Minecraft, the hugely popular brick building game, is renowned for having avid players who recreate real world monuments and sights for their own in-game delights.
But now, with the incorporation of accurate Ordnance Survey terrain data of the UK, the game’s 33 million players can build on top a landscape that represents 86,000 sq miles of Britain.
The GB Minecraft world was created in two weeks by intern Joseph Braybrook working with OS’s Innovation Labs team.
"We think we may have created the largest Minecraft world ever built based on real-world data," said Graham Dunlop, OS Innovation Lab Manager.
"The resulting map shows the massive potential not just for using Minecraft for computer technology and geography purposes in schools, but also the huge scope of applications for OS OpenData too."
Players can set off from the company’s base in Southampton, before taking to the air and flying around the map to take in the sights of England, Scotland, Wales and their surrounding islands (Northern Ireland is missing because it’s mapped by another company).
Given that the Minecraft world is geographically accurate, it’s also possible to fast-travel to specific spots using standard grid references.
The OS GB world contains more than 22 billion Minecraft blocks.
The OS map products – OS Terrain 50 and OS VectorMap – combine to create a 3D model of the earth surface overlaid with features such as water, woodland and roads.
