By John Walker on July 8th, 2011 at 10:51 am.
3D printing is one of those things that I’m not quite sure if I believe in. I mean, sure, I’ve watched videos of the devices printing, and yes, I’ve held physical objects that have been printed. But still, come on, it doesn’t sound very realistic, does it? Via Alice Taylor, who is currently creating a business around the mystical world of such printing (gratuitous plug for my podcast interviewing her and Cory Doctorow), comes a video of MIT students figuring out a way to print 3D objects created in Minecraft. And via that comes a video of someone printing 3D objects within Minecraft.
Minecraft.print is a project simply dedicated to showing how it’s possible to run a small Python script and see creations you’ve build in Minecraft come pouring out of your 3D printer. (And that’s not as unrealistic as it sounds – while the professional ones still cost around £800,000, you can get a home printer for as little as $1300 or even “free”.) Here they naturally print a Weighted Companion Cube, because otherwise it wouldn’t be geeky enough.
I’m a little surprised by how rough the results look – especially that awful Enterprise – having seen some exquisitely detailed 3D prints can be. But to buoy yourself after that disappointment, check out the video the MIT guys link to from their own page:
This is what he gets done when he’s busy.
08/07/2011 at 10:54 Lewie Procter says:
I bet the xbox version gets kinect object scanning.
08/07/2011 at 11:17 Corrupt_Tiki says:
You don’t get a pink/brown/beige coloured box? What a shame.
08/07/2011 at 16:56 Splynter says:
Think of all the 3D printed genitals! The horror!
08/07/2011 at 10:59 godgoo says:
pigs ALWAYS get in my printer, using up all the oink.
08/07/2011 at 12:34 JB says:
Ba-dum-dum-TISH!
08/07/2011 at 17:15 jonfitt says:
He’ll be here all week, tip your waitress.
08/07/2011 at 11:01 amishmonster says:
Is the roughness of the models because it’s being modeled off something made of little cubes? Either way, it IS kind of disappointing.
And at the same time, quite impressive.
08/07/2011 at 11:24 Corrupt_Tiki says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUj8JRAYu8
08/07/2011 at 11:02 Jams O'Donnell says:
Hello sheepy!
08/07/2011 at 11:04 Sinomatic says:
You know what would be better? If it was in chocolate.
08/07/2011 at 11:13 Carra says:
Everything is better coated in chocolate.
08/07/2011 at 11:26 Corrupt_Tiki says:
Even genit……
08/07/2011 at 21:02 vivlo says:
like in Amsterdam xD
08/07/2011 at 11:06 MiniMatt says:
I can imagine a future in which Lego’s lawyers go after torrent websites with the same vigour as the RIAA.
08/07/2011 at 15:34 Hoaxfish says:
There has already been a take-down order on someone who made a 3D model file of the “alien cube” from that Super 8 film for printing via a 3D printer.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/06/paramount-no-3d-printing-of-our-alien-super-8-cubes.ars
08/07/2011 at 11:08 Matt-R says:
Usually you have to give them a light sanding if they’re powder based so that could be the problem with the roughness…
09/07/2011 at 02:37 Sweedums says:
indeed, we have a 3D printer at Uni and when the models come out we use a little air brush to basically just blow all the little rough bits off, but as someone mentioned, it might be because theyprinted a model made up of tiny cubes…. its hard to tell which is the reason though.
08/07/2011 at 11:13 Jams O'Donnell says:
The minecraft object is rough, therefore the printed object is rough. I do not think it’s that hard to follow. :)
08/07/2011 at 12:17 Starky says:
Exactly, and the Enterprise looks a bit crap because there is just too much detail to shrink down into that size of an object – even if that detail is rough and blocky.
You’d need to print it to the size of a car to notice any of the finer detail in the minecraft model.
08/07/2011 at 11:17 Teddy Leach says:
Bloody hell.
08/07/2011 at 11:18 Tei says:
I can’t wait to download famous actress from the Internet.
/futurama
08/07/2011 at 11:26 Teddy Leach says:
Oh, you KNOW what 4Chan’s going to do to poor Emma Watson if someone gets their hands on a life-sized printer.
08/07/2011 at 15:43 Hoaxfish says:
Combine 3D printers, with internet-enabled printers….dicks everywhere
08/07/2011 at 16:33 PleasingFungus says:
Hoaxfish, that exact idea has shown up in a recently published novel. (Relevant excerpt linked.)
Interesting times.
08/07/2011 at 17:42 ResonanceCascade says:
I tried torrenting Lucy Liu, but it just came up with a bunch of crappy Charlie’s Angel’s movies.
08/07/2011 at 11:50 Scythe says:
The black stuff you see on the enterprise model is the support material, probably printed in a different plastic to the white stuff. This is just laid down to support the stuff built on top of it, because depositation-based 3d printers can’t do steep overhangs. If you look closely at the shot of the companion cube printing you’ll notice it has black stuff on it too. When they’re finished printing they will probably dunk it into some kind of solvent that attacks the black substance, but not the white, leaving behind the finished print.
I built myself a mendel, a type of reprap, and I’ve been printing off lots of awesome stuff. Haven’t done any minecraft stuff yet, but there’s plenty of it here.
08/07/2011 at 11:54 Teddy Leach says:
You have no idea how much I want a RepRap. That’s some pretty bloody amazing stuff there.
08/07/2011 at 11:52 airbreaker says:
How can you fly in Minecraft?
08/07/2011 at 12:18 LTK says:
HAAAAAAAXXXXXX
08/07/2011 at 12:20 Starky says:
With a mod
08/07/2011 at 12:23 monotrophic says:
Your machine does nothing a player can’t do himself. Fail.
08/07/2011 at 12:26 Teddy Leach says:
Yes, because a player can print a companion cube. Perhaps it comes out of the player’s nose or arse.
08/07/2011 at 12:36 JB says:
I think mono means the 3D printer in MC, not the ones in the real world.
08/07/2011 at 12:54 MD says:
Man. I’m tempted to rage at you for missing the point so hard, but instead I’m just going to sit here and feel smug. If you can’t find any interest or joy in this sort of thing, you’re the one missing out. Keep your gratuitous negativity to yourself, though.
08/07/2011 at 14:45 JB says:
@MD – Right on. I was feeling the same. Most machines do stuff that we can do, we’re just too lazy/busy/inefficient/think machines are cool. (I am all of the above)
08/07/2011 at 12:40 MD says:
Man, this is excellent. The enterprise did look a bit crap, but the companion cubes were fine. And the 3D printer within minecraft? So wonderful. This is my idea of games as art.
08/07/2011 at 12:51 Malibu Stacey says:
Freeman Dyson’s dream will finally come to fruition.
08/07/2011 at 14:37 Stuart Walton says:
What happens if they try to print the Minecraft 3D printer with the real world printer?
08/07/2011 at 15:23 yamnivek says:
It ends. IT ALL ENDS!
08/07/2011 at 21:14 apa says:
There: we’d have self-replicating machines, now all that’s missing is a good old insane AI!
I, for one, welcome our new blocky overlords!
08/07/2011 at 23:00 Bret says:
Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors.
08/07/2011 at 15:41 tims says:
That last youtube link:
“Unfortunately, this SME-music-content is not available in Germany because GEMA has not granted the respective music publishing rights.
Sorry about that.”
Fucking GEMA.
09/07/2011 at 07:58 stahlwerk says:
I like how they lately started pinning the blame where blame is due.
08/07/2011 at 17:47 ResonanceCascade says:
It’s really amazing to me how much creative stuff has come out of this game. I can’t get into it to save my life, buy I love looking at all these cool projects.
09/07/2011 at 02:40 jyro says:
Try this Starship enterprise model instead: http://www.3dtin.com/nxa
10/07/2011 at 03:45 Ian says:
Cool, they should try adding the possibility to print small metal wires to use as redstone, and some sort of small batteries for torches.
21/07/2011 at 13:54 AliceTaylor says:
Hah. The assimilation begins!