1.1.5 out! I will start self-installing packages

Changelog:

• Updated MCPatcher to 1.1.9 – That means working portals, compasses and watches.
• 7-Zip support – Doesn’t support the newer LZMA2 algorithm though.
• Mac OS X 10.5 Only – Will check class files to see which version of Java they have been compiled on. If it is higher than 1.5, then Minecrafter will warn you that this mod will cause a black screen. I haven’t actually tested this on 10.5, but the checking code works.
• New column in Mod Package Editor for inactive rows to display which mod is replacing the file (i.e. what’s making it inactive). Hover over the exclamation mark to see the tooltip, or resize the column.
• Resizable Mod Package Editor window – A user’s request which allows you to increase the size of the mod package editor window for a better view.
• Error logging to file is back
• Fixed some UI glitches
• Removed BetterGrass option
• Caught exception when Minecrafter couldn’t open a particular image file

One weird quirk on Linux: For some reason, the maximize button doesn’t appear on the mod package editor form. You can still resize though.

Download Links:

Windows

32-bit or 64-bit

Mac

32-bit or 64-bit

Linux

32-bit or 64-bit

—–

I’ve decided to postpone Minecrafter In-game – the mod which would basically add in mod support into Minecraft. Unfortunately it wasn’t compelling enough to work on, and the obfuscated nature of Minecraft puts me off, especially if I did complete the mod. Getting releases out to work with Minecraft would be a pain as I don’t understand the obfuscation and would need to wait for tools to be compatible with the newest Minecraft version before I could do anything.

But instead, I will actually start working on the self-installing mod package idea that I had discussed a while back. It’s not particularly difficult, but a lot of the work will be spend re-doing the critical parts of the UI to run on AWT, as SWT is OS dependent. The focus will be getting the bootstrap code as small as possible (hopefully not exceeding 1MB). This means removing a lot of the libraries and working with the basics. A good example is 7-Zip support. Although you can create packages with 7-zips, when you create a self-installing package, Minecrafter will convert the archives to ZIP to reduce this library dependency. There are other little bits and bobs that also need to be done, but I can say confidently that it’s very straight forward task. Stay tuned for this in the coming weeks.