Build the Earth

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Build The Earth
buildtheearth.net logo Build The Earth Logo
Video game	Minecraft
Creator	PippenFTS
Created	21 March 2020
Scope	1:1 scale recreation of the Earth
Website	buildtheearth.net

Build The Earth (BTE) is a project dedicated to recreating the Earth in a 1:1 scale in Minecraft.^[1][2] The project has attracted hundreds of thousands of users to its Discord server, and has surpassed 6,000 officially registered builders.^[3] It is virtually cost-free aside from server hosting and owning a Minecraft account.

Users who wish to officially register as builders can do so on Build The Earth's official website. Users may build by themselves (solo builds) if the area they will be building is not that extensive, or form part of any of the build teams, individually organized groups of builders that are dedicated to building large areas, such as countries or states. For both of these, the builder must create two buildings in the game, and send a screenshot as part of an application form, which will be reviewed by the project's Review Committee—in the case of a solo build—or by the build team's reviewers—in the case of a build team.^{[citation needed]}

Most build teams have created Minecraft servers using the official mod-pack, to ease the process of connecting every user's buildings. Some build teams, even, have created "hub" servers, which connect multiple servers and make it easier for new users to join their desired build team's server. An example of this is Europe's server, which connects every build team in Europe. If a builder decides to participate in a solo build, they must create a single-player world instead.^{[citation needed]}

Once significant progress has been made, build teams and solo builders must upload their world files to the official website. These will be reviewed, and automatically merged into the master world.^{[citation needed]}

All organization actions, excepting land claiming, and announcements, are managed on the project's official Discord server. Individual build teams also have their autonomous Discord servers, and every builder of the project must have a Discord account. Once a user is accepted as a builder, they are automatically given the Builder role on the main server.^{[citation needed]}

At the start of the project, Build The Earth only allowed users with the Java Edition of the game to build. A system that let Bedrock users build for the project was later implemented. Users may claim individual areas, or join one of the two default Bedrock servers, which were working on Anchorage, Alaska and Riga, Latvia.^{[citation needed]} The two Bedrock exclusive servers were abandoned in favor of a new system which allows Bedrock and Java version players to join the same server and play together. This system is now being used by most Build Team servers.

The YouTuber MineFact implemented an alternative system for Build The Earth which does not depend on any mods and can run on Minecraft 1.16, instead of the current version of the Build The Earth mod-pack, 1.12, which is dependent on the latest version supported by CubicChunks. He initially developed the system to be used to build New York, though later on it was planned to be used on other big cities like Amsterdam.^[4]

On 21 March 2020, YouTuber PippenFTS released a video titled The Earth in Minecraft, 1:1 scale... for the first time, in which he talked about the map, how it was made, and called for talented Minecraft players to help build.^[5][6] Within a few days, the video went viral, accumulating over 11 million views by September 2020. By the end of March 2020, the BTE subreddit, Twitter account, and Instagram account had been set up and were growing rapidly. A Patreon page was created on 26 March, and currently accumulates over $250 a month from more than 50 patrons.^[7] The Discord server, where the project was synthesized and is currently being managed in, hit 50,000 members by 29 March and 200,000 by the end of April; it currently has about 230,000 members, though the amount of new members has decreased.^{[citation needed]}

On 3 April, PippenFTS released a video outlining the problems of the currently used projection, the Equirectangular projection, including its "disastrous" distortion. He explained that after days of research, he and his team narrowed down what could be the next used projection to either the Mercator projection or a modified version of the Dymaxion projection, a "more contemporary design".^[8]

On the next day, he created two polls in the Build The Earth Discord server; one asking whether the map projection should be changed, and the other asking which the new map projection should be, if it were to change. Nine days later, the official map projection used for the project was updated to the modified version of Dymaxion, named Modified Airocean.^[9] Five days later, the official project website was released.^{[citation needed]}

On Earth Day, Mojang released an article featuring the project on their website, attracting even more users to the project.^[10] On 5 July, MrBeast, a YouTuber and social media influencer, released a video where he and a group of other players re-built his hometown, Raleigh, North Carolina, in 24 hours. The video reached 11 million views, though the Discord server did not see a surge of new users as big as expected.^[11] MrBeast also made a second video in Raleigh, in which he played hide and seek for $10,000. Several members of BuildTheEarth participated, although none of them won. BTE is waiting for more collaborations in the near future.^[12]

The Build The Earth project primarily depends on the Terra 1-to-1 mod, which is in charge of generating all of the terrain, streets, building guides, etc., if available, as to ease the building process. Most of the time, dimensions of the real life won't fit into the normal limits of Minecraft. Thus, it depends on two other mods to function:

• OpenCubicChunks, (otherwise known as CubicChunks) which essentially bypasses the 256-block height limit and the negative height limit of vanilla Minecraft.
• CubicWorldGen, which enables the customization of terrain generation in conjunction with OpenCubicChunks.

The official mod-pack also provides a few other utility mods by default, that can prove to be useful when building:

• JourneyMap, which allows users to see their surrounding areas from a mini-map.
• WorldEdit, a powerful and well-known tool used for creating and modifying buildings swiftly.
• Effortless Building, similar to WorldEdit, but with less features and a more user-friendly GUI.

It also includes two other lightweight mods, Performant and VanillaFix, which can help with certain performance improvements, though are not strictly needed.

The project has sparked the development of many 3rd party tools used to assist builders and server owners. The most notable include:

• TerraPlusPlus (T++), a feature filled fork of Terra 1-to-1 focused on performance.
• Terramap, an in-game map that allows users to easily teleport across the Terra 1-to-1 projection.
• BTE-Tools, a custom tool used for generating rails, hedges, and shapes. (Currently un-maintained)
• Sledgehammer, a proxy addon which allows server owners to create hubs which connect multiple build teams together.

PippenFTS stated that "with the CubicChunks mod breaking Minecraft's vertical limitations, we can now experience the Earth in Minecraft, just as it is, with no downscaling of any kind."^[13]

Terra 1-to-1 uses various API instances to generate a Minecraft world based on real-life data. These include a Mapzen Terrain Tile instance for elevation data, an ArcGIS REST API instance to generate tree cover, and an Overpass interpreter for OpenStreetMap to generate water, roads, and building outlines.^[14]

The Terra 1-to-1 mod implements several map projections by default; including the transverse Mercator, sinusoidal, Equal Earth, equirectangular, and Dymaxion or Airocean projections, and a modified version of the latter, made specifically for the project, named Modified Airocean or Airocean-edit. PippenFTS released a YouTube video titled We are now ready to Build The Earth, 1:1 scale in Minecraft, in which he detailed the process undergone to create it.^[9] This map projection provides an extremely low amount of distortion of both shapes and sizes on land, at the cost of heavily distorting the oceans. Unlike a typical Airocean projection, Modified Airocean is not intended to be unfolded into a 3D object like an icosahedron, and has its continents placed such that it looks somewhat similar to an equirectangular projection.

The projection used is configurable per world, though the project requires every contributing builder and build team to use the modified Airocean projection.^{[citation needed]}

^[15]

The first link (Link 16) goes to a group of continental maps, each build team a different color. This was made by famousseamus51#5664. The second link (Link 17) goes to an interactive map of all build teams and start-ups made by Shy Guy#6599. ^{[16] [17]}

Regional teams are teams that aim to complete a specific region. This list does not include subteams of teams. A subteam is a part of a team that aims to complete a specific part of the team's region. They usually have their own discord server.

List of official BuildTheEarth Regional Build Teams and Start-Ups

Team Name	Location	Owner	Area Covered (km2)	Region
MineFact System	New York City & Amsterdam	MineFact	1414 km2	North America & Europe
BTE Canada/AK	Canada, Alaska	Zebra, Parzival, Jesus, Shadow, Wqrrior, London	11,708,000 km2	North America
BTE Northwest US	Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota	Short Tree Boy		North America
Southwest Build Team	California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah	Rude Yeti, Incorporated		North America
New Jersey Build Team	New Jersey	Corruptplex		North America
BTE Northeast US	Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Up-State New York & Long Island, Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C., West Virginia, and Virginia (excluding Virginia Tech)	Dippy		North America
Virginia Tech Minecraft Earth	Virginia Tech	OffaPerry	10 km2	North America
BTE Southeast US	Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida	Biglgloo		North America
OHPAINKY	Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky	zeeza		North America
BTE Midwest	Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin	Cybernetic Overlord		North America
BTE Michigan	Michigan	HC		North America
BTE Carolinas	North Carolina and South Carolina	Cybersynth		North America
Team Texas	Texas (excluding Boca Chica Launch Site)	jake97	695,662 km2	North America
BTE Starship	(SpaceX) Boca Chica Launch Site, Texas	Fedora Man	1 km2	North America
Team Oklahoma	Oklahoma	Bradinator		North America
BTE Colorado	Colorado	BlakeStiner		North America
BTE New Mexico	New Mexico	Garth		North America
BTE Hawaii	Hawaii	Tang		North America
BTE Bermuda	Bermuda	swenowenson		North America
BTE Mexico	Mexico	samuellolu500		North America
BTE Centroamerica y El Caribe	Central America and all of the Caribbean except the French West Indies	Justin10407		Central or South America
BTE Colombia - Venezuela - Ecuador	Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador	JacoJaco		Central or South America
BTE Guyana + Suriname	Guyana and Suriname	ElectroYT		Central or South America
BTE Bolivia	Bolivia	Lleyno		Central or South America
BTE Chile	Chile	Pizzax		Central or South America
BTE Argentina	Argentina & Falklands	Juancy23		Central or South America
Equipo Guay (Team Guay)	Paraguay and Uruguay	Rusasky		Central or South America
BTE Nordeste Brasil	Northeastern Brazil	Lucas M		Central or South America
Time São Paulo	São Paulo (the state)	HondaCivic		Central or South America
BTE Minas Gerais	Minas Gerais	Owner		Central or South America
Time Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro (the state)	Owner		Central or South America
BTE Sul Brasil	Sul Brasil	Owner		Central or South America
BTE UK	the United Kingdom, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, St. Helena, and the Falklands	Joseph		Europe
BTE Ireland	the Republic of Ireland	H2bomber	70,273 km2	Europe
BTE Nordic + Baltic	the Danish Realm, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania	tsunami	3,662,200&nbs;km2	Europe
BTE France	France, Monaco, and all overseas territories and regions of France	Egan	663,336 km2	Europe
BTE Benelux	The Netherlands (excluding Amsterdam and Caribbean Netherlands), Belgium, Luxembourg	Rick/meneerkiwi	74,100 km2	Europe
BTE Iberia	Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar	Jaime	598,033 km2	Europe
BTE Germany	Germany	FFA2016	357,022 km2	Europe
ALPS BTE (AT/LI/CH)	Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein	Cinnazeyy	125,308 km2	Europe
BTE Italy	Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, and Malta (excluding Valetta)	PhilB and Zappa	301,650 km2	Europe
EuroCity	Valetta	N/A	1 km2	Europe
BTE Czechoslovakia	Czechia, Slovakia	Rene	127,900 km2	Europe
BTE Poland	Poland	Oskiek	312,685 km2	Europe
Build Team Hungary	Hungary	wwasssupp & Kiralyka06	93,030 km2	Europe
BTE Romania + Moldova	Romania, Moldova	Andi_An	272,243 km2	Europe
BTE Balkans	Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria	Danube	395,600 km2	Europe
Team Greece	Greece, Southern Cyrpus, Akrotiri and Dhekelia	Jimmauscas	137836 km2	Europe
BTE Turkey	Turkey and Northern Cyprus	Fabalu	786,917 km2	Europe & Asia
Team CIS - СНГ	Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan	antarctis	22,098,840 km2	Europe & Asia
Africa Rebuilt	Every independent country in Africa except Morocco, the Western Sahara, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya	connor658 & Scot	24,323,570 km2	Africa
BTE Maghreb	Morocco, the Western Sahara, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya	Jaime, ElectroYT, Scot	6,046,430 km2	Africa
Israel/West Bank	all of Israel, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip	AtirOfficial	28,300 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE Middle East	Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Maldives	tsunami		Asia or Oceania
BTE Dubai	all of the UAE	LeifZ	83,600 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE South Asia	India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and the British Indian Ocean Territory	XboxBedrock	3,620,408 km2	Asia or Oceania
Team Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka	woody	65,610 km2	Asia or Oceania
Team ASEAN South East Asia	Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Timor-Leste	aa.		Asia or Oceania
BTE Philippines	Philippines	photoshoplol	300,001 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE Japan	Japan	Arzim	377,930 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE Korea	North Korea, South Korea	baby yoda	220,748 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE Taiwan (START-UP)	Taiwan	Owner	36,193 km2	Asia or Oceania
Team HK-MU	Hong Kong, Macau	xXAnsenXx	2,870 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE Beijing	Beijing	Etterant	16,410 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE Infantry	Shanghai	ApplepearPie	6,340 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE Lijiang	Lijiang	.exe	21,220 km2	Asia or Oceania
BTE Oceania	The region of Oceania, excluding Hawaii and French territories in Oceania	BTE Oceania		Asia or Oceania

Non Regional teams are teams that do not focus on building a specific region. Non-Regional teams are teams that specify in building a specific type of thing. Most Non-Regional teams are teams that collaborate with regional teams in events to complete that certain type of thing in the Regional Team's Region. The only team that does not collaborate with Regional teams is BTE Theme Parks, as it completes theme parks on its own. BTE Seaside, although specializing in Shipwrecks, also collaborates with Regional teams when completing things like piers.

List of official BuildTheEarth Non-Regional Build Teams and Start-Ups

Team Name	Specialty	Owner
BTE Palaces	Building palaces across the world	SoleSol06
BTE Terraforming	Terraforming around the world	woody
BTE Transportation	Stations and Airports across the world	senor stonks BTE Ireland
Seaside BTE	Shipwrecks across the world	BlackStarHD
BTE Stadiums	Stadiums across the world	SchofieldEFC
BTE Theme Parks	Disneyland Resort, CA, Canobie Lake Park, NH, Universal Studios, FL, etc.	Adam
"Pippen Youtube Team"	Locations of places for PippenFTS's BTE build series, Currently Including North Korea (Pyongyang mainly) Antarctica, Singapore (collaboration with the Singapore team), and Iceland	PippenFTS
ETB (Earth The Build)	The best of the best, building all around the world	Walter, Kruidnoot

A complete list of build teams as of 19 January 2021. More updated teams can be found on at a dedicated page on the official website.

• Official website
• Official subreddit
• Build The Earth's channel on YouTube