142 lines
5.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
142 lines
5.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
====================
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Minecraft Overviewer
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====================
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By Andrew Brown
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http://github.com/brownan/Minecraft-Overviewer
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Generates large resolution images of a Minecraft map.
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In short, this program reads in Minecraft world files and renders very large
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resolution images. It performs a similar function to the existing Minecraft
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Cartographer program but with a slightly different goal in mind: to generate
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large resolution images such that one can zoom in and see details.
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Features
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========
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* Renders large resolution images of your world, such that you can zoom in and
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see details
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* Outputs a Google Map powered interface that is memory efficient, both in
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generating and viewing.
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* Renders efficiently in parallel, using as many simultaneous processes as you
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want!
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* Utilizes 2 levels of caching to speed up subsequent renderings of your world.
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* Throw the output directory up on a web server to share your Minecraft world
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with everyone!
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Requirements
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============
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This program requires:
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* Python 2.6 or 2.7 <http://python.org/download/>
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* PIL (Python Imaging Library) <http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/>
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* Numpy <http://scipy.org/Download>
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I develop and test this on Linux, but need help testing it on Windows and Mac.
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If something doesn't work, let me know.
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Using the Google Map Tile Generator
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===================================
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Disclaimers
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-----------
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Before you dive into using this, let it be known that there are a few minor
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problems. First, it's slow. If your map is really large, this could take at
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least half an hour, and for really large maps, several hours (Subsequent runs
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will be quicker since it only re-renders tiles that have changed). Second,
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there's no progress bar. You can watch the tiles get generated, but the program
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gives no direct feedback at this time on how far along it is.
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There are probably some other minor glitches along the way, hopefully they will
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be fixed soon. See the `Bugs`_ section below.
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Running
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-------
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To generate a set of Google Map tiles, use the gmap.py script like this::
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python gmap.py <Path to World> <Output Directory>
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The output directory will be created if it doesn't exist. This will generate a
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set of image tiles for your world in the directory you choose. When it's done,
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you will find an index.html file in the same directory that you can use to view
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it.
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Using more Cores
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----------------
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Adding the "-p" option will utilize more cores during processing. This can
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speed up rendering quite a bit. The default is set to the same number of cores
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in your computer, but you can adjust it.
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Example to run 5 worker processes in parallel::
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python gmap.py -p 5 <Path to World> <Output Directory>
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Crushing the Output Tiles
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-------------------------
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Image files taking too much disk space? Try using pngcrush. On Linux and
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probably Mac, if you have pngcrush installed, this command will go and crush
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all your images in the given destination. This took the total disk usage of the
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render for my world from 85M to 67M.
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::
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find /path/to/destination -name "*.png" -exec pngcrush {} {}.crush \; -exec mv {}.crush {} \;
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If you're on Windows, I've gotten word that this command line snippet works
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provided pngout is installed and on your path. Note that the % symbols will
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need to be doubled up if this is in a batch file.
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::
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FOR /R c:\path\to\tiles\folder %v IN (*.png) DO pngout %v /y
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Viewing the Results
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-------------------
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The output is two things: an index.html file, and a directory hierarchy full of
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images. To view your world, simply open index.html in a web browser. Internet
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access is required to load the Google Maps API files, but you otherwise don't
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need anything else.
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You can throw these files up to a web server to let others view your map. You
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do not need a Google Maps API key (as was the case with older versions of the
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API), so just copying the directory to your web server should suffice.
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Tip: Since Minecraft worlds rarely produce perfectly square worlds, there will
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be blank and non-existent tiles around the borders of your world. The Google
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Maps API has no way of knowing this until it requests them and the web server
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returns a 404 Not Found. If this doesn't bother you, then fine, stop reading.
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Otherwise: you can avoid a lot of 404s to your logs by configuring your web
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server to redirect all 404 requests in that directory to a single 1px
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"blank.png". This may or may not save on bandwidth, but it will probably save
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on log noise.
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Bugs
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====
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This program has bugs. They are mostly minor things, I wouldn't have released a
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completely useless program. However, there are a number of things that I want
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to fix or improve.
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For a current list of issues, visit
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http://github.com/brownan/Minecraft-Overviewer/issues
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Feel free to comment on issues, report new issues, and vote on issues that are
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important to you, so I can prioritize accordingly.
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An incomplete list of things I want to fix soon is:
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* Rendering non-cube blocks, such as torches, flowers, mine tracks, fences,
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doors, and the like. Right now they are either not rendered at all, or
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rendered as if they were a cube, so it looks funny.
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* Water transparency. There are a couple issues involved with that, and I want
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to fix them.
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* Add lighting
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* Some kind of graphical interface.
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