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To build in a realistic way

xv12commander's Avatar xv12commander1/20/18 3:30 pm history
9 emeralds 313 3
1/21/2018 5:19 pm
xv12commander's Avatar xv12commander
Hello everyone! What I'm trying to do is to reproduce in minecraft the features of the real architecture, as well as possible. I've based all my work on this attempt, which is quite unusual considering the "mainstream" way to build we se all around which goes from the bad-looking and confused mass of cobblestone (the worst block ever), to the great, outstanding and enourmous builds based on real or fantasy themes, which are mainly good for renders but they are unuseful in-game and most importantly not playable. I think there should be a differentiation between what actually is a ''sculpture'', a form of 3D art, and what is designed to be realistic and useful in-game, and this means it can't be too big or full of so many details it looks great in renders or with shaders but it's a disaster in vanilla screens.
So I will define the two key words ''realistic'' and "playable" and then give some examples.

Realistic:
It is referred to way of building which uses and tryes to reproduce the element of the real architecture for example pillars, capitals, tympanums, cornices, windows, domes, pedestals, arcades, etc...
Not all of theese elements can be reproduced very well in minecraft, for example the ionic capital is quite hard to do at a small scale. It must also respect the features of a style, for example gotic, classical , baroque, renaissance, modern... (if this binds your fantasy and you proved to know one of them well you can of course mix, invent and create a personal style, you have just to do something that reminds a building :) )
The subject may be reproduced or completely new and invented, maybe inspired by something real.

Playable:
It means that the scale (the size) must be appropriate: enough small to be potentially used by some player playing in vanilla, even if sometimes it could be a bit bigger to add detailes.
For example there are a lot of enourmous renders or reproductions of real buildings which are wonderful, but enourmous: it would be hard just to load them in your minecraft, you cant "play minecraft" using them, and most of them look quite bad without shaders or renders... this means they are not "playable" (which of course doesn't mean they are bad )

At the moment I know just two builders which follows this "tendency", you can check their profiles: Palliotto and xv12commander, which is me ;)
You can also check my you tube channel for the playlist of my best works: www.youtube.com/user/xv12commander
Let me know what you think about this and if you like our job!

Perfect example of playable and realistic by Palliotto:
https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/baroque-church




Example of a commission for a server a "Baroque citadel":
https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/baroque-village-and-sanctuary/

Posted by xv12commander's Avatar
xv12commander
Level 56 : Grandmaster Architect
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1
01/21/2018 4:16 pm
Level 37 : Artisan Artist
Batlestar98
Batlestar98's Avatar
Basically every realistic 1:1 or 1:1,5 scale builder would fall under your category or not? Like me for example.
2
01/21/2018 5:19 pm
Level 56 : Grandmaster Architect
xv12commander
xv12commander's Avatar
I took a look to your builds and I say definitely yes
3
01/21/2018 12:19 pm
Level 61 : High Grandmaster Architect
Ostpreusse
Ostpreusse's Avatar
Greetings!
First of all, you have written a very good post full of truths and issues many folks here can relate to.
There are a lot of massive "constructions" out here on PMC that are supposed to be buildings, but the enormous size and the over-detailed facades make it look like a huge mess, especially in vanilla minecraft. Unfortunately this is an issue that many beginners fall into. They think they have to build gigantic to fit as many details as possible into their construction, but this is a massive fault! I did so too on a few builds and the result is not worth to mention anymore.

Over the years I could gain enough experience to actually come to the conclusion, that less might sometimes be more. This also relates to the point where you write about the scale, or size. Inside our team we have defined 1 block as ca. 70-80cm which results in a very realistic sized scale fitting with the size of the minecraft character. Anything smaller than this, is very hard to detail and most of the bigger scales are just too big in relation and proportion.

In conclusion, I can only agree to your points. It is indeed necessary to keep things small in order to preserve realism. And that also includes fantasy styled builds. As you said, oversized buildings might look good on renders, but in-game they are mostly not very useful, unplayable and too big to see it in all of it's extent.

Keep things small but realistic, playable and useful.
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