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Instant Minecraft Designs How-to
Instant Minecraft Designs How-to

Instant Minecraft Designs How-to: Build amazing structures using the very popular and most advanced of free mods for Minecraft – WorldEdit CUI and VoxelSniper GUI

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Publication date : Mar 26, 2013
Length 76 pages
Edition : 1st Edition
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849695985
Concepts :
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Instant Minecraft Designs How-to

Chapter 1. Instant Minecraft Designs How-to

Welcome to Instant Minecraft Designs How-to, a guide on how to become a Master Architect with WorldEdit CUI and VoxelSniper GUI.

I can't tell you just how stoked I am that you have bought this book. I really hope you get a lot out of it. When you start building using the tutorials in this book, I expect that you at least have a rudimentary knowledge of how Minecraft works. If you don't, just take some time and get to know the various controls and features of Minecraft; it really doesn't take long to get the hang of it.

The main intention of this book is to introduce you to the use of the very powerful mods: WorldEdit CUI and VoxelSniper GUI. If you have ever seen some truly amazing Minecraft structures and wondered how on earth they were built, chances are they were built using these mods. That's not to say you can't build truly amazing Minecraft structures without these mods; you can, but it just takes a lot longer. These tools make your workflow in Minecraft exponentially more efficient and effective, leaving that much more time for you to get creative.

At the start of the book, I'll gently introduce you to some of the more commonly used commands in WorldEdit CUI, and a little bit of VoxelSniper GUI's functionality. I'll start off by walking you through almost every action and cover each step fairly comprehensively. As your familiarity with using these tools increases, so does the level of complexity of each recipe. By the end of this book, you should be able to see a structure, immediately start planning out and solving design problems, and finally formulate an action plan to create it in Minecraft.

Tudor-style house (Simple)


In this recipe, we'll be building a Tudor-style house. We'll be employing some manual building methods, and we'll also introduce some WorldEdit CUI commands and VoxelSniper actions into our workflow.

Getting ready

Once you have installed the recommended mods, you will need to have Equip an Arrow tools equipped on your action bar. This is used by VoxelSniper to perform its functions. You will also need to equip a Wooden Axe as this item becomes the WorldEdit tool and will be used for making selections. Don't try and use them to break blocks especially if you have made a selection that you don't want to lose. Not only will they not break the block, they will also wreck your selection or worse.

How to do it…

Let's get started with building our Tudor-style house by performing the following steps:

  1. Find a nice area or clear one with roughly 40 x 40 squares of flat land.

  2. Mark out a selection of 37 x 13 blocks by left-clicking with the Wooden Axe to set the first point and then right-clicking for the second point.

  3. Hit your T key and type the //set 5:1 command. This will make all of the blocks in the selected area turn into Spruce Wood Planks. If you make a mistake, you can do //undo.

    Note

    The //undo command does not alter the selection itself, only the changes made to blocks.

  4. Now create a selection 20 x 13 that will complete the L shape of the mansion's bottom floor. Remember to left-click and right-click with the Wooden Axe tool.

  5. Now type //set 5:1. In the corner that will be at the end of the outside wall of the longest wing, place a stack of three Spruce Wood blocks on top of each other. Right beside this, place two stacked Wool blocks and one Spruce Wood block on top of them, as shown in the inset of the following screenshot:

    With the selection in place, we will now stack these six blocks horizontally along the 37 block wall.

  6. The stack command works in the direction you face. So face directly down the length of the floor and type //stack 17.

    Tip

    If you make a mistake, do //undo.

  7. Go to the opposite end of the wall you just made and place a stack of three Spruce Wood blocks in the missing spot at the end.

  8. Then just like before, put two blocks of White Wool on the side of the corner Spruce Wood pole with one Spruce Wood block on top. Select these six blocks and facing along the short end wall, type //stack 5.

  9. Go to the end of this wall and complete it with the three Spruce Logs and two blocks of Wool with one Spruce block on top where the next wall will go. Select these six blocks. Remember! Wooden Axe, left-click, right-click.

  10. Facing down the inside wall, type //stack 11.

  11. Place another three Spruce Wood blocks upright in the corner and two Wool blocks with one Spruce block on top for the adjacent inner wall.

  12. Make a selection, face in the correct direction, and then type //stack 9.

  13. Repeat this same process of placing the six blocks, selecting them, facing in correct direction for the next wall, and typing //stack 5.

  14. Finally, type //stack 15 and your base should now be complete.

On the corner section, we're going to make some bay windows. So let's create the reinforcing structure for those:

  1. Inset by two blocks from the corner place five of these reinforcement structures. They consist of one Spruce Wood upright and two upside down Nether Brick steps, each aligned to the Spruce Wood uprights behind them.

  2. Now we'll place the wall sections of the bay windows. You should be able to create these by referring to the right-hand section of the following screenshot:

  3. Now comes the use of VoxelSniper GUI. So let's add some windows using it. Hit your V key to bring up the VoxelSniper GUI. We're going to "snipe" some windows into place.

  4. The first section, Place, in the top left-hand side represents the block you wish to place. For this we will select Glass.

  5. The section directly below Place is the Replace panel. As the name suggests, this is the block you wish to replace. We wish to replace White Wool, so we'll select that. Scroll through and locate the Wool block. In the right-hand side, under the Ink panel scroll box, select the White Wool block. Make sure the No-Physics checkbox is not selected.

  6. In the right-hand panel, we will select the tool we wish to use. If it's not already selected, click on the Sized tab and choose Snipe.

    Tip

    If you get lost, just follow the preceding screenshot.

  7. Choose your Arrow tool and right-click on the White Wool blocks you wish to change to Glass. VoxelSniper works from a distance hence the "Sniper" part of the name, so be careful when experimenting with this tool.

    Tip

    If you make a mistake in VoxelSniper, use /u to undo. You can also do /u 5, or /u 7, or /u 22, and so on and so on if you wish to undo multiple actions.

    The upcoming screenshots should illustrate the sort of pattern we will implement along each of the walls. The VoxelSniper GUI tool retains the last settings used so you can just fill in all the Glass sections of the wall with Wool initially, and then replace them using VoxelSniper once you are done. For now, just do it for the two longest outer walls.

    The following screenshot shows the 37 and 33 block length walls:

  8. On the short wing end wall, we'll fill the whole area with White Wool. So let's type //set 35.

  9. On the short side, make a 21 x 4 selection like the one shown in the following screenshot (top-left section), and stand directly on the block as indicated by the player in the top-left section of the screenshot. Do //copy and then move to the pole on the opposite side.

  10. Once you are on the corner column like in the bottom-left section of the preceding screenshot, do //paste.

    Tip

    To be sure that you are standing exactly on the right block, turn off flying (double-click Space bar), knock the block out below your feet, and make sure you fall down to the block below. Then jump up and replace the block.

    Do the same for the other wing. Select the wall section with the windows, repeat the process like you did for the previous wall, and then fill in the end wall with Wool blocks for now.

  11. Add a wooden floor that is level with the three Wool blocks below the Spruce Window frames. You can use the //set 5:1 command to fill in the large rectangular areas.

In the following steps, we will be doing some slightly more complex operations so follow the instructions carefully:

  1. Using the Wooden Axe, left-click to select the corner block of the house that is between the bottom of the windows and the floor.

  2. Now go to the opposite corner of the house and right-click to select the block at the same level. Don't worry that the bay windows aren't selected; we'll fix those up later. Now execute the following commands:

    //copy
    //up 3
    //paste
    

    When executing the //copy and //up 3 commands, do not move off the current block you are standing on.

  3. Remove the Glass block that appeared when you used the //up command. Don't use the Wooden Axe, Arrow, or Gun Powder tools to do this because they don't break blocks and may cause enormous problems instead.

  4. Manually place a layer around the entire house. You can fix up the bay window top section also (see the next screenshot). Now execute the following commands:

    //shift 2 down
    //copy
    //up 7
    //paste
    

    Again, make sure you do not move off the current block you are standing on when executing the //copy and //up 7 commands.

    You should now have a top layer of Spruce Wood.

  5. Look directly down at the ground and type the //expand 2 command.

    Note

    The expand command is based on the direction you are looking just like the stack command.

  6. For the following series of commands, don't move off the current block you are standing on:

    //copy
    //up 10
    //paste
    //shift 5 up
    
  7. Now look directly up, but don't move and execute the following commands:

    //expand 2
    //copy
    //up 8
    //paste
    
  8. Now select only the top layer of the bay window. Look directly up and type //stack 9. Do the same for the other bay window.

  9. Using the VoxelSniper tool (press V), replace the 2 x 3 Wool block sections with Glass blocks where the windows should be.

  10. Go to the end of the short wing and place a 5 x 5 rectangle outline of Red Bricks. Now using your Wooden Axe, select them.

  11. Look directly up and type //stack 11.

  12. Now using Red Bricks and Red Brick steps, taper the chimney in by a block and extend it up to the top, both inside and outside.

  13. In the courtyard area, we're going to build an entryway/foyer to the house. Using Nether Brick steps, create the following pattern on the wall and then make a selection containing it, as shown in the following screenshot:

  14. Placing the steps the right way up can be a little bit of trial and error. To make the selection, just left-click one of the lowest steps. Then move to where you would need to select the second position. Place a block there and right-click on it. When you have the selection in place, you can then remove that block.

    The top middle block is a normal Nether Brick block.

  15. Facing directly away from the wall with the gable roof selection you have just made, type //stack 7. Now fill in underneath the roof as illustrated in the following screenshot:

  16. When you're happy that your foyer is complete, add in the second floor of your Tudor house. The floor should be one block below the windows, leaving the bottom Spruce Wood layer exposed above the floor, but below the window. Place a block in the corners to aid in your selection process and use //set 5:1 to fill in the floor.

  17. We'll go and add a design feature to the other end of the longest wing of the house. Select the area shown in the following screenshot:

  18. Now face directly away from the selection and type the //move 5 command.

    Fill in the gaps with Spruce Wood, Glass, and Wool much like what's shown in the preceding screenshot and add a Nether Brick step roof.

We will now create the roof for the main house. First we will start with the eaves.

  1. Create the eaves of the house by placing a Spruce Wood block on the side of the end upright. Then place four Nether Brick step gables as shown in the next screenshot.

  2. Select these five blocks and face directly down the wall towards the bay window. Now type //stack 12.

    This should meet up perfectly with the wall of the bay window.

  3. On the opposite side, place the five eaves blocks as you did previously and then select them. Facing along that wall, type //stack 11.

  4. We'll fill in the top part of the roof now. Make a Nether Brick step roof section with a Nether Brick block at the very top. Placing additional blocks underneath where the steps go is necessary to do this. Just break the extra blocks once you are done.

  5. Select these blocks and then go stand on the full Nether block at the top of the roof section you just made.

  6. Type //copy, followed by //rotate 180, and then do //paste.

  7. Facing the unselected side of the roof section you just made, type //expand 6 to select the entire gable.

  8. Now face down the length of the wing and type //stack 37.

  9. Add an extra layer just behind you to the roof so it has some overhang as shown in the previous screenshot. Go to the shorter wing and do the same process, just with a variation on the numbers used in the //stack commands. For the inner courtyard eaves do //stack 8, and for the gable roof do //stack 19.

  10. Manually join the two roofs together with Nether Brick steps and Nether Brick blocks.

  11. Extend the chimney through the roof and fill in the walls. I've tapered the chimney down to a single block thickness so the part protruding through the roof wasn't too large.

  12. You can finish off the bay windows now. Just place the blocks manually by using the preceding screenshot as a guide.

And that is how you build a Tudor house with WorldEdit CUI and VoxelSniper GUI. I'll leave the interior decorations and so forth up to you. Add your own personal touch, add another wing, a boathouse, a well, whatever you wish. I really hope you have enjoyed this project.

The following screenshot is how the Tudor house looks in the Inspiration 4 texture pack. The airship you can see in the background is the subject of our next project.

Airship (Simple to intermediate)


In this recipe, we'll be creating an airship. We'll start with a sphere, split it in half, and extend a section between the two hemispheres to build the blimp. Airships are great fun as you can customize them in any way you like. After completing this project, you may decide to build a much larger version or a double-blimp version. The sky is the limit!

How to do it…

Let's get started with creating our airship by performing the following steps:

  1. Go somewhere out in the open and execute the following commands:

    //up 28
    //hsphere 35 8
    

    Note

    hsphere makes a hollow sphere, whereas sphere creates a solid one.

  2. Break your way out and select the section shown in the following screenshot (don't forget to replace the White Wool blocks that you broke):

  3. We're now going to select half of this sphere, move it 32 blocks, and then fill in the gap to make the blimp. Make the selection by selecting the furthest horizontal points on both sides of the sphere. It should be about 16 x 5 in size.

  4. Look down and do //expand 6, and then look up and do //expand 6.

  5. Look in the direction you want your airship to stretch along and do //expand 8.

  6. Keep looking in that direction and do //move 32.

  7. On the far hemisphere, place four lots of two blocks of Wool (the color of your choice) protruding by one block on each side, as shown in the following screenshot:

  8. Select the very top and very bottom colored Wool blocks, face one way across the hemisphere, and do //expand 9; and then face the opposite way and do //expand 9.

    You should now have one vertical layer at the end of the hemisphere with the additional colored blocks selected.

  9. Face the other hemisphere and do //stack 32.

  10. Now just trace along the center line contours with the colored blocks (I've used Dark Gray Wool as you can see in the previous screenshot) to meet at the center point at either end.

  11. Locate the center of the Zeppelin by counting 16 blocks from the selection we made previously. Make a 14 x 3 section of Gray Wool on either side of the blimp and place some evenly spaced Glowstones with Trapdoors on them.

  12. Now go up on top and break a block in line with the front of the side panels we just made. Stand in it and type //cyl 35:7 3 1.

    Go to the other end and do the exact same thing.

    Tip

    You can hit your T key and then click the up and down arrows to scroll through all of your previous commands. When you get to the command you want to re-use, simply hit Enter.

  13. Select the middle area and type //set 35:7.

  14. Fill in underneath as shown in the preceding screenshot using either stack or set commands. Put a fence around this top-deck section. You can add some seating or whatever you like here. You can make seats by placing a step block with signs attached directly to each side.

  15. On the bottom side of the Zeppelin, fill in most of the bottom layer up to three blocks away from the end of the Wool block layer above it, as shown in the previous screenshot.

  16. Construct some uprights for the lower deck using Wood Planks, Fence, and Wood step blocks as shown in the following screenshot. I've also added some Glowstone lights to help with illumination in this dark area.

  17. Create and then select the deck portion, including the uprights, shown in the previous screenshot.

  18. Face down towards the other end and do //stack 3.

    Fill in the empty deck area between the two end uprights.

  19. Place a Wooden block on the inside of both end uprights and run a line of six Fence blocks up either side, stopping one short of center on the next set of uprights. Select this area you just made and do //stack 3.

  20. Go to the other end and place the two end blocks, make the front a little more pointed; and for the back, round it off slightly. You can also add some fence posts or whatever you would like as design features to the front of the deck.

  21. Add another layer underneath the lower deck just to give it a little more volume. I've added the Glowstones in the following screenshot so you can see what I've done more clearly:

  22. Now we'll build the propeller. Go to the rear of the deck and place four Black Wool blocks off the center rear of the deck. We'll call this the shaft.

  23. Standing (flying) behind the craft, have the very end face of the Black Wool shaft directly in front of you (unlike on an angle as shown in the preceding screenshot :P).

  24. Hit your V key, make the following settings, and then hit Escape:

    Facing the back of the shaft, select your Arrow tool, aim at the back face at the end of the shaft, and right-click. You should now have a gray upright disc shape in front of you. If you make a mistake do /u.

  25. With the Arrow still aimed in the exact same spot, bring up the VoxelSniper console again by hitting the V key, change the Wool in the Place panel to blank, and then change Brush Size to 3.

  26. Exit the console with the Esc or V key and right-click on the same position again. The disk should now be a hollow circle. Place a Black Wool block on the end of the shaft, and now using your Wooden Axe tool select the circle we just made. Facing away from the deck do //stack 4.

  27. Make a propeller in the center of this cylinder. I've just used Black Wool and some White Wool. Build some reinforcements for the shaft, and then we will build an engine house.

  28. Make an engine house by adding a section roughly 3 x 3 x 5 in size, hollowed out, with some dispensers and some lights inside; and then an iron door for an entrance. You'll notice I have also put two rows of powered rail tracks along the floor outside, just to give the deck that "industrial" sort of look.

    Note

    On the outside of the engine house, I have added some extremely hi-tech features, just so people know we're not messing around here. You can decorate this part of the airship however you like. I've kept mine pretty simple for now just for brevity.

  29. Once you are happy with the design, add a nose cone section to the front of the balloon. I have used Gray Wool for mine and placed a Glowstone at the very tip.

  30. With VoxelSniper, you can snipe a design onto the Zeppelin like I have with the replacement Red Wool blocks in the previous screenshot. At the other end, we'll make a control fin.

  31. Copy the shape I have made or make some wings of your own design. The way I made mine is from the center of the balloon using Dark Gray Wool. I placed 17 blocks and then built the fin up from there. You should be able to copy the outline of the fin from the previous screenshot if you need to. And that by itself is not a bad looking airship if I may say so myself.

  32. But let's not stop there. Select the entire structure making sure everything, including the little trapdoors on the sides, is in the selection area.

    Remember, if you are using //expand, make sure you are looking in the correct direction that you wish to expand the selection in. You should also know that //expand can't be undone using //undo, so it's better off to expand in shorter distances if you're not too sure. You can, however, use //contract. From the center point it should be //expand 10 on either side. Up is roughly 14 and down is 18. Of course, yours may differ slightly.

  33. Go to the rear of your selection and face in the direction that you wish your other balloon to be. Stay in that spot for the next couple of commands and be patient with each command as they can take a little while to process.

  34. Type //copy.

    Move somewhere on the map. Remember, the object you copy will be pasted relative to you. So if you were five blocks south of the airship when you did //copy, wherever you move to the pasted airship will appear five blocks to the south of wherever you are now.

  35. Type //paste.

    Rinse, repeat, add in some rotates, move wherever you like and paste, and you have an airship squadron. Then you can go around and customize each one however you like.

So that's the structure of an airship and entire fleet of airships done very quickly. Like most of my tutorial projects, I have kept them limited to the structure itself; the foundations of a design, rather than a really completed project because I would like you to finish it off. I also think people get more satisfaction out of customizing their designs in their own way.

You can then build some landing decks and control towers using the skills learnt so far. Sally forth and have fun Sky Captain :).

Octagonal Chinese pagoda (Intermediate)


For this recipe, we're going to utilize the //copy, //rotate, and //paste commands in order to create a perfectly symmetrical octagonal structure. This will save us a lot of time as we are essentially only making a quarter of the structure.

Getting ready

Start by locating or creating a space on which to build the structure. I've laid out a large area and set it to Stone Slabs (//set 43) as this provides a grid-type pattern making it easier to count out blocks.

Make sure you mark your center position and keep it as you will need this position throughout this recipe. I usually mark my center position with Red Wool.

Equip your toolbar with a Red, White, and Green Wool block, Trap Door, Torch, and Stone Button to start with. We will need to interchange these items a bit for each level as we incorporate wood and stone into the pagoda. Always keep your Arrow and Wooden Pick Axe equipped.

How to do it…

Let's begin with creating our pagoda by performing the following steps:

  1. Start by creating the shape shown in the following screenshot. Make sure it is perfectly symmetrical.

  2. Once you have the Red blocks in their correct positions, break all of the White Wool. The Red blocks are going to be the uprights. The White was simply used as a guide to help get the shape correct.

    Tip

    Remember, never lose your center point, and make sure it remains marked so you can find it at any time.

  3. Place an extra Red block on each of the red poles. Then put a line of Green Wool blocks in behind the Red blocks, and then cover them with a layer of White blocks.

  4. Using your Wooden Axe (WorldEdit CUI selection tool), left-click on the Red block as indicated in the previous screenshot. Then move over to the furthest Red block and right-click it.

    You should now have a rectangular grid that contains only the top layer of Red and White blocks. The Green Wool and bottom Red blocks should not be in the selected area.

  5. Now we need to give the outer façade some height. Look directly up and type //stack 4.

  6. Now place a cross member of Red Wool one block from the top, running between the red poles.

  7. Extend these cross members out by three blocks on both ends to allow for the entrances.

  8. Add the extra Red blocks on top of the cross member as illustrated in the previous screenshot.

    The end block of the overhang should line up with the center block. When we copy, rotate, and paste out this quarter to make the octagon, the overhangs will meet up (they actually overlap) and will describe the doorway.

    Note

    I've added design elements that will be repeated throughout the structure. In the 3 x 3 "window", I have used Trapdoors and set them to the upright position. I've also used Stone Buttons on each facing Red block surrounding the door area. I think this adds a fairly authentic Asian style. I have also placed some Torches for good measure.

  9. Extend the top Red blocks out by three for the diagonals and by four for all of the others making sure the overall layout is still symmetrical and placed evenly.

    Note that the end blocks on either side will need to be identical to each other because when we rotate and paste the quadrants, one end block will be replaced by the other.

  10. Create the sloped roof using Spruce Wood Slab, Spruce Wood block, and Spruce Wood.

  11. Step as shown in the preceding screenshot and then select it. We'll then stack it along the length of that section. Type //stack 7 facing along the wall and towards where the entrance will be.

    Then using Stone Bricks, Stone Brick Half Slabs, and Stone Brick steps, we'll make the end cap for the roof section we just made. We'll also make the ornate end pieces so quintessential of Asian architecture. These are called corbels. I have used three Stone Brick steps placed forwards, backwards, and one upside down.

  12. Then start filling in the diagonal section, as shown in the preceding screenshot.

    Try and mimic the straight sections in the diagonal mid-section as best as you can. Being diagonal makes it a little difficult to do perfectly, but just make sure it all joins up as neatly as possible. If you follow the previous screenshot closely, you should be fine.

  13. Next, we create the floor for the second level. Fill it in with Spruce Wood Planks.

    The end result will be the wedge shape shown in the preceding screenshot.

  14. Place a center block on this level for easy reference. Also, put the next layer of pole bases in the configuration illustrated in the previous screenshot.

    This is really just a quick revision of the previous level with some slight alterations due to the reduction in size relative to the lower level. You can continue with the design elements I have included, or create and add your own.

  15. Extend the rafters out three blocks from the cardinal aligned sides and two points for the diagonal sides, and add the roof in just like you did for the level below this.

  16. As we did for the layer below, fill in the wedge shape and place your center block. Make sure the edges are all perfectly aligned. Inset the next pole bases two blocks from the ridge of the previous roof, and repeat much of the same process as we have done for the levels below. Select the second layer of pole base and White Wool blocks, look directly upward, and use the //stack 4 command.

  17. Once you have done this, extend out the rafters and break the blocks for the windows and/or doors.

  18. Start filling in the roof section using the same pattern we have for the lower levels. Make sure the stone corbels are indented by one block for each level.

    Because the roof is becoming very small now, it should take you no time to complete it.

  19. Fill in the floor and place your next level of poles.

    The levels are getting quite small now and are very quick to build. You shouldn't need much help to complete these top levels. Only one more to go!

    The fifth level configuration of poles consists quite simply of three poles placed in one-block increments from the edge and each other, and two blocks from the apex of the lower section roof.

    The top level is left fairly open using only the Red Wool uprights and beams.

    Add whatever you like inside this section, maybe a stack of Glowstones? Now we just need to finish the very top roof off.

  20. Once your roof is done, left-click the very top of the point of the roof you just completed with your Wooden Axe. This must be directly in line with your center point blocks.

  21. Go out to the furthest diagonal point that will allow you to contain the entire structure.

  22. Drop a block on the ground if you need to and right-click that position. Make sure your selected area encloses the entire structure from the center point outward, and it should be perfectly symmetrical.

  23. Once you have your structure selected, go and stand on one of your center points. It doesn't really matter which one. Personally I stood on the tip of the very top roof. You must be in the very center of the block. If you are slightly off center, the sections will be pasted askew. If this occurs, you can use //undo and reposition yourself, and then start the process again.

  24. OK, here we go:

    //copy
    //rotate 90
    //paste
    //rotate 90
    

    Tip

    You can use //rotate 90 or arrow up twice and hit Enter. You can do this to repeat each step.

    //paste
    //rotate 90
    //paste
    

    All things going well, the outer structure of your octagonal pagoda should be complete.

You should now inspect the structure to make sure that everything has lined up perfectly. Some things, however, just don't translate properly when rotating and pasting them. Torches and logs are a great example of this, and you may need to go around and correct some of those manually. Add your additional adornments, tidy up the base, and you are done with the external structure.

Futuristic city (Advanced)


This recipe is quite large and can be as complex a build as you would like. By now you should be quite familiar with the basic commands, so I'll be moving fairly quickly and skipping through many of the basic steps. You should be able to follow along with the screenshots if you get a bit lost. With this recipe, I would really like to encourage you to experiment and incorporate your own ideas.

Getting ready

Find or make a very large flat area. You will need a circular area of at least 95 blocks in radius. I chose to make my city in the ocean. You don't have to, but the water is a nice touch in my opinion. I think floating in the air would work well also.

How to do it…

Let's begin making our futuristic city by performing the following steps:

  1. Locate your center point and put a block or two down to mark it.

  2. Set a warp position on top of this such as /setwarp city or whatever you wish to call it. Now you can simply /warp city if you ever lose it. If you don't have a mod to allow you to set warps, just make sure the center is marked and visible at all times so you can easily locate it.

    Note

    Remember to reset the warp position if you build over it for any reason. At various times you will have to break these blocks to position yourself.

Start one block below water surface level if you are building on water. If you are building on the ground, it should be fine to simply start on the ground level (center block marked remember!). I'm going to give you a series of commands to issue, and it is important to be directly on your center point for each one. Also, there is the possibility that any one of these commands will crash your Minecraft server. I have found that simply typing in the command and not touching the mouse or moving at all will help prevent this from happening. You just have to be patient and allow Minecraft to process the data and draw the object. If you do happen to crash the server, it is fairly common to find that when you restart it and rejoin, the command was completed successfully anyway. So don't fret too much if the occasional crash occurs. OK, let's get going from where we left off:

  1. Either start on the ground level or if you are building on water start by standing/floating in the top layer of the water.

  2. Type //cyl 43 90 1 and then hit your jump key so that you are now on the next layer. Do not move off center.

  3. Type //cyl 43 89 1 and then hit your jump key again so that you are on top of the block rather than in it.

  4. Type //hcyl 1 88 6. This creates the outer shell of the outer wall. Don't move.

  5. Type //hcyl 1 77 6. This creates the inner shell of the outer wall. Don't move.

  6. Type //up 5 and remain on this block.

  7. Type //cyl 43 89 1. This creates the top layer of the outer wall. Don't move.

  8. Type //cyl 0 75 1. This removes the center so that only the outer wall is covered. We'll use the /fixwater command to fix any deleted water blocks later.

  9. Break the block below your feet to drop all the way down.

  10. Break the block below your feet and fall down one block.

  11. Type //cyl 0 75 1.

  12. Break the block below your feet and fall down one block. You should now be standing on your original center block.

  13. Type //cyl 0 74 1. You should now have a large circular wall with an overhang of one Stone Slab block on top and a double stepped layer of Stone Slabs on the bottom. You should also still be standing back on your original center block.

  14. Type //cyl 43 55 1. Then jump up on top of this layer of blocks. Don't move off center.

  15. Type //cyl 43 54 1. Then jump up on top of this layer again. Don't move.

  16. Type //hcyl 43 50 2. This creates the wall around the lawn area. Still don't move.

  17. Type //cyl 2 49 2. You should now be buried in dirt. Just jump up to get out, place a center block, and inspect. It should now look like the following screenshot:

  18. Go back and stand on your center position. I find it best to break the block and fall into the hole, then jump up, and replace it just to make sure I am centered properly.

  19. Type //cyl 43 32 1. Then jump up on top of this layer.

  20. Type //hcyl 1 31 6. This creates the outer wall for this section.

  21. Type //up 6. This will place you on a Glass block six blocks above your previous position.

  22. Type //cyl 43 32 1. Don't jump out of this spot.

  23. Type //cyl 2 31 1. You've just made the second tier lawn area. Stay in this position.

    Now we'll carve a large circular hole into the middle section.

  24. Type //cyl 43 16 1. This creates a Stone Slab circle that is flush with the lawn section.

  25. Type //cyl 0 15 1. Then break a block below your feet.

  26. Type //hcyl 1 17 6. This creates the inner wall of the top tier lawn. This should reach the top layer of dirt/grass leaving an overhang of Stone Slabs.

    Now we're going to use a negative value to remove blocks below us.

  27. Type //cyl 0 16 -5.

    You can use negative values to build cylinders below you. Your structure should now look like the preceding screenshot.

    Note

    To make life a little easier for yourself, mark out a quadrant to work in. Just like the pagoda, we're mainly going to work with a quarter of this structure and then duplicate it three times using the //copy, //rotate, and //paste commands. There are, however, going to be times where you'll need to copy, rotate, and paste various sections that aren't inside this segment. We'll get to those soon.

  28. Place some blocks at a 90-degree angle radiating from the center point to help you see your quadrant boundaries more easily (see the previous screenshot).

  29. To make the entrance ways to the city, select the area indicated, as shown in the following screenshot. Then do //set 0.

    This will form part of the entrance to the city.

In the next section, we will build a tower that will be duplicated around the central section, and we will also use this tower to make some skyscrapers to flank the entrance.

  1. Using Stone Slabs, create the base of the tower using the previous screenshot as a guide. The length of the median line of the tower is 25. We'll make half a tower, and then flip it. I used Dark Gray Wool, Lapis Lazuli, and Glowstones as well as the aforementioned mentioned Stone Slabs.

  2. Select only the top layer, look directly up, and do //stack 10.

  3. Add in the row of Dark Gray Wool blocks (see the previous screenshot). Select only the top layer again, look directly up, and do //stack 5.

  4. Extend each of the columns of Double Stone Slabs incrementally until it reaches a point at the front. You can do this using the stack command for each column, but in this case it is probably just as quick to place the blocks manually.

  5. Complete the tower by tidying up all of the joins as well as adding some design features while you are at it.

  6. Select the entire tower. Your selection should be eight blocks wide and should not include any grass, and so on.

  7. Go to the back bottom part of the tower, place another center block (shown in the preceding screenshot), stand on this position, and do //copy.

  8. Now turn and face left, and do //flip.

  9. Place seven blocks to the left of the center block and go stand exactly on the furthest end one. Do //paste.

  10. Clean up the Red blocks but leave the center line one as we will need that again later. Now we'll build the skyscrapers flanking the entrance way. I just copied the section shown in the previous screenshot by selecting the middle vertical plain and doing //expand 7 in both lateral directions. Stand on that middle Red block we left in place and do //copy.

  11. Then move to an appropriate spot on the outer wall and paste it. Be sure to have a bit of overhang. I pasted mine so that half of the structure was hanging over the edge of the wall, as shown in the following screenshot:

  12. Select a section eight blocks high and do //stack 1 facing directly downwards.

  13. Now make the selection shown in the following screenshot, and do //stack 2 while facing directly upwards.

  14. Then copy the completed tower in the center and paste it on top of the skyscraper. Use the Red Wool block at the center rear of the completed inner tower as your copy position.

  15. Then place a Red Wool Block in the corresponding position of the skyscraper, stand on it, and do //paste. Tidy up the area where the skyscraper joins to the wall.

  16. Select the entire skyscraper making sure the selection expands about four blocks into the wall section.

  17. Stand on the Red block at the center rear of the tower and do //copy. Place blocks across in a line, counting them as you go, until you get to the center. Now keep going past the center adding the same number of blocks to the other side and stand on the very end one. Face directly away from the skyscraper and do //flip, and then //paste.

  18. Tidy up the leftover piece in the middle section and make sure your building is at the right level and alignment. Now expand your selection across to envelop both skyscrapers and four or five blocks of the joining wall. Go and stand on the city center block.

  19. Once you have your selection, go to the center block of your city and do //copy.

  20. Now do //rotate 90 and //paste. Repeat these two steps twice more to complete all four quadrants. Your city should look something like the following screenshot:

  21. Make a diagonal channel like the one shown in the previous screenshot. This pretty much has to be done manually. Sorry!

  22. Using the Snipe tool, you can replace the Dirt and Grass blocks with Stone Slabs. Remember to switch to your Arrow.

  23. Manually create arches in this section. Making them double layered really gives them a greater appeal.

  24. Add some Glowstones inside to give some nice ambient lighting. You need to build the arches on both sides of the diagonal channel so that this section can be duplicated in a symmetrical fashion.

  25. Once you are happy with the channel area and the surrounding arches, let's copy it to the other three sections. Stand on the city center block again and do //copy.

  26. Then do //rotate 90 and //paste repeating these two steps twice more.

  27. Select the entire inner tower, and then go stand on the city center block again. Then //copy, //rotate 90, and //paste it to the other three quadrants making sure you're on the center block.

  28. Tidy up all the joining areas and fill in this central platform area, as shown in the following screenshot:

  29. Standing on the center block at the same height as the top of the grassy platform, //hcyl 43 15 2 should be the right size to align with the bottom two layers of blocks of the inner towers. Then do //cyl 1 14 1 to fill in the base of it.

  30. Now for the center building. Create a large cylinder with Stone Slabs lining the top and bottom. Then add some design features to fit with your theme: //cyl 43 11 1 and //hcyl 1 10 21 capped by //cyl 43 11 1 with //hcyl 43 11 1 on the very top.

  31. Make the cool little structures on the rear of your towers to join them to the large cylinder tower. Duplicate them three times while standing on your central block.

  32. To top it off, I made a "command center" type thing with some sort of antenna on it. I then filled the top of the cylinder tower with water making four waterfalls down into the platform area below, which in turn flows down into each of the four channels. That's a beacon at the top with the beam of light shooting up out of it.

  33. For the outer wall quadrants, the area as shown in the preceding screenshot was made using //cyl and //hcyl.

    By now you should have the hang of creating cylinders and should be able to recreate these quite easily. Better yet, get creative and make something of your own design.

  34. You can easily place Trees by using the VoxelSniper tool. Just use the following settings and "snipe" away. You can't undo Trees so don't go too crazy.

  35. For the main garden areas, you can add a path, a water fountain, and some ground lights. Use the VoxelSniper Snipe tool to replace some of the edging slabs with Glowstones placed fairly evenly around all of the lawn area including inside the canals.

    Tip

    Try adding some underwater lights made of Glowstone interspersed with Stone Slabs. Not sure about the color?

  36. The parameters will remove any and all Dark Gray Wool (the Replace material) in a 12-block radius (change this to a smaller brush size or Snipe for tighter areas) around the targeted block and replace it with the block of your choice (the Place material). I have selected White Wool to be placed.

  37. Go around the water area and use /fixwater 24 (or whatever radius your computer can handle). You need to be standing in or flying inside the top level of water you want the surrounding area to be level with.

Continue adding whatever features you wish and modify the city however you like. With the tools and actions you have learnt in this book, you should now be ready to go forth and conquer the world of Minecraft!

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Key benefits

  • Learn something new in an Instant! A short, fast, focused guide delivering immediate results.
  • Build structures quickly and efficiently using World Edit CUI
  • Learn the most useful functions of Voxel Sniper to build complex and aesthetically pleasing architecture
  • Packed with illustrations to guide you through each project

Description

The Voxel Mod Pack is a suite of mods that adds powerful new functionality to Minecraft, helping you to create beautiful and engaging structures faster and more easily than ever. In this book you'll learn how to use World Edit CUI to create and edit geometry selections."Instant Minecraft Designs How-to" will help you achieve advanced architectural feats by working through a series of exciting, practical projects. Each chapter is a standalone exercise that you can integrate into your current projects, or use as inspiration for future ones.In this book we cut out all of the unnecessary chit chat and get straight into building. Each exercise is designed to improve your building skills by introducing new and useful functions in a hands-on way.We'll start with a Tudor-style mansion, getting you used to using the basic functions and applying them in a practical way, working up to finish with a futuristic city, by which time you'll be accustomed to using World Edit CUI and Voxel Sniper commands.

What you will learn

Create and modify selections using World Edit CUI Use Voxel Sniper to alter pre-existing blocks or add new ones at the click of a button Effectively use the copy, rotate, flip, and paste functions of World Edit CUI Create geometric structures of almost any size in the blink of an eye using World Edit CUI and Voxel Sniper Fix areas of water instantly Quickly stack duplicate objects in any direction without having to build each and every one manually Build strikingly attractive structures in a fraction of the time it normally takes in Minecraft

What do you get with eBook?

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Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
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Product Details


Publication date : Mar 26, 2013
Length 76 pages
Edition : 1st Edition
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849695985
Concepts :

Table of Contents

7 Chapters
Instant Minecraft Designs How-to Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Credits Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
About the Author Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
About the Reviewers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
www.packtpub.com Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Preface Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Instant Minecraft Designs How-to Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

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