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Stone Ville's despair

Render time: 17 hours

You can almost feel in this image the searing heat of the desert, even though the sun is still rising! This view can be obtained during standard gameplay, if you walk on the edge of the sand dune that's eating the southern part of the highway. Of course, that doesn't let you enjoy the deeper view or the added light effects!

Azarand's Guiding Light

Render time: 36 hours

I was already planning to do this one eventually. There's something stunning about the sheer size and location of the statue, especially if you don't expect it as you ride the Western Line. May Lord Azarand the Wise keep a watchful eye on us all for a long time!

On the same subject, I'm a big fan of the screenshot with shaders that Kag took some time back.

Edited by Dr. Cossack on September 6, 2014 at 16:03:35

The Bismarck on patrol

Render time: 8 hours

Anonymous_SoFar made this full-scale replica of the famous German battleship Bismarck some time back. The ship, stationned near Central, was built to be as accurate as possible to the original within Minecraft's limitations. Many hours went into its construction, including the tedious water drainage process!

Edited by Doctacosa on December 6, 2019 at 17:25:51

I think seeing the Bismarck rendered like this is just awesome. (Along with the other ones too that are just as magnificent)

Attached image:

Port Townshend, home of sailors

Render time: 40 hours

For a long time, Port Townshend was by far the most active area on the server. It really shows, too: the area is packed with various constructions and artwork. It remains a popular destination for its Boardwalk during Events Nights! Also, it has POOP.


Bonus: USS Voyager (render time: 2 hours). A reminder of last April for those who were there.

Wasn't the voyager from April fools day????

Looks like Door does his research

Sophia's shining rays

Render time: 90 hours (!!)

Another Anon build, this is the Hagia Sophia, from Istanbul, recreated as accurately as possible in full scale. He's working on the whole building along with a surrounding city, so all you get to see for now is an interior view!

This is a render that I tried to produce before, but couldn't get to look right. Giving it more time, along with standing on the second level instead of the ground floor, creates a much better view! If you pay attention, you can see the sun rays shining through the windows and casting light spots on the floor and right wall. There's still a grainy quality to the picture that makes it look like the place is full of dust. I'd need to run this for at least a hundred more render hours to clean it up, and I can't say I'm interested for now!

Edited by Doctacosa on December 6, 2019 at 17:28:21

Okay that's been one of my favorites so far ^^

Oh mah good lord that looks amazing. Hnnngh.

Mushroom Island and neighboring properties

Render time: 40 hours

One of the multiple stops along the Transoceanic, Mushroom Island is home to several Mario-themed buildings and pixel art. Peach's castle welcomes all visitors, multiple houses can be used for rest, and even the underground holds two big surprises! Why not pay it a visit today?

In the background are SerenityBlack, Skreelink and UnknownEntity634's main holdout. Treehouses, more pixel art, heavy machinery, and even a petting zoo are located on the small archipelago!

Unity Station, symbol of hard work

Render time: ~35 hours

Unity Station is located on the Transoceanic, midway between Central and Port Townshend. I built half of this rail, Wind did the other. We decided to commemorate the end of that large undertaking by building statues of each other, shaking hands, between the two cities!

The place is easy to miss if you're not paying attention, despite its size, since there's no actual stop on the rail. You're not sure of its location? Here's a hint: look at the back of this image, and you can spot Ender Station...

The Dragon's Lair

Render time: 128 hours (!!)

The room for the End Portal was redesigned some time back by Grenkin, who "got bored". The final result is definitely nice, and a great improvement from the stronghold ruins that could be seen all around the place.

Renders that are in a low light situation take more time to generate, since almost if not all of the light is indirect (little to no sun to work with). This is the first time that I tried creating a scene with absolutely no sunlight whatsoever to see how it would go, and I can't say I'm super satisfied with it. The image is kind of nice, but still has a lot of visible noise even with a render time of 128 hours.

Compare this with a screenshot that I took in-game with shaders enabled. That one was a simple matter of traveling to the location and hitting the F2 key. While I think that the balance of colors is better in the render, the insane generation time doesn't feel worth it to me!