Microsoft has ordered a model of a new campus in Minecraft
Four years ago, Microsoft officially issued a purchase of Mojang , a Minecraft video game developer, for $ 2.5 billion. This was the first multi-billion deal of Satya Nadella since taking office as CEO in February 2014.
As it turned out, Minecraft can offer Microsoft more than just a very popular game with 91 million active users per month and 250 million downloads. At the moment, the technology is used to demonstrate to employees of the company what the updated campus in Redmond will look like, the television channel CNBC reports .
Nowadays in the offices of developers and developers, you can often see beautiful models of future buildings. Usually it is painstakingly hand-made artwork, the creation of which took masters more than one week. In Russia and neighboring countries, only a few studios specialize in such prototyping - and they charge a lot for their services. As a result, such a model is made in a single copy, installed in the developer’s office - and proudly shows visitors.
An example of prototyping several blocks of Kopishche village near Minsk (Belarus), the work of the local
Microsoft studio did otherwise. Although they also have layouts and 3D renderings, in addition, the company decided to make an interactive layout in Minecraft virtual reality. For development attracted a British companyBlockworks , which is professionally engaged in commercial layout of Minecraft building blocks. Such graphics are much more visual and spectacular than commonplace two-dimensional photos and videos. In addition, in the virtual space of such an interactive layout, you can actually conduct tours, getting acquainted in detail with all the details of the project.
Here's what happened: Microsoft Headquarters occupies 200 hectares of land and holds more than 100 buildings. Instead of opening another brand new campus (or two), as Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, and Facebook did, Microsoft updates the existing one by demolishing old buildings, erecting new ones, and adding cricket, football, and retail space. . The project is scheduled for completion by 2022.
Although Minecraft is designed for play, this fascinating open world universe has unique features, such as the ability to move quickly and build buildings. This makes it easy to see how the new buildings will look from all sides, how they are built into the existing landscape. Two years ago, Microsoft realized the serious potential of Minecraft - and released an educational publication , which now has 35 million licensed users.
“When you build in Minecraft, you build everything in the player’s perspective, constantly aware of the sense of scale,” saysJames Delaney, Managing Director, Blockworks. According to him, this environment is like nothing else for creating such projects. Previously, the company has already acted as a layout contractor for Disney, Warner Bros. and the London Museum, as well as Microsoft. The companies were instructed to create a virtual campus within a few weeks, to the Microsoft hackathon on July 27th.
The work was completed on time by six Blockworks engineers according to the drawings provided by the architectural firm Gensler, which developed the project for upgrading the Microsoft campus. The virtual campus contractor acknowledged that in Minecraft, designers have to sacrifice a bit of accuracy, because structures in real life do not always correspond to square blocks of the game, but speed and ease of use more than compensate for these shortcomings. For example, the construction of a building takes 10 minutes.
As a tool for modeling real objects, Minecraft attracts a wider audience of people who may not own computer-aided design (CAD) systems. To master this software, long preparation is required, and licenses for these programs sometimes cost more than one thousand dollars.
Now Microsoft employees or anyone with an Minecraft educational license can take a digital tour of the new campus and see how their plans are developing. This access requires a subscription to Office 365 for educational institutions.
The official site of the updated campus
New Microsoft Campus in Redmond