I realize this is how it has been acting, but that doesn't mean that it should be that way or intended to be that way. And it doesn't have to update when the chunk is unloaded, or when a player is not viewing it. The philosophy they seem to be taking with the maps is that they should update when the player views them in order to give the player an accurate view without causing unnecessary lag. If you view it this way the problem isn't that it doesn't update all of the time, the problem is it doesn't recognize that a player looking at it on the wall should have the same sort of effect as them looking down at it. What the maps do when they are not viewed and do not effect the player is nothing to the players concern and it really doesn't matter whether they update or not when the player is not looking at it. It is up to Mojang how they want to implement the maps behind the scenes, but part of the goal of most design is to hid the implementation from the user and this clearly does not. It acts in a way that the user would not expect and that reviles the two maps are linked to the same underling java objects. The behavior is incredibly counter-intuitive, it would be like if using one copy of the New York Times to start a campfire would cause every other copy in existence to burst into flames.
I can see how it would create lag if they were to update every map at every change, but that isn't what it would take. As it stands blocks don't update constantly, and when they are out of loaded chunks there is usually no need for them to change. In fact, it probably wouldn't even be noticeable if the maps didn't change when they weren't on a player's screen since it would have the same effect as if they always updated .That is how rendering works in most games, including Minecraft to begin with(meaning unseen surfaces are not rendered). And with that solution, there would be no more lag then if a player simply decided to look at a map. As it stands players are led to believe that maps in frames would be a view of the world around them but, as it stands, the only way to achieve this functionality is to constantly reopen the map to make it render or to get someone else to do the same. By the time you actually get the information that you desired out of the map on the wall you already have been forced to find it by other means.
This is only a feature request if you consider logical consistency a feature. If buildings disappeared when you weren't looking at them you could call fixing it "adding object permanence as a feature" or if health regeneration stopped every so often if you didn't re log or sleep, you could call fixing those issues "adding features" but in reality they are just inconsistencies in what the player believes should happen. If you have that view then the only thing that would be considered bugs are crashes to the infrastructure of the program that make it close or completely unplayable, and that is such a low bar for programming quality that it would result in a terrible end user experience.
I'm not asking to add a block, or add a new command, or add a new creature, or a new game mode or anything of the sort. I'm asking simply for maps to work how the user would expect, and not in some weird way where two maps are "linked" when the user has no reason to know they would be so that one cannot function correctly without the other. To further show that this is not how it should be working clocks that are put in paintings update constantly, just as if they were in the players hand. Why should clocks work how the user expects, but maps only understood it the player has great knowledge of the underling implementation?
There is no reason to believe this is the intended behavior when other objects that update when the player views them work properly in picture frames (such as clocks). Of course it is doing "what the code specifies", every glitch is doing "what the code specifies" code doesn't have a mind of it's own. But I have a lot more faith in Mojang then to think this is there intended consequence. Why would they make maps a special case when other items in frames update consistently? I guess it's possible that they sat down in a meeting and talked it out and decided that maps behaving unpredictably and illogically would be somehow better, but it is much more likely that they simply overlooked a small adaptation in the system when they added item frames. Mistakes like that happen all the time, and they appear more "stable" then other glitches because in reality all they are is a missed function call (calling an update() method when it's seen on a wall).
Furthermore, yes there are things that appear inconsistent in many games, but they don't try to make objects act that way for no reason, and most often such interactions are glitches. Intentional interactions that the user would find strange are usually explained or somehow make sense within the context of the game environment. If such interactions are not explained to the user then they are completely indistinguishable from glitches. That is the position we are in. No matter if this was intended or not, it seems unintentional; and because it seems like it is unintentional behavior it is correct to report it as a glitch because it is code that is doing what they did not expect it to. Neither of us where in the room when this was written, so we don't know whether it was meant to act in such a weird way, but since players are given no reason to believe they should act this way many see it and believe it is a bug. If it is working the way that they want it,Mojang can just explain that and close this report. If it is not how they intended they can fix it. Until Mojang reacts it is completely useless to argue about their intentions. The reality is illogical enough and without explanation that it could be a glitch, and if it is, then this is the place to bring it to their attention. I am not asking for them to add a feature, I am just bringing something that is likely unintended behavior to their attention. If they intended it to act this way, I am perfectly happy with them explaining why it makes sense and dismissing this as intended behavior.
TL;DR
A bug code acting in an unintended way.
This behavior looks odd and unintentional.
Thus this code appears to be a bug and should be reported to Mojang for their consideration.
Dismissing our bug the way you have without seeing if Mojang intended this as a consequence is using the same "It's not a bug, It's a feature!" that has been used to dismiss countless serious bugs in countless applications. Honestly, it is a waste of our time to discuss this any further until we hear from Mojang; we all agree this happens, let Mojang decide whether or not it needs to be fixed.
Michael
MC-32369
I realize this is how it has been acting, but that doesn't mean that it should be that way or intended to be that way. And it doesn't have to update when the chunk is unloaded, or when a player is not viewing it. The philosophy they seem to be taking with the maps is that they should update when the player views them in order to give the player an accurate view without causing unnecessary lag. If you view it this way the problem isn't that it doesn't update all of the time, the problem is it doesn't recognize that a player looking at it on the wall should have the same sort of effect as them looking down at it. What the maps do when they are not viewed and do not effect the player is nothing to the players concern and it really doesn't matter whether they update or not when the player is not looking at it. It is up to Mojang how they want to implement the maps behind the scenes, but part of the goal of most design is to hid the implementation from the user and this clearly does not. It acts in a way that the user would not expect and that reviles the two maps are linked to the same underling java objects. The behavior is incredibly counter-intuitive, it would be like if using one copy of the New York Times to start a campfire would cause every other copy in existence to burst into flames.
I can see how it would create lag if they were to update every map at every change, but that isn't what it would take. As it stands blocks don't update constantly, and when they are out of loaded chunks there is usually no need for them to change. In fact, it probably wouldn't even be noticeable if the maps didn't change when they weren't on a player's screen since it would have the same effect as if they always updated .That is how rendering works in most games, including Minecraft to begin with(meaning unseen surfaces are not rendered). And with that solution, there would be no more lag then if a player simply decided to look at a map. As it stands players are led to believe that maps in frames would be a view of the world around them but, as it stands, the only way to achieve this functionality is to constantly reopen the map to make it render or to get someone else to do the same. By the time you actually get the information that you desired out of the map on the wall you already have been forced to find it by other means.
This is only a feature request if you consider logical consistency a feature. If buildings disappeared when you weren't looking at them you could call fixing it "adding object permanence as a feature" or if health regeneration stopped every so often if you didn't re log or sleep, you could call fixing those issues "adding features" but in reality they are just inconsistencies in what the player believes should happen. If you have that view then the only thing that would be considered bugs are crashes to the infrastructure of the program that make it close or completely unplayable, and that is such a low bar for programming quality that it would result in a terrible end user experience.
I'm not asking to add a block, or add a new command, or add a new creature, or a new game mode or anything of the sort. I'm asking simply for maps to work how the user would expect, and not in some weird way where two maps are "linked" when the user has no reason to know they would be so that one cannot function correctly without the other. To further show that this is not how it should be working clocks that are put in paintings update constantly, just as if they were in the players hand. Why should clocks work how the user expects, but maps only understood it the player has great knowledge of the underling implementation?
There is no reason to believe this is the intended behavior when other objects that update when the player views them work properly in picture frames (such as clocks). Of course it is doing "what the code specifies", every glitch is doing "what the code specifies" code doesn't have a mind of it's own. But I have a lot more faith in Mojang then to think this is there intended consequence. Why would they make maps a special case when other items in frames update consistently? I guess it's possible that they sat down in a meeting and talked it out and decided that maps behaving unpredictably and illogically would be somehow better, but it is much more likely that they simply overlooked a small adaptation in the system when they added item frames. Mistakes like that happen all the time, and they appear more "stable" then other glitches because in reality all they are is a missed function call (calling an update() method when it's seen on a wall).
Furthermore, yes there are things that appear inconsistent in many games, but they don't try to make objects act that way for no reason, and most often such interactions are glitches. Intentional interactions that the user would find strange are usually explained or somehow make sense within the context of the game environment. If such interactions are not explained to the user then they are completely indistinguishable from glitches. That is the position we are in. No matter if this was intended or not, it seems unintentional; and because it seems like it is unintentional behavior it is correct to report it as a glitch because it is code that is doing what they did not expect it to. Neither of us where in the room when this was written, so we don't know whether it was meant to act in such a weird way, but since players are given no reason to believe they should act this way many see it and believe it is a bug. If it is working the way that they want it,Mojang can just explain that and close this report. If it is not how they intended they can fix it. Until Mojang reacts it is completely useless to argue about their intentions. The reality is illogical enough and without explanation that it could be a glitch, and if it is, then this is the place to bring it to their attention. I am not asking for them to add a feature, I am just bringing something that is likely unintended behavior to their attention. If they intended it to act this way, I am perfectly happy with them explaining why it makes sense and dismissing this as intended behavior.
TL;DR
A bug code acting in an unintended way.
This behavior looks odd and unintentional.
Thus this code appears to be a bug and should be reported to Mojang for their consideration.
Dismissing our bug the way you have without seeing if Mojang intended this as a consequence is using the same "It's not a bug, It's a feature!" that has been used to dismiss countless serious bugs in countless applications. Honestly, it is a waste of our time to discuss this any further until we hear from Mojang; we all agree this happens, let Mojang decide whether or not it needs to be fixed.