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Making Minecraft Spherical

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899 points iamwil | 3 comments | 28 Aug 25 18:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.633s | source
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card_zero ◴[01 Sep 25 19:00 UTC] No.45095576[source]▶
I tried making spherical grid planets before, and keep on wondering about the best compromises. Looking at the description, your version presumably has:

Certain blocks corresponding to the corners of the cube, where despite anti-distortion efforts the blocks will have one corner at 120° instead of 90°,

Triplets of blocks at these locations, where turning twice gets you back to the first block,

Blocks that get smaller as you mine down, and then suddenly double in size,

Somewhere, down at the core, a regular polyhedron (what shape is it? Must be a cube) made of pyramid blocks that all come to a point in the center.

OK who's fucking downvoting me for thinking about geometry? If one of these assumptions isn't true, go ahead and tell me.

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crazygringo ◴[01 Sep 25 19:20 UTC] No.45095733[source]▶
I didn't downvote you, but you're just repeating what's in the article. And you say "presumably" so it sounds like you're guessing without fully reading? Which isn't adding anything to the conversation.
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1. card_zero ◴[01 Sep 25 19:24 UTC] No.45095779[source]▶
I think only the part about blocks getting smaller as you go down and then doubling in size again is in the article. Will check.

I'm saying "presumably" because of points the article didn't spell out. Edit: I re-read and it doesn't talk about the very much non-cuboid blocks at the corners, or the pointed blocks at the core. Not in words, anyway. They're implied in the pictures.

If you want comments that build on this ... it's the triplets of quads that really bother me. They only appear at eight places on the surface of the planet, but it would mess with strategy in a strategy game (my own efforts were inspired by trying to create Civ on a true sphere) if routes between tiles are sometimes short-circuited. It would also distort house architecture in a sims-like, and mess up city grids if one of these triplet corners happens to be in the middle of your city, which would then go from having north-south and east-west streets to having ... six cardinal directions?

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2. crazygringo ◴[01 Sep 25 20:11 UTC] No.45096204[source]▶
They do mention it:

> When it comes to placing block structures, there are two (2) edge cases that can throw a wrench into things:

> 1. The corners where three (3) sectors meet break the regular horizontal grid topology, since three (3) blocks meet at the corner instead of four (4)

> 2. Vertical shell boundaries break the regular vertical grid topology, since a block can have four (4) vertical neighbors instead of just one (1)

> This means that there are places on our planet where it’s impossible to define a box-shaped zone of blocks that corresponds to the block structure’s source zone. I could just detect and prevent structures from being placed at these locations, but I opted for a more general solution.

> Placing structures will now “work” everywhere, though it can get a little wonky around the problematic areas. Still, I prefer this to having dead zones where no structures can be placed at all.

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3. card_zero ◴[01 Sep 25 20:33 UTC] No.45096381[source]▶
I am pressed for time now, so I'll just say thank you. Gotta rush off ...