User talk:Orthotope/Archive 2

Image Licensing
Hi, I'm wondering how should
 * Custom Skins
 * Custom texture packs
 * Mod Blocks and Items

be licensed. Thanks in advance. -- Anoymous712 12:56, 13 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Good question. Texture packs that are relatively minor modifications of the default (such as File:2011-10-30_15.40.05.png) are considered derivative works, so I think they should still use License Mojang. It's less obvious what to do with complete remakes (such as File:2011-08-14_11.57.21.png); I've been skipping them for now. Similarly with mods, if it's obviously based on vanilla textures, it's not an original work and should probably have the Mojang license. I'm not an expert on this subject, though, so some of the other admins might have more insight. -- Orthotope 13:25, 13 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks anyways, I'm thinking to clear out the files on Category:Unlicensed files that aren't minecraft screenshots first, then having a bot to add License Mojang to the rest (since most screenshots are minecraft screenshots). -- Anoymous712 13:47, 13 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Actually, the screenshots are the easiest ones to deal with. There are a bunch of redstone circuit diagrams, third-party program screenshots, user photos/avatars, etc., which need to be licensed by their creator; we can't just tack on whatever license we feel like. Since the creators aren't always active here anymore, it probably won't be possible to clear out the category entirely. -- Orthotope 13:57, 13 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Compiling a list of minecraft screenshots would be easiest, then let the bot run through them. Remember that screenshots should also have Category:Screenshots, not just a mojang license.
 * I've written a quick script to make a list of names from the gallery images, running the script will add a + icon to the top-left of all the gallery boxes, and clicking it will add that name to a textbox docked on the bottom-right of the screen. Clicking the minus icon will remove the item from the list. The list isn't saved between page loads, however you can just select the text and copy it, then paste it into the box on the next page.
 * Since it is made specifically for this purpose, it should only be run when you actually want to make a list from a category, otherwise you'll have the textbox always sitting there on your screen. –ultradude25 ᐸ Talk Contribs 00:50, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Having the screenshots all added by default would probably be the easiest, then users can remove all files that are not minecraft snapshots, since they are the most common (probably, haven't checked). -- Anoymous712 06:28, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
 * How about custom skins? Can they be considered a derivative of Mojang's work as all skins have the same dimensions? -- Anoymous712 06:33, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

Checked. Most images there are images that are unclear (not literally), so yes, adding screenshots would be faster. -- Anoymous712 08:27, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Changes to template
Hi, thought I would bring it to your attention here. Please add Category:Mojang images to License Mojang as criteria for files to be added to the category and have the template is identical. Doing so will automatically add all images with the template to Category:Mojang images, so you don't have to do it manually. Thanks! -- Anoymous712 08:24, 16 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Oops, didn't realise it was already there. -- Anoymous712 08:30, 16 January 2013 (UTC)


 * No worries,  tags can be subtle. -- Orthotope 08:35, 16 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Perherps for adding Minecraft screenshots to Category:Screenshots, we can comply a list, with coding similar to this, but with all images in Category:Mojang images added by default, and remove images from that list. Then we can have a bot run through them. If that's not possible, perherps we can have an exclude list? Thanks! -- Anoymous712 09:31, 16 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Maybe; I've never used bots before, though, so I'm not really the best person to ask. -- Orthotope 09:36, 16 January 2013 (UTC)


 * A semi-bot is possible with a program like AutoWikiBrowser; I've tried setting the program up for repetitive edits but I've encountered problems with logging in. I'm pretty sure I've seen ultradude25 talk about using it, so perherps it's only for bots. -- Anoymous712 08:25, 17 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Confirmed, bots do use AutoWikiBrowser. -- Anoymous712 09:44, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Minecraft Pocket Edition 0.6.0 Kindle Fire
Hello. I have a kindle fire with Minecraft PE downloaded running 0.5.0. I'm not getting the 0.6.0 update automatically which is how I thought I'd get it. I'm wondering if I need to do something to get it or if I just can't. Some help would be appreciated. Thanks for your time! 75.20.130.9 05:34, 3 February 2013 (UTC)Jake


 * I don't have PE myself, so I don't actually know how the updates are handled. My best guess is to check the Amazon app store and see if there's a link to download it there. -- Orthotope 07:37, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Block flammability info
Would you be interested in adding a flammability section to the Block template, since you discussed the matter previously? I'll edit the block pages if it's added. —kpreid 20:26, 9 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Replied on template talk page. -- Orthotope 05:05, 10 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Replied. —kpreid 00:45, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

bat spawning
hi Orthotope, I'am 0°F from german MCwiki. Please tell me, from where did you get the information

"Below layer 63, light level of 4 or less On October 20-November 3: below layer 63, light level of 7 or less"?

I want to add the source, just because i doubt this information. you may help me? thank you! Null Fahrenheit 15:39, 10 February 2013 (UTC)


 * It's from reading the decompiled source. Here's the relevant function:

public boolean getCanSpawnHere { int var1 = MathHelper.floor_double(this.boundingBox.minY); if (var1 >= 63) { return false; // don't spawn at layer 63 or above } else { int var2 = MathHelper.floor_double(this.posX); int var3 = MathHelper.floor_double(this.posZ); int var4 = this.worldObj.getBlockLightValue(var2, var1, var3); byte var5 = 4;   // normal max light level is 4 Calendar var6 = this.worldObj.getCurrentDate; if ((var6.get(2) + 1 != 10 || var6.get(5) < 20)              && (var6.get(2) + 1 != 11 || var6.get(5) > 3)) { if (this.rand.nextBoolean) { return false;  // not near Halloween, 50% chance of not spawning }        } else { var5 = 7;  // near Halloween, max light level is 7 }        return var4 > this.rand.nextInt(var5) ? false : super.getCanSpawnHere; } }
 * -- Orthotope 20:53, 10 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Thank you so far. Have to reflect about it for now. CU, Null Fahrenheit 09:14, 11 February 2013 (UTC)
 * A few notes (sorry about bad English):
 * striktly speaking, its not a valid source, just a source code, that may come from elsewhere, I dont know.
 * the 50% spawning reduction at not-halloween-periods is not mentioned
 * finally, the spawning frequency is mapped at random on the actual spawning lightlevel. the darker the environment, the lesser spawning.


 * All the best, Null Fahrenheit 11:36, 11 February 2013 (UTC)


 * It's not too hard to download MCP and decompile it yourself. A number of other things on the wiki (such as trading and enchanting mechanics) are based on source code analysis.
 * Yeah, the spawning reduction probably should be added to the article.
 * Correct; this is true for all the hostile mobs that require darkness to spawn as well. -- Orthotope 16:45, 11 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the trouble. I agree to everything. I didnt see the relation of the last line of code and the general spawning conditions. Bye. Null Fahrenheit 22:00, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

NPC Village/video
Somehow, I knew marking the talk page like that would end up with confusion. Sorry about that lol. 05:50, 14 February 2013 (UTC)


 * A few more seconds of thinking about it would have helped, but my brain's been a little foggy from having caught a cold. Got it sorted out eventually, so no harm done. -- Orthotope 06:30, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Minecraft questions
I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but you might be the only one that could answer these.


 * 1) How does fractional damage work? For example, touching a cactus with armor on. Each hit, you sometimes lose health and sometimes not, making me think that it's less than half a heart.
 * 2) In 1.5, there is "hidden lava" in the nether. Pieces of "hidden lava" are 1x1x1 cubes of lava randomly placed in the nether. How common are these, and are they more common at lower levels? Also, what snapshot did they start in?
 * 3) Are gold, lapis, diamond, and redstone ore veins always in groups of 4-8? I think they are, and I think iron is 4-9. I also want to know the vein size for coal and nether quartz.
 * 4) Is every part of a river the same river? I have noticed that sometimes rivers flow through oceans (I always have F3 on), so they might all be the same river.
 * 5) Do cave spiders and silverfish count against the hostile mob limit even though they don't spawn naturally?
 * 6) I know of a glitch that I call the "0-item glitch". If you have a stack of 0 items, and you move it in your inventory, it will go away. If it's a projectile and you throw it, you will have 255 left. If you place it, it will go away if it's a block, but you'll have 255 if it's an item (e. g. heads). Not sure about if you try to eat from a stack of 0. Also, I'm not sure if dropping one will leave 255. What other properties does a stack of 0 items have?
 * 7) (I assume this is how it works.) A random spot in the ocean has a 1 in ____ chance of being a mushroom biome.
 * 8) I got a death message "hotdogPi was doomed to fall" in singleplayer, in a parkour map I made. When does this happen?
 * 9) What tick number can you start sleeping, what tick number do you wake up in multiplayer if not everyone sleeps, and what tick number do you wake up in if the sleep is successful?
 * 10) Does vanilla minecraft keep track of how many days have passed? If it does, how does "/time" affect it?
 * 11) Is "Fire Resistance 0" possible to get, and does it do anything?
 * 12) There is a 1 in ____ chance that it is raining, and there is a 1 in ____ chance that there is a thunderstorm. (Also, how long do rain and thunder last on average?)

hotdogPi--t--c 19:17, 13 March 2013 (UTC)


 * For the #'s, the returns you put between each question broke them. I made that change separately so you can easily revert it if you don't like how # indents. Also, I think I can answer #2. Not really hidden and has always been a part of generation. They are intended to create the random lava falls from the ceiling and other overhangs. I believe they were there since the beginning of the Nether and as for generation facts, not sure.  06:08, 14 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Lots of good questions!
 * 1 - The game keeps track of 'carryover damage' in units of 1/25 of a point of health. Touching a cactus while in full diamond armor (80% damage reduction) will increase the carryover damage counter by 5, so you take damage on every fifth hit.
 * 2 - No idea on this one yet; I'm waiting for MCP to update. (Even with it, terrain generation code is gnarly and not easy to understand.)
 * 3 - Ore generation is also a bit gnarly. I may be wrong about this, but my best understanding is that it picks two real-valued (floating-point decimal) points, draws a line between them, and turns any stone block whose center is within a certain radius of that line into ore. The horizontal distance between the two points and the radius are proportional to the 'numberOfOres' parameter (which is not actually the maximum number of ores that can be generated); the vertical distance is at most 2. I ran some simulations, with interesting results; all of these assume the ore generates in solid stone, with no caves or other non-stone blocks in the area. Lapis lazuli generates in veins of up to 10, though 4 is by far the most common, followed by 6 and 5. Redstone and diamond have the same properties, generating in veins of up to 10, with the most common sizes being 4, 6, 5, and 8. Iron and gold also generate in veins of up to 10, with 6, 4, 8 and 5 the most common; 7 is rarer than 9 and 3. Coal generates in veins of 6-32, with 20, 18, and 22 being the most frequent; most veins are 16-24 blocks. Finally, dirt and gravel generate in clusters of 40-136 blocks. The spread is wide enough to give a bell-curve like shape, though odd quantities are about half as common as the even quantities immediately above and below them.
 * In short, you're right about 90% of the time, though slightly larger and smaller quantities are possible.
 * 4 - No; river biomes are used for lakes in jungle and swamp biomes, and I've seen some rivers that form complete circles, not connecting to any ocean.
 * 5 - I believe so.
 * 6 - That bug is the result of some items failing to check if the stack size is already zero when they are used. The quantity is saved as a byte, so -1 wraps around to 255.
 * 7 - The fractal-like biome generation code is arcane. There is a step at which it tries to add a mushroom island biome, which requires that all the adjacent areas be ocean and also pass a 1% chance. I would not consider it accurate to say that any given spot in an ocean has a 1% chance of being a mushroom island, though.
 * 8 - The language file lists that line as 'death.fell.killer', so my guess is that it's used when you get knocked off a cliff by another player or entity.
 * 9 - You can only sleep when the sky light level is 11 or less. I don't really feel like doing the inverse trig needed to calculate exactly when this is, but according to Daylight Sensor it's roughly between 12600 and 23400. I think you wake up at time 0.
 * 10 - Possibly; it looks like the tick counter doesn't normally reset from 24000 to 0, and it's stored as a long, so they expect it to reach large numbers. '/time set foo' sets the time to exactly what is given, which will often set the clock back to day 1.
 * 11 - I don't think so; the effect level shown in roman numerals is one greater than the actual internal effect amplifier (Regeneration II is actually amplifier 1, Fire Resistance I is amplifier 0). To get a displayed effect level 0, you'd need an amplifier of -1, which the game doesn't like (/effect command rejects it).
 * 12 - Rain lasts 12,000 to 24,000 ticks; thunder lasts 3600 to 15,600 ticks. Both have separate random delays of 12,000 to 180,000 ticks (0.5 to 7.5 in-game days). Roughly 16% chance of rain at any given moment, and 9% chance of thunder. -- Orthotope 11:17, 14 March 2013 (UTC)