by Stone Marshall | Aug 11, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Many people believe video games are intellectually lazy and have a poor effect on students. There are, however, a growing number of teachers, students, and parents who are using one video game in particular as an educational tool.
Minecraft is a video game that has gained an enormous following. According to Minecraft.net, more than 20 million people have purchased a version of the game.
Zack Klein, CEO of DIY.org and co-founder of Vimeo described Minecraft in terms of another popular childhood toy — Lego.
“Minecraft is basically virtual Legos, except you can have an infinite number of blocks to play with. And instead of being just plastic, the blocks can have different properties. They can be stone, they can be wood, they can be water, they can be shrubs. And kids play with them just like they might with Legos. They build anything they can imagine, and they can do it in a space with other kids online,” Klein says.
Minecraft isn’t just popular with kids. Many teachers have begun using the game as a learning tool in their classrooms. There are reports of educators using Minecraft as a base for art, history, geography, philosophy and ecology lessons.
Bruce Homer, an associate professor of educational psychology at the City University of New York, argues video games can be a good medium for learning.
“Video games, the way they’re built, tap into, I think, a lot of key features that address who children are and what they like. So they’re interactive, they’re social, and, you know, visually and emotionally stimulating. And there’s learning in every video game. The key is to develop games that kids can actually learn stuff we want them to learn,” Homer says.
Some people, however, are finding that kids are using Minecraft as more than an afternoon diversion, or a fun way to complete a geography lesson. Klein discovered, during a recent search of his DIY.org site that almost all the architecture projects kids had stored on the site were buildings that had been designed in Minecraft.
“It occurred to me that kids weren’t using this game as a game necessarily, they were using it as a new kind of tool that allowed them to 3D model,” Klein says.
Still, other than anecdotal evidence, there is a lack of knowledge about how well kids are able to use skills they learn in Minecraft in the real world.
“We have the initial evidence, which is great stories from teachers talking about how much their students love it,” Homer says, “The next step I would say would be to actually do some research on it — where we compare how well students learn from this compared to other education interventions and see what activities within Minecraft lead to the best learning outcomes.”
Homer adds, however, that Minecraft might be one useful step in a time-tested strategy for teaching: exposing kids to concepts in multiple situations. If a student hears a geography lesson from their teacher, and also gets that lesson repeated virtually in Minecraft, and then again during a “real life” experience, they are much more likely to retain the information and fully understand the concept.
In the end, there are many people, including parents, educators, kids, and developers, who remain excited about the possibilities of Minecraft as an educational tool.
“I think we don’t quite understand the influence that Minecraft has had and will have had on our culture, now that an entire generation of people — these kids — know how to build and think in three-dimensional spaces. What sort of art, and communication and business will now be possible because there is a huge consumer base that understands this tool?” Klein says.
Minecraft is not just fun — it’s changing education
by Stone Marshall | Aug 9, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Similar to this question on the bugs in Minecraft, I would like a complete list of what error codes exist in Minecraft and how they occur, as well as how they can be resolved.
Here are some, but probably not all, of the error codes that may occur when playing Minecraft:
Multiplayer Errors
An error that only happens when you’re playing on or attempting to log in/out of a multiplayer server.
Connection refused: connect
This means:
There is no Minecraft server online on the IP Address:Port you put in
The entire server (not just Minecraft) cannot be accessed
You can try:
Confirm you’ve entered the correct server address
Contacting the server owner/administrator or a known operator (OP) and explain the situation.
End of stream
This means:
The server has stopped sending information back to the client for some reason.
You can try:
Close and Reopen Minecraft and attempt to log in again.
If problems persist, contact the server owner/administrator or a known Operator (OP) and explain the situation
Failed to login: Bad Login
This means:
You’ve attempted to log in too quickly after last attempt.
This may also apply to when a non-vanilla client attempts to connect to a vanilla server (or vice versa), but in this case generally indicates version number discrepancies.
This may also occur with unequal vanilla version numbers, though this has almost been entirely replaced with the Outdated Server or Outdated Client error messages.
You can try:
Confirm that you are running the correct version of Minecraft for the server you wish to connect to. (Sometimes, server operators may not update the server straight away, but instead wait for their particular mods/server admin tools to catch up).
Check your network connection and your ping (lag) time. Your client may be getting kicked because the network is too slow to respond in time.
Internal Exception: io.netty.handler.timeout.ReadTimeoutException
This means:
The game could not keep up with the server, or that your computer cannot process the packets fast enough, causing you to fall too far out of sync with the server.
You can try:
Getting a faster/clearer internet connection, a faster computer, or simply closing any programs that may be hogging your bandwidth/computer processing power. Remember to check the task tray on Windows – applications like Dropbox can consume a lot of bandwidth.
java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 503
This means:
The server cannot authenticate who you are because minecraft.net is down
You can try:
Check the Minecraft Update News and the Mojang pages to check if there are planned outages (server maintenance, website updates etc)
Try again later
If this persists and there isn’t any reported outages, contact the server owner/administrator or a known operator (OP) and explain the situation
java.net.SocketException: Connection reset
This means:
The server has shut down or is doing something very intensive.
This also occurs when the user’s internet connection dies or something in between the user and the server gets disconnected.
It is basically a very broad and common TCP/IP error. It means that something has happened to disconnect the connection in an abrupt and unexpected way.
Servers sometimes return this when in the process of shutting down or starting up, which may happen if the server does nightly backups/restarts. (Remember, your ‘night’ may be different to the server, especially if it is in another country!)
You can try:
Try logging in again later.
If this persists, contact the server owner/administrator or a known Operator (OP) and explain the situation.
Outdated client!
This means:
You’re connecting to a server on a newer version than the Minecraft you’re using
You can try:
Change your Minecraft version to the one used by the server, using the Profile Editor in the Launcher
Outdated server!
This means:
You’re connecting to a server on an older version than the Minecraft you’re using
You can try:
Change your Minecraft version to the one used by the server, using the Profile Editor in the Launcher
Note: Sometimes, server operators may not update the server straight away, but instead wait for their particular mods/server admin tools to catch up, especially for pre-release versions
This server responded with an invalid server key
This means:
This is actually a measure to stop an exploit with modified servers, but has a bug which causes it to have false positives in half of the connections.
You can try:
Attempt to log in again.
Took to long to log in
This means:
The server cannot authenticate who you are because minecraft.net wasn’t responding
You can try:
Try again later
Check the Minecraft Update News and the Mojang pages to check if there are planned outages (server maintenance, website updates etc)
If this persists and there isn’t any reported outages, contact the server owner/administrator or a known Operator (OP) and explain the situation.
User Not Premium
This means:
“Free”/cracked/hacked Minecraft clients do not pass the minecraft.net authentication.
You can try
If you want to play on multiplayer servers you have to buy the game.
You are not whitelisted on this server
This means:
You have not been added to (or have been removed from) the list of people who are allowed to connect to the server.
You can try:
Contacting the server owner/administrator or a known operator (OP) and explain the situation.
Crashes
An error that can occur at any point while playing the game.
Failed to check session lock, aborting
This means:
Most likely, there is an active lock on part of the world (either the terrain itself, or more likely an NBT saved element such as a player or chest) that a third party editor has left locked (or that you didn’t close).
You may only see this in the crash log.
You can try:
Delete session.lock in the world save folder (contact an admin if you aren’t one and explain the situation).
java.lang.NullPointerException
This means:
Minecraft sometimes crashes on startup, even when you are playing vanilla.
This typically means that one or more Block IDs conflict with each other.
This normally occurs on heavily modded clients or modpacks, such as Tekkit or Feed The Beast.
You can try:
Relaunching the game
ForgeModLoader now has an in-built block ID resolver/alert. So, if there’s a conflict: The game will stop loading and ask you to fix them. It even gives you a little file that tells you what blocks are conflicting with each other, and the IDs they’re conflicting for.
Runtime Errors
com.google.gson.JsonSyntaxException
or
com.google.gson.stream.MalformedJsonException
Minecraft uses an external package by Google to parse all the json formatting, which is what the NBT format is based on.
This means:
Your world may be corrupted.
There is invalid JSON/NBT formatting in your save files; tag names are defined as a “variable” instead of a string.
You can try:
Going through the save files and searching for the malformed formatting. (See this example code to clear using Javascript)
This means {Tag:{ … }} instead of {“Tag”:{ … }}, with … representing its compounded tags/contents.
Restoring your save to a previous backup where the problem has not occurred, and removing any mods that may have caused this.
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError
This means:
Your game has run out of memory.
Heavily modded clients require a lot more memory (and processing power) as it has more blocks loaded onto it.
You can try:
Increasing the amount of memory that is allocated to java. See the posts here:
How do you allocate more RAM to Minecraft?
Why allocate more RAM to Minecraft?
Close down any programs that you don’t need (to free up memory)
Reduce the number of mods
Upgrade to the 64-bit version of Java (requires a 64-bit computer).
See here for information (not Minecraft-specific).
RuntimeException: No OpenGL context found in the current thread.
or
org.lwjgl.LWJGLException: Pixel format not accelerated
This means:
Your graphics card or driver is unable to handle Minecraft.
You can try:
It could be as simple as updating graphics drivers, but this doesn’t happen often.
If this error occurs after installing or updating the operating system, you probably have default graphics drivers that do not support OpenGL. Install the drivers provided by your graphics card manufacturer instead of the default drivers.
Otherwise, you may need to purchase a newer graphics card for your PC.
References and additional information
Some are taken from this post on the Yogscast forums.
Official Minecraft support pages
The bug tracker might have information about bugs causing these errors as well. You can look for your error in the Hopper, too.
Failed to login: Bad Login is also an error thrown when a) a non-vanilla client attempts to connect to a vanilla server (and vice versa) (only happens in some situations) and b) used to show up when the client had a newer version than the server (this may be fixed up now). – Qix Dec 22 ’12 at 22:04
I know when modding the client/server from scratch, I would get Bad Login all the time (even though the login systems were fine). The problems were version numbers; once they correlated with each other the user could connect fine. – Qix Dec 22 ’12 at 22:05
Further, Connection Reset also occurs when the user’s internet connection dies or something in between the user and the server gets disconnected (basically, Connection Reset [being a very broad and common TCP/IP error] means something happened to disconnect the connection in an abrupt and unexpected way). – Qix Dec 22 ’12 at 22:07
Right, you have missed 1 as far as I know “Cannot have username longer than 16 characters” – user48382 May 11 ’13 at 19:24
An access violation / segmentation fault occurs when a program attempts to access memory that it has not been assigned. This is a very broad type of error with many possible causes, but it is almost always the result of a software bug.
Find the part of the crash log that states “problematic frame”, and see if it matches any of the ones found below:
Problematic frame: ig4icd32.dll, ig4dev32.dll, ig7icd64.dll, ig7dev64.dll
What is this? Drivers for Intel integrated graphics processors, commonly found in laptops.
Updating these drivers may be sufficient, and is usually a good idea anyway.
If you have another graphics processor / card (e.g. ATi, nVidia), you may want to run on that device instead, as they tend to be better supported and deliver more performance (at the cost of battery life).
Problematic frame: atioglx1.dll, atioglx2.dll, atioglx3.dll, atioglxx.dll
What is this? ATi OpenGL drivers. Minecraft uses OpenGL for its 3D rendering.
Updating your graphics drivers is usually a good place to start–usually, because see below.
Did the error start appearing only recently? A recent update may actually be the culprit. See whether downgrading/rolling back to a previous version resolves the issue.
Problematic frame: jvm.dll, libjvm.so
What is this? The actual Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Install the latest version in the Java line you have (6, 7, 8 …). While uncommon, a bug may have slipped into the JVM.
If other parts of your computer are acting up as well, you may have hardware memory errors. Try running a memory check.
Is there a list of error codes for Minecraft?
by Stone Marshall | Aug 6, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Swedish game developer Mojang is all set to initiate public testing of “Minecraft 1.9: The Combat Update” which is mostly about cuddling and farming plants.
According to the Minecraft Forum, gamers should not expect to find in “Minecraft 1.9: The Combat Update” a number of things that are normally on its preview phase.
Among these things include any balancing of any kind as gamers should expect things to be hilariously overpowered or underpowered. There will be no melee combat changes, and that means no shields, no meaning of life, and no hugs too.
The update will also have a perfect respawn mechanics at the end so gamers can actually respawn the dragon by drawing a creeper face with clay, but the respawning will just be temporary.
Lots of new items
There will also be lots of new items and blocks which don’t exist previously. There will also be new potions and enchantments. The update will also provide subtitles support.
The update shall also come with proper offhand interaction support. And finally, there will also be lots of surprise stuff.
According to the resource pack authors, they have changed the format of the packs slightly, and have support for versioning packs now. Gamers can still use incompatible packs, it just needs exra confirmation from the user.
But before updating to Minecraft 1.9: The Combat Update,” gamers are strongly advised to back up their worlds before updating. Things might break during the loading process so it is always better to be on the side of caution than being sorry later on.
Bug fixes too
As per Mojang, the new update will come with a lot of bug fixes too which have been the key complaints of gamers recently.
The game developer has also asked gamers to report any other bugs that they can see or notice in the game so that they can attend to fixing it.
Getting snapshots of the bugs and other issues that gamers can find would be very helpful for Mojang. To those who are not yet familiar with snapshots, they can simply open their launcher and press the New Profile button. Name it snapshots and tick the box that says ‘enable experimental development snapshots’ and save.
To go back to the normal version, gamers can simply select it in the dropdown at the bottom left corner of the launcher. They also need to back up their world first or run the game in a different folder because snapshot can actually ruin their worlds in the game.
Despite its blocky graphics that basically resembles Lego playable sets, the sandbox independent video game “Minecraft” is one of the most successful video games in the world.
“Minecraft” is an open-world game that has no specific goals for the player to accomplish, allowing gamers a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.
Created by Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson and subsequently developed and published by Swedish gaming company Mojang, “Minecraft” has creative and building aspects that enable players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world.
The game also allows exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat. It was officially released on November 18, 2011 to the PC and mobile devices by Mojang; then to the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and the Windows Phone by Microsoft Studios; and to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PS Vita by Sony Computer Entertainment.
“Minecraft” come in two gameplay modes – a single player and a multiplayer mode. Each mode comes in three sub-modes. There is the survival mode where players must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health.
There is also a creative mode where players have unlimited resources to build with the ability to fly, and the adventure mode where players use custom maps that were created by other players.
The game also has an achievement system. Gameplay by default is the first person. But players have the option to play in the third person mode. The main gameplay is focused on breaking and placing blocks or rough 3D objects, arranged in a fixed grid pattern and representing different materials such as dirt, stone, various ores, water, and tree trunks.
While players can move freely across the open world, objects can only be placed at fixed locations on the grid. Players can gather these material blocks and put them elsewhere, which enables them to do various constructions.
With the advent of the latest video games that featured state-of-the-art graphics technology, “Minecraft” has been relegated to a kid’s game, graphics-wise. Eventually, the new games found out that “Minecraft” is already an icon in the video game industry and simply cannot be dislodged from its lofty status as one of the most successful and sentimental video games.
It’s more than 100 million registered users is not just an evidence of its extraordinary popularity, it also shows that despite being akin to an open world digital Lego set, gamers really find “Minecraft” entertaining and exciting enough to maintain their interest on it.
A good part of the continued success of “Minecraft” however can be attributed to YouTube, which “Minecraft” gamers and fanatics have greatly made use of to promote and proliferate on how to do things properly in “Minecraft.”
‘Minecraft’ Developer Ready to Initiate Public Testing of the Game’s ‘The Combat Update!’
by Stone Marshall | Aug 5, 2015 | Minecraft News |
If you thought Minecraft Pocket Edition 0.11 – which added boats, skins, and fishing – had a big feature list, you haven’t seen anything yet.
The upcoming 0.12 will introduce more new stuff than perhaps any update we’ve ever seen, including controller support, music, weather, the Nether, and huge changes to the inventory.
The reason?
Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, which was announced at London shindig Minecon.This new Win 10 version is
Pocket Edition (and the two versions will “will always be updated together”,
says Mojang’s Tommaso Checchi), and Microsoft doesn’t want its OS getting a crappy feature list. So expect many improvements.
What we can look forward to in Pocket Edition 0.12, then? We’ve poured over Minecon panels and hands-on sessions with Windows 10 edition and tweets from Mojang staff to give you this exhaustive breakdown.
PC-style inventory
Pocket Edition will get the traditional inventory interface, for survival mode, in 0.12. Which means no more easy crafting: you’ll have to memorise recipes if you want to make stuff.
New controls
When playing with the touchscreen controls, you’ll find that the jump button has been moved. And there are buttons for sneaking and sprinting. You can also turn auto-jump on and off.
Controller support
Of course, you don’t have to play with the touchscreen controls any longer. Controller support will be added: though, the only confirmed controller thus far is an Xbox 360 / One pad, for the Windows 10 edition.
Customisable interface
Not happy with the current screen layout? 0.12 will let you move stuff like buttons, hearts, and experience bars.
The Nether
This is a special hell-like dimension, filled with ghastly creatures and handy new materials. If it’s anything like the PC version, you’ll have to make a portal out of obsidian blocks to enter this area.
Weather
Finally! It will now rain and snow while you play Pocket Edition. Snow will also stack if it has been snowing for some time.
Hunger
It’s a controversial change. A second bar, which tracks your hunger and forces you to keep eating food or you’ll begin to drain health. It’s coming to Pocket Edition, so you’ll have to grow crops or chop up animals to survive.
Enchanting
You’ll now gain experience points while playing PE. And these handy points can be used, with the right objects and items, to enchant your gear and give it magical properties.
Potions
Get a brewing stand and whip up a potion to give yourself temporary powers. In Minecraft proper that includes health regeneration, improved speed, a higher jump, and invisibility.
Redstone
Redstone is a curious element that lets you wire up mechanical machines. Some use it to make simple automated minecart tracks. Others use it to make a million-block graphic calculator that draws shapes. Up to you.
This one might miss 0.12, as its described as being added “this year”. But hey, fingers crossed.
New animations
Things should look a little more fancy in 0.12. The TNT explosion has been updated, and particle effects will be present with mobs are on fire and when slimy slimes jump.
New dungeon
A new dungeon design will be present, so you won’t know what to expect when you stumble upon an underground lair.
Soundtrack
Hooray! No more playing in silence. Music will be added to the handheld version in the next update. Let’s hope Mojang sticks with C418’s haunting piano score. It wouldn’t be Minecraft, otherwise.
Commands
You can do all kinds of crazy crap with commands. And now you’ll be able to type them into Pocket Edition. We’ll have to wait and see how much this will allow us to change the game.
New mobs
Big ugly Iron Golems, who protect villagers from harm, will be added. As will Ocelots, which are big nasty cats that spawn in jungle biomes. And Villagers can now turn into zombies, which is slightly terrifying.
You’ll also have to deal with new Nether enemies, if you enter that scary dimension, including Wither Skeletons and Blazes.
New Blocks
Enchantment tables will let you, erm, enchant items with magical properties. Anvils will let you repaired damaged equipment. And brewing stands let you make potions.
You can also get the morbid mob heads, which let you show off enemies you have killed. By displaying their decapitated bonce. Who is the real monster?
Other new items include flower pots, soul sand, Nether brick fences, and Nether quartz ore.
Items
Potions are now included of course. Plus, golden carrots and apples, enchanted golden apples, and glistering melons.
You’ll also be able to stuff your inventory with Nether warts, a rabbit’s foot, a Blaze rod and Blaze powder, a Ghast tear, a (fermented) spider eye, and a good old bottle o’ enchanting.
Windows 10 Edition will go into beta on July 29th. No word yet on when to expect updates for the iOS and Android version of Pocket Edition.
