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Comment by Pezmc | Hacker News Reader

Can someone dissect this code and explain what it does?

The first set of three nested loops is procedurally generating texmap, which is a multidimensional Array(16 * 16 * 3 * 16). 16x16 pixel textures, one for each the top, sides, and bottom, and then 16 of those. The inner loop tests against i, which is the current block "type" and performs customizations to the procedurally generated textures.

The next set of three nested loops is generating a random "world" with a tunnel cut out of it.

The renderMinecraft function is performing a minimal perspective projection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_projection for a single ray cast into the world. Each pixel is cast and then, for each object hit by the ray cast, the closest is found, and a texture mapped pixel is calculated and written into the frame buffer.

It is worth to note that lightning model is trivial and only maps given directions of faces to given amount of bright. But other than that the bright is adjusted by distance.

It is pretty cool to see how a trivial lightning model like that can produce a pretty looking result.

If you want to see just the brightness of faces without texture to see more easily how light is used, just change the line:

    var cc = texmap[u + v * 16 + tex * 256 * 3];

Into:

    var cc = 255+(255<<8)+(255<<16);

To also remove the "distant is less bright" effect just add:

    ddist = 255;

Before:

    var r = ((col >> 16) ...

I've recorded a screencast that digs into how the programmatic texture generation works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaZvDCmlERc (but I'm not touching the 3D.. yet ;-))

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