==================== Minecraft Overviewer ==================== By Andrew Brown http://github.com/brownan/Minecraft-Overviewer Generates large resolution images of a Minecraft map. In short, this program reads in Minecraft world files and renders very large resolution images. It performs a similar function to the existing Minecraft Cartographer program but with a slightly different goal in mind: to generate large resolution images such that one can zoom in and see details. Features ======== * Renders large resolution images of your world, such that you can zoom in and see details * Outputs a Google Map powered interface that is memory efficient, both in generating and viewing. * Renders efficiently in parallel, using as many simultaneous processes as you want! * Utilizes 2 levels of caching to speed up subsequent renderings of your world. * Throw the output directory up on a web server to share your Minecraft world with everyone! Requirements ============ This program requires: * Python 2.6 or 2.7 * PIL (Python Imaging Library) * Numpy I develop and test this on Linux, but need help testing it on Windows and Mac. If something doesn't work, let me know. Using the Google Map Tile Generator =================================== Disclaimers ----------- Before you dive into using this, just be aware that, for large maps, there is a *lot* of data to parse through and process. If your world is very large, expect the initial render to take at least an hour, possibly more. (Since minecraft maps are practically infinite, the maximum time this could take is also infinite!) If you press ctrl-C, it will stop. The next run will pick up where it left off. Once your initial render is done, subsequent renderings will be MUCH faster due to all the caching that happens behind the scenes. Just use the same output directory and it will only update the tiles it needs to. There are probably some other minor glitches along the way, hopefully they will be fixed soon. See the `Bugs`_ section below. Running ------- To generate a set of Google Map tiles, use the gmap.py script like this:: python gmap.py The output directory will be created if it doesn't exist. This will generate a set of image tiles for your world in the directory you choose. When it's done, you will find an index.html file in the same directory that you can use to view it. Using more Cores ---------------- Adding the "-p" option will utilize more cores during processing. This can speed up rendering quite a bit. The default is set to the same number of cores in your computer, but you can adjust it. Example to run 5 worker processes in parallel:: python gmap.py -p 5 Crushing the Output Tiles ------------------------- Image files taking too much disk space? Try using pngcrush. On Linux and probably Mac, if you have pngcrush installed, this command will go and crush all your images in the given destination. This took the total disk usage of the render for my world from 85M to 67M. :: find /path/to/destination -name "*.png" -exec pngcrush {} {}.crush \; -exec mv {}.crush {} \; If you're on Windows, I've gotten word that this command line snippet works provided pngout is installed and on your path. Note that the % symbols will need to be doubled up if this is in a batch file. :: FOR /R c:\path\to\tiles\folder %v IN (*.png) DO pngout %v /y Viewing the Results ------------------- The output is two things: an index.html file, and a directory hierarchy full of images. To view your world, simply open index.html in a web browser. Internet access is required to load the Google Maps API files, but you otherwise don't need anything else. You can throw these files up to a web server to let others view your map. You do *not* need a Google Maps API key (as was the case with older versions of the API), so just copying the directory to your web server should suffice. Bugs ==== This program has bugs. They are mostly minor things, I wouldn't have released a completely useless program. However, there are a number of things that I want to fix or improve. For a current list of issues, visit http://github.com/brownan/Minecraft-Overviewer/issues Feel free to comment on issues, report new issues, and vote on issues that are important to you, so I can prioritize accordingly. An incomplete list of things I want to fix soon is: * Rendering non-cube blocks, such as torches, flowers, mine tracks, fences, doors, and the like. Right now they are either not rendered at all, or rendered as if they were a cube, so it looks funny. * Water transparency. There are a couple issues involved with that, and I want to fix them. * Add lighting * Some kind of graphical interface. * A Windows exe for easier access for Windows users.