Today's Minecraft Chuckle

Posted by admin on February 23, 2011

So Minecraft 1.3 was released last night.  Thumbs up for the inclusion of new features (the bed, naturally occuring Sandstone, the new half-blocks even though the wooden one needs a pick-axe to break effectively.)  We'll forgive the fact that the bed seems to be more a pre-fabricated coffin; you fall asleep in it, and wake up to zombies gnawing at your face and skeletons turning you into a pin-cushion.  The big change was the switch to the modified McRegion world format.  This has had an ENORMOUSLY beneficial effect on my 65MB world.  No more juddering and stuttering as I transition between chunks, and a pretty much constant 150 to 300 FPS.  Very nice.

Thumbs down though for the Mojang authentication servers, which seemed overwhelmed to the point of non-functioning by about 6:00pm Central.  Luckily I got my server upgraded at 5:10pm after a few failed login attempts.  My kids' computers though never did manage to connect and download the new JAR files.  Hopefully we'll have more luck this evening once the initial upgrade rush is over.

All in all, a cautious-to-mildly-enthusiastic thumbs up for this upgrade.

So, never mind all the serious stuff: here's today's Minecraft Chuckle.  Enjoy!