Cell Membrane 1/4 Done.

Well it has been a while since I have let you guys know what is happening. It has been super busy this last week or so, it is coming up to the end of our holidays which means all the work that I was supposed to spread across the holidays has, as per normal, been left to the 'last minute'. I work better to a timeline anyway.

I spoke to one of the devs this morning and he told me about some of the cool new features coming up in the next release, which he also said should be within the next couple of weeks which is awesome. It hopefully will include 1.1.0 support. He did say that teleport blocks should be included, from what I understand these can be placed around the world, and teachers can access them from an in-game menu and teleport to any of them. Each teleport block can also be hidden or shown to students, and at each block you can decide which other blocks the students can get to from there.

Also included are some new build modes, one which is a more advanced version of the current 'horizontal build mode' that allows blocks to be placed in front of you. This is going to allow you to place blocks where you are looking, with distance chosen by scrolling. The other 'locks' you to the center of the block and you can move one block at a time, even through walls, so that measuring distances while building will be even easier.

I also made a request for a compass that points North instead of to spawn, as I am teaching Geography this year, which is not what I am trained for, but I think the potential for mapping and orienteering activities in Minecraft is enormous.

My first thought is contour lines, now these are difficult to grasp, I think because you cannot walk the mountain that you were just given the contour lines for (in a 1 hour lesson anyway). Step into Minecraft, where you can walk the mountain that you have just seen the contour lines, then you can pick another mountain, use some of the free mapping tools out there for Minecraft and bam, you can also draw your own contour map for a different mountain that you saw in the world of Minecraft.

Then orienteering, instead of, or more likely as well as, setting up an orienteering course around the school, set one up in a Minecraft world where there are 'prizes' (read diamonds) at certain points along the path you need to take, or perhaps the parts needed to build 'something'. All of this is just rough thoughts for now. I am nowhere near completed my cell so I must not start a new project/map just yet.

So now for the update on the cell, as I said I have not had a great deal of time to work on it, but I have completed the wireframe for the bottom half of the membrane and actually managed to fill in half of the bottom half, and since I am a maths teacher I know that means that the cell membrane is about one quarter of the way done. Here are the latest screenshots. Enjoy.

 I have started placing some torches around underneath just so that I can see the general shape and make sure it looks how it is 'supposed' to.

I think the overall shape is quite good, I am really happy with the 'randomness' and folds that are being created as I go.

As always thanks for taking the time to read, please leave a comment with your thoughts or suggestions if you have any.