The Lens

The Lens on September 23, 2012.

The Lens was the second and final permanent residence of Zisteau on the vanilla post-1.8 server. The structure levitated above an extreme hills biome and was situated above Zisteau's Pinwheel Mines and within jumping vicinity of his temporary house. The Wasteland Village, located above an adjacent desert biome, was made possible by the copious amounts of sand extracted from the desert for the purposes of creating sandstone for the Lens' construction. The structure itself was accessible by means of endervator or by a descending stream of water reaching towards the Pinwheel Mines. The start of construction on the Lens was documented on an episode released on May 9, 2012 but was not completed when the server was reset in July 2013.

Zisteau stated while working in a creative single-player world that he had intended to create a structure such as the Lens for quite some time, and had previously worked on several concepts for its design in that world. The Lens was located at 2822z, 866x.

Design

The Pinwheel Mines from September 23, 2012.

The central structure of the Lens consists of three tiers, each reserved for a specific purpose. The lowermost tier is reserved for furnaces; the second for brewing; and the third for storage. Automated farms that harvest wheat, gourds, or reeds extend in three directions from the central structure. All sectors of the Lens are watered by a single source block of water that is diverted using a number of aqueducts, one of the original restrictions Zisteau placed upon the project upon its conception. Additional expansions, meant to include tree farms, are underway and have caused the Lens to bear an appearance resembling that of wings.

Pinwheel Mines

The Mines radiated from a central hub that lay at bedrock level immediately below the Lens. The entrance to the mines was a cylindrical hole that stretched from the middle of a lake down to bedrock; the lake water poured over the edges and into the mine. The single source block that watered most of the Lens dropped straight down through the structure and into the center of the Mines' main chamber.

Construction videos

Date published	Video	Notable events	Featuring
27 Apr 2012	"Mindcrack Number Sixteen - 'Excavation' (Z380)"	Experimenting with the design of semi-automatic sheep pens Beginning the design and construction of the permanent mines
2 May 2012	"Mindcrack Number Seventeen - 'Pinwheel Parallel Mine' (Z384)"	Adding waterfall to permanent mine Discussion of branch mining methodologies Carving the beginning of the pinwheel parallel mine
9 May 2012	"Mindcrack Number 21 - 'The Lens' (Z390)"	Beginning scaffolding for The Lens Tour of Survival Island house Use of Plotz for making circles
17 May 2012	"Mindcrack Number 23 - 'Interrupted Construction' (Z398)"	Pranked by Guude Working on the walls and floors of The Lens Zisteau drinking game UHC strategy discussion	Guude, Mhykol, PauseUnpause
21 May 2012	"Mindcrack Number 25 - 'Circular Logic' (Z406)"	Working on stairs and pathways of The Lens Defending the lens from hostile mobs
5 Jun 2012	"Mindcrack Number 30 - 'Aqueducts' (Z432)"	Discussing wiring and staircases Working on building aqueducts in The Lens
11 Jun 2012	"Mindcrack Number 32 - 'Alchemy Shutter' (Z441)"	Introducing Goober the cat Revised sheep pens Piston doors on the middle layer of the lens
16 Jun 2012	"Mindcrack Number 34 - 'Farm First Phase and UHC Chatter' (Z447)"	Working on building the wheat farm Discussing lessons learned from UHC 7 and strategy for the next season
19 Jun 2012	"Mindcrack Number 35 - 'Second Stage Farm' (Z451)"	Continuing to build the aquifers for the wheat farm Wiring up the pistons that divert water across the fields
29 Jun 2012	"Mindcrack Number 39 - 'Storage Shutter' (Z458)"	Touring his creative world and looking at plans for the storage shutter (not on MindCrack) Constructing the walls of the storage shutter
1 Jul 2012	"Mindcrack Number 40 - 'Geezer Bought the Farm' (Z459)"	Funeral of Geezer the cat Touring the changes to the former temporary house An overview of his storage system Working on the wheat farm
4 Jul 2012	"Mindcrack Number 42 - 'Unscaffolding' (Z461)"	Building the underside of the lens Connecting the sections of the lens Removing scaffolding
12 Jul 2012	"Mindcrack Number 44 - 'Gourd Farm First Phase' (Z463)"	Beginning a farm for pumpkins and melons Discussing UFC 143
23 Jul 2012	"Mindcrack Number 48 - 'Gourd Farm Second Phase' (Z472)"	Discussing his recent prank on Guude Continuing to work on the gourd farm
27 Jul 2012	"Mindcrack Number 50 - 'Mineshaft Makeover' (Z476)"	Redoing the walls of the mineshaft Working on implementing chicken controlled redstone lights in the mineshaft walls Asking for suggestions of a map to play until Infernal Mines is released
4 Aug 2012	"Mindcrack Number 53 - 'Functional Farm' (Z482)"	Finishing the the wiring and building a collection point for the melon farm
19 Aug 2012	"Mindcrack Number 58 - "Renovations" (Z492)"	Integrating lighting into the lens
23 Aug 2012	"Mindcrack Number 59 - 'Channel Update and Reed Farm' (Z495)"	Explaining how the next branch of the Lens will be built in his creative world (not on the MindCrack server) Beginning to build the cactus and sugarcane branch Talking about the games (current and upcoming) on his channel and the revised T-shirt contest rules
25 Aug 2012	"Mindcrack Number 60 - 'Reed Redesign' (Z499)"	Gathering ice at spawn Looking at redstone options for the reed/cactus farm in his test world (not on the MindCrack server) Working on the reed/cactus farm
1 Sep 2012	"Mindcrack Number 63 - 'Endervator' (Z511)"	Thanking Doc for his gift and storing more enchanted items Building an Endervator to access the Lens Removing ladders up to the Lens
17 Sep 2012	"Mindcrack Number 67 - 'Riveting Stair Design' (Z536)"	Enclosing exposed mechanics on the Ender Ascender Looking at stair designs in his test world (Not on the MindCrack server) Building new stairs and pathways around the Lens
24 Oct 2012	"Mindcrack Number 77 - 'Sylvan Ellipse' (Z591)"	Experimenting with ideas for the Lens Extending the aqueduct for the tree farm Personalizing a house in the arena village
16 Nov 2012	"Mindcrack Number 84 - 'Alchemical Preparations' (Z616)"	Talking about his internet issues, Spreadshirt and what videos he produces Farming Wither skulls Designing and troubleshooting the first room on the alchemy level
18 Nov 2012	"Mindcrack Number 85 - 'Pinwheel Mine Renovation' (Z620)"	Discussing planned changes to the mines and beacons Showing changes to the farms Creating shafts of light down to the mines to remove void fog and starting to redecorate the mines
20 Nov 2012	"Mindcrack Number 86 - 'Mining and Alchemy Work' (Z624)"	Continuing to redecorate the mines Reworking the mechanics of the alchemy level Replacing torches with glowstone
25 Nov 2012	"Mindcrack Number 88 - "Branching Aqueducts" (Z632)"	Explaining why he's not actually going to prank the MineCon attendees Constructing branching aqueducts at the Lens Talking about MineCon and the MindCrack panel Confirming that there are hints to the "flavor" of his next prank, which he states will be against Etho