I know this sounds like babby's first science question or some flat earther shit, but I honestly want to know the answer to this since I noticed that every game that tries to do a curvature planet always ends up allowing the player to see said curvature from the ground surface. So...
Is the reason why we cannot see the Earth's curvature from ground level due to the immense size of the planet?
Is this why in games such as the Minecraft clone "Minetest" you could pretty much see such a curvature due to the world in the software being immensely small?
>Is the reason why we cannot see the Earth's curvature from ground level due to the immense size of the planet? Have you ever been somewhere really flat, like the sea, and things eventually just disappear into the horizon? That's the curvature of the Earth. It's the same reason why you can see further by being higher; more of the Earth's curvature falls in your field of view.
Adrian Gomez
I mean, how come you don't literally see the horizon curve? But I never been to some place really flat so I don't think I could say I witnessed that.
I would really like to make Minecraft look like Earth, but we don't see the world like this exactly so I am wondering if this is due to the size of the sphere and if I wanted to simulate Earth curvature if the sphere has to be larger.
Very interesting video. You're right. We're not tall enough. From the ISS though, at about 250 miles up, the curvature shows clearly. That's still not high enough to see more than a limited part of a hemisphere.
I checked that the image in a NASA photo and not CGI.
This video says that if you took an average Minecraft survival world and tried to make it spherical it would be at least the size of an A5 white dwarf. What would the curvature look like if the players were standing on its surface?
Yeah, a lot of games will give you a planet that's much smaller than a real planet would be, for gameplay reasons. Something like Planetary Annihilation has pretty small planets that you can easily see the curvature of, even from ground level.
Try Space Engine if you want some software that generates actual planet-sized planets, and then you can see the effect yourself. Pick one, fly toward it and descend to the surface, you will see how the horizon becomes flatter and flatter as you lose altitude. Eventually, the curvature is totally unnoticeable due to the size of the planet and your proximity to it.
>I would really like to make Minecraft look like Earth, but we don't see the world like this exactly so I am wondering if this is due to the size of the sphere and if I wanted to simulate Earth curvature if the sphere has to be larger.
If you want Minecraft to look like Earth it needs to be the size of Earth. That would require a radius of 6,371 kilometers, or 6,371,000 blocks.
Anthony Gonzalez
According to this , Minecraft would be the size of a white dwarf so wouldn't we have to shrink a Minecraft world down?
Jackson Rivera
Yes, a Minecraft world would need to be smaller to have the size of the Earth. With Earth-sized curvature, a flat sea that went to the horizon would require a draw distance of 294 chunks.
Benjamin Walker
Never having played Minecraft I cannot answer your question. However, wouldn't the required radius depend on the height of the player? Or the character or avatar or whatever they're called.