3
Due to recent times of Minecraft: Java Edition being denied Cross-Platform compatibility by Microsoft themselves, I suggest we have something unique happen and by the title, you can guess what I'm suggesting:
Open Sourcing Minecraft: Java Edition
However. I'm not saying that it's not open-sourced at all, it's quite the contrary ; just it isn't as accessible and easy to fully modify Minecraft: Java Edition as I and many others would like. With this "blog post". I hope to bring an interesting idea to the table in order to keep Minecraft: Java Edition alive and well for years to come and I hope you listen to what I have to say because this can prove successful if executed correctly.
"So, how do you plan to make this work?"
Theoretically, it would be simple. Physically it could mean an entire rewrite of Minecraft's code for such of what I'm thinking of. I plan on having three things change drastically for this idea to work and part of it would work a lot like Planet Minecraft and Minecraft.net already does. And what three things I am talking about is:
The Website for the User-Created Content
With these three concepts. We could create an entire new generation of Minecraft Modding. A 2.0 if you will. However, I do know that with such an idea, comes such losses or hardships. These being entire rewrites of mods, shaders and custom clients such as Forge, Optifine and FeedTheBeast. These will most likely have to be rewritten from the ground up or "ported" to the new client, SDK and Website. Another hardship would be Moderation, eg: No graphic/gore mods, No nudity mods, etc. All would have to be moderated by a group of staff. I think that this would certainly be hard as it would have to constantly revolve around checking each upload. Which makes it problematic if there is no wait period for a mod to be confirmed if it's okay. Where again, another problem arises. I think that it would need to take seven to fourteen business days to have the user-created version confirmed. This could be seen as an arbitrary wait time, but it keeps the version from accessing a kid-friendly environment and allows for thorough checking. It would also mean that there would only be kid friendly of user-created versions allowed.
I have put quite a bit of thought into this and realise how long it would theoretically take. I also recognise that I'm only thinking of 14 to 50 mods an hour being uploaded which may be underwhelming considering what the Minecraft Community could make in such a short span of time, from skins to entire conversions (Sci-Fi, Combat, Fantasy, etc). I do have an idea of how to separate the mod staff into categories and how to make sure skins get sorted separately and get applied more simply.
For skin application instead of user-created versions, I will say that it would be more simple to just have an entire new section of the website where you can go to the skin you like, and hover over it to apply it immediately (Like subscribing to a mod on steam) or clicking on it to see it in more detail.
The Minecraft: Java Edition "Source Development Kit"
Minecraft has said it's an Educational Platform (eg: Minecraft: Education Edition). But a SDK for Minecraft would really be educational. Primary and Secondary Schools can teach pupils how to code. However, this is where it will get a bit complex.
There will be multiple tools, Skin Creator, Simple Map Editor (eg: McEdit). Advanced Map Editor, Simple Modification Kit and Advanced Modification Kit.
The first two are self explanatory but the next three are where the Source Development Kit would really shine. Map makers use complex tools to create 255 block high mountains and entire regions ready to build on, and they would be able to with an advanced editor bundled into the SDK alongside the Simple Editor, but with more options for creating multiple aspects of terrain and more customizable water generation. The simple modification kit can be for adding new crafting recipes, armour with custom values, custom enchants and custom physics. The advanced modification kit would be for complete control over Java coding. It would work split-screen like Adobe Dreamweaver does for the site and the code. This means that a full conversion modder can see their changes work after one or another thing has happened. This means custom blocks with scripting (Eg: Computing) which also adds the opportunity of entire mobs and new behaviours being programmed directly into a custom version of Minecraft, no mods, no external API to work alongside and abide by it's limits, just Vanilla Minecraft. You can modify a second copy of the original version and you could have no limits; virtually none. The potential in Computer Science Education lies in this sector for students. It allows them to modify the game (in accordance to a ToS/EULA and Rules of the version's content) with very little restrictions except in terms of moderation of the user created content.
There would be many bugs that can also be fixed by a simple user-made version too, meaning that Mojang staff would mainly only need to moderate content and rarely update the game. They'd still have control of what gets added in to the vanilla version, but they would also be able to host a website to show user-created versions, featured creations, etc; almost like Planet Minecraft.
(And I do sadly see the potential of PMC being either being less active, except for the blog and what would become "Legacy versions" of Minecraft: Java Edition (first versions to 1.12.0), but these are the risks we have to take to ensure the success of Minecraft: Java Edition still stays with the next generation)
The Newer Minecraft Launcher
To end off with, I think I'd finish with the simplest to explain part of this, The Launcher that connects everything. It will not have to change, but you would potentially see a new option called "Hub" which showed the most featured user-created content. The launcher could download from this hub and where you get current and old versions of, you can also download the featured builds from (by enabling "Show Featured User-Created Versions", much like enabling "Old Alpha" and "Old Beta" versions of Minecraft: Java Edition.)
The most preferred featured user-created version wouldn't even need to be found on the hub, it could be displayed in the News section of the current launcher. It would appear monthly and would change every time. Allowing new and up-coming modders find their foot-hold, even from an early age. This can help young modders make a living later on in life as Java Coders for a company.
Why I think this is a good idea
I think it's a good idea because Minecraft is a diverse platform and if we loose Java Edition. We loose the core of what Minecraft truly was. We'd loose most of the modding for a long time, and it would mean that there'd have to be a way to easily mod the newest editions that are upcoming later this or next year; that would even mean cracking firmware. In order to keep Minecraft: Java Edition stay alive, we as a community need to act upon the news of Java Edition's eventual discontinuation by Microsoft and Mod or convert it to whatever we and Mojang/Microsoft see fit as they only have plans for the other editions, on other devices.
However, I do not expect my idea to make Minecraft: Java Edition open source with an SDK, a new Hub-like website and a new launcher to ever come to be. But I hope. I strongly hope we manage to not loose Minecraft: Java Edition. It has been with me since 2010. It's been my childhood so I count on it heavily when I'm in times of worry.
~ Thank you for reading this ~
~ MadBadCat (Wolfenstien Enemy Territory Legacies)~
Open Sourcing Minecraft: Java Edition
However. I'm not saying that it's not open-sourced at all, it's quite the contrary ; just it isn't as accessible and easy to fully modify Minecraft: Java Edition as I and many others would like. With this "blog post". I hope to bring an interesting idea to the table in order to keep Minecraft: Java Edition alive and well for years to come and I hope you listen to what I have to say because this can prove successful if executed correctly.
"So, how do you plan to make this work?"
Theoretically, it would be simple. Physically it could mean an entire rewrite of Minecraft's code for such of what I'm thinking of. I plan on having three things change drastically for this idea to work and part of it would work a lot like Planet Minecraft and Minecraft.net already does. And what three things I am talking about is:
- A Website to host user-created "versions" of Minecraft.
- A Minecraft "SDK" for a multitude of things
- A Minecraft Launcher to download these user versions with.
The Website for the User-Created Content
With these three concepts. We could create an entire new generation of Minecraft Modding. A 2.0 if you will. However, I do know that with such an idea, comes such losses or hardships. These being entire rewrites of mods, shaders and custom clients such as Forge, Optifine and FeedTheBeast. These will most likely have to be rewritten from the ground up or "ported" to the new client, SDK and Website. Another hardship would be Moderation, eg: No graphic/gore mods, No nudity mods, etc. All would have to be moderated by a group of staff. I think that this would certainly be hard as it would have to constantly revolve around checking each upload. Which makes it problematic if there is no wait period for a mod to be confirmed if it's okay. Where again, another problem arises. I think that it would need to take seven to fourteen business days to have the user-created version confirmed. This could be seen as an arbitrary wait time, but it keeps the version from accessing a kid-friendly environment and allows for thorough checking. It would also mean that there would only be kid friendly of user-created versions allowed.
I have put quite a bit of thought into this and realise how long it would theoretically take. I also recognise that I'm only thinking of 14 to 50 mods an hour being uploaded which may be underwhelming considering what the Minecraft Community could make in such a short span of time, from skins to entire conversions (Sci-Fi, Combat, Fantasy, etc). I do have an idea of how to separate the mod staff into categories and how to make sure skins get sorted separately and get applied more simply.
For skin application instead of user-created versions, I will say that it would be more simple to just have an entire new section of the website where you can go to the skin you like, and hover over it to apply it immediately (Like subscribing to a mod on steam) or clicking on it to see it in more detail.
The Minecraft: Java Edition "Source Development Kit"
Minecraft has said it's an Educational Platform (eg: Minecraft: Education Edition). But a SDK for Minecraft would really be educational. Primary and Secondary Schools can teach pupils how to code. However, this is where it will get a bit complex.
There will be multiple tools, Skin Creator, Simple Map Editor (eg: McEdit). Advanced Map Editor, Simple Modification Kit and Advanced Modification Kit.
The first two are self explanatory but the next three are where the Source Development Kit would really shine. Map makers use complex tools to create 255 block high mountains and entire regions ready to build on, and they would be able to with an advanced editor bundled into the SDK alongside the Simple Editor, but with more options for creating multiple aspects of terrain and more customizable water generation. The simple modification kit can be for adding new crafting recipes, armour with custom values, custom enchants and custom physics. The advanced modification kit would be for complete control over Java coding. It would work split-screen like Adobe Dreamweaver does for the site and the code. This means that a full conversion modder can see their changes work after one or another thing has happened. This means custom blocks with scripting (Eg: Computing) which also adds the opportunity of entire mobs and new behaviours being programmed directly into a custom version of Minecraft, no mods, no external API to work alongside and abide by it's limits, just Vanilla Minecraft. You can modify a second copy of the original version and you could have no limits; virtually none. The potential in Computer Science Education lies in this sector for students. It allows them to modify the game (in accordance to a ToS/EULA and Rules of the version's content) with very little restrictions except in terms of moderation of the user created content.
There would be many bugs that can also be fixed by a simple user-made version too, meaning that Mojang staff would mainly only need to moderate content and rarely update the game. They'd still have control of what gets added in to the vanilla version, but they would also be able to host a website to show user-created versions, featured creations, etc; almost like Planet Minecraft.
(And I do sadly see the potential of PMC being either being less active, except for the blog and what would become "Legacy versions" of Minecraft: Java Edition (first versions to 1.12.0), but these are the risks we have to take to ensure the success of Minecraft: Java Edition still stays with the next generation)
The Newer Minecraft Launcher
To end off with, I think I'd finish with the simplest to explain part of this, The Launcher that connects everything. It will not have to change, but you would potentially see a new option called "Hub" which showed the most featured user-created content. The launcher could download from this hub and where you get current and old versions of, you can also download the featured builds from (by enabling "Show Featured User-Created Versions", much like enabling "Old Alpha" and "Old Beta" versions of Minecraft: Java Edition.)
The most preferred featured user-created version wouldn't even need to be found on the hub, it could be displayed in the News section of the current launcher. It would appear monthly and would change every time. Allowing new and up-coming modders find their foot-hold, even from an early age. This can help young modders make a living later on in life as Java Coders for a company.
Why I think this is a good idea
I think it's a good idea because Minecraft is a diverse platform and if we loose Java Edition. We loose the core of what Minecraft truly was. We'd loose most of the modding for a long time, and it would mean that there'd have to be a way to easily mod the newest editions that are upcoming later this or next year; that would even mean cracking firmware. In order to keep Minecraft: Java Edition stay alive, we as a community need to act upon the news of Java Edition's eventual discontinuation by Microsoft and Mod or convert it to whatever we and Mojang/Microsoft see fit as they only have plans for the other editions, on other devices.
However, I do not expect my idea to make Minecraft: Java Edition open source with an SDK, a new Hub-like website and a new launcher to ever come to be. But I hope. I strongly hope we manage to not loose Minecraft: Java Edition. It has been with me since 2010. It's been my childhood so I count on it heavily when I'm in times of worry.
~ Thank you for reading this ~
~ MadBadCat (Wolfenstien Enemy Territory Legacies)~
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