Computer Science Canada Bresenham's Line Drawing Algorithm Implemented In Minecraft |
| Author: | properinglish [ Sat Jul 07, 2012 2:30 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Bresenham's Line Drawing Algorithm Implemented In Minecraft |
Hi guys, I decided to join this forum today because I wanted to share something with you and I hope that you enjoy it. Over the past few months gone from having minimal knowledge of Boolean logic to having a decent understanding of logic, a few algorithms, and computing - at least enough to use as a foundation for learning more. What I wanted to share with you is that my both my interest in the subject and what I've learned has been the result of a game called Minecraft, which turns out to be a fantastic platform for logic simulation. As you may or may not know, Minecraft features an on/off system called redstone which as you would expect, can be used to simulate Boolean logic. Here's an example of what's possible: http://youtu.be/H7uclAqUmDw What I've done there is implement Bresenham's line drawing algorithm in the game. It worked out beautifully and I find it incredible that these sort of things can be accomplished in a game. In addition to this, I've done things like designing a Kogge-Stone adder, CPUs, and various mathematical circuits like multipliers (with a few different algorithms), division (by conditional subtraction and I'm currently working on an SRT divider), and square root extraction. The game is a fantastic learning tool - I help run a server focused on the use of Boolean logic in the game and we have members of broad age range developing an interest in logic and computing. I'm actually a molecular biologist and because I was exposed to all of this I've decided to begin learning about computing and delve into the world of bioinformatics. I hope you've gotten some amusement from the fact that all of this is possible! Edit: Also, I apologize, I meant to post this in General Discussion... not the best way to go about my first post here. |
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| Author: | chrisbrown [ Sat Jul 07, 2012 7:59 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bresenham's Line Drawing Algorithm Implemented In Minecraft |
Well, I sure feel inferior. Very impressive. If you want to get more out of the redstone system and haven't done so already, I strongly urge you to take a look at the <a href="http://nemesis.evalq.net/RedPower2/recipes.html">RedPower2</a> mod. I only say this because I wish I had found it sooner. Here's why:
Wires can be placed vertically and upside-down Insulated wires prevent signals from being transmitted to nearby blocks Bundled cables transmit all 16 insulated cable colours as a single block Coloured insulated and bundles - blue will never connect to green, for example Also, the transparent (D) latch is included in the latest version, but the page hasn't been updated yet. Check out the blog as well, but the recipes are probably of most interest. There's plenty more in the mod but I only use the redstone stuff. Again, nicely done. |
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| Author: | tyler569 [ Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:17 am ] |
| Post subject: | RE:Bresenham\'s Line Drawing Algorithm Implemented In Minecraft |
Proper, I still absolutly love this thing, keep up the great work! With regards to RedPower2, I am a member of the same redstone-orientated group as properinglish, the Redstone Development Foundation (shameless plug, I'm sorry), and we focus on vanilla redstone creations. RedPower is definatly fun and I have played with it myself a bit, but most of our members see it as cheating in a way, taking much of the challenge out of compaction and optimization. |
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| Author: | properinglish [ Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:29 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Bresenham's Line Drawing Algorithm Implemented In Minecraft |
Thanks! I haven't tried redpower, but I might at some point. Still, I think I'd stick with doing mostly vanilla redstone because there's something fun about designing and optimizing circuits down to the logic gates themselves. There's also something that just looks impressive about a massive redstone circuit. |
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