There's lots of great efforts out there of people building big open worlds in their platforms of choice. What worries me is when these platforms are no longer in vogue, all this work will be lost in time[1]. Once VR, in one way or another, is mainstream we're going to look back at this era of creativity and be saddened at what was lost, unless there is an effort to standardise all this 3D data (and assets) and archive it all off somewhere.
Formats are not a problem. Any game-related format can, and will be, reverse-engineered if need be; usually they're kept simple anyway. I mean, even two weeks ago, someone was showcasing here a viewer for models and maps from Wipeout[0].
There seem to be only two main problems for viewing all this creative in-game work at a later date. Problem 1) is on-line only games, with canonical data stored on a server controlled by the game creators. Problem 2) is overzealous intellectual property laws.
The way I see it, 1) is the biggest problem. It's the videogame version of the SaaS trend in software, and has the same effect - it takes data away from users and diminishes the capabilities they, and their computers, possess.
I don't know exactly, but, I think the Minecraft storage format is pretty straightforward - a 3D bitmap, effectively. There were loads of 3rd party applications interfacing with the application years ago, ranging from external design applications, a live Kinect-into-minecraft thing, etcetera; I have no doubts that the Minecraft data format will be very archivable and that an open source viewer will be relatively easy to make. See also: https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Programs_and_editors/Mapping
NBT and the newer compressed mapformat Anvil (developed from MCChunks mod if memory serves correctly) is not that straightforward to parse and lots of tools easily corrupt Minecraft worlds. In addition to that, you can then compress again using gzip or zlib (with little indication of which you picked other than "try and see which one crashes"), in some cases certain NBT files cannot be compressed in others only one compression is allowed.
The data is also big endian, unlike most computers use internally (unless you use Pocket version then it's little endian, and again, isn't specified which to use).
The current anvil format isn't a simple 3d bitmap either, it uses various method to compress out empty space from the 3d bitmap and leaves out any chunks that weren't changed at all since generated.
Why specifically once VR is mainstream? I don't imagine VR will be any more standardised in its formats than any technology before it.
(In fact if I were a betting man I'd put money on seeing even more virtual worlds, even more work being put into games whose servers will eventually be shuttered.)
Awesome point to make. Lots of effort being done however to preserve such art. A good example is Archive.org making classic DOS games playable in the browser via emulation: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Wolfenstein_3D_1992
I feel like eventually there would be a dosbox equivalent for anything sufficiently popular such as minecraft that would allow either viewing or playing of maps on future systems. Bit rot is definitely something to be aware of, though.
Highfidelity has been trying to get traction for years now and it's not really moving. OTOH simpler platforms like SL and opensim are doing better. I think (ability of plain users to build/create) > (AAA graphics).
Very cool. I tinkered with creating a mini-game of Barsoom, the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series, in Minecraft. It would be great to create the whole planet.
Curious: is "Hug of Death" the 'official' term given to sites that suddenly experience a huge load after being featured on HN, like the "Slashdot Effect" in the past?
Saves arguments, at least. A project like this doesn't need everybody arguing about what the "book really looked like". https://youtu.be/Nsdpb-4kW3Y?t=2m31s
In case you weren't aware, this game's been around since 2009, blew up into a bona fide cultural phenomenon for a while, and has sold more copies on more systems than any game save Tetris. (And it's not too far behind Tetris either, relatively speaking.)
Some differences are due to the intrinsic difference between film and print media[e.g. 1], others are due to Jackson’s changes to the plot [e.g. 2]
[1] using visual cues in place of narrative
[2] compressing multiple characters into one, changing the places where certain events happen, making some characters the token comedy guy or token kid
--
[1] like tears in the rain.