Not much happening this week, I got back from Helsinki (capital of Finland, for all you uneducated chaps out there :=D) at wednesday and been doing bug fixing for the next release. Submitted my Android project to finish that course, so one more course down this spring.

Going back to the development part: there are still few things to work out with the teleport blocks and, let me see… Better launch parameters for the server that should introduce some improvements for that part (also making the launch parameters as customizable) and some translations needed to add. Also the finnish translations are currently being gone through for possible improvements.

A project group in Carnegie Mellon university has been also doing us an project where they help with MinecraftEdu development and i’ve got all the software they have been developing in my hands in the last few days. I still haven’t got any time to go hands on with them, but they seem VERY interesting! Quiz blocks, block review tools… More of them in the upcoming weeks!

The maptool is also on hold until new Edu release is out, but that will be continued right after the release.

And everyone wondering… I will NOT buy Diablo III to destroy my this month’s planned work ^^ 

Have a nice week everyone,

Aleksi

@kulttuuri

Hey all,

Been a long time since last blog post I know, but at the moment my school has taken so much time off from me so I have really had to focus on that and to target to graduate from it within this year. Mainly what I have been doing as an school related projects are an simple minigolf game that works with Android devices and an web IRC built with Vaadin framework. The latter project has started to become really time consuming, as I didnt want to implement any premade libraries for the IRC functionality, but have implemented everything from a stratch to make it the best learning experience for myself as I can. Also my thesis is something I have to finish at summer.

But when going back to our company, right now everything seems to be going smooth; there will be some trainees at the summer who I will taught to help with development of the mod, there’s one bigger project starting up which will definitely need one extra person working on it, we have a special web project starting at summer which we might need an extra person to work on, so there’s lots of things happening right now.

But let’s go through some things that will be coming up in the next MinecraftEdu build and one another project that I am currently working with after the main highlights for the next release

I am not going to go through very in-depth these things, so just a short & simple list for the next build:

-Minecraft 1.2.5 as an base.

-Performance improvements. “Can’t keep up” errors should be mostly fixed.

-Bug fixes.

-WorldEdit integration & latest WorldEdit is now shipped with MinecraftEdu.

-Added new shortcuts menu, so you can bind some commands & menus to be opened with certain key.

-Custom texturepack support for maps. You can now place custom textures which you would like clients to use with a map and clients will automatically download the textures from server and utilize them.

-Improvements to graphical user interfaces.

-New skins & all the old skins has been improved.

-New panel “Information” for the server to make it easier for first time users to use it.

Improved server tool

Shortcut menus.

Command shorcuts menu.

Menu shortcuts.

And the another project coming up for MinecraftEdu is the Map Library. Here are few screenshots of the working copy, some things might still change but right now the ability to browse maps, download maps and basic upload functionality is working. In the map library project there are working me, Zuppi (Finnish readers can read about the game he is working on here http://pelinkehitys.blogspot.com/) and Tonsse (who has also been working with us for 5 months).

Login screen.

File transfers screen.

I will force myself from now on to start writing more into here ;D

Mainly weekly updates about what’s going on in the development chapter would be something nice to get out in, say every monday. I am off most of this week, but i’ll write down a notification for the monday after a week to start writing in given intervals :)

Best,

Aleksi Postari

@kulttuuri

Hey all!

Just a reminder for those who want to try out the new build tools and such: MinecraftEdu 0.98 was released yesterday! Changelog here: http://minecraftedu.com/wiki/index.php?title=MinecraftEdu_0.98

I did not yet send email to current owners as Minecraft 1.2 was just released which i’ll start to merge to tomorrow. Hopefully next patch will be out next week with Minecraft 1.2 in it!

If you are already a premium or classroom user, you can download latest release from members area: http://members.minecraftedu.com

Video of the new features: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uwwgfl6TF0

… Also here’s something cool coming up: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28919118/muut/dl_first.png

Hey all!

Been a long time and the release of our next version is close now, so wanted to show all of you the new build tools i’ve been working on. And everyone should also go through the other new features written here: http://minecraftedu.tumblr.com/post/17991870774/new-version-soon

In the first screenshot is the basic build mode. It includes two modes, which can be toggled with left ctrl. The first mode is basically the creative mode without movement acceleration and the second mode is bit different: it locks in you center of the current block you are in and you can move block by block. Second mode also adds an outlined box, which is always in the center of the view and you can set it’s distance with mouse scroll.

This second picture shows the new settings panel, where users can enable / disable visual fill, use console instead of chat if they prefer and toggle advanced build mode on / off.

You can also go through walls in build mode :)

In this picture i’ve already enabled advanced build mode. In advanced build mode users will see three build modes in the downright corner instead of just two. In that new second mode you can move around freely with the outlined box. Also another cool fact in the advanced build mode is how you can move in it: You can go directly in the camera direction, so no more locking in one dimension!

There’s also that new visual fill in the picture: When you start filling with outlined box mode enabled, you can see in realtime how the fill will come up.

… Aaand you can also clear area of blocks :)

And you can also change your movement speed with this slider in Personal tab :)

- Aleksi

MinecraftEdu 0.975 was released just few days ago and it was originally meant to be a bugfix patch, but i got bit too carried away implementing something new into it, so there was also the new build menu, new build options and improved signs included in that patch. You can view Stephen doing great introduction to build tools here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5fXqCHsKxQ

For the upcoming patch, there are some things that i’d like to see in MinecraftEdu. I implemented the current horizontal build mode in one sitting, so i have already started rewriting it into something new. More of this coming up in the following weeks.

Some other new things for the next patch should be the teleport blocks (Teleport stations => can right click and select destination of other teleport blocks from a list => Teacher can rename the teleport locations), link blocks (Can store links to like certain Youtube videos inside these blocks), new panel for advanced map settings in server tool and also new spectator mode (When connecting to server, you can select “spectate” and just spectate around the map). I have no date given for the next release and it might just include some of these new features, though we’ll see…

There are also more of these features that i want to implement in MinecraftEdu, but those will be revealed later on… ;)

I was also about to get off everything MinecraftEdu related for this and next week, but i got amazing ideas for the new build options from my friends and family members who i am spending this Christmas with, so i just HAD to start writing them down and demonstrating the effects already.. :D

This should be my last blog post this year, so everyone have a happy christmas and great new year!

Few screenies here about what’s coming up… We will try to aim next release to be also available for individuals, so that has taken some time from us (had to develop separate mod install tool and such for it), but now we are mostly just waiting for the bugfixes for 1.0 and next release that could be merged into Edu!

But for the screenies, here we go:

Wooow, been long since my last post, but i have been EXTREMELY busy implementing features, testing, fixing bugs and i haven’t been able to provide anything cool in the last few weeks, so i wanted to correct that with a pack full of pictures of the upcoming desertification map, and also give quick walkthrough of current admin GUI, blocks that You can use to build assignment maps, and some new tools. I have also implemented a way to store all the sign and information text in ini files, so that you can create localized version of your map, depending on the server language!

We will start doing a closed beta test with schools and few other people and polish the whole thing before release. And like Santeri said in Twitter, this is NOT just a mod, it’s a whole set of tools and plugins to begin a new way of teaching!

But now for the pictures!

Also, click the links to see them in full glory! 

This is the starting point for the new desertification map. Players will spawn inside a house, where they will be heading outside. This house and outside area has been protected, so that students cannot build or destroy anything here.

About to begin here *drum roll*

 Mission text for the map (Little work in progress ;))

 Assignment blocks will show the detailed assignment description

 Assignment in full glory

Storage room for getting tools

 Mother of all trees!

Whole map from higher view

 Students cannot get past these borders, build or dig blocks here.

 Trying to get past the borders as an student is not a easy task!

Work in progress mode: Build mode. Now with this mode enabled, teachers can place or dig blocks from long distance! This mode will get more *wow* factor added to it later on, like easy to use graphical user interfaces to create areas of blocks and separate building menu to easily access most common building blocks.

 Here is the teacher menu’s assignment section. Teachers can pop this menu up by pressing ‘p’ button while in game.

 Assignment has been set!

General tab of admin panel containing more controlling buttons.

 Suggestive give panel suggests with a dropdown box, what item would you want, while typing!

 World settings will be saved with map. These will be loaded every time map is loaded again.

 Did cut down some trees. Oh no, desert is spreading!

Oh dear! What happened to the land that we once did know!

 Every map needs their easter eggs… ;)

 And here are the blocks, that are new to the family (Notice the angel statue reference ;D)

 Hope you liked, i will be also providing shots from the upcoming tutorial world later on!

Server tool skin revisited:

Starting client GUI:

Login to server as teacher: 

Login to server as student:

We are coming near the first release of MinecraftEdu mod, still some graphics redesigning, Launcher which can be used to switch between Minecraft/MinecraftEdu needs testing, features to implement (Skin selection from starting GUI, serverside password for using teacher interface, port to 1.8.1), but here are just few more screenshots to show what’s going on!

Here are the first screens of the admin panel, and as you can see from the last screenshot, hovering over buttons or textfields over admin gui will make a help text appear in the top of the game screen!

General tab

Time tab 

Give tab