How big is the world

According to New Player Reference - Commands and Basics - Updated Jan 18 the world is 1152 blocks tall. In width (if that is the correct word) it should be endless (at least the random world generation system should make it look like it is :D)

Quote from Meltron

According to New Player Reference - Commands and Basics - Updated Jan 18 the world is 1152 blocks tall. In width (if that is the correct word) it should be endless (at least the random world generation system should make it look like it is :D)

It is not endless, the world has the same limitation as every other procedural open world, this has to do with the world origin as the player moves in a certain point there will be issues in the Floating Point Arithmetic. But i think you will have to fly a large large large large large large way to get to this. You should then notice weird behaviour of the terrain generation. Maybe it would make sense to let the borders of the world smooth into eachother, so we have a planetlike terrain.

Of course i could be wrong and red implemented a new never seen algorithm or technique to deal with this :D.

Well, on the one hand it is endless, on the other hand it isn't There is no "hard coded" limitation (apart from technical limitations), but you will run quickly into rounding errors.
However, we're going to change that, to have a "truely" endless world (only the free space on your harddrive will be the limiting factor) But this feature has a low priority right now.

And it should be "low priority".
An 'infinite' world size is a mental thing anyway- some get a warm, fuzzy feeling from knowing they aren't 'limited'. (If it's "infinite", how you know?)
Then there's the "explorers". They don't want to play the game, they just enjoy running around gawking at the scenery, watching it unfold (even though it's basically the same scenery repeated over and over). Just as one pig looks like the last one, one desert or forest will look like the last one too. (The ole dogsled saying popped into my head: "If you aren't the lead dog, the view never changes.")

Anyway, to answer the OP's question of how big is the world: a whole lot bigger than you could ever use. Don't worry about it.

Problem int the endless part of the world but the height limit in this world! As i discovered will building my humongous Cheops pyramid witch was planed to be 460 block wide
x at 296 blocks high..... Major fail and upset when i discovered that my pyramid would not have a top since i could only build at around 200 block high & after that the blocks
are invisible to the eyes...

Quote from Geneo

If you aren't the lead dog, the view never changes.

lol! Thanks for that! Needed a laugh in the morning. I had forgotten about that one.

I don't need an infinite world, thus my biome placement idea being similar to earth which would obviously put limits on the size. I think trying to make it endless is a waste of energy. In fact I would, in some way, try to limit it so there are less issues with hardware and thus less people complaining of crashes or "The game filled up my harddrive!! Now I can't download _____!! What are you doing to me!!??" etc.. If something like Dayz could be done, 200kmx200km or so, that would be fine IMO. Anyways... height does seem to be more of an issue currently. Depth is more then enough IMO.

i think if the world have to be limited it would be cool if you can find something like an ocean at the end of the terrain generation^^

I wouldn't mind it going infinite, I however haven't made use of that in Minecraft due to social and developer issues. Constantly had to restart maps due to corruptions and Mojang simply didn't care that much so still jumping ship. I would have traveled far, and I'm sure on populated servers they need all the space they can get so infinite works. It however all goes down the drain when the map either corrupts or when servers do yearly map resets.

I kind of agree with Geneon because he does bring up a good point, just that I also have to disagree because then you'd be 'boxed in" getting frustrated for not having room. Not sure if Playstation or Xbox version limited maps are a good or bad example, just that you shall feel cramped wanting to no longer play. The whole fun of 'unlimited' was spacing things out, mapping them on a Google Maps world, then trying to visit each and every place. I'm sure the same, or more, type of feeling shall be felt here when the game matures to the correct part.

Possible solution -
Similar to RTS, just give the people their map sizes and they'll be happy with their own version.....

• Sandbox - The way it is now. Just a handful of a world for you to prototype and mess about in. Not great for long-haul type vehicles and expended giant builds. Good luck making use of limited resources.
• Unlimited - For those that want to explore, expand, and build long-term. This is my vote because I tend to build big. Great for multi-player servers for those that may complain about lacking space & etc. Great 'unlimited' map to take advantage of vehicles. You can have all the resources you can find. If you run out of resources then you'll simply keep pushing out further. All you haev to worry about is disk space, or map corruptions. Better make use of those building plans, or similar.
• Earthly Sized Map - ZaCormyr's idea of giving us a mix of both, just that the Earth would be scaled 1:1, or maybe a bit less for us to loop around back to various areas. Somehow coding, merging, and looping biomes to neatly mesh together, or cleverly hide the edges in frozen areas & oceans while giving each area a hot & cool area. This would be even more interesting when people get to late-tech to possibly make use of the computer to view their world map. That whole "Civilization" game vibe when you finally see the map as a whole. Good luck using limited resources. Treating this map by giving our Earthly biomes in hot-&-cool types.

Guess I should just lean on unlimited because it's the 'easiest' and the most common in thought. I'd expect Zacormyr's idea post-game, or something. My only worry about unlimited being intentional 'map wipes', map corruptions, and similar. Sucks having to start over again, and again. Need to make sure the map survives long-term. Also apologies if my post seem long-winded. Trying to keep it short.

Quote from ArcticuKitsu

just that the Earth would be scaled 1:1

Same size as earth? I never said that lol Same kind of biome layout yes. Scale, no. That would be madness!

Quote from ZaCormyr

Same size as earth? I never said that lol Same kind of biome layout yes. Scale, no. That would be madness!

Bad wording on my part then. I wanted to say 1:1 by accidentally implying that you said it. My bad. I also wanted to 'imply' that the list being world types that we could choose from. I was worried yet you posted so I couldn't do a confusing edit :P.

A 1:1 Earth would be interesting though, if Red does consider and implement it. The problem being keeping the rarer resources going unlimited. I guess it should be fine due to the scale of our earth.

why can't the world just be surrounded by ocean, and if we can sail eventually, the sea gets really rough the farther you get, then eventaully tips your boat?
And the height issue could be wind related, or cold. so that if you try to fly a hot air baloon really high or something, it begins to freeze?
I think that having the world endless is something which will cause too many problems...The world is large enough for me as it is. who is going to cover the entire world in their builds anyroad?

Endless ocean surrounding a large continent is interesting but I don't think it works. Just killing the player with big waves isn't the best option, as funny as it might be hehe. Ideally it would be great to have a simulated globe... keep going in one direction and you'll come full circle and back to your starting position. I can dream can't I?!

To do any kind of negative affect on the player for going to high, the height of the playable area needs to be much higher. But yeah, as you got higher and higher it would get cold.. but a player could prepare for that since there will be some kind of snow biome to survive in at some point.

Instead, have altitude sickness which might lead to death if you stay up high for too long.

The idea with the height sounds pretty good to me, but I agree that the world should be endless, so the width and the length should not be limited. Otherwise the world could be too small for some players or servers.

Well a possibly endless (or close to it) world is coming. So question is, should there be other options?

Quote from ZaCormyr

Well a possibly endless (or close to it) world is coming. So question is, should there be other options?

Would be quiet intersting, if there could be some kind of planet simulation, so like the actual earth maybe.
Should be low priority, though imo, since that would surely take a lot of time and I don't think that many people want this.
Maybe there could be an editor for creating worlds. Would be good for building, too, but I am more seeing an oportunity in this to let the community create a recognizable map. Because when you have a world that ends (oceans at the ends, an actualy planet or a 'fake' planet, where you just get teleported when you go to the ends), I guess you will have the problem, that it may be more realistic, but you don't have so many possibilities and everything still kinda looks the same (for me this is a bit a problem in Stranded Deep still). But with a world editor, someone creative could do a very varied map with noticeable places. And I don't mean building, just (or mostly) landscape). And a powerful editor could help in creating such a map that is still very big enough to have the 'sandbox feeling'. I think this would be a great idea, since the worlds are now very big and you can do a lot in it, but I kinda miss it sometimes and would surely love to have some epic landscape and maybe towns like in Skyrim already when you load the map. Minecraft has a good world generator now, I guess, but I still miss variety in the pics I saw.
However, maybe I am wrong and just more variety in textures and generally more items/ plants/ mountain styles will satisfy me. And that will surely come.

The idea of an "planet simulation" (i.e. when I walk for a given amount of time into one direction, I will finally end up again at the spot where my journey started) is quite interesting, but there is one problem: It's difficult to find a good size for the world. It is more complicated for us to implement such a system than simply implementing a "real" endless world, but it would be a pity if the world is still too big that nearly no player would realize that it is spherical.
Otherwise, if the world has a fixed size, there could be indeed not enough room for big multiplayer servers, and apart from that, all our effort we already put into preparations for an "unlimited" world would be a waste of time

So I think a (horizontally) unlimited world is the best approach (low priority though), but there will be a few exceptions: On the one hand, the stranded mode will most likely have a fixed worldsize, surrounded by an ocean. On the other hand, people will be able to restrict the size of their world in creative mode (this is especially interesting for creating adventure maps).
(Currently you can btw. already restrict the world by using Lua scripts)

Another problem with "endless" worlds is (server or no server), is that it's so big, 95% of it will never seen or used. It may give you a mental warm fuzzy feeling, but the reality is it's huge waste.
I have no reason to be against "endless" worlds, per se. I'm just saying for myself, I'd only use or travel in 1% of it... at the most.

I agree that the unlimited map shall be 'wasted' on the average user. It's nice having it though because you wouldn't feel trapped when building. Not going to argue against it either because that be removing features we take for granted now. Who knows, maybe with Rising World people shall actually make far more use than with Minecraft, Terraria, and Starbound. Actually making more complex builds that'll need spreading out, if you can encourage them to do so, which shall make more use of the 'unlimited' map. Encouraging vehicles, trains, and biome-specific materials that you can only farm there.

I'll go with unlimited because it doesn't really give me a 'fuzzy feeling', more that I actually feel free to go where ever I want. I can spread out, stay out of people's way and claim land that I want to claim while others do the same. I hated Skyrim, and other RPGs, for how they trapped me in a box. Same with other indie games for survival. I'd however love both NPCs and Players claiming their own part of the land while I claim mine, colonize others, and have fun. The only ones that could possibly realize the world is "spherical" being the more hard-core types. Tell a Youtuber the world is round and I bet they'll do those donation let's plays trying to build a railway one way then ride it back to do two trips around the game's world.