down set of diamond armor will only provide 4/20 points of armor and this makes up for it with enchantments, as the enchantment are fixed, nothing effects them from some (random) variable. This balances the gameplay since many PVP servers have a match that last up to 15 min, but are you really taking damage every second? No, so the armor would still be on par even after a fight or three
Offhand Slot-
I'm quite surprised into how very few "WE WANT DUEL WIELDING!" topics there was even before the 1.9 announcements of the mechanic. This has obviously been a big risk to Mojang (Whether positive or negative), as the game has only the right arm for 4 years. This essentially allows another 28th slot in the inventory to carry anything, it takes a bit of getting used to, but it's quite helpful in caving/organizing arrows.
The End-
Possibly the only thing that not many have been complaining about, the End in console is a better fight, you have to worry about the dragon shooting at you and you must pillar up the pillar to destroy the highest most crystals. This introduces new combat that really helps "spice" up the fight. The new islands are quite wonderful as well, it brings new areas into the end that doesn't require a reset of the world for old vets to play on and this "End City" brings to the table a new status effect that the Map Makers are bringing in and the OP loot in the chests.
Redstone/CMD_Blocks-
Introducing the new command block types along with the old ones actually brought forth some new helpful things. For one: people can make more things with them for survival maps that are 500% more efficient that the old ones can keep up with. Another thing is the deadly thing that people always talk about: LAG! The amount of lag is drastically reduced, I should know this because I have two computers (one is 8 years outdated) and the new blocks now allow me to run 20 more things from cmd_blocks than 1.8 versions. This help improve both the framerate and the speed of multiple (command block) machines at once.
The Cons of what people from the community said;
Yikes the cons, this is what I've been reading (and notice that some people over sighted some) comments about the new changes in 1.9, some features are addressed and others are not. I'm here to address what the community has said as whole.
Shield-
It's clunky, the recipe doesn't seem to make any sense in terms of the shields' design and the amount of materials you need, and it also took the place of the swords blocking mechanic. This has been disheartening for players as the blocking of the sword was right in their hand.
Duel Wielding-
I'm just going to say what Mojang said how the duel wielding would work: "You can use the sword AND block with the shield at the same time"
Heard that? The SAME time! This means you could of block and used the sword. Neat right? Well the problem is that the feature either isn't going to be added or isn't added yet. This would make the whole mechanic of blocking useful, in 1.8 you couldn't attack and block at the same time. This would be the thing that would bring it back.
DW (part 2)
The fact that there's an offhand slot for the items is odd, "We can't use the item in our left hand with left clicking", I can understand that. There's a technical limitation for it and it's this: The mouse only has two primary buttons and the game wouldn't know what to do if you had a sword in you left hand and a pick in the other. It just wouldn't know to mine or to attack. It would also make two swords useless, the one player being attacked would recieve the damage of one sword because of the invincibility frames that proceed after the hit.
Armor System-
Armor has been nerfed, and alot has been said about that. Diamond armor now is nerfed quite a bit and this can be heart breaking to many a PVP-er and having to hear that can really be hard. The enchantments can help boost this, but can it truely help? We must wait to find out.
The End-
Trying to find posts that had people hate about the End was quite difficult, but it certainly had it's share of hate with. Mainly it was the change of the E.D. how it's a bit harder and now "breaks" the way we can get XP in survival quickly. This makes it broken for XP farms, and make it so that having to do the fight again and again is boring. The End City Dungeons have loot that are already useless since you already can make it. The shulkers are annoying into how much they shoot in 5 seconds.
Redstone/CMD_blocks-
Like the 1.8 update, it received alot of boos with this section. It makes sense, it's something that some Survival Player/PVP -er Hardcore Players wouldn't care about, mainly it was the command block in general that receive the boos of the hate side of the MC community. While others are quite liking the feature, such as Gamemode 4 and Sethbling are taking a liking to the new blocks.
The Transition and the "ruin" of PVP?;
Like what Dinnerbone said:
https://twitter.com/Dinnerbone/status/634084676068614144
The 1.9 update is most likely going to pass just like when the XP system was added. Many of the big-time servers like Mineplex, Hypixel and many others are going to transition to the update well. I've actually went further to say that the peeps on the servers' forums say that it was going to be a shaky transition, but they think it's going to be even better on the PVP end with a bit more fun than 1.8 could offer. Item's can now have changes to the speed and damage, which can easily bring back a "Spam Click" sword. I've been actually working on something that brings the 1.8 tools with there damage and "spam" clicking back, but it wont be released till 1.9 completely comes out. Sorry Guys!
Many times have something been added, we always want to try it out, like buying a video game and wanting to play it as soon as you get home and we judge the game by how something in it makes you happy or angry. The same way we all been doing on the game Minecraft for four years, we see something new and we judge how the update is going to go, even before the update is out. Their will always be people who dislike the game for something it has. It's been like that for the whole lifetime of any game. But it's something like them that would shape the game in a way that 80% of the community would be happy for, and not 40% of the community.
How can YOU change/add/remove a feature in 1.9?;
Just tell them. NO not "Pweez add XXXXX" or "remove YYYYYY" as they're going to say "why?" or "no" and not respond. Give them an argument, be reasonable. Why would the feature be helpful? I'm practically repeating what the "suggestions" section is saying. What's something that would be cool (or not) and WHY it should (or shouldn't) be added? Just pretend your writing to someone in higher office, like the President/Queen/King, or the Pope. Try to make a convincing argument into why something should be added (or removed).
You would be surprised how much stuff like "plz add ZZZZZ" they must of gotton in the past 3 months, or messages like "remove AAAAAA", let's just say. PLENTY
SPOILERS, Y U NO WORK?
1
Command blocks can be summoned with Falling Sand, you have to define the falling sand to have the blockdata using the "Command:XXXXX" section of the NBT tag to define what command resides inside.
If you do "/setblock" like Cosmic said, the command would be:
/setblock x y z minecraft:command_block 0 {Command:"!!REPLACE ME!!"}
With falling sand it would be:
In 1.7:
/summon FallingSand x y z {TileID:137,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:"!!REPLACE ME!!"}}
In 1.8 and 1.9 Snapshots (They use a new format now):
/summon FallingSand x y z {Block:minecraft:command_block,Time:1,TileEntityData:{Command:"!!REPLACE ME!!"}}
1
This makes me wonder how the sunlight (and therefor rain) can be calculated. Currently the sunlight is only working from the top (or bottom?) and it goes down doing all the calculations to make areas lit and dark respectively. Right now there are two types of lighting system: block light and sky light. Block light is what torches, lava, and glowstone give off and sky light is light that the sky gives off. (Even at night) Right now it's only calculated vertically from top to bottom. (More or less).
I was thinking the new lighting system would go something like this:
Instead the whole world is dark, and the game starts calculating the sunlight from the edges of the chunks and works inwards. Since this would happen in about a second, you wouldn't really notice it unless the hardware you are using is not as reliable. The lighting would work similar to a realistic lighting engine. Instead of islands casting a shadow infinitly downward, the island would cast a shadow that's similar to how water spreads. Every block would cast a shadow that reduces the lighting by 1 (from 15) and the block would calculate the other lighting based on the 20 diagonals of it. A diagram of what I mean is here:
--
--
Now the game needs a reference point to start the calculations, otherwise it wouldn't tell the difference between a laaarge cave and a laaarge floating island. Now the game right now has the top face of the block being the reference point it goes up till it hits another block and it then judges what to do for the darkness. How this new engine would work is that it calculates from the edges of chunks, that means that the laaarge cave your exploring would still be dark. But if look at the edge of the render distance (on singleplayer!), the cave would appear to be lit on the edges of the chunk rending distance. This of course would be different on multiplayer, the lighting would be calculated by the server rather than by the client. Anyway, the game would calculate from the edge of the render distance inward.
How would weather work?
Well since the game already uses block and sky light respectively, we can easily make the weather work off the sky light. Since block light does NOT effect skylight, torches and things wouldn't interfere. The game could easily make use of this sky light and make it so that it rains if it's a value of 15 sky light,no less than that. This makes it so that you wont have "magical" rain inside your house.
This makes alot of sense into how lighting would work. It also solves the "Island I loaded above me is now unload" problem. This like the cubic chunks in general would require a conversion to a whole new engine. Taking advantage of the 3DRegion format instead.
Thanks for reading!