4DMC
Hi guys!
So I've been working on a Minecraft mod which can simulate 4-dimensional space in Minecraft. When I say 4D, I mean 4 spatial dimensions + 1 temporal (time), as opposed to our real world, which is 3 spatial + 1 time (ignore string theory pedants). There are a few features in it right now, but I plan on expanding on it, as well as making it a bit less messy (in terms of coding and actually playing it).
4D??? - a brief introduction
2D to 3D example:
You guys may have heard of the game miegakure (http://miegakure.com). It's a lovely game; however, the mod I'm making uses a different mechanic of simulating 4D space, similar to The Long Earth(Wikipedia),w/out the bad side-effects of stepping.
So let's imagine a flatlander. Let's call him Adam. so Adam here is a 2-dimensional being, he lives in a 2D world (let's just pretend that the 2D world has 1 thickness in 3D). Poor Adam here only know of 4 directions to move in, left + right and up + down (or the x and y directions, for simplicity). note how his "keyboard" would only have A and D as well as Space and Shift.
This is Adam's world:
Adam's world is 2D. Adam is the observer.
3-cube Example:
Now, Minecraft Steve tries to give Adam the feeling of being able to move through 3 dimensions. Steve get a big stack of worlds and puts Adam on this stack of worlds. Furthermore, Steve gives Adam the ability to move left a sheet of paper or righta sheet of paper. Adam can now move left + right, forward + backward and up + down (x, y, and z now) Now see that Adam has WASD and shift + space bar, like us. Adam is able to experience 3D space, but only one slice at a time. if Steve wanted to show Adam a wireframe cube, he would see it like this (Stone blocks are the ones in his current slice. The glass is invisible to him because he can only see one slice of the world. There's a copy at the top w/out the glass, which is what Adam would see):
Slice 1 a square:
Slice 2 (the edges of a square):
Slice 3 (looks the same as slice 1):
Adam can only see one slice of the cube at a time; however, he can compile these slices together in his mind and understand "hey, that's a cube!!!"
Steve can just view the cube on its own, in 3 dimensions:
3D to 4D case (our reality):
4-cube Example:
So Steve is just punching a tree, and along comes Walter. Steve sees Walter appear, then suddenly disappear. Walter pities Steve, a mere 3-Dimensional being. Walter decides to help Steve by trying to show him what a 4-Dimensional world would be like. to do this, Walter stacks a ton of Minecraft worlds right next to each other and gives Steve the ability to move between worlds. This way, Steve can now move left + right, up + down, forward + backward as well as up a world + down a world (Now Steve can move in 8 different directions, and needs the keys WASDQE + Shift + Space (I personally use Q and E but you can keybind to wherever you want honestly)). The terminology for moving between world is 'kata' for up a world and 'ana' for down a world. You would have the world 'Origin' (decided by the world spawn) and then kata to that would be world Kata 1 then Kata 2, etc. Then ana to the world is Ana 1, then Ana 2. You get the Idea. For example:
"Steve stepped kata into the world Kata 1". - meaning that Steve moved up a world from the Origin to Kata 1
"Ana to Steve was a vast ocean" - meaning that the world Ana to Steve is an ocean biome.
Now, Walter tries to show Steve a 4-Dimensional cube (commonly called a tesseract, but not related to the Marvel one). Steve, sadly, can't see the whole tesseract at once, So Walter shows Steve each slice one by one:
Slice 1 (notice how it looks exactly like a cube, just like how the first slice of the cube Adam was viewing was a square):
Slice 2 (notice how it looks like the corners of a cube, just like how in Adam's second slice it looked like the corners of a square):
Slice 3 (Try to find the parallel between this tesseract slice and Adam's cube slice):
Steve can only see one slice of the tesseract at a time; however, he can compile these slices together in his mind and understand "hey, that's a tesseract!!!"
Walter can just view the cube on its own, in 4 dimensions [not visualized for obvious reasons].
Movement - keybinds
To move in this new 4D world, you have to use the kata and ana keys, which you have to keybind yourself to whatever fits you
This is my current setup:
Kata - Q
Ana - E
Inventory - Tab
Drop Item - R
Player list - Grave
Feedback plz
I'd love to get everyone's feedback ^w^ I know the mod is really messy right now, but it's just a bit of a rough draft to see what I need to do.