Megatree 2015
Megatree is a forest covering an entire plot of the Minecraft public server MC-Central. It was created with Auxziliary and is present in the Survival Plots section of the site.
- Minecraft multiplayer: mc-central.net
- Navigate to Survival Plots
- /plot home JuniperWeasle
The Minecraft game supports the growth of dense Oak forests such that the canopies of the individual trees conjoin together to form a single forest spanning extended canopy. The Megatree was formed from approximately 150 Oak saplings placed in a regular grid with a block separation between them. Glow stones were incorporated into the planting pattern to aid the growth of the forest and subsequently to illuminate the plot during night. Whilst it is possible to form a single conjoined trunk too, by omitting any gaps between the samplings, the goal of the Megatree project was to provide an environment where players could engage more fully with the plot and so by leaving an open grid players can walk between the trunks. It engenders a claustrophobic experience.
Under the right circumstances a dense oak forest will extend upwards significantly taller than a single tree typically reaches. For Megatree a number of these nimbus like vertical growths were formed. The large internal volumes of these sections of the canopy are perfect for building within, and so once the tree was fully grown we "dug" out a tree house. Using a light wood a sprawl of rooms, corridors, and lookouts was built into the canopy. A lower platform juts out over the frame of the plot for "drops" of items below, while a pair of platform at the summit of the forest provide an enveloping view of the canopy surface. The surface is filled out sufficiently that players can move about without concern.