Legendary
I always assumed they use some kind of tool to convert code into blocks. I refuse to believe somebody handbuilt anything bigger than a calculator in minecraft.
There are those that build entirely by hand; but the more common method is to use tools/mods like MCEdit to copy+paste whole sections of blocks. Then you can just build out one of each logic gate/larger section and copy+paste it all together into the full creation bit by bit.
In digital logic design, this is called a synthesis tool. In the design of real digital circuitry, you write a code-like hardware description using a language called an “HDL” (hardware description language) such as VHDL or SystemVerilog. Then a program called a synthesiser converts the HDL into a digital circuit.
Each module is designed this way then hooked up using busses and wires.
In real-life, you would then send the generated design to the manufacturing team
So in my college Logical Circuits class, I would sit there with Minecraft up on my laptop and build the circuits we were discussing out of redstone. There’s something about being able to flip levers and watch the outputs change that really helps you to understand
Hate to bring it up, but compared to real digital circuits Minecraft redstone is literally a child’s toy
They show how to make a NAND, NOR, and XOR gate. And all you really need for functional completeness is the NAND.
This just doesn’t have the semi-analog stuff like DRAM.
But if I had to do my digital design at the gate level for anything more than like an adder, I’d be pretty over it pretty quickly.
From what I understand, the majority of the most ridiculous minecraft feats are just… writing code to write Minecraft world data for logic circuits, not actually placing the blocks by hand. At a certain scale writing some kind of monstrous compiler to place blocks for you based on a proper circuit plan or programming language becomes easier.
If it’s still the equivalent of gate level, even if those gates are expressed with words rather than placing each block, it’s still a slog. To get beyond gate-level, I think you’d need to write your own HDL and/or synthesis tool for minecraft redstone, which seems even deeper than what most people developing real digital logic do.
Like, I just write verilog and synopsys handles it well enough for my physical design team to have a good starting point.
Honestly, I have a problem with a lot of modern redstone builds - a lot of them are 90% command blocks, with a bit of redstone thrown in, which just turns it into scripting instead of engineering.
That’s why I was unimpressed with Space Engineers programming blocks. They’re nothing more than blocks that execute actual C code you have to write into it; but it’s limited in functions you actually have use of.
It’s not something a non-programmer can use, as they initially lead people to believe prior to releasing the update.
Is Space Engineers any good? I picked it up and played around with it a little, but that was yeeaaarrs ago now.
My last played was… 7 years ago. Fuck me.