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3D printing: Game add-on makes Minecraft edifices real

By Jacob Aron

27 July 2011

Read more:3D printing: Second industrial revolution is under way

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Printing 3D in the virtual world

(Image: Minecraft)

IN CULT Lego-like videogame Minecraft, players can spend hours lovingly creating monumental buildings and other objects on screen, layer by layer, in a process akin to 3D printing. Now 3D-printing software called Minecraft.Print() is letting the game’s fans bring their creations into the real world – albeit on a much smaller scale.

Cody Sumter and Jason Boggess at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab created Minecraft.Print() to make it easier to use 3D printers. “While 3D printers are becoming smaller and more…

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