Minecraft original title screen seed: What is the seed and how was it found?
Minecraft's original title screen panorama from Beta 1.8 in 2011, like many of its kind that would appear after it, was based on in-game world seeds. After a few years of searching from the community, the original seeds connected to the game's beta panorama were discovered to be 2151901553968352745 and 8091867987493326313 thanks to some reverse engineering by dedicated fans.
With the assistance of the group Minecraft@Home and a coder named Tomlacko, the two seeds above for the 1.7.3 Beta for Java Edition were determined to contain the original main menu panorama. By locating the right set of coordinates within these two seeds, players can even see the first panorama for themselves within just a few minutes.
How to find the Minecraft panorama in Beta 1.7.3
With the right seed and coordinates, it's possible to use the official Minecraft Launcher to create an installation for the 1.7.3 Java Edition Beta. From there, all that's necessary is to head to the right coordinates within the beta and enjoy the view. However, for anybody who may be curious as to how this can be done, the steps can be found below:
- Open your Minecraft Launcher and select your settings.
- Scroll down to the section labeled "Java Edition settings" and ensure that the box for "Show historical version of Java Edition in the launcher" is ticked.
- Select Java Edition in the game list to the left.
- Above the splash art, select the "Installations" tab.
- Click "New Installation".
- Select a name for your new installation, then under "Version", select "old_beta b1.7.3" and then choose a directory on your computer where you'd like to place the installation's files and folder. Then, click "Create" in the bottom right of the screen.
- Choose your new beta installation and click the play button.
- Begin creating a new world and enter either the seed 2151901553968352745 or 8091867987493326313 and finish the world creation.
- Proceed to coordinates X: 61, Y: 75, Z: -68 to find the part of the world where the panorama is located. You can also press the F3 key to open the debug menu and help you find the coordinates.
How was the original Minecraft Beta panorama seed found?
For seven years, Minecraft's Beta 1.8 panorama remained the same before more recent updates changed it, and players couldn't help but attempt to find the world seed linked to the iconic original panorama. Eventually, player and programmer Tomlacko set out to determine just what world seed the panorama came from, to satiate the curiosity of the game's community.
At first, the task seemed insurmountable due to how blurry the panorama was, but the game's files for the Beta 1.8 build proved helpful, as it contained six panorama images without the blur that could be used to triangulate the seed's terrain. With the assistance of the computing project Minecraft@Home, a discovery was made that would go down in history for the community.
By reading the metadata for the panorama's image files, Tomlacko and the team realized that the panorama, despite debuting in Beta 1.8, had been captured in a seed prior to the version. With this information, the team began using the available information to scour Beta 1.6 and Beta 1.7 seeds to find the appropriate axis and coordinates that matched the panorama images.
From there, the team narrowed down its options by recreating the panorama from the images and used the surroundings to gradually pinpoint the specific coordinates of where the camera was placed for the panorama in Beta 1.8. The randomized offsets of the tall grass found near the approximate coordinates were monumentally helpful in achieving this.
With the coordinates in hand, the team member PseudoGravity utilized the coordinates and the biome blending of the nearby tall grass and blocks to eliminate a collection of seeds that couldn't contain the panorama's location. This finally allowed the team's computers to brute-force-search the remaining seeds based on their terrain alone, resulting in two seeds being found that matched.