Minecraft Forums

Quote from Barleypaper»

First off, I like the new research system, in essence. But, it's currently far from perfect. To save space here, I will simply quote a section from Shaadaris's rather thorough review from the previous page

Can I just briefly thank you for mentioning my post? I was beginning to worry a bit that both my overall review and my rather meticulously-crafted wisp/golem integration post had been completely glossed over. It's nice to see that someone read it through!
I still really hope Azanor sees all that. Not that I expect him to seriously consider 80% of my random suggestions and ideas and balance thoughts or use my wisp integration ideas, but it's nice to be acknowledged.

And there's a major point I agree with in your post: That gauntlets are not great as they are currently.
I mentioned them a few times in my aforementioned review post, and yeah, I agree they need work.
Even when first discovering them, it states that iron is used because it's all you have at the moment.. Yet currently, there exists no progression for gauntlets, unlike wands. I sincerely hope this isn't overlooked and forgotten about, as it feels it is at the moment. And the possibilites are there. The Vis Resonator used in constructing it could make a wonderful method of upgrading, as with the types of metal used. Perhaps even the quality of leather could affect it, allowing you to make your first gauntlet with Leather, or perhaps even dried and cured rotten flesh if you're particularily unlucky with your spawn.
HOWEVER. I would like to add that, instead of how wands worked, due to not storing vis and therefore not having the vis-loss issue wands had- it would be nice to be able to dismantle and reassemble a gauntlet, rather than needing to make many, especially with the far steeper crafting requirements compared to wands/scepters/staffs. It would also fit the mechanical tinkering aspect of the glove better, tinkering with this magitech gauntlet over and over. I also suggest staff-like versions of Gauntlets designed for combat, like, for example, with claws or brass knuckles added, at a cost to effectiveness of foci or something, and maybe requiring strong materials such as iron to make (reducing effectiveness compared to higher tier metals)

I'm thinking of tiers, and it would likely go as such:
Tier 1 (old Wood/Iron) - Vis Resonator, Rotten Flesh (maybe cured or dried using alchemy, ordo and ignis crystals or something), Iron
Tier 2 (old Greatwood/Gold) - Advanced Resonator, Leather/Rabbit Leather (interchangeable), Alchemical Brass
Tier 3 (old Silverwood/Thaumium) - Thaumic Resonator, Enchanted Cloth (or whatever it was called, the stuff you make robes out of), Thaumium
Tier 4 (old Primal/Void Metal) - Primordial Resonator, Ancient Silk or something?, Void Metal
with perhaps Gold being a sidegrade to Alchemical Brass/Thaumium, maybe a resonator that uses emeralds and diamonds to make or something (because crystal resonance is a thing) that could be a sidegrade too. More options, basically.
But without gating it, so you don't need each tier to make the next tier like with most wands, so if you find leather and enough gold at the start, sure, you can make a tier 1/2/1.5 gauntlet.

Edit!!: Oh, and I nearly forgot a random thought I had while writing that up. How cool would it be to have ancient wands/staffs show up as dungeon loot occasionally? Just as a nod to the old times, and to everyone who misses them. Even if they don't function with your gauntlet-designed foci, and aren't as effective as gauntlets. It'd still be fun to see.

Sits up, a 3 inch layer of dust falling off and bones creaking.

WHAT YEAR IS IT? What's going on? What has awakened me from my slumb- By the gods. Thaumcraft 6?!

Cough cough- but, ah, yes. Hello. Been a while. I finally took the plunge with all that Twitch merge nonsense specifically to say:

PLEASE for the love of all that is eldritch and unknowable, Azanor, PLEASE don't throw out all the work you've done on Golems!

I love the wisp idea, I really do, but I wholeheartedly believe they would be better suited for seperate tasks.

Take the third option and have them both!! Each with different strengths. Golems, you can customize deeply with the in-place systems, you can take with you on journeys as guards, etc, and can be repurposed and perform multiple tasks, while maybe wisps have to be specialized, and are always bound to a specific area.

And, well, let's face it. Most of us love the little guys, as derpy as they can be.

However, this also gave me a thought... Currently, it's not really explained why the Infusion Altar and the like can just pull essentia through the air, before even the Thaumaturge that built it has learned how to do so. This could potentially be remedied with wisps. What I mean is, require a wisp to o the transportation of essentia through the air. It would help balance infusion, making it take a bit more to get set up than the low costs of the arcane stone, and would help keep the other remote essentia transport options, such as the essentia mirror and the remote essentia... thingies... erh... i forget what they're called... but- ah, it would keep those more balanced too. And I believe it makes lore sense too, since the Wisps seem to contain raw vis and essentia. Using Wisps like this, as basic essentia transport, could even be what later brings up the idea of using them for more complex tasks. Something like:

Wisp Studies

Step 1: "As the Infusion Matrix is rather animated, piping essentia into it would take a feat of engineering that I simply can't afford the time and resources to achieve, and even then, the liquid would simply flow over it and evaporate back into the aura. I need something that can take the liquid Essentia and convert it into a form that the Matrix can absorb more readily. I have seen Wisps: Semi-corporeal, seemingly intelligent masses of vis, and I believe I could potentially capture and tame them into transporting essentia to the Matrix."

Complete: "Eureka! I have managed to create a Wisp Lantern, a device that contains and stabilizes a Wisp into a more incorporeal realm. This renders it invisible without a Thaumometer or Goggles of Revealing, and unable to be harmed, but also unable to harm. The wisp seems to naturally gravitate to disturbances in balance like a moth to the light. I can use this, as the Infusion Matrix attempts to draw in essentia, the wisp will naturally look for high sources of the missing, pure essentia, such as my warded jars, and bring it to fill the gap in the Matrix. The wisp seems content to do this, and otherwise simply lounges around the lantern. They are fascinating creatures... Assuming they can be classified as creatures."

Wisp Expansion

Step 1: "Since my delve into Golemancy, I have found the ancient art to be complex, and sometimes unreliable. The more I increase the intellect of the Golems, the more they think for themselves, which is counterproductive to the mundane tasks I assign them to complete. In addition, their sense of direction needs work. That said, in a moment of brilliance (just one of many I seem to be experiencing lately), I have figured out a solution! I have already tamed wisps in an incorporeal plane, and they have already shown some form of intellect. I believe I may be able to modify a Control Seal so that it may be placed on a Wisp Lantern, and instruct the Wisp's rudimentary intellect to do my bidding far more efficiently and reliably than Golems, with the additional benefit of not tripping over the little things every time I walk through a door, and not needing to worry at the weird way the more intelligent ones stare at me when they think I'm not looking."

Complete: "I have done it! With this upgrade to a control seal, I can now instruct Wisps rather than Golems. How the Thaumaturges of the past never thought of this, I will never understand. I mean, honestly... Wands, Golems, I am beyond such things! In addition to being able to perform many, but not all of the same tasks as Golems, I have found that using these seals, I can also manipulate the Wisp's insinctual attraction to essentia inbalance to make them into a effective transport system for essentia without the need for pipes!

I have dubbed this new area of study "Wispomancy", however the name is subject to change and open to suggestion. It certainly doesn't roll off the tongue as well as Golemancy... Perhaps I should look into constructing a better tongue for myself..."

(also I would like to bring your attention to my less-specific, more general thoughs and ideas a few posts below this)

Apologies for two very large posts in one page, but I've been holding out on posting this for quite a while. These are thoughts, suggestions, and ideas I had while playing through Beta3 to Beta6.

(also I would like to bring your attention once again to my wisp integration idea a few posts above)

SPOILERED FOR EXCESSIVE LENGTH. BE WARNED YE WHO ENTER.

Quote from TombRaider27»

That Norse god of everything good ever was blessed so he could not be killed by almost anything and Loki killed him with mistletoe when there was celebration in his honor. While some gods are an exception to this, the word god is in fact a synonym of an immortal they are one and the same. I'm not sure why some of them die, some even die then come back so.... its a difficult subject.

If they're synonyms it's just one more reason English is a phenomenally stupid language.
All-powerful infalliable gods didn't really pop up until monotheist religions did. Most ancient polytheist (and probably some modern ones) have gods with less power who are often killable by those of equal or greater power. Fiction often sees gods slain by mortals. It's perfectly reasonable that gods in this mod could be killable, and then resurrect (because this is Minecraft, there is rarely anything not repeatable)

Quote from Azanor»

Just a heads up: I'm still hammering away at the 1.9 update. I really got hit hard with this one - almost every single hack or workaround I had put in to get stuff working in 1.8 before forge was fully updated has been plugged. I am now forced to redo some of the 1.8 update from scratch as well.
So sad.

From what I've heard about updating mods to 1.9, I kind of wish the modding community would finally just say "that's it" and stick with 1.8.9 forever. Yes, we'd be missing out on vanilla content, but honestly vanilla updates seem to often have very little substance and a lot of unnessessary reworks both on the surface and in the code.

Alas, that is unlikely to happen. But it would be nice... So much could be done if modders didn't have to spend half their time rewriting for code changes...

Quote from Robijnvogel»

That is pretty simple. They are pro- Windows 10, so they sabotage all versions that run on anything else than Windows 10, while making the pocket version more attractive.

Quote from Azanor»

I last coded in C++ oh, 20 years ago? I will definitely not bother trying to relearn it if they decide to switch over. That would be my signal to move on the other things.

Edit: And yes, it does feel like Mojang is just messing with us modders these days. Some of the internal changes made in 1.9 is just baffling.

Quote from gurujive»

I know whatcher sayin' (like the built in sounds) .... :|
Don't even get me started.

Alternatively, if Microsoft did jump the shark by all but discontinuing the Java version, it could be a blessing in disguise - hold the pitchforks and wands, hear me out.

For a long time, many people have been wanting MC to stop throwing out (to be perfectly honest, often underwhelming on the surface and overwhelming at the roots) updates for a while now. So what then if they keep adding greater and greater roadblocks for modders... And the modding community at large has enough of it?

Imagine if the majority of high-profile modders stuck with whichever version was the last one with the most modding capabilities. Imagine the possibilities, when modders don't spend half or more of their time modding updating to the newest version with tons of unnessessary code changes. Instead, Forge could just keep adding new features for modders to make use of. Modders could just keep updating and changing their mods instead of reworking them constantly and trying to salvage as much as they can. It would be the golden age of Minecraft mods.

Perhaps even new tools could be made like what exists in the Bethesda game communities - ones to generate compatability patches between mods, change the load-order, and stuff like that. The amount of mods that could work well together could increase drastically. The amount of high-quality mods would keep growing, and even if an author stopped updating their mod, people could keep using them with their other updated favorites because it would all still be on he same version of the base game.

Of course, it would be a lot simpler if Minecraft just stopped updating. I mean, the base game has only added a fraction of the content of any mod in the last 5 major updates, and much of it has already been done better, while constantly reworking the inner workings of the game for little apparent reason.

Of course, this is coming from someone who hasn't been interested in the base game since 1.1 when they first played it, so take it as you will.

Quote from Francisco_Scaramanga_Jr»

I didn't ask for damned Undertale references. If I wanted them, I would go to almost any Forum Game thread. I want explanations. And I don't think that asking Botania for example will give me results. So Emoniph, EXPLAIN

And this, folks, is an example of a non-sequitur... Like, seriously, what are you replying to and how is this relevant? What does Botania have to do with this?!

Are you referring to your previous post from days ago or something?:

Quote from Francisco_Scaramanga_Jr»

Soooo
I was messing around with the mod file, I opened it with Winrar. I gone
into Sounds>Random and found a sound file I never heard in game. I
opened it and it said in a quiet, creepy female voice "Your soul is mine
forever".

EXPLAIN.

Something for future updates? Or can you access it in game right now? Huh?

If so, just because something references souls does not automatically make it an Undertale reference.


Also, I don't know if it was your intention or not, but the way you repeatedly capitalize "EXPLAIN" really makes you sound demanding and unappreciative (and somewhat like a Dalek). If I was Emoniph I would ignore you this second time. If Emoniph wanted to explain, you probably wouldn't have gotten " " as the response last time.

This nitpicky post brought to you by 6 AM impulse control issues.

Quote from Nnystyxx»

So the impression that I'm getting from the teasers is that you'll eventually be able to create gods and, as an extension, your own sort of personal Pantheon, all with different voices, appearances, blessings, curses, and so on, then use their favor to direct magnificent abilities to augment yourself and destroy your enemies.

Sick.

In Soviet Minecraftia, you don't play god to make life, you make god to play life!
Reminds me of an idea from a webcomic whereas gods always existed, but were only created when people started believing in them, forming some bizzare stable time loop where they existed before their creation, and created things that existed before they existed.

Quote from felinoel»

Likely the issues of Minecraft v1.8

I feel as though "1.8 Issues" should be an included emote for the forums. It's a big image macro of a well-known modder's character flipping a table with just "1.8" written below.

Edit: Whoops, I forgot double-posts don't automatically merge into one on this forum. My bad. Dunno how to delete this and edit the previous one so I guess the double-post is staying.

Quote from codebracker0»

Because of reasons (something about the code, i don't know), your body is two solid blocks and practically indestructible.
If it's somehow destroyed or just bricked in by another player you're stuck as a spirit for practically forever.
You can't be hurt as a spirit, but you can trevel trough walls up to 4 blocks thick (so someone could trap you in a hole).
There is a machine to create a new body around your spirit, but if you don't have one yet your stuck (there is a command though).

Well it's possible you could borrow a friend's machine... maybe? (Once again going off the assumption they aren't biometric/soulmetric or something and can actually be used by anyone)
Or just haunt the heck out of them until they give in and make you a shiny new golem to inhabit or something (which would be interesting, being stuck without your original body and needing to instead have golem bodies made for you by your minionsfriends.)
Either way, I kind of like the idea that you don't insta-respawn when your body is destroyed, even if it is exorbitantly difficult to do so. Adds risk.
Though I have a feeling that will end up being patched out as an anti-griefing and anti-frustration measure... Or just have console commands to respawn a player stuck without a body. *shrug*

---

Table of Contents:

Overview
Changes in how things work
Frequently Asked Questions
[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!

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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."]

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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).

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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.

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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.

Quote from Calcifire3691»

The Focus of the Primal is a slow moving magic ball that is the ONLY source of new nodes (the ball it fires can leave nodes behind, there is no other way of actually creating nodes)

just want to point out, thats not entirely true. silverwoods are another source of nodes. and they are 100% renewable via pech trading.

i think there is a general solution to this discussion.

permanent wap
- created by aquiring forbidden knowledge. add a low base level of warp that occationally causes minor effects, even with all the knowledge researched, including the eldritch knowledge. i think this also should appease completionists, who just like to have everything researched, even if theyre not crafting everything.

and addon mods that add their own forbidden knowledge wouldnt cause the system to spin out of control. (at least not as fast)

of course the eldritch knowledge is still only unlocked, if you had high amounts of warp accumulated at one time.

temporary warp in 2 variants

decaying temporary warp
- crafting forbidden items causes higher amounts temporary warp, that decays very slowly over time. the amount they add would be dependent on the item you craft. flesh golems and advanced golems would add minor amounts of warp individually, and only create high amounts of temporary warp if crafted in bulk. crafting very powerful items like the infernal furnace and the eldritch items would cause higher amounts of temporary warp. if you overdo it and craft 3 or 4 of these powerful things without "cooling off" and take time to come back to your senses, things would get really dangerous really fast.

- using certain items like a wand with void caps to cast spells or craft, or a primal focus, could also cause temporary warp

static temporary warp
- wearing certain items like void thaumaturges robes, or a staff of the primal and similar powerful edritch items would add a static amount of warp to your player, until you remove them from your inventory. basically as long as youre actually using these powerful items, they are adding warp. as soon as you remove them and are not using them, youre suffering less from warp.

an example: you put on a void metal helmet, which adds +5 warp to your player, for an increased amount of base warp level as long as youre wearing it. as soon as youre taking the helmet off, youre losing these 5 points of warp again. just a number i made up on the spot, because i still have no idea how much warp that actually is

i guess warp decreasing items are working similar. in that the mask for the thaumium fortress helmet applies a static negative modifier to your warp, as long as youre wearing it.

ideally, just having everything researched without having accumulated temporary warp, and wearing a couple items that reduce warp would cause you to have no effects at all.
while wearing a couple powerful eldritch items would make warp noticable, and crafting forbidden things on top of it, can make it severe, until it decayed again to noticable amounts.


edit.: things like walking through a taint biome, or being near a sinister node could add static or decaying warp aswell. making it a bit more dangerous to come into contact with those things.