"Keanu wonders: is Minecraft chunky purely because everything’s rendered really far from the origin?"
Actually, Minecraft used to have some interesting float-precision-induced artifacts once you got far from the origin:
Actually, Minecraft used to have some interesting float-precision-induced artifacts once you got far from the origin:
My understanding of what causes the Far Lands isn't that great, but I think it's caused by one of six or eight shorts overflowing in the generation algorithm.
Edit: It seems I needed to read more of the Minecraft Wiki link for the Farlands. https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Far_Lands#Cause covers it much better than I could.