Map

The map is an item that was released with Minecraft Beta 1.6.

While the object is being held in the player's hand, a map is constructed as the player explores the world, as shown in this video. On April 27, 2011, Notch unveiled screenshots of the map. When the item is selected, the player can see the explored world on a parchment held in front of them.



Behavior
Each map is created with two parameters: These parameters are permanent, which means that the contents of the map do not shift with the movements of the player, as in some games. Instead, it is closer to the behavior of a real map, where the explored world is not erased and movement is not tracked. Thus, when a player goes beyond the limits of the map, it is not shown on the map, and it is necessary to create another (each map corresponds to a region).
 * A center, which is where the map was made.
 * A zoom level, which will somehow be decided at the time the map is created.

The map must be held in the player's hands while exploring the world to record the world on the map. The world will be recorded as it is at exploration time, meaning that if the world is modified a player must revisit the area while holding the map in order to update the map's view. Holding the map will not obscure the view in front of the player as the map is positioned low such that the player must look down to view it.

Map display
Generally the colors of map items matches the color of items in the world, with some exceptions. For instance, large Sandstone structures are drawn in gray.

Multiplayer
In multiplayer, the maps will have a strong social aspect, since it will be possible to give one map to another player so he / she can observe what has been explored. It is also expected that maps will be able to be "cloned" so that players with the same map can combine the results of their exploration. The position of other players holding the same map will also be visible.

Usage
Maps are mostly used to give the player a sense of direction when lost. In SSP it can also be used to relocate mineral deposits. In SMP, players are able to view others' maps and explorations by giving one another different maps.

Miscellaneous Notes

 * Notch said that maps' ability to save custom data could lead to the creation of real books written by players, or even paintings/signs that use custom textures.
 * There can be no more than 65536 unique maps per world (this does not count the cloned maps).
 * If there are too many maps, when trying to craft one it will relay the message "Can't craft map: too many maps".
 * The map item currently only maps the surface, but Notch said that "cave maps [are] an interesting idea".
 * Notch said that he will try to make maps placeable onto a wall.

Trivia

 * Maps are the only item in Minecraft that require two hands to hold.
 * When the edge of a map is walked off, the player's location will momentary jump to the other side of the map.
 * When edited into inventory, the map's name (unless damage value was correctly specified) is always "map_x", where x is the number of the map. The first one will be map_0.
 * When the player is holding the map, and he/she presses "F5" for 3rd-person view, it does not show the player looking at the map. It simply shows the inventory icon of the map. For this would have made making the map a lot harder for Notch.