Over the past couple of weeks, I've gotten a number of questions in comments and private messages. I figured I'd put together a FAQ so I wouldn't have to keep answering them. Yes, these are all actual questions I have been asked.



Q: How do you render your pictures?
A: Obviously, the screenshots I use to advertise my schematics are not taken using vanilla Minecraft. Instead, I use a third-party program called Chunky that renders the image using path-tracing, resulting in greatly improved image fidelity. Crunchy is an incredible program, albeit amazingly CPU intensive, especially if I enable light sources like torches or glowstone. Depending on the size and complexity of the image, a single render can take from 15 minutes to 12 hours. Rendering these images is by far the most time consuming process of posting my designs.

Zipson1 has an excellent tutorial for using Chunky that I recommend all beginners read.

Q: Where do you get those great backgrounds and skies?
A: When using Chunky, you can use a background image as a sky bitmap. They tend to make the image look far better than using the vanilla skymap. I picked up the skies I use from the following three sites:
CG Skies
Optikz Skies
I found links to both of these on the Chunky wiki.

Q: You've posted more than 20 projects in less than two weeks. How do you build this stuff so fast?
A: I don't. The last new thing I've built - the Walled Medieval Town - was also the first thing I've posted to PMC. Since then I've just used MCEdit to clip out interesting buildings from my world map, cleaned them up so they are easier to plug into other maps, and then made pretty renders using Chunky. Although I've done some minor touch-ups in Minecraft, most of these designs are months old. Truth be told, when I get around to building stuff, I'm actually rather slow.

Q: Will you post world maps of your designs / why do you only post schematics?
A: The short answer is that while I may eventually return to my designs and upload them as world maps (in addition to the already available schematics) I currently have no plans or timeline for when that will happen.

The longer answer is that I personally believe MCEdit schematics are more useful for their intended purpose (as assets for other world builders) since you can, effectively, drag-n-drop the designs wherever you want in your own world. Also, I already archive all my designs as schematics for that very purpose for my own use; storing them as worldmaps would require an extra step and not be as functional. Furthermore, worldmaps tend to have larger file sizes. Finally, PlanetMinecraft's awesome Schemagic tool lets you see what my schematics look like in 3D without first having to download them, a functionality not available with world maps.

In other words, I hear and understand your requests for world maps, but it is not a priority for me at this moment.

Q: Why are so many of your designs buildings on small, square islands?
A: They actually aren't. The islands are just there for display purposes. It's either that or they float in mid-air and frankly I prefer the reflectivity of the water. The actual schematics tend to be smaller than the islands - I try to cut the schematics as close to the edge of the buildings as I can to make it easier for others to plug into their own projects - but when I render them in Chunky I extend the ground around them so it takes up a full chunk (16x16 blocks). It looks better if I use full chunks when I turn on the water effects.

Q: Will you post your world?
A: No. First of all, it's nearly a gigabyte in size. Secondly, most of it is not that good. And thirdly, I used a lot of third-party assets and I'd have to get permission for all of them before I released my world into the wild.

Q: What texture pack do you use?
A: This is actually answered on every project I submit. I use the JohnSmithLegacy texture pack. It has a nice mix of rich colors and detailed textures that appeal to me and fit my vision of a medieval fantasy world.

Q: Will you join our team?
A: Thank you for the offer. At the moment I am not accepting any offers to join any teams. Partly this is because I am more interested right now in simply uploading my own designs, partly because I am busy enough with other things outside Minecraft without adding on the demands of a team, but mostly because I am an old fogey who is too set in his ways to fit in well with you young whippersnappers, no matter how talented.

Q: Any tips for budding designers?
A: Okay, nobody has actually asked this one of me, but I can dream, can't I? Still, I figured I would take the chance to offer one tip to new designers and then give credit to all the people who, all unknowingly, encouraged me.

First, my tip; it's a real simple and pretty obvious piece of advice. Before you start designing, get an idea of what you want to build and envision it in your mind. Pick a style, a scale, and a shape and build from there. PlanetMinecraft is a great resource not only for you to figure out what you want to build, but - equally as important - what you do not want to build. All my worst designs - be they individual buildings or large complexes - ended up that way because I was making them up as I went along.

Bonus tip: And if you do mess up, don't worry about it and just use Chunky to cover the defects with graphical gloss ;-)

Credit for my style is largely due to MrArcherMC. Although he apparently does not frequent PMC, his tutorial videos greatly influenced my technique and mode. His videos are both entertaining and edifying and I strongly encourage people to watch them.

Similarly, props to axianerve, novv and deerassassin0424. All three of them have put out excellent Medieval building packs and although they aren't aware of it, their designs not only influenced the look of my own constructions, but their own generosity encouraged me to put out some of my own designs for others to use. Take a look at their respective pages and see if you don't find something you like.