16-Year-Old Creates Scientific/Graphing Calculator In Minecraft 160
New submitter petval tips another amazing Minecraft project: a functioning scientific/graphing calculator. "On a virtual scale, the functional device is enormous — enough so that anyone in the real world would become a red blot of meat and bone staining the road if they fell from the very top. Honestly, his virtual machine looks more like a giant cargo ship ripped from a sci-fi movie than a working calculator. Yet type your problem out on the keypad, and the answer appears on a large white display mounted on the side of the monstrous brick structure." The creator says it can do "6-digit addition and subtraction, 3-digit multiplication, division and trigonometric/scientific functions ... Graphing y=mx+c functions, quadratic functions, and equation solving of the form mx+c=0." We've previously discussed the creation of a 16-bit ALU in Minecraft.
Amazing stuff (Score:3, Informative)
Transcendental functions (Score:4, Informative)
Anyone know how he did functions like logarithms, trig, etc.? I didn't watch the whole video.
Re:For those of us who don't know... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Level editor? (Score:5, Informative)
There is an editor. Nobody does these projects in game, it's literally impossible (not enough game ticks per second * time minecraft has been out to accomplish the builds).
Re:Did it without RedPower2 addon (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Did it without RedPower2 addon (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Nicely done sir (Score:5, Informative)
Just to clear something up (in case someone else has never played it)... Minecraft is not an online game. It's a Java based game with a massive procedural generated world full of blocks that can be moved around. It has multiplayer aspects and a dedicated server, but they are not required for play.
Re:For those of us who don't know... (Score:5, Informative)
It's binary... the redstone has a delay when you go through some of the gates and repeaters which makes it look a bit analog, but the logic is all binary. The torches can be used as repeaters (torches power redstone up to 16 blocks) and/or carry a bit signal up or down in elevation in the world. You cannot put redstone wire on the side of multiple block so you have to use stairs (space intense) or torches (compact) to change elevation.
Re:For those of us who don't know... (Score:5, Informative)
Basically, he's created an ALU found on a CPU, but operates like something Charles Babbage would have made. Even the gates for memory are mechanical, the input and output are all mechanical too. Truly amazing!
Re:Transcendental functions (Score:5, Informative)
Re:For those of us who don't know... (Score:5, Informative)
It takes a long time because the game is essentially a 3D cellular automation. When you flip a switch, for example, the block it sits on is "powered" - then it takes one update cycle for that "power" to travel up to 16 blocks, then at least one more update cycle for the next 16 blocks, etc. Any object that's not wire (like the components in a logic gate) adds at least one more cycle worth of delay. It adds up quickly.
Redstone was really intended for simple mechanisms like switch activated doors and other very simple, local interactivity. But people have really taken it to the limits of the game. Basically you're building logic gates and digital circuits out of discreet relays!
=Smidge=