[newbie]: Minecraft - where to start?

[sfinnie]

Hello all

Just bought first Pi as family project. Elder daughter (11) up & running with scratch; younger one wants to get minecraft running first.

Have read round the forums and not sure which way to go. Her current minecraft experience is ipad-based so that's the baseline. Would appreciate any advice on where to start. For example:

1. Which minecraft server to use? I read the java one was too slow; but that Oracle have now released a more performant JVM. So is the java server an option now?
2. Which OS to use? Stock raspian or something else?
3. Any views on what to expect vs. ipad version?
4. Any other pointers/advice?

I'm a programmer so comfortable with OS/JVM setup etc. However, am not a gamer so complete novice on the minecraft front. Similarly new to the Pi.

I would like to do setup as a project with her; don't just want to present a done deal. However, running down dead ends will definitely turn her off so would like to follow a path that's reasonably likely to end in success.

Thanks in advance.

[DeeJay]

Do you need to begin with the complexity of running a server?

Would it be enough to take first steps by installing MineCraft Pi Edition on an RPi running Raspbian?

Minecraft's own documentation here - http://pi.minecraft.net/?page_id=10

Martin O'Hanlon has written a lot about Minecraft on the RPi here - http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/p/minecraft.html

[sfinnie]

Thanks DeeJay, Pi edition looks like a good place to start.

[LetHopeItsSnowing]

sfinnie - if you need help, let me know. I love a bit of minecraft hacking!

[mob-i-l]

You can use Scratch on Raspberry Pi to control Minecraft. Here is a video that shows an example and some code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyxO5gANs3I

Steve sees a double rainbow and comments in the chat window. The rainbows where built automatically using my own Scratch-program running on a Raspberry Pi Model A. Minecraft Pi is running at the same time and is sometimes controlled via Scratch and sometimes directly. The pillar in this world was built using a modified Scratch-example and some modified Java-examples wrote some text. The rainbows are not physically correct since they don't move with the observer (Steve), but the colors are in the correct order. See http://scratch.mit.edu/users/mobluse/ . This uses scratchpy and scratch2mcpi (was: scratch2minecraft) from GitHub.

[rgvraspi]

The idea of using Scratch with Minecraft aroused my curiosity so I thought I'd have a play with it.

The problem is, I can't seem to get scratch2minecraft working, at least in the sense that I can see the 'broadcasts' in the Terminal Window, but nothing ever appears in Minecraft itself. I feel that I am probably missing a step somewhere. Anyone else played with this and have it working? I am curious as to what I am doing wrong!

[rgvraspi]

I guess no one else has used it. I ended up playing with the regular Python Minecraft API instead which works fine Would still be cool to get the scratch interface working though.

[mrpi64]

Here:

http://bit.ly/hacking-mcpi-guide/

My own creation!