Does anyone else see Minecraft's potential in...

[Zeric]

Does anyone else see Minecraft's potential in being the next level of programming language? Maybe not minecraft itself but something similar?

I mean we even have computercraft giving us in game computers. Which run on a teir 3(?) language. You can even upload and download code into the game.

Can't be too hard to see minecraft as a user interface for other things.

Imagine having minecraft being a means to access the internet. Walking into buildings being entering a site.

Could be the analog version of a virtual computer world.

One step closer to Digimon, Megaman, and excreta.

What do you guys think?

 

[Vbitz]

3D worlds have been experimented with in the past as user interfaces but the main issue is our input devices (Keyboard, Mouse and Touch) are better suited for navigating a 2D plane (Like a Windows Desktop). Maybe with the Oculus Rift (Virtual Reality headset) 3D interfaces could be designed but right now we don't have the tools to effectively use them.

 

[Ember Quill]

The problem with 3D or Virtual Reality user interfaces is the simple fact that they aren't anywhere near as convenient as a mouse and keyboard. Why spend the time required to walk into a building to access a website when you can just type in a short address and BE there already?

Also, you'd need over 600 million buildings if you want one for every website on the internet.

 

[SlickSplit]

The language of the body seems to be a 3D programming language at some level, but the operating environment is very different from typical software. I've entertained the notion that virtual worlds might lead to better intuitive understanding of our inherent language. Also, there is the idea of crowd sourcing that could be integrated into a Minecrafty environment. For example, the machine configurations are like scheduling problems that could be worked out numerically, or intuitively once one has a feel for the mechanics.

 

[Froghandler]

It's been tried. See: Second Life. I would consider Second Life a very failed experiment considering the promise of it's premise. The technology just isn't there yet.

 

[SlickSplit]

Friend here has played on Second Life from the early beta. Totally agree, but it's interesting to ponder what direction the technology will take where it cascades into a viable environment. Does it require a direct brain interface? How sensitive would such an interface need to be?

What if eye tracking could also detect the focus point - not just direction? Seems like a natural kind of navigation. Combine that with video that renders levels of detail based on what we are looking at. This kind of thing is not that far fetched.

Okay, so we got rapid spatial navigation. The 600 million buildings are no problem - that's not even a 1000 cubic blocks.

 

[tedyhere]

I think the Kinect PC interface shows promise it is alot more powerful and can track more points than the dumbed down xbox version. Give it time and I think we will see some interesting things done with it.

 

[Froghandler]

Friend here has played on Second Life from the early beta. Totally agree, but it's interesting to ponder what direction the technology will take where it cascades into a viable environment. Does it require a direct brain interface? How sensitive would such an interface need to be?

What if eye tracking could also detect the focus point - not just direction? Seems like a natural kind of navigation. Combine that with video that renders levels of detail based on what we are looking at. This kind of thing is not that far fetched.

Okay, so we got rapid spatial navigation. The 600 million buildings are no problem - that's not even a 1000 cubic blocks.

It requires an interface such that the full complexity of such a world can be experienced and manipulated by the likes of your average Facebooker. Most importantly: it must achieve this without dumbing anything down; the whole premise is user-created content, not content created mainly by a class of content makers for consumption (as in the case in Second Life, which is one of the many reasons why it is a failure.)

Then there's the issue of how content is delivered to the interface, given massive amounts of data-heavy user-created content. Bandwidth is part of the issue, and must be expanded tremendously to make something like Second Life viable, or else a completely different approach is used (like cloud rendering.)

 

[SlickSplit]

Content creation happens at many levels. Usage patterns themselves are a type of meta-content generated by consumers. Form and function meld into the ambiguous middle ground. Complexity can always be escalated by the user. What kind of language can scale in that manner? The complexity needs to collapse into a simple compressed form to be accessible at every scale.

Which leads to your other point: The massive amount of data is an illusion. We don't transfer massive amounts of data when we communicate. Instead there are a massive number of assumptions - mostly correct, or close enough. In some way the user is forced to take action to broaden their own experience because they define the language and scales at which they operate.

 

[ScottWears]

I think the Kinect PC interface shows promise it is alot more powerful and can track more points than the dumbed down xbox version. Give it time and I think we will see some interesting things done with it.

I agree see here, this is the possible future of gaming

also when I'm rich and famous (not that thats going to happen) this is totes what my house is going to be like.

 

[Zmaster27]

I like the idea to be honest, and with RP2 microblocks you can do some pretty wicked and detailed stuff to decorate pages and stuff (if MC is literally used for that purpose)

Also.... you guys know that around 60% of the internet is porn right? maybe this idea could be reserved for the um.... kid friendly lets say 40%

 

[deathbyc4]

there is a computercraft peripheral that allows you to program block with RGB pixels to have sites shown in game. look at the screenshots on this link:

http://www.computercraft.info/forum...clights-now-easier-crafting-128x128-monitors/

You literally can show content from the web in game.


My main problem with minecraft programming is that it should be at least multi-core/multi-threaded in vanilla, especially on the server side. Obviously, the best option for this would be to move to a whole different programming language, like C++, but then you would potentially lose modders who aren't familiar with the language. Optifine can use multi-core processes, why hasn't Minecraft,possibly even Forge, moved to a multi-core option? Perhaps a java process limitation? Who knows.