Minecraft, the highly popular building and monsters video game, can now incorporate accurate Ordnance Survey terrain data of Great Britain in its blockwork virtual world.
The game’s 33 million players can build worlds atop of geographically accurate landscapes representing 224,000 sq km (86,000 sq miles) of Britain.
The GB Minecraft world was created in two weeks by intern Joseph Braybrook working with OS’s Innovation Labs team.
It uses free OS OpenData products.
"We think we may have created the largest Minecraft world ever built based on real-world data," said Graham Dunlop, OS Innovation Lab Manager.
"The resulting map shows the massive potential not just for using Minecraft for computer technology and geography purposes in schools, but also the huge scope of applications for OS OpenData too."