Are you shore? 你是沙滩吗?
【注:副标题和 Are you sure(你确定吗)为谐音梗。】
Minecraft’s terrain generation algorithm is complicated. It takes place in several stages-first the land and the sea, then the climate of a particular area, then the biomes that fit into that climate, and then finally smaller “transition” biomes are created to make sure that things blend nicely into each other.
Minecraft的地形生成算法十分复杂。它需要经过这样几个步骤:首先是生成陆地和海洋,然后是个别区域的气候,接着是跟气候相符合的生物群系,最后才是一些较小的“过度”群系。他们的作用是来确保不同地形之间能够相互融合。
Today, we’re exploring one of those transition biomes-specifically, a biome that generates when snowy tundra or snowy taiga generate next to an ocean. Grab your bucket & spade, and snow shovel. It’s the snowy beach.
今天,我们要探讨其中一个用于过度的生物群系。确切地说,这是一个当积雪的冻原或积雪的针叶林接壤海洋时产生的群系。带上你的桶和雪铲,让我们来聊一聊积雪的沙滩!
Beaches have a long and complex history in Minecraft. Originally they were coded as structures – like villages or desert temples. Those were removed in beta version 1.8, then proper beach biomes were added again as part of the 1.1 update, alongside spawn eggs and 56 different languages.
沙滩在Minecraft种有着一段又长又复杂的历史。起初,他们被编写成结构——就像村庄和沙漠神殿那样。这些沙滩在Beta-1.8版本中被移除,然后正式的沙滩生物群系在 1.1 更新 中被重新加入。同期更新的还有刷怪蛋和56种新语言。
The algorithm that generates beaches was improved substantially in version 1.2.1 in March 2012, but it wasn’t until the Update Aquatic in July 2018, when turtles became a part of Minecraft, that beaches got some love again – taking the form that they have today.
生成沙滩的算法在2012年三月的1.2.1版本中被大幅改进。但是一直到2018年七月的水域更新,随着海龟的加入,沙滩才重受人们喜爱,有了现在这样的形式。
What can you expect to find on a visit to a snowy beach? A lot of snow, obviously. But dig through its powdery layers and you’ll discover another powdery layer underneath – sand! Just the thing for cooking up into windows so the cold winds don’t blow through your tundra house. You’ll also find a few other useful resources here and there – clay, gravel, and sandstone.
你觉得你在积雪的沙滩上能找到些啥?废话,当然是一堆雪啦。不过当你挖穿粉末般的一层雪后,你会发现它下面还有另一层 –– 沙子!就是那个能烧成窗户,让你冻原里的房子不被寒风入侵的东西。此外,你同样还会在这找到其他有用的资源,比如粘土、沙砾和砂岩。
In the water, temperatures are cold enough that the surface will frequently freeze into ice, which is great for slip-sliding away from incoming hordes of zombies. You won’t find any turtles in this cold water, but rabbits will happily spawn on snowy beaches – with their fur keeping them warm.
由于气温十分寒冷,这里的水面经常会结成一层冰,用于从僵尸群里滑跑还是不错地。冰冷的水里可找不到海龟,但是兔子们可乐意在这里生成了 —— 它们用厚厚的毛来保温。
You should also keep your eye out for treasure. Ships often get caught in the ice off the coast and smash against the shore, leaving behind a shipwreck that can be looted for goodies. Some of those shipwrecks will even contain maps to find buried treasure.
In the real world, we don’t often think of beaches as cold and snowy places. They’re usually warm and overcrowded. But below the ice at the North Pole is a huge ocean, and the edges of that ocean – along the coasts of Canada, Alaska, Russia, and the Nordic countries – are home to many beaches.
在现实世界里,我们通常不会觉得沙滩是个又冷又下雪的地方。它们通常温暖且人多。不过,北极的冰层下面是一个巨大的海洋,而海洋的边缘(沿着加拿大、阿拉斯加、俄罗斯、和北欧国家的海岸线)则是许多沙滩的所在地。
Every winter, as the water freezes, ice is pushed up onto the shore and this, in turn, pushes the beaches’ stones or sand up into huge mounds. These mounds often end up scattered all over the place, like a bulldozed construction site. Arctic animals like walruses, seals, and polar bears roam through these chaotic landscapes – hunting for food and shelter in either the midnight sun or the polar night.
每当冬季来临,随着各处的水域冷冻,冰会被冲上岸边。这反而会把沙滩上的石头和沙子推成巨大的土堆。这些土堆经常是这里一块那里一块,就像挖掘机施工现场一样。一些北极的动物比如海象、海豹和北极熊会在这片混乱的土地游荡 —— 它们在极昼或极夜时找寻食物和庇护所。
Unfortunately, climate change is making food and shelter harder to find – and this is bringing those animals into conflict with humans. In February 2019, in the Russian polar archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, dozens of polar bears invaded villages, trying to enter homes and other inhabited buildings. They were eventually chased off without violence, but these kinds of events are likely to become more common as polar bears are deprived of their hunting grounds by melting sea ice.
很不幸,气候变化让食物和庇护所更加难以寻找 —— 让这些动物们跟人类之间有了冲突。在2019年二月份,成群的北极熊入侵了俄罗斯新地岛的村庄,想要占领房屋和其他一些有人居住的建筑。它们最终被非暴力的方式驱散,但是随着北极熊的狩猎之地被融化的海冰所剥夺,类似的事件很可能会越来越频繁发生。
In Minecraft, we have polar bears too – so if you do end up building a house on a frozen beach then be sure to install a door and use it. Otherwise, you never know what you might come home to...
Minecraft 里也有北极熊 —— 所以你若是在冰冻的沙滩上造了房子,一定要记得安装个门。否则,鬼知道啥东西会进来……