The Geodata Agency's data is now free, and we have inserted them into Minecraft.
That means that the whole of Denmark proper is now available as a virtual world
in 1:1 in Minecraft itself, so you can freely move around in Denmark, find
our own neighbourhood, construct and deconstruct like in any other Minecraft world.
On this page, you can read more about the free data in the Minecraft world, and
how you get started playing or download the free data.
According to this page[0] the map is divided into three regions, each which has their own server:
I have to say that I am quite impressed by their work. I spent 30 minutes earlier, walking around in the neighborhood where I grew up, and it was extremely easy to navigate and recognize roads, houses, and large buildings.
Even the train tracks through the city were there as rails in Minecraft (although not fully connected and working).
Very cool, the guys at GST did some amazing work here.. But as far as I can tell, there is no way to download the full 1TB world?
I've long been surprised that real-world places weren't modelled more often in minecraft (and fps games).
My tentative conclusion was it might be too helpful for e.g. actual shooting. Though, height data is generally available anyway (e.g. google maps' "terrain", council planning databases), just not as easy to work with.
I think it's more likely to be a design decision. If you try to model a large real world area, some people will immediately notice how it is unlike reality; so the constraints of computational power, design skill, and developer ability are multiplied. The differences can be truly jarring.
My guess is that there is more upside to creating unique areas. This affords more creative freedom and the luxury of changing the simulation in accordance with constraints and resources.
We tried this in ActionQuake 2 thinking it was a great idea. When we were halfway done with our town we realized it was very boring to play in something realistic. The real world doesn't always present such an interesting landscape for FPS shooters compared to the ones that are designed to be fun to play.
Even if this is a minor "show-off" project, it's a good reminder for the power of open data. Location services, emergency planning software, tons of other stuff benefit enormously from this kind of openness.
[Crazy fun idea]:Basically, given Denmark's open geographic data one could potentially build an MMORPG which takes place in Denmark and have the terrain pre-generated.
I think I would call this one Hamlet: The revenge.
GST itself has a very detailed explanation in Danish.[0] But basically, two of their employees worked to created the converter. They even include a table list of GST's own descriptions of terrain types and what Minecraft biomes they were converted to.
They don't have underground data, so some simple steps have been taken for each area based on a general idea of the underground (e.g. Bornholm's underground becoming stone).
As for buildings, they know the shape of buildings, but not their texture, so they are merely randomly generated in 'unrealistic colours' (as they describe it).
As the map data is updated each quarter (3 months), the Minecraft data will also be updated.
It's a very interesting read, I recommend you learn Danish and read it!
On the Denmark minecraft server someone has placed nazi insignia all over Amalienborg (Warp there to see).. I think the server admins should have made it impossible to break and place blocks...
If they included Hans Island in this, any canadians are obliged to go there, build an inukshuk and leave a bottle of canadian whiskey for our Danish friends - i mean enemies! ;) - who happen by.
see also : http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4797368
building whole cities and landscapes by putting together small bricks piece by piece? would be surprised if they were not all over it in DK, the land of lego.
There is no story but I enjoy the adventure mode. It's a totally different game but we can compare it to and Sims game, any other simulator or the more recent Dayz. It doesn't have a story but it's enjoyable to play. You need to survive the night, create a shelter, get stronger by obtaining rare block, build a nice house etc....
just yesterday I was searching for publicly available administrative geodata of European countries. it's not an easy task due to language barriers and fragmentation. Does anyone know where to download the source data of this project?
Edit: You need a user to be able to download from Kortforsyningen. Not sure what the user agreements says about foreigners because the sign up form is in danish and the options are like if you are a danish city, citizen, ngo etc. What I can see you only need to supply user name and email address.
What surprises me is that I can't find any pages in English. So good luck navigating if you don't understand danish.
The GADM database of Global Administrative Areas has boundaries for every country, in a variety of formats. They're normalized into 4 "layers" IIRC. You can push them straight into postgis or whatever.
The intent of this data release is to help children explore Denmark in a virtual environment in class. This is to help Danish children at least to better grasp Danish geography.
What a useful bit of soft power. Denmark is being talked about on an influential Internet forum. People on HN usually complain about how bad governments are at makig data open. Here is an example of a government making data open and doing fun silly things with it.
The cost ofthe project is probably minimal compared to other government spending and has had a reasonable impact.
The children using this Mincraft world will grow up to do other neat things.
I think the amount of taxpayer money spent on this is negligible in the scheme of things, and far cheaper than an ARCGIS license for every child in the country to explore virtual geodata with instead.
I came here to write this but am quite surprised that other people don't agree with it and downvoted you. These agencies aren't paid from our tax money to produce toys - they are there to provide a cost efficient service where possible.
I have the same worries about the entire gov.uk rework.
Neat hack yes, but this is government, not private enterprise or personal time.
In the UK we almost called for the hanging of an MP who bought a duck house on expenses and I'm sure these "neat hacks" over time have cost a lot more.
[+] [-] Svip|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ManAboutCouch|12 years ago|reply
Apparently it was built by an intern, it took him two weeks to create the 22 Billion blocks: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/news/2013/minecraft-ma...
[+] [-] kapsel|12 years ago|reply
Even the train tracks through the city were there as rails in Minecraft (although not fully connected and working).
Very cool, the guys at GST did some amazing work here.. But as far as I can tell, there is no way to download the full 1TB world?
[+] [-] hyp0|12 years ago|reply
My tentative conclusion was it might be too helpful for e.g. actual shooting. Though, height data is generally available anyway (e.g. google maps' "terrain", council planning databases), just not as easy to work with.
[+] [-] Snail_Commando|12 years ago|reply
My guess is that there is more upside to creating unique areas. This affords more creative freedom and the luxury of changing the simulation in accordance with constraints and resources.
[+] [-] Moru|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lesingerouge|12 years ago|reply
[Crazy fun idea]:Basically, given Denmark's open geographic data one could potentially build an MMORPG which takes place in Denmark and have the terrain pre-generated. I think I would call this one Hamlet: The revenge.
[+] [-] zxexz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] axx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Svip|12 years ago|reply
They don't have underground data, so some simple steps have been taken for each area based on a general idea of the underground (e.g. Bornholm's underground becoming stone).
As for buildings, they know the shape of buildings, but not their texture, so they are merely randomly generated in 'unrealistic colours' (as they describe it).
As the map data is updated each quarter (3 months), the Minecraft data will also be updated.
It's a very interesting read, I recommend you learn Danish and read it!
[0] http://www.gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/om-frie-data-i-e...
[+] [-] zenon|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oldmanjoe|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] devindotcom|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andyidsinga|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DanBC|12 years ago|reply
And I'd really like 3D printed toy models of Mars or Moon too - I haven't found anything that does this.
[+] [-] morsch|12 years ago|reply
Somehow event at 10X/50X exaggerated height I don't find these particularly interesting. Planets, even Mars, are for the most part really smooth.
A somewhat exaggerated model of the Matterhorn was one of the first things I printed and it's pretty cool, though.
[+] [-] rs232|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oliveoil|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kator|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wlesieutre|12 years ago|reply
Here's the link he posted. I'm leaving out the google translate link: http://gst.dk/emner/frie-data/minecraft/download-data/
[+] [-] ominous|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] wil421|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] duiker101|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drsintoma|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fetbaffe|12 years ago|reply
Instructions here http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&js=y&prev=...
Edit: You need a user to be able to download from Kortforsyningen. Not sure what the user agreements says about foreigners because the sign up form is in danish and the options are like if you are a danish city, citizen, ngo etc. What I can see you only need to supply user name and email address.
What surprises me is that I can't find any pages in English. So good luck navigating if you don't understand danish.
[+] [-] JonnieCache|12 years ago|reply
http://www.gadm.org/
(Oops, I just realised you're looking for full maps with elevation at each point, and this is just a bunch of polygons. Still a very useful resource.)
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] fetbaffe|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Svip|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DanBC|12 years ago|reply
The cost ofthe project is probably minimal compared to other government spending and has had a reasonable impact.
The children using this Mincraft world will grow up to do other neat things.
[+] [-] Squarel|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prof_hobart|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bananas|12 years ago|reply
I have the same worries about the entire gov.uk rework.
Neat hack yes, but this is government, not private enterprise or personal time.
In the UK we almost called for the hanging of an MP who bought a duck house on expenses and I'm sure these "neat hacks" over time have cost a lot more.