Realistic Minecraft map could honestly pass for a Microsoft Flight Simulator landscape

As part of Minecraft's ongoing war on the aesthetics of real life, one map maker has whipped up a stunning hyper-realistic landscape which could pass for a Netherlands valley retreat.

Planet Minecraft user qwryzu shared their Vales of Amoril map a few days ago (as our friends at PC Gamer spotted), and it's a doozy. It's 10,000 square blocks, for starters, and it hides snowy hills, tranquil valleys, thick forests, and lovely water features, all rendered in stunning HD, or at least Minecraft's take on HD. Qwryzu says it was "inspired by real life geology," hence the addition of little details like river drainage systems.

This landscape was built using a medley of map maker tools and a variety of asset mods, including plenty of tree packs, hence the especially detailed forests on display here. Even with the help of those tools, it took around four months to put it together, qwryzu says. Their goal was to "show off techniques that I've applied to smaller maps in their full continental glory," and I'd say they've outdone themselves.

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You can download the map for free if you want to walk through its lush, evergreen habitat yourself. The map was built for the Java version of the game, specifically version 1.16.5, but "may" work in newer or older versions. And since this is a custom Minecraft map and therefore lacking all the resources that make the game's survival mode, well, playable, it's better suited for a quick tour rather than a proper playthrough, assuming you want access to more than dirt and wood (not that I'm knocking the dirt hut – it's a classic).

Over in vanilla Minecraft, update 2.26 is still in our rear-view mirror. It introduced a huge batch of items and biomes including lofty peaks, snow-capped peaks, snowy slopes, mountain grove, and mountain meadow (which is ironically a dead ringer for Qwyrzu's latest creation).