Stone Marshall

‘Minecraft’ Realms multiplayer finally heads to Apple TV

by Stone Marshall | Apr 30, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone, Uncategorized | 0 comments

If you’ve been looking to play Minecraft with your other Apple TV-owning gamer buddies, it’s time to get excited. The latest update to the Apple TV version of this hit game enables “Realms,” Minecraft‘s subscription-based multiplayer system. This upgraded version also includes Xbox Live authentication support, which will let players access their linked avatars and character skins.

When you purchase a Realms account, it’s like getting a Minecraft server, only it’s maintained by Microsoft so you don’t have to mess with things like hosting or IP addresses. You get to control who can visit your private Minecraft Realm, too. That way, you don’t have to worry about anyone trashing your world as you race around fighting exploding Creepers or building insane recreations of King’s Landing from Game of Thrones. You can get a two- or 10-player Realm of your own for $3.99 and $7.99, respectively.

Unfortunately, owners of existing Realms subscriptions on Mac, Linux or PC won’t be able play alongside their iOS or Apple TV brethren; there are two separate Realms systems, one for PCs and one that includes iOS, Android and Windows 10 users. We’ve reached out to find out if there are plans to connect the two systems.

The procedurally-generated worlds of Minecraft deserve to be explored with others; now Apple TV and iOS fans have a chance to do just that… as long as they stick to their own platform.

‘Minecraft’ Realms multiplayer finally heads to Apple TV

Minecraft Museum of London project adds third and final Great Fire map

by Stone Marshall | Apr 29, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, Minecraft questions, Stone Marshall Book News | 0 comments

At last, rebuild fallen London.

Last year, the Museum of London launched its Great Fire 1666 campaign—an educational project that uses Minecraft to reimagine the Great Fire of London, in-line with the disaster’s 350th anniversary. Split into three distinct time periods during the event, different Minecraft maps portray events pre-fire, during the fire, and the aftermath and rebuilding of London in the wake of the fire. Part one and two can be found via those respective links and part three is now also live.

Supported by the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, part three is named The Rebuild and looks something like this:

“Inspired by the Museum of London’s rich collections, Great Fire 1666 uses the power of Minecraft to tell the story of the fire,” reads the project’s site. “Three maps offer immersive experiences, allowing players to enter the City of London in 1666 and explore the story of the Great Fire like never before. Uncover the causes of this terrible event, help fight the fire and eventually try your hand at rebuilding London.

“Each map includes challenges to help players delve deeper into the story and experience what it was like to be part of the Fire of London.”

Head in this direction for download links for each stage of the Great Fire 1666 project, as well as more information on the project’s aims and purpose.

Minecraft Museum of London project adds third and final Great Fire map

‘Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition’: Special Features To Be Included

by Stone Marshall | Apr 29, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News | 0 comments

“Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition” was officially revealed just a few days ago, and now, fans thinking about getting this game can learn more about what new features it will offer.

Minecraft official website‘Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition’ is due out on May 11

Though the Switch works differently from other consoles, players can expect that the version of “Minecraft” that will be released for it will be capable of supporting whichever style of play they want to try out.

In a recent post on the game’s official website, it was also revealed that up to eight players can join up online, while as many as four different players can take part in the experience when it is played in local multiplayer mode.

Additional details about the Switch edition were then revealed by developers during a recent livestream, WWG reported.

Starting off with world sizes, players can reportedly create 3072 x 3072-sized worlds, and that upper limit is a significant step up from what was provided to players in last gen consoles.

Another promising revelation is that players who enjoyed “Minecraft” on the Wii U may also not have to simply abandon the previous game even as they move to Nintendo’s newest console. Developers are reportedly primed to introduce a special system that will allow for the proper transfer of worlds from the Wii U edition to the Switch version of the game.

This special system is not expected to be made accessible right away to players, however, so they may have to wait for a bit before they can see their Wii U worlds moved over to the Switch edition of “Minecraft.”

The “Super Mario Mash-Up pack” is also being bundled together with the Switch edition, giving players more items to play around with right away.

Players can start creating worlds using Nintendo’s newest gaming platform as soon as “Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition” is officially released on May 11.

‘Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition’: Special Features To Be Included

Free Fire director used Minecraft to map out set design

by Stone Marshall | Apr 28, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions | 0 comments

Minecraft is used for a lot of different things. It’s used to emulate entire programming languages, it’s used to train AI, and people even sometimes use it to enjoy themselves (via actually playing the game, is what I mean by that). Now there’s a new thing you can add to the list of Cools Things Minecraft Is Used For: designing sets for movies.

Or at least, that’s what Ben Wheatley did for his new film. The English director of Kill List and High Rise tweeted two images today showing the Minecraft build he used to plot out the film’s grimy warehouse setting. Here they are:

According to Wheatley replying to other Twitter users, he finds Minecraft a quicker tool for plotting out sets than Google Sketch, to name one example.

As for the film itself, Rotten Tomatoes reports that it’s “an electrifying action comedy about an arms deal that goes spectacularly and explosively wrong.” I haven’t seen the film, but I’ll be keeping a close eye out for creepers and suspiciously blocky looking structures when I do.

Here’s the trailer for the film, by the way. You’ll note some vague similarities between the above images and the final product.

Free Fire director used Minecraft to map out set design

Minecraft in real life: retoucher works magic on cubist creatures

by Stone Marshall | Apr 28, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, news, parent-news, State of Stone | 0 comments

Based in Jakarta, retoucher Aditya Aryanto recently had a simple idea: what if real life animals looked more like the cubic creations in the game Minecraft?

Using public domain images, he pulled them into Photoshop, and used the liquify curves tool to transform the animals into unnaturally straight lines.

“I am interested in the cubical shape and trying to change some animal form into cubes. First, I was afraid if it would be nicer than the original shape,” he said. “I was really curious about the results, so I tried to find some funny animal pictures to be changed into Anicube. I found animal pictures from Unsplash and Pixabay. Once I collected, I started making these images in Photoshop.”

Fany giving it a try? In Photoshop, just use the Liquify tool and shape to your heart’s content (Shift+Command+X). You can see the full album here.