bate/mcmap

Pixel-art map visualizer for Minecraft. Maps are drawn from an isometric perspective.

mcmap - Isometric map visualizer

Original project by Simon Rettberg. All the credit goes to him for the idea and vision.

mcmap is a tool allowing you to create isometric renders of your Minecraft save file.

This project is under heavy development, but compatible with newer versions of Minecraft.

Usage

Basic invocation

mcmap <options> path/to/<your save>

The standard save path is different between OSes:

• On Linux, it is $HOME/.minecraft/saves;
• On macOS, under ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/saves;
• On Windows, the standard path is %AppData%\.minecraft\saves. However as only Ubuntu on Windows is supported, the path to access the save folder is the following: /mnt/c/<Your user>/AppData/Roaming/.minecraft/saves.

Windows

Native Windows is currently unsupported, but the program works using Ubuntu on windows to get a linux terminal and launch it from there, as on a linux platform.

Most of the code uses std::filesystem to access files and from my understanding should be cross-platform. I have no experience nor interest in making a Windows GUI, but it should be pretty straightforward, as it has been done before. If anyone has the sources to that old viewer, sharing them to update them would be greatly appreciated.

Options

Name	Description
-from X Z	sets the coordinates of the block to start rendering at
-to X Z	sets the coordinates of the block to end rendering at
-min/max VAL	minimum/maximum Y index (height) of blocks to render
-file NAME	sets the output filename to 'NAME'; default is ./output.png
-colors NAME	sets the custom color file to 'NAME'
-nw -ne -se -sw	controls which direction will point to the top corner; North-West is default
-marker x z color	draw a marker at x z of color color in red,green,blue or white; can be used up to 256 times
-nowater	do not render water
-nobeacons	do not render beacon beams
-shading	toggle shading (brightens blocks depending on height)
-nether	render the nether
-end	render the end
-dim[ension] [namespace:]id	render a dimension by namespaced ID
-splits	number of sub-terrains to render; if threading is available, every sub-terrain is rendered in a thread
-padding	padding around the final image, in pixels (default: 5)
-h[elp]	display an option summary
-v[erbose]	toggle debug mode
-dumpcolors	dump a json with all defined colors

Note: Currently you need both -from and -to to define bounds.

Tips

When passing only a level, mcmap will try to guess the size of the existing terrain, but the Minecraft storage format does not make is easy. The best results are achieved using -from x z -to X Z to define an area to render.

If rendering large areas, working in threaded mode can greatly speed up the process. Try using -splits with the number of cores your CPU has for the best performance.

Color file format

mcmap supports changing the colors of blocks. To do so, prepare a custom color file, and pass it as an argument using the -colors argument. The accepted format is a json file, with a specific structure. The root contains a list of block IDs to modify, with the namespace prefix, such as namespace:block.

Simple block

To define a color for a simple, regular block, provide an entry with the following format:

"namespace:block": [RED, GREEN, BLUE, ALPHA]

All the fields must be integer values between 0 and 255.

Examples:

{
    "minecraft:dirt":   [134, 96, 67, 255],
    "minecraft:stone":  [128, 128, 128, 255],
    ...
}

Complex block

Some blocks are better looking when drawn in a specific way. To specify that a block has to be drawn differently, you have to provide a json structure with the fields:

"namespace:block": {
    "type":     <BlockType>,
    "color":    [RED, GREEN, BLUE, ALPHA],
    "accent":   [RED, GREEN, BLUE, ALPHA] (Optional)
}

The available available block types are:

Name	Appearance	Accent support
Full	Default. Full-block.	No
Hide	Do not render the block entirely.	No
Clear	This block is optimized for transparent block in large quantities, such as glass and water. The top of the block is not rendered, making for a smooth surface when blending blocks together.	No
Thin	Will color only the top of the block underneath. Used for snow, rails, pressure plates.	No
Slab	Half block.	No
Stair	Renders a stair block.	No
Rod	A slimmer block, used for fences and walls.	No
Wire	Small dot on the floor, used for tripwire and redstone.	No
Head	Smaller block, also used for pots, pickles, and mushrooms.	No
Plant	Used in a variety of cases, renders a leaf-like block.	No
UnderwaterPlant	Same as Plant, but the air is water-colored. Used for sea-grass and kelp.	No
Fire	Fire-like. Used for fire.	No
Beam	Internal block type, used for markers and beacon beams.	No
Torch	Three pixels in a vertical line, with the top pixel rendered with the accent color.	Yes
Ore	Block with veins of color. The vein is rendered with the accent color.	Yes
Grown	Blocks that have a different layer on top. Grass, nylium, etc. The top layer is rendered with the accent color.	Yes
Log	Directionnal block, to render logs/pillars as close as possible. The center of the pillar is rendered with the accent color. Used for logs, pillars, basalt.	Yes

NOTE: Waterlogged blocks will be rendered within water instead of air by default according to their blockstates. However, sea-grass and kelp are hardcoded to be underwater and their blockstates won't reflect this, so they have to be defined as UnderwaterPlants.

Examples:

{
    "minecraft:dirt":   [134, 96, 67, 255],
    "minecraft:grass_block": {
        "type":     "Grown",
        "color":    [134, 96, 67, 255],
        "accent":   [102, 142, 62, 255]
    },
    "minecraft:snow": {
        "type":     "Thin",
        "color":    [245, 246, 245, 254]
    }
}

Compilation

mcmap depends on the PNG and zlib libraries. Development was made using gcc version 10, and can be compiled with gcc 8 or later or clang 10 or later.

Linux

Getting the libraries depends on your distribution:

• Ubuntu: apt update && apt install git make g++ libpng-dev;
• Archlinux: pacman -S --needed git gcc make libpng.

Then get the code and compile:

git clone http://github.com/spoutn1k/mcmap
cd mcmap && make -j

macOS

In an Apple environment, you need to install brew to get the libraries. You also need a developer toolkit recent enough, with the version of g++ --version superior to 10.

brew install libpng libomp
git clone http://github.com/spoutn1k/mcmap
cd mcmap
OS=MACOS make

Windows

Download and set up Ubuntu on windows then the steps are the same as Linux/Ubuntu.

Troubleshooting

Compilation fails

Check g++ --version. Supported versions are at least 8.0.0. If your version is not up to date, install a more recent one using your package manager. You will have access to the new version using g++-Y with Y being the version number. Compile using CXX=g++-Y make.

Compilation fails complaining about OMP something

Try compiling with OPENMP=NOTHXM8 make. This disables the underlying threading code, so you won't be able to use the splits option.