Game Tip - Minecraft: Seed with Village at Spawn II

Just a quick tip for Minecraft I've found: another seed that generated a helpful Village near the Spawn Point! I think I typed in "bobvilla" lol but I'm not 100% sure so here is the seed number: 1643249337 and it is in the screenshot below. Beware, as (perhaps fittingly) it is a 'fixer-upper'... Also, for those that don't know yet, you can't quickly see the Seed for games by just hitting F3 anymore, you need to hit / and type seed, to make it say /seed and then hit Enter
Have fun and See You In The Games!

This view is from just above the Spawn Point. The Village/Town can be seen poking out from behind the trees on the right side of the screen. Beware, it's a 'fixer-upper'... Enjoy! Click to see Full Size

Quick Tip: Can't Record Your Game At All? (64-bit/32-bit Fix)

Just a quick tip for when it seems like you cannot record your game 'at all':
64-bit computing is still relatively new for home users, which means that not all 64-bit hardware and applications communicate without problems. Many game recording apps simply can't record games that operate in 64-bit modes. Just look for a 32-bit version of your game/gameclient and then your game recording program (no matter which one you use, be it Dxtory, Bandicam, MSI Afterburner..) should be able to record the screen. [For games that use Java (eg. Minecraft), download the 32-bit Java at their website]

See you in the games!

GTAM Minute Tutorial - Editing the Bouncy Yellow Text in the Minecraft Menu Screen and Fixing the 'ZWN BSF' Problem (and Locating the Minecraft.jar file)

Yes, I had to put absolutely everything in the title. As many of you already know, the yellow 'bouncy' text that shows up on the Main Menu screen of Minecraft ("Splash Text") can be edited to display whatever you want it to say. The problem is, when editing that text, one weird 'error' that can occur is, just before your personalized text, a little box with ZWN BSF (it's actually ZWNBSP) can show up. I've seen this problem talked about on many different forums for a while now and as I was editing the file myself, I figured out this way of fixing it and thought I'd share it with everyone:

In this GTAM Minute Tutorial, I'm editing the Splashes.txt file inside the Minecraft.jar source file [in Windows] to simply say, "Game Mode: Hardcore!", when working on recording some future Hardcore Mode Playthroughs. I show the problem as it pops up while editing [it's a one-take video] and then immediately show the fix for it. I don't think this is the only way around it, but it solves the problem and worked for me multiple times and since people are still talking about it; I thought I'd throw this out there to help others.



To locate the Minecraft.jar source file the game uses (for almost everything including Mods/addons), there are a bunch of ways, here are some [N.B. - (3) works on all operating systems]:

1) If you are playing Minecraft in Windows, you could do a couple of things**:

 - Open Windows Explorer and in the top Address Bar area, where it says your location on your computer, type in
%appdata%
and it will show the location of the ".minecraft" folder, where game files are normally kept. There is a "bin" folder inside, it should be in there

 - Click on the Start Button/Orb and where it says "Search Programs And Files" type in
%appdata%
and it will show the location of the ".minecraft" folder, where game files are normally kept. There is a "bin" folder inside, it should be in there

- Open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming and this is the location of the ".minecraft" folder, where game files are normally kept. There is a "bin" folder inside, it should be in there

 **You may have to 'show Hidden Files And Folders' in Windows by opening a Windows Explorer window and pulling down the Tools Menu and choosing Folder Options. In here, click on the View Tab and under the Hidden Files And Folders category, select the 'Show Hidden Files, Folders And Drives' Radio Button and click OK. You may also have to UNCHECK the 'Hide Extensions For Known File Types' checkbox in the View Tab if you want to see the '.jar' file extension/ending

2) If you are playing Minecraft on a Mac:

- Open Finder and in the Go To Folder section, type in
~/Library/Application Support/Minecraft/bin
and it should be in there

3) If you are on most other OS's (such as Linux):

 - Run the Minecraft game and go to Options, then Texture Packs and choose Open Texture Pack Folder
 - Go up one level to the ".minecraft" directory and there should be a "bin" directory inside, it should be in there

 Have fun editing the Minecraft Splash Text for your video projects and See You In The Game!

Game Tip - Minecraft: Seed with Village at Spawn

Just a quick tip for Minecraft I've found: a seed that generated a helpful Village near the Spawn Point! I don't remember exactly what I typed in [something that I was testing for Tutorials, etc] so here is the numerical Seed that you can use to play this same world: -1516956404 and it is in the screenshot below. Also, for those that don't know yet, you can't quickly see the Seed for games by just hitting F3 in 1.3.2+, you need to hit / and type seed, to make it say /seed and hit Enter
Have fun and See you in the games!

You spawn on a hill like the one in the corner, but right next to the hill is this Village. Enjoy! Click to see Full Size

Minecraft - How To Get Rid Of Those Lines Between Blocks (Tutorial with Screenshots)

Update 1: Added additional screenshot of newer AMD Control Centre 3D Settings
Update 2016-01: Added screenshot of AMD Control Centre version 15 (Crimson) 3D Settings

Just a quick Tip about Minecraft and those lines between and around blocks that some of you may have - and how to get rid of them!

Here is an example:

'Those Lines' around a torch and water blocks. Click to see Full Size.

Many of you have already figured this out, but for those who haven't, or aren't sure where to look and what to do, here is a Tip of how to change some settings for your videocard to get rid of them.

Changing settings within the game won't affect them for the most part, the changes have to be made in your videocard's Control Panel.

To access this, right-click on your background and then select the control panel for your video card (there are multiple ways to open it however, this is just one).

Here is what most NVIDIA ("GeForce") and AMD/ATi ("Radeon") videocard owners will see. I have put arrows at the options we will be changing. Don't worry, steps on what to do follow the image:

Click to see Full Size

NVIDIA owners can open their NVIDIA Control Panel.
From here, under the 3D Settings category on the left, select Manage 3D Settings. On the right, change Antialiasing Mode to Off. This will disable Anti-Aliasing for all games (another article on how to set AA for specific games in the future).

AMD owners can open their AMD Vision Engine Control Center.
From here, under the Gaming category on the left, select 3D Application Settings. On the right, simply put a checkmark in the Use Application Settings box in the Anti-Aliasing Area. This will let you set AA within games now (such as in the Options sections within games) but since Minecraft doesn't have the option for that, it effectively disables it for that game and allows other games to use it if desired.

Here is what those same video card control screens will look like after the changes:

(Left) The AMD Control Centre 3D Settings to help remove the lines between blocks
(Right) The NVIDIA Control Panel 3D Settings to help remove the lines between blocks
Click to see Full Size

Note:  

If you are still having 'pink lines' or 'lines between blocks' at distance/angled viewing [they may be fine up close but start to have lines at a bit of a distance], then: 

NVIDIA » Turn Off  Anisotropic Filtering (no arrow but highlighted above, found on the same screen), too

AMD » set "Use Application Settings" for Anisotropic Filtering (no arrow shown above, green arrow indicates below, found on the same screen), too

Screenshot of newer AMD Control Centre 3D Settings to help remove the lines between blocks
Green Arrow indicates possible additional setting required for 'pink lines' that begin at a distance
Click to see Full Size

Screenshot of AMD Control Centre v.15 (Crimson) 3D Settings to help remove lines between blocks. Green Arrow indicates possible additional setting required for 'pink or white lines' that begin at a short distance away.
Click to see Full Size

With these changes, here is what Minecraft should look like now:

'Those Lines' should now be gone (for example, from around torches and water blocks). Yay!
Click to see Full Size.

Enjoy your line-free worlds of blocks and See You In The Games!

GTAM Minute Tutorial - Editing Textures (Repairing A Deleted Branch In Leaves) with The GIMP

Playing around with editing textures for Minecraft (Tutorials on how to do that Coming Soon!) something happened that I think others would run into - it was a pretty minor/specific thing, but I'd like to share what I did and how I fixed it, just in case anyone ever runs into this little problem.

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program, changed from General Image Manipulation Program) is a free editing application that is quite capable to stand up against most of the functions of Adobe's Photoshop and similar programs. Using it to edit the general Leaf texture portions of Minecraft's texture source, I accidentally selected and deleted a section of branch. Wanting to change the colour anyway, I replaced it but then thought that this might be something that could happen to other people, especially those new to graphic editing. I wanted to erase it again and record what I had done to repair the poor deleted branch and share it.

Perhaps for you it was deleted and then the file was saved, or perhaps you didn't notice it until a later step, where it was then inaccessible as a layer or similar problem. No matter what the situation, if anyone happens to run into this specific minor misfortune or even similar, it has spawned what will now become the first in a new series of videos I'd like to start, called Game Tips And More Minute Tutorials.

GTAM Minute Tutorials will be very short (60 seconds or less!) instructions showing how to do something very specific. I don't mean completing a quest or mission, I mean one thing, or at least a small number of steps, that complete one specific task. It may be editing or troubleshooting (the "And More" portion of this blog's namesake) or it may be how to jump high or shoot something in a specific game. Whatever it may be, in this time of short attention spans (who doesn't get crabby when the computer takes more than a second to do what you just told it?), all the tutorials/walkthroughs will be less than one minute. Really. Guaranteed! Not really.

In this tutorial, I show how to easily replace a deleted branch in a photo of leaves. That is something pretty specific; but the concepts presented, such as shading, blending and some general GIMP usage can be applied to many other situations and projects as well:

It is played back at 4x speed and states the steps being taken and basic concepts behind them. Being very specific in nature, not a lot of extra information is given, but this video is targeted towards people already editing [Minecraft textures for instance] and familiar with programs and games such as GIMP and Minecraft.
(I would like to do a full tutorial on how to extract, edit, import and save your own textures for use in Minecraft in the future)

Recorded with: Bandicam
- 'Rectangle On A Screen', 'For Edit Premiere/Sony Vegas' Preset
- 1280x720 (720p HD), 60fps, no Audio
- compressed to 720p, 30fps, 10Mbps, h.264/AVC for smaller upload size


Check back for more Game Tips And More Minute Tutorials in the future and See you in the games!

The Game Tips And More Realism Texture Pack for Minecraft (Work In Progress)

I have been having a lot of fun lately with the easy-to-get-into, simple-yet-vast gameplay of Minecraft. After getting used to the graphics, which are great in their own pixellated 1980's way, I have been going about messing with the textures just for fun:

Examples of the work-in-progress textures, showing wood/bark, sand, a tree stump, topsoil with grass, soil and bricks, while holding green wool. Click to see image full size.

The game itself is simple in execution but very addicting to many aspects of human nature. I plan to cover these in a First Impressions of the game in the future, with a video and screenshots galore. I realize there are already a generation of kids who will have bad eyesight sooner in life because of this game, but after playing the PCGamer Demo and then purchasing the game, I realize that it will be worth it.
(Note to Marketing Departments: This is how you do an addicting Demo, fully-functional, limited only by Time)

I just wanted to share that I was starting my own Photo-Realistic Texture Pack, learning the cropping, blending, cloning, tiling, color correction, sizing and all the other aspects that go along with importing it into the game and will have it available for Download to anyone that wishes to try it out/use it/play it here in the future.


See you in the games!