There will be no “walking distance lang ‘yan” remarks next school year as we shift to remote learning to be safe from the pandemic. But, says who? This artist just created a virtual UPLB for us.
An Industrial Engineering student built a Minecraft version of the whole map of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) showcasing the different landmarks and buildings inside the campus.
Frederick Tacla, an artist who makes Minecraft structures since 2012, said that he started this project last year but was not able to finish due to academic workloads.
“Ngayon, since may quarantine pa rin, and puro online classes, naisip ko na mas okay kung ituloy ko na para kahit papaano eh ‘yung mga bagong students ay mayroong way para makapunta sa elbi kahit sa minecraft lang,” he explained.
A campus-tour-like cinematic video and an overview map with labels will be posted soon in his facebook page named Fredmcwaffe, he spilled out.
Meanwhile, Tacla said that he also dedicates this project for the UPLB graduate students of 2020 who will be having their virtual graduation on August 15.
“Malapit na rin kasi ‘yung virtual graduation, so lalagyan ko rin ng graduation set-up (on the Minecraft version of Freedom Park) para sa mga gustong magcelebrate ng grad nila sa virtual elbi,” he pointed out.
With this, Freedom Park has also been Tacla’s favorite spot in the virtual UPLB for having the most details of plants, trees, benches, the Carillion tower, and the overwhelming graduation set-up.
It was with the help of Google Earth, reference images, and his own memories of UPLB that Tacla was able to build the places, buildings, roads, and even the statues like Oble. These were all done, he added, by manually computing the elevations and angles especially for the off-axis buildings.
In fact, the virtual UPLB is Tacla’s 75th project in building Minecraft structures. His other projects such as the Republic of Union Island which was featured in the official site of Minecraft can be found in his portfolio on planetminecraft.com.
However, the virtual UPLB project is still ongoing and will be under development, Tacla said. He is also looking forward to a collaboration with other people to finish the project.
Although the virtual UPLB is just a replica of the campus that every Isko and Iska misses, it still provides the same feeling of amusement, love, and appreciation of UPLB’s natural beauty. [P]
UPLB Perspective 
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