Minecraft

[hwangs]

Will the raspberrypi be able to run minecraft?

[qvinlove]

If it can run a simple java runtime, it can run minecraft. There are plenty of java programs for arm and Linux, so yes, it can.

[Prometheus]

I gather that there's a difference between "running" and "running well", though.

I'm pretty sure that Minecraft can be pretty heavy on multi-core x86 behemoths, after all.

[mrmlk]

qvinlove said:


If it can run a simple java runtime, it can run minecraft. There are plenty of java programs for arm and Linux, so yes, it can.


Java runtime is not "simple" (look at the problems the three OSS attempts have had replicating the APIs). This is now not such a large issue as Java has been Open Source'd. Minecraft also uses a number of native components which would need to be compiled for Linux/ARM (lwjgl I think).

Nothing insurmountable I think.

You then the question of if the device has the grunt to run Minecraft. I’d guess if a Netbook can, the Pi would.

[jamesh]

I'm no Minecraft expert, just had to look it up on Wikipedia, but looking at the graphics, and the fact in runs in JAVA, I reckon its not going to be playable on a Raspi without decent GPU acceleration, and I'm not sure it would use it by default. Even with acceleration its going to be touch and go whether its playable.

[Tomo2k]

The PC version of Minecraft certainly used to struggle occasionally on >2GHz x86 machines, so I don"t think it is likely to be playable on a 700MHz ARMv6.

- I understand that Mojang have made some efficiency improvements since I last played the 1.8 beta, so it will be a better proposition now.

It was also *extremely* greedy for RAM – on my PC it tended to level out at 2GB of ram usage.

That said, they have produced portable versions so maybe if you ask nicely and get them enthusiastic about it they"ll make a Raspberry Pi version. I suppose that depends how much work it would be – and more importantly, how much fun!

[Benedict White]

JamesH said:


I'm no Minecraft expert, just had to look it up on Wikipedia, but looking at the graphics, and the fact in runs in JAVA, I reckon its not going to be playable on a Raspi without decent GPU acceleration, and I'm not sure it would use it by default. Even with acceleration its going to be touch and go whether its playable.


I have seen the graphics for minecraft, and am mystified why someone would actually play the game.

[nvoid82]

Most of the memory sucking done by minecraft has been because of mods or memory leaks( which seem to be a lot less frequent in the full version). It can run stable (Without mods) on only 256m ram, and without sound on 128m. The main bottlenecks seem to be graphics and storage.

[Tomo2k]

Benedict White said:


JamesH said:


I'm no Minecraft expert, just had to look it up on Wikipedia, but looking at the graphics, and the fact in runs in JAVA, I reckon its not going to be playable on a Raspi without decent GPU acceleration, and I'm not sure it would use it by default. Even with acceleration its going to be touch and go whether its playable.


I have seen the graphics for minecraft, and am mystified why someone would actually play the game.


The amount of fun in a game has nothing to do with the graphics!

Look at Nethack! A better comparision might be some of the newer 3D Sonic The Hedgehog which generally tanked, compared to the great platformer it was on the Megadrive.

Minecraft is essentially a really open sandbox game. If you want a storyline, or even clear goals then it's not for you.

[foo]

Benedict White said:


I have seen the graphics for minecraft, and am mystified why someone would actually play the game.


"I have seen pictures of Lego bricks, and am mystified why someone would actually play with them instead of cool-looking action figures."

[Benedict White]

foo said:


Benedict White said:


I have seen the graphics for minecraft, and am mystified why someone would actually play the game.


"I have seen pictures of Lego bricks, and am mystified why someone would actually play with them instead of cool-looking action figures."


Scratches head looking for good riposte....

None found.

[Prometheus]

Putting aside whether or not it will run, I just remembered that there's another issue with Minecraft, here.

Does the RPi's graphics driver support full OpenGL, or just OpenGL ES, or similar? The reason I ask this is because the graphics library used by Minecraft doesn't yet support OpenGL ES, just "full" OpenGL, which may pose a problem. (Just something I've picked up from questions about running Minecraft on the Pandora. )

[Tomo2k]

Good point.

It supports OpenGL ES 2.0, and not the 'desktop' OpenGL.

[jamesh]

There's not a huge difference, the Quake demo was ported from GL to GL ES. Not sure how long it took though.

[mightygoose]

What about pocket minecraft... surely the Android version is alot closer to home than the windows version?

[pocketmoon]

I have to say watching my 12 year old playing Mineraft was a bit boggling. I guess My folks had the same look when I was sat at my BBC Micro playing elite ...

But just before Christmas he asks, 'Dad, can I learn java'! He's one of the current generation suffering the 'IT' lessons in schools and I've been trying to get him interested at a more traditional level. His sudden interest in java came about because of Minecraft - he want's to write mods for it. So we install Eclipse and after about 10 minutes of me trying to explain object orientated code he's off. The code is well structured, object orientated and easy to read. I also told him he could earn £500 per day with top Java skills

He went back to school yesterday and I told him to ask his IT teacher if they know how to program a computer >:)

So +1 for Java on a Raspberry.