My biggest quarrel with Notch

[Dexiro]

The graphics are simple but it's actually a pretty process-heavy game. While I'm sure it could be more efficient it's not fair to say it's the least efficient game you've played.

For a game that "doesn't have much going on" you have a randomly generated/generating environment consisting of millions of blocks with players, monsters, lighting and relatively complex flowing water interacting with everything. Not to mention it's a Java game.

 

[Slycne]

Earlier I was playing Minecraft and I noticed the framerate was down to the point where it was almost unplayable. I did have the settings at maximum but I have a pretty good PC and frankly, Minecraft shouldn't need barely any resources. Minecraft is one of the most inefficient games I've ever played in terms of resources and considering it isn't doing much in terms of graphics or physics, it should be able to run on a toaster. I think Notch really needs to make Minecraft more efficient although I'm aware it is made with Java so I'm asking for the impossible but it still annoys be when something this basic can't maintain an acceptable framerate. Does anyone else feel like Minecraft performs terribly for a game which really doesn't actually do much.

Something to keep in mind, Minecraft's design is not something you can easily equate to another game. In most games, a mountain is simply shape bumped, mapped or structured out of the game level with a texture wrapped over it. A mountain is minecraft is a massive series of cubes. Sure they only have simply textures, but the engine has to keep track of all of them. That can actually be a lot more intensive than rendering a high poly count texture. However it's also what allows you to create a volcano doom fortress in a hollowed out mountain, so I'm perfectly alright taking in the limitations for the creative freedom.

 

[FFHAuthor]

This seems like a relevant thread bring it up, but what are the minimum requirements to run Minecraft? I'm retarded when it comes to PC related stuff but Minecraft has clearly got somethig going for it.

Would it run on a bog standard laptop?

It feels like it should... (I know, completely not helpful.) But my comp can run Empire Total War at max settings fine...but Minecraft will skip and stutter now and again.