A few months ago, I developed a simple player compass using long loops of redstone feeding into unloaded chunks. [img1] An unloaded chunk is a place that isn't in a player's view distance. Whenever another player has the unloaded chunks of these redstone loops in view distance, they will be loaded and the machine will notify me with a lamp in the direction of that player. [img2]
Recently, I came back to this concept with many improvements. Instead of 8 directions of detail, (North, NE, East, SE, South, SW, West, NW) I made 40. [img3] Each one of these wires connect to a chunk right outside of view distance 6, forming a ring of "sensors" in unloaded chunks. Like with the previous design, it would detect players loading chunks and notify the player in the center of the "radar" via redstone lamps, and the optional note block sound.
However, my machine has a problem. While it can detect a player's direction from the center of the machine, It cannot give the coordinate position of a player.
What would be a reasonable way to detect a player's position, instead of just a direction? I had the idea of using mob AI, but that's way too difficult to properly test with the state of creative mode as it is, lag problems, and the mobs just despawning.
Let me know if you have any questions.
