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Solar Map Guide Basic (3)

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16 views

Solar Map Guide Basic (3)

Uploaded by

tynamphilpott
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Pasting Real-World Maps into Minecraft

Solar Centurion

Preface
This document serves as a guide to the basic steps for getting a digital map file into your
Minecraft world as blocks. The guide assumes you understand the basics of photo-editing
software (Photoshop, GIMP) and a Minecraft schematic manipulation tool (Litematica,
WorldEdit).

Future guides may cover more advanced tools if there is demand for them. It may surprise you
that the basic shape of the marsh build pictured above was created using only the steps in this
guide, followed by texturing both by hand and with WorldEdit.

Step 1: Find the Right Map


The first step to getting a fantastic map in Minecraft is to have a high-quality digital map as your
base. In general, the resolution of your map file should have at least double the vertical and
horizontal resolutions of the size (in blocks) that you desire the map to be in-game. If there are
only low-quality maps available for your reference, I recommend running the map through an
AI-based image upscaling tool first.

For this tutorial, I will be importing a map of the Back Bay Fens in Boston. If you’d like to follow
along, the file is accessible here. I downloaded the highest-quality version, which should be
more than sufficient for the scale I am working with.

Step 2: Determine your scale


Some maps have a scale provided in the map legend – others do not. I will briefly demonstrate
how to determine the scale of your map using both a provided scale and a comparative method.

Using a Scale
With both methods, ‘finding scale’ refers to determining a conversion factor between map pixels
and in-game blocks. If I zoom in on the Fens map’s scale and use Microsoft Paint to select from
the 0 to 100 meter mark, I see that the selection is 658 pixels in width: 1 map meter is 6.58
pixels.
However, going from pixels to map meters is only one part of the story, as you may be building
at a larger or smaller scale. For instance, if I am building at 1.25x (5:4) scale, this will also be
considered in the conversion. Apply this general formula to find the desired scale factor:

1 𝑚𝑎𝑝 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟
𝑋 𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠
× 𝐵𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 = 𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟

So, for the scenario described above, the calculation would be as follows:

1
6.58
× 1. 25 = 0. 190

Make a note of your scale factor, and do not use editing tools to scale your map at this
point. You will needlessly lose quality.

Using a relative technique


If you are integrating your map into an existing build (or if your map lacks a scale), you can
scale your map using a relative, desired length.

In the following example, I have highlighted a portion of the map that I would like to be 155
blocks long in the world. This region measures 1331 pixels on the map. Knowing this, I can
determine the scale factor simply as a ratio of desired block length to pixel length:

𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑠
𝑝𝑖𝑥𝑒𝑙𝑠
= 𝑆𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝐹𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟

155
1331
= 0. 116
Step 3: Prepare the Map
This step concerns the orientation, content, and readability of your map.

Orienting your map correctly largely depends on the situation in which you are using it. Often
you will want to align the North indicator on the compass rose straight up. This comes down to
personal preference, but is definitely something you will want to consider when planning a
realistic environment or integrating with other locations.

Crop out unnecessary parts of the map that you do not intend to copy into your world. This will
save time and effort further down the line when you are converting and pasting your map.

Use editing software to accentuate features of your map, such as painting oceans and rivers
blue. In this case, I will simply use a contrast tool to accentuate the lines present in the drawing,
something I highly recommend for every project.

Here is my map after a few minutes of editing:


Step 4: Converting to Schematic
There are many tools available to convert a digital file to a minecraft schematic. I will be using
this tool for the tutorial which has served me well in the past. The basic principles still apply to
other similar tools should you choose another option.

Upload your prepared map file to the editor. You may now select “crop image” in the editor to
crop your file an extra amount if necessary. To correctly scale the output, multiply the image size
listed by the scale factor determined in Step 2.
In my case, I used a scale factor of 0.116 and an image size of 3007 to determine a desired
width of 349 blocks:

You then have the option to select what blocks will be used to create the schematic. In my
experience, selecting 5-10 blocks is the easiest to work with, but this will depend on how colorful
your map is. In my case, I selected 9 grayscale blocks. You may want to try several different
combinations of blocks to see what works best for your map.

At this point, check ‘ignore in-game height limit’ and click ‘Convert!’. You will be presented with a
window where you can view and make additional edits to your schematic. Select ‘save’ to write
the output to a .schematic file, readable by programs like Worldedit or Litematica.
Step 5: Import your Schematic
I will be importing my schematic via Worldedit. To do this, drop your .schematic file into the
schematics folder, located at the following path (replace ‘Fabric1-17-1’ with your singleplayer or
server base folder).

Then, once in-game run the following commands:

//schem load <schematic_name>


//rotate 0 0 -90
//paste -a

This will paste your schematic into the world at the proper orientation.

Congratulations! Enjoy your new map.

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