Minecraft for the Nintendo Switch is about to look dramatically better when connected to televisions, and it's thanks to the cautionary diligence of its console handlers that we're seeing it now, a few months after release. The game shipped on May 11 locked in both handheld and TV mode at 720p, pushing on the order of about a million pixels. After the update, it'll run at 1080p in TV mode, and push over twice as many pixels.
How'd they do it? Microsofttold TIME in May that the reason for the lower resolution involved “issues currently experienced shifting from one resolution to the other when docking/undocking.” The company passed along speculation from 4J Studios that 1080p might be attainable, but it couldn't promise anything.
I just spoke with 4J Studios CTO Richard Reavy, and it turns out the issue of getting Minecraft for the Switch to 1080p involved double and triple checking the interface — and a bit of performance optimization. (4J develops all console versions of Minecraft.)
Reavy tells me the game needed further optimization to handle 1080p comfortably, but that the studio was confident it could make that happen given sufficient time.
“We did spend some time analyzing our GPU usage and optimizing things before we did this move as well,” he says. “We needed to spend some time looking at the fill rate and being more careful with that, just because of the number of pixels in 1080p. We kind of knew we could do the optimization and we would get there with the performance. But yeah, ultimately, the fundamental problem was switching resolution.”
More specifically, switching the user interface at different resolutions. Reavy tells me the user interface on each of the console versions — besides the Switch, they include the PlayStation 3 and 4, PS Vita, Xbox 360 and One, and the Wii U — have custom user interfaces. “Every interface seam is handcrafted by our art team to suit the exact resolution of the console it's on,” says Reavy. Everything through May ran at a fixed resolution. But when the Switch arrived, 4J Studios had to grapple with its signature feature: transitioning dynamically between different resolutions without hiccups or pauses.
“We wanted to make sure the transition was really slick, and that the user wouldn't notice anything, like it taking seconds unloading one user interface system for another,” he says. “And also because you can dock and undock your console at any point, it can be quite problematic that the user could switch the console at a really inopportune moment.” This explains Microsoft's delay in rolling out the feature between May and now: 4J Studios simply wanted the time to thoroughly vet the user interface while changing resolution at any point while playing the game.
For now, 1080p is the biggest technical revision. The draw distance is still a bit lower than on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, you're limited to “Medium” world sizes (3,072-by-3,072 blocks versus “Large,” which supports 5,120-by-5,120 blocks) and you don't get the checkbox to create “Amplified” terrain. “Everything else is unchanged at present,” says Reavy. “We really just wanted to make sure jumping up the resolution wouldn't cause any problems.”
Those differences may fade when, later this fall, Minecraft for the Switch transitions to the much more versatile and scalable “bedrock engine” that currently runs on Windows 10, iOS and Android devices. And it's at that point things get really interesting, because Microsoft and Nintendo will be doing something that has no industry precedent, allowing Xbox One, iPhone, Windows PC and Nintendo Switch owners to play together in a single, seamlessly backend-unified ecosystem.
It's no secret that Minecraft‘s [$6.99] true intention is to be present everywhere, and the latest endeavor is another step in that direction. As announced recently, Mojang is working together with Egmont to publish an all new Minecraft: Official Magazine, which will exist in physical form. The magazine is already out in the UK and will be traveling to another countries “as soon as logistically possible.” The new magazine is 60-pages long and filled with all kinds of tips, tricks, survival stories, and much more. The tips and tricks part contains various builds broken down into detailed steps to help readers figure out how to improve their skills.
In addition to the aforementioned sections, the new magazine also contains a comic starring new heroes, Bear, Scout, Sparks, and Monty. As you'd expect from a Minecraft comic, these characters each represent a segment of the Minecraft player base. You have a survivalist, a warrior, a builder, and an explorer. I continue to be pleasantly surprised by all that comes out of the Minecraft universe, and I think this magazine is going to be another big hit with the game's players. Expect it to hit the US shores in the not-to-distant future.
Minecon is being replaced with a free, live-streamed show called ‘Minecon Earth.'
Minecon has been a popular event for Minecraft fans since 2010, but this year the good people of Mojang are switching it up. Instead of a physical convention, it will host Minecon Earth — an interactive, live show that will be streamed online.
In an announcement, the Minecon team said that with such a large following, it's hard to maximize how many fans can attend the convention while still keeping the “friendly, intimate community atmosphere” of previous Minecons. So instead, on November 18th, you'll be able to stream the 90-minute-long Minecon Earth or attend a special theater screening. The plan is to “take the best bits of our previous events and incorporate them into a condensed show dedicated to all things Minecraft,” which includes showing off your specially-made Minecraft-themed costume. You'll be able to submit your costume ahead of time for inclusion in the show. Swag will also still be a part of Minecon Earth. Exclusive goods will be on sale during the show and viewers will be able to order them online.
However, Mojang does want to keep some sort of in-person experience in the mix, so it's also going to support community events led by approved partners like Minefaire, Minevention and Blockfest. Like regular Minecon, these events will feature popular YouTubers and streamers as well as tournaments and costume contests.
More information about Minecon Earth will be released in the near future and for those who are bummed about not being able to attend Minecon this year, check out our coverage of the 2015 event that took place in London.
The cubist revolution, now in its eighth year, is thriving.
That's Minecraft cubes, of course.
The game where you build virtual Lego-like worlds and populate them with people, animals and just about everything in between is one of the most popular games ever made; it's second only to Tetris as the best-selling video game of all time. There's gold in them thar cubes: More than 120 million copies have sold since Minecraft launched in 2009.*
So what's behind the game's enduring appeal?
For Isiah Hammonds, 9, it's all about the creative potential every time you fire up your computer.
“You can build anything – anything that you put your mind to! You can work with other people. It's social. It's just super fun!” he says while focusing intensely on finishing his virtual ice arena with his multi-player team of fellow Minecraft campers in Richmond, Calif. “It's for our ice boat racing.”
Hammonds, a third-grader, is in a basement room in Richmond's City Hall, next to the cafeteria and a janitor's closet. There are long, narrow white tables with black computer monitors on top.
A lot of tech summer camps like this can cost upwards of $1,000 a week — but these 20 children are in a city hall basement because the space is free.
It serves predominantly low-income African-American and Hispanic children, many of whom face basic barriers to catching the tech and gaming bug — like access to the internet and access to devices.
A lot of the children here are playing Minecraft for the first time, explains the camp's digital literacy director, Teresa Jenkins. That's because a lot of the families who come here don't have computers at home. Or if they do, she says, they can't afford high-speed internet or it's simply not a priority.
“Rent. Food. Gas. ‘How am I doing to get the kids back and forth to school? How am I going to get back and forth to work? ‘ ” says Jenkins, “that's the priority.”
Richmond is gentrifying amid the Bay Area's tech-driven economic boom. But the city remains one of the area's poorest, with a poverty rate of nearly 18 percent.
Children here can see San Francisco from their city and hear all about nearby Silicon Valley and its bevy of industry-disrupting companies, “but they don't imagine they can be a part of that industry,” says Jennifer Lyle, the executive director of Building Blocks for Kids Collaborative.
This Minecraft camp, Lyle says, is trying to change that ‘we're not welcome in tech' feeling some low-income families in Richmond have. “To get people to come here and say, ‘No, our child deserves to have access to this,' ” she says.
It starts by introducing young people and their parents “to the kinds of things wealthier folks get access to because they have the means,” she explains, getting “grounding in computers they're not getting in school.”
Minecraft gets high marks from diverse quarters for its education potential. The game can help teach the basics of computer literacy and the key foundations of coding, animation, circuitry and more.
Children can absorb the broccoli of computer knowledge while reveling in the popcorn of building elaborate worlds out of cubes. And in camps like this, they can learn to work together as a team, says Morgan Ames, a postdoctoral scholar at U.C. Berkeley who helped create this camp and has studied its impact.
Campers here, she says, get to work through “the steps of designing something technological that somebody else will play.” Using aMinecraft tool called redstone circuits, kids can “think through the basics of circuits.”
But to really get that full experience, kids need the PC or Mac version of the game. A version not all have access to, Ames says. Ames also co-authored a study of Minecraft, this camp, and equity and access gaps by race, class and gender.
“Generally we found that middle- and upper middle-income kids play the PC version more. Boys tend to play it more than girls. And in general, white kids tend to play it more than children of color,” Ames says.
And that's troubling, she says, because the PC version is simply a richer version of the game. “It has more options. It has more opportunities to learn to code. And we wanted to make it more accessible,” she says.
More accessible for children such as Jaiden Newton, 9. On this day I find her eagerly conspiring with her brother in a multi-player game at the camp.
“So he's trying to build an underground tunnel to the other person's arena so he can steal the flag,” she tells me.
She makes her way past a dazzling cube inside one of her elaborate cube structures.
“Those are Ender Pearls. It's like a teleportation,” she says.
Ames says she's collecting more data but her preliminary look shows that the tools out there to learn more about Minecraft — online forums, videos and the like — are dominated by boys.
Camps like this are vital, Ames says, to help change that equation.
Or as program director Jennifer Lyle puts it, this camp helps send a message to our parents, schools and Silicon Valley “we belong here.”
*[Note: Minecraft was purchased by Microsoft Corp. from developers Mojang in 2014. The foundation created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates is a financial supporter of NPR and NPR Ed.]
A small team of Minecraft users have spent more than two years building a virtual model of China's Forbidden City.
The effort eventually came down to two guys labouring over the course of over two years, to lay down billions of bricks to eventually recreate the 600-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site.
The team was led by 22-year-old Su Yijun from Guangzhou, who orchestrated the plan from scratch in 2014, as volunteers dropped out one by one from the gargantuan task, Sixth Tone reports.
Their virtual creation covers a square grid of 100 million blocks, and even replicates furniture inside, from the Emperor's throne, to the traditional Chinese-style beds of the time.
His video has been viewed some 870,000 times on Bilibili, a Chinese video portal.
The most difficult part of the project, he says, was being unable to visit and construct parts of the Forbidden City that are not open to the public.
“Many areas are not open to the public and….the interior decorations were not as how they originally appeared,” he told Sixth Tone.
Here's the Forbidden City IRL
Image: PILIPEY/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
The Minecraft version
Image: 国家建筑师/bilibili
Real lion at the gates
Image: LightRocket via Getty Images
Minecraft lion
Image: 国家建筑师/Bilibili
The Forbidden City was a Chinese imperial palace that served as the home for 24 emperors. It was so named because it was closed to the public for hundreds of years.
The palace grounds cover a span of 74 hectares, and attracts over 14 million tourists to Beijing to see it each year.
Minecraft’s “Better Together Update” is rolling out now in beta, for players on Windows 10 PCs and Android devices. That means players on either platform with the beta installed will be able to participate in games from either type of device, together in cross-platform play.
This update was originally revealed at E3 back in June, and includes other feature additions like community servers and a community Marketplace with paid add-ons. There are also a range of new in-game item types, multiplayer host and permission options, and more.
The beta is also set to roll out for Xbox One “soon,” Microsoft says, which will add the gaming console to the cross-platform action. Microsoft also said when the update was announced that it’ll eventually add support for the Play Together Update to iOS, Nintendo Switch and VR devices (Sony was apparently offered the chance to participate in the update for PlayStation, but declined).
To get in on the beta, players will need the Xbox Insider app for Windows 10 and Xbox One, and on Android they’ll need to have Google Play and of course everyone will need a copy of the game.
This could be huge for unifying Minecraft’s massive player community, which is already quite the club.
