Traffic Lights

Ok, one of my quirks is I think the programming exercise of programming simulated traffic lights is fun and interesting! Here are two examples; the first in Scratch and the second using a BBC Micro:bit and GlowBugs (programmable LEDs).



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Simple X-Wing in Minecraft

figure 1

This post is co-authored by my son Thomas as a joint project to get a X-Wing into Minecraft. The goal was get Python to build and move the X-Wing.

It builds on ideas from the book Adventures in Minecraft (see link at the bottom) on using Python and Minecraft using a Raspberry Pi.


1. Static X-Wing

To start with we just placed the X-Wing above the player by placing blocks in the shape (roughly) of the X-Wing. 

• Find the position of the player;
• To avoid building on top the player the starting position of the X-Wing is set by:
• add 5 to the x position of the player;
• add 10 to the y position of the player(The bit I have to keep reminding myself is the y-axis is vertical.);
• add 5 to the z position of the player;
• Using these values build using, Wool blocks, the X-Wing - 0 for white, and 14 for red blocks.

It is admittedly quite a simple code (see below) and the finished X-Wing can be seen in figure 1.

from mcpi.minecraft import Minecraft

from mcpi import block

mc=Minecraft.create()

pos=mc.player.getTilePos()

x=pos.x+5

y=pos.y+10

z=pos.z+5

mc.setBlock(x,y,z,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x-1,y,z,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x-2,y,z,block.WOOL.id,14)

mc.setBlock(x-3,y,z,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y,z,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x,y+1,z,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y+1,z,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x+2,y,z,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x+2,y+1,z,block.WOOL.id,0)

#wings

mc.setBlock(x+1,y+2,z-1,block.WOOL.id,14)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y+2,z+1,block.WOOL.id,14)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y-1,z-1,block.WOOL.id,14)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y-1,z+1,block.WOOL.id,14)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y+3,z-2,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y+3,z+2,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y-2,z-2,block.WOOL.id,0)

mc.setBlock(x+1,y-2,z+2,block.WOOL.id,0)

2. Get it to move.

We want it to move across the screen, for the moment, happy for it to just be animated.

The block approach is ok for the static version, but could lead to mistakes with getting the co-ordinates right if we were not careful. There is an other option to be found in chapter 8 of the book of using MinecraftShape were the shape is defined as relative values to a starting block, so for what we were doing they don't change but the shape can move in across the world.

• Essentially the same as before but using shape;
• place the shape in the world;
• move it vertical (looks like it is taking off);
• move it horizontal (this bit can be seen in the video).

from mcpi.minecraft import Minecraft

from mcpi import block

import mcpi.minecraftstuff as minecraftstuff

import time

mc=Minecraft.create()

xPos=mc.player.getTilePos()

xPos.x=xPos.x+5

xPos.y=xPos.y+5

xPos.z=xPos.z+5

xWingBlocks=[

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(0,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-1,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-2,0,0,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(-3,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(0,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(2,0,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(2,1,0,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,2,-1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,2,1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-1,-1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-1,1,block.WOOL.id,14),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,3,-2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,3,2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-2,-2,block.WOOL.id,0),

minecraftstuff.ShapeBlock(1,-2,2,block.WOOL.id,0)]

xWingShape=minecraftstuff.MinecraftShape(mc,xPos,xWingBlocks)

for count in range(1,20):

    time.sleep(0.1)

    xWingShape.moveBy(0,1,0)

for count in range(1,40):

    time.sleep(0.1)

    xWingShape.moveBy(-1,0,0)

xWingShape.clear()

    

The very shaky video below shows the X-Wing moving across the sky.




3. Where next
Two areas:

• Control: either through keys or by using external controls.
• Getting turning to work, we will looking into where this has already been done (and for Star Wars ) at http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2015/03/minecraft-star-wars.html and http://www.stuffaboutcode.com/2015/12/minecraft-microbit-and-x-wing.html

 All views are those of the author and should not be seen as the views of any organisation the author is associated with.