3D printing can produce some great results, some of which are very useful, and others are just entertaining. These 3D-printed Minecraft worlds are definitely in the latter category, but they're very easy to appreciate.
Minecraft fan David Russell used the open-source program Mineways (created by Eric Haines) to print these recreations of in-game scenes. The software imports your world in as a 3D model, where you can then choose a segment to be printed.
Mineways then sends it to 3D printing company Shapeways to be printed, as the actual process is expensive. You can then buy your printed product from Shapeways, which are what's on display in these photos.
The creations are very appealing, and the level of detail is impressive. You can see that the cubes themselves are all quite small, so I imagine the process is pretty delicate and not necessarily too quick. I think they're very pleasing to look at, and the colors and textures seem soft and spot-on.
A large part of Minecraft's draw, especially among videos and images that make the rounds online, is seeing what others are able to think up and create in the game. It takes it another step further to see these things in real life, like big fantastical play sets. These 3D-printed objects give even more validity to the Minecraft-Lego comparisons, because they look like buildings and landscapes made with famous toys when someone isn't following an instruction book.
Hopefully 3D printing will be more accessible in the near future, something that's already beginning to happen. The printers are expensive and usually large, but if an efficient consumer model is successful, perhaps everyone could be printing their own game worlds at home.
via Kotaku
