The Maparts of 6b6t
And why they are special.
A mapart in minecraft is any form of art piece (though "art" can be subjective) captured using minecrafts map systems which allows a player to view a 128x128 area from above as an item
Maps can also be placed together on item frames which allows much more art to be viewed all at once, it also allows large maparts to be viewed
Why do people make maparts?
Maparts are a common form of advertising as well as being art outlets for people to showcase their skill and creativity. People also occasionally take it as currency, as people want to try and collect as many unique maparts as possible. Some collections have grown massive over the time, An old community has made a discord for listing and displaying a large number of the maaparts on their server “mapart empire”. Maparts are also used to promote groups and content on 6b6t. Mostly those maps are small and easy to make, because people don’t like spending much time on those kinds of maparts.
How are maparts made?
On 6b6t there has been a rich history of maparts made on the server ranging from all types of content. A common tool used to make maparts is mapartcraft, a website which automates the process of turning an image into a placeable schematic/nbt/litematic (forms of structures which lets players know where to place blocks or also place the blocks for them). There have been a couple methods of automating mapart building but none of them have become widespread.
Small step by step guide:
- Find an image you like, make sure it’s rather vibrant than dark.
- Open Mapartcraft (https://rebane2001.com/mapartcraft/) and upload your image
- Select the blocks you want to use and configure the Settings
- Map size: how the mapart will be, the first box is the width, the second one is the height.
- Staircasing: if you dont want a staircased mapart. Turn it to “Off (2D)”. The difference between staircasing modes can be found below.
- Block to add: if there needs to be support for a block, example: carpet. It will use the block id you enter here.
- Better color: play around with this and see if you want to use it or not.
- Dithering: you will get the best results with “Floyd-Steinberg”. If it looks like shit, try changing the mode.
- Now click the big Download NBT button and get to building.
- We recommend using litematica printer to place blocks as fast as possible.
Record breaking maparts
The largest mapart on 6b6t at the time of writing is called “Ashes” and was made by a mapart group called “SnifferSquad”. According to NIKASTEIN it was printed to prove things relating to their capabilities. Its the one and only mapart made by SnifferSquad. It consists of 4000 tiles which are all made of carpets. The previous records were all held by a group called “Albedo Gang”. They’ve made more than one giant mapart. One thing both of those groups have in common is that their maparts are made using bots and their process is entirely automatic. The biggest mapart made without the usage of automatic bots is the “Dragon Lady” by “Talisman”. Which is a 10x10 mapart.
Conclusion
Maparts on 6b6t are more than just pictures. they’re a mix of art, flexing skill, and sometimes even currency. From small quick ones made for ads to huge ones like “Ashes”, people on 6b6t put effort into making and collecting them. Tools like Mapartcraft and litematica help make the process way easier, and while most build by hand, some use bots to go faster. Overall, maparts are an important staple of the 6b6t community.
If you would like to submit feedback or contact the writers of this blog post please send me a message at @_advik555 on discord
