Microsoft built its new campus in Minecraft [video] | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft built its new campus in Minecraft [video]

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62 pointsmyinnerbanjo26 comments

They used the Education Edition, not vanilla. But link to source and world download - https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/nzedu/2018/10/19/explore...

I always wondered why tools like Doom (other better FPSs are available) aren't used to familiarise people with building layouts. I'm sure there are Doom levels that I haven't played in years that I could walk round confidently [1] if they suddenly became real.

[1] Assuming no cacodemons etc.

I can't find a reference, but I remember reading about someone who was walking around some area of [San Francisco?], experiencing a weird sense of deja vu, being incredibly familiar with the environment, despite having never been there. Then they realised - it'd been featured as a level in one of the Tony Hawk's games :)

Funnily enough for me, to get to sleep last night I was retracing steps in favoured levels from Team Fortress 2, which I've not played in years, and was a little concerned about how vivid my memories seemed. Useless information taking up increasingly valuable neurons... . Oh well.

I definitely had that in Florence after Assassin’s Creed II.

We did this with our remodel. Well, not Doom per se, but 3D models output from a 3d modeling program.

Sketchup[0] is a very popular tool with architects these days. You can import those models into VR with IrisVR[1] and other tools.

We did this for our entire remodel and our architect now does the same thing when designing (after trying it out on our Vive). They also use it for their customers, both as a sales tool and to help fine tune the designs.

It's not 100% perfect (yet), but we moved and eliminated cabinets, lengthened counter tops, spaced appliances differently, etc all based on VR.

0: https://www.sketchup.com/ 1: http://irisvr.co/

The Marines did exactly that: https://medium.com/war-is-boring/a-budget-strapped-corps-onc...

You have to be very careful using a shooter game to layout your office space. That brings up some pretty negative connotations and thoughts

Sensibly, they used a friendly game which includes suicide bomb creatures.

Edit: fastest downvote I've seen.

They're probably not running in the Survival mode, or using modpacks.

> I always wondered why tools like Doom (other better FPSs are available) aren't used to familiarise people with building layouts.

Because Columbine, that's why. In the 90s, kids used to recreate their college campuses, etc. in Doom. Then Columbine happened, and such things were viewed as possible mass-murder prep.

Doom is primitive by today's standards anyway. I hear tell Unreal Engine is sometimes used for architectural visualizations, etc.

> I'm sure there are Doom levels that I haven't played in years that I could walk round confidently [1] if they suddenly became real.

Given that Doomguy moves at approximately 50 mph, it'd take real-world you quite a bit longer to explore those real-world levels.

This despite the claim that the columbine shooters used doom was false.

Yeah, they did play Doom.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-harris-levels/

They just apparently did not design their HS in Doom.

I remember it being reported that they had played Doom.

What do you mean by "used Doom"?

People spread a rumor that the shooters had planned out their spree by building their high school in doom and playing it

I played and modded Jedi Knight around that time and there was a very popular level in the ecosystem called Jedi High School that caught some flak for this same reason.

Unreal engine was used to model Jerry's World (Dallas cowboys stadium) so people could walk around

I guess I should have clarified I meant the engine, rather than having guns and enemies as well.

Actually, including guns and getting interested people to play multiplayer sounds like the best way to get them to know the layout quickly.

Seems smart. We tend to like things more, the more that we are familiar with them.

So this will mean that employees like the new campus more when they first walk on it, because they'll be more familiar with it.

The architects probably aren't thrilled to have their work presented in this crude way.

HN might feel like architects don't matter too much, which is fine, but what definitely does matter, when it comes to buildings, is how they make you feel. This kind of stunt doesn't help preview that. I'm not sure that it reallys help with anything. Conventional renderings communicate pretty well.

A Lego model would be equally silly and unable to communicate the actual spatial and material qualities of the building.

It'll be interesting to see if familiarity with the digital space correlates to comfort in the physical space.

Minecraft's proportions are a bit wrong, for example Minecraft people are two blocks high, a block seems to be roughly one metre. And obviously in reality very few people are two metres tall!

Also movement speed in games is unrealistic, because it turns out moving is boring, so Minecraft's "walking" speed is much faster than you'd walk - over 4 metres per second, enough that in an hour you'd cover about 15 kilometres! It's not a _sprint_ but it's a decent Marathon time for example, and those guys aren't walking.

Together these effects can give the impression that a nice large space (say 5x5x2 metres, a pretty nice two person office) is rather cramped.

So I'd anticipate that when they see the real thing they'll be cued to find it more spacious.

Nitpick: "Steve" in Minecraft is actually 1.7 meters tall.

I think what is more unrealistic in Minecraft is terrain height and distance, and for a reason, realistically sized terrain in Minecraft would be very difficult to render and also not fun to walk around.

Also walls in Minecraft are typically one meter thick, so unless their new HQ is a medieval castle, it also won't be realistic.

Smart way to get more kids interested in/familiar with Microsoft?

has that viral ad feel. Lots of game engines would be better tools for the job.

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