If 3D printing in reality is too much check out this 3D printer which operates in-game using a horrible amount of redstone circuitry, pistons and other tricks.  Certifiably insane but ingenious at the same time.  He’s from New Zealand and there was wool involved but I’m not one to spread rumours…  This particular version prints an 8x8x12 block.  Each 8×8 slice has to be loaded so it’s a bit of work but the results speak for themselves.

Cody Sumter and Jason Boggess are running a project by in the MIT Media Lab called Minecraft.Print(). As the name suggests it’s all about printing out parts of your Minecraft world via 3D printing. They sum it up in 3 steps.

1. Play it – Make cool stuff in Minecraft
2. Prep it – To avoid printing the entire world, you specify the region by placing a combination of specific blocks (obsidian, diamond, gold, iron) at two points to define the 3D area to print.
3. Print it

Minecraft.Print() outputs a standard model file ready for 3D printing.

They printed a portal companion cube and the Enterprise but there’s endless possibilities here. The video explains it well;

h/t: Gamepron

So does 3D printing have any potential in games? Of course, just as it will probably impact so many industries. One can already print one one’s own character as a figurine.

One of the most basic applications I have seen is over at FigurePrints where they print out your very own World of Warcraft characters or Xbox LIVE avatars. You plonk down the dough (currently $US130 for a statue) and then you import your favourite character’s data which is as easy as selection. You then pose that 3D model and it’s ready to go to print. These figurines are printed on Z Corp Spectrum Z510 colour printers in Vancouver. Naturally this company has been swamped with requests. I have no doubt competition will come if it hasn’t already, including to other games and entertainment media.

All that is needed is the game company to provide the 3D data. Most games are already 3D based so there’s not much in the way. Many TV and movie studios can also go down this route, albeit there is less customisation in such media.

Imagine. One day you too will have your very own fully functional, exploding, rocket chicken. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

For a long time printing has been at a plateau. Thanks to laser and ink-jet technologies we have had sharp, high quality prints which we can print almost anywhere on many types of material for relatively low cost. We have colour so rich you can almost touch it. Pages spew out almost as fast as you can gather them. Indeed printers themselves are very cheap as the money is made via the ink and toners. Even ink is cheaper now with many unbranded options such as refill kits which work well for many users.

There things have languished for years. But there is a resurgence. One more frontier to cross. Namely that extra dimension from 2D to 3D.

Yes printing sheets of fine, literally paper thin, text and colour is soooo 2010. Now we have reached the capability of giving it a bit of substance in that third dimension and so make solid objects. This technology has gone from being pretty much a gimmick back in 2003 to what is now a young, but professional, market.

Solid objects can be of many materials especially plastics, both rigid and flexible, but also including metals and other materials. Printing is often monochrome but colour printing can be done too.

The process commonly used is fairly simple;

• First one needs a digitised 3D model of the object to be printed. This may be via computer modelling or alternatively a 3D scan might be made of a real object already in existence.
• Then comes the printing process. Basically thin layers of the 3D objects are printed as successive layers on top of each other, building up the object layer by 2D layer. Often the material and substrate to support the object is a powder and the actual printing is done by laser heat or a liquid fusing the powder together where the object is. However, there are several other methods. All of them have their good points and issues and so the best ones will shine through as the industry ages.
• Finally they have post processing such as cleaning up the object and perhaps finishing it with lacquer or electroplating to improve properties of the material or appearance.

If you look around you can find applications already including design prototypes, difficult and unique mechanical parts, art, shoes soles and medicine.

At the moment 3D printing is in its infancy. Each Layer of the multi-layered object is printed rapidly but the entire 3D object can take several hours to print, depending on the size.

The precision is already acceptably high for most applications at around 0.1mm for most standard printing but can probably be pushed further in time.

Costs for these printers are very high, the most basic units seems to be in the tens of thousands of dollars. The actual material costs are not really that severe, especially since the unused substrate is often recycled.

Materials are also quite good so far but may also have a little way to go. Many of the 3D printed objects are fully functional. Print out a belt buckle and it works, for example. Even ball bearings and skateboards have been shown to work. One of the more fascinating developments is the possibility for bio-printing or flat out organ printing. Where living tissue like a liver might be printed into shape and popped in to replace your dysfunctional one.

As a young industry there is so much untapped potential. Any 3D modeller might become a sculptor or object developer and the ideas thrown around suggest a lot of things are coming which are not foreseen. One enterprising open (as in open source) idea is the RepRap project, short for “replicating rapid prototyper”. In other words they aim to make a self replicating 3D printer!

Normal 3D plastic objects we already see and use everyday require an expensive process of mould development and preparation followed by relatively rapid and cheap reproductions using injection technology. This lends itself greatly to economics of scale. 3D printing totally breaks that economy of scale mould. The expense here is the printer instead and one part is going to cost much the same as another to produce.

Expect to see a lot more about this technology in the future.  What follows is a relatively good video showing some of the extra steps in 3D printing of a ball bearing, in this case.