Blogs - hastypixels

Tumbleberry and I have been very busy and we're pleased to finally release a version of the resource pack that fully supports Minecraft 1.12, and the result really is spectacular. The work that Tumbleberry has put into the designs is bar none her best so far, and top notch work. There's been some concern about Microsoft's commitment to what they're now calling the "Java Edition" of Minecraft.

Mostly that's been questioned by netizens, but apart from the trickle of content they manage to squeeze out on the Minecraft Marketplace (inventive much?) things are not so dire as they seem. The majority of Minecraft's playerbase is on PC because consoles just don't suit Minecraft's inherent flexibility and native control methods. Read: It's still a pain to play on touch screen or a controller.

I am cautiously optimistic: Microsoft cannot magically transform us into paying players, and that is a fact they cannot avoid. So far they haven't been able to craft a compelling reason to switch to the nicer looking MCPE. Minecraft was a poor man's Inifiminer, let's not forget, and it will always be. If the downloads I'm tracking are any indication, a majority of players shun anything after Minecraft 1.7, and Mojang knows that, thanks to built in phone home metrics.

In the mean time, Tumbleberry and I will not be joining the Marketplace, nor will we be charging for the ACME Resource Pack. That said, if you use it and would like to show your support, consider following us on Twitter at @hastypixels - Facebook at Facebook.com and Patreon at Patreon.com ... I'm always looking at ways of making it easier for us to deliver the pack to you guys in a more streamlined way with better tools.

It doesn't take much, and every little bit counts.

I'm sure any texture pack developer who keeps track of their downloads has noticed that Minecraft versions 1.5 and 1.6 are in as much demand as 1.10, and will likely remain in demand for some time to come. Why is that?

YouTube videos lend some insight; I've seen game play videos made on older machines that still work just fine. I'm glad that we've been supporting the older versions of Minecraft, and I commit to continue that practice. I've also gone ahead and fixed several issues in the older packs as well.

As always, thank you for the continued support! We're now have a Patreon page, so check it out if you're curious.

Enjoy!

Tumbleberry and I have been busy! Good gravy, have we been at it ... but she really has been working the hardest, but I always show my gratitude. The ACME Resource Pack would not be possible without her talent and expertise.

Mojang deserves credit, too. The llamas are fun, and their AIs are endearing. I'm glad to see some necessary improvement for the fun side of Minecraft. Excellent stuff. I suspect Microsoft has a hand in it, what with all the experience they have publishing games, but again, good stuff. Unfortunately, all is not well:

I noticed I was wrong about Optifine. They didn't buy it ... they should have ... and Minecraft still isn't nearly as efficient as it needs to be, unless you happen to run the Anniversary Edition. Yurgle. I did pick up a copy, thanks to their promotion, but I'm less than enthused about the texture packs.

$4.99 a piece? Sorry, what?

Microtransactions are alive and well in their universe, so let's not buy in ... the experience is not as flexible as the Java version, and that doesn't look to change any time soon. Incidentally, I know I'm not alone here, but the launcher still has inexcusable glitching issues.

Another thing, I'm posting progress updates on our brand new Patreon page, so check that out, especially if you're interested in contributing to the cost of new hardware for Tumbleberry!

Bear with me, this may get a little technical.

Mojang has been busy incorporating both Optifine and MCPatcher features into Minecraft. Even now the video settings windows looks suspiciously similar. Shaders and vastly improved responsiveness is a more than welcome improvement. This new snapshot feels so smooth I don't want to play Minecraft 1.6 anymore.

I'm eager for the new release. I can honestly say we weren't thrilled with the last, but it turned out for the best. This time we are thrilled to be working on 1.7 - we're upping the ante too. 64x resolution may not cut it.

Thankfully the new rendering engine may enable players who couldn't play to join the foray. Let's face it guys, even Intel CPU based graphics are acceptable. When your graphics accelerator actually does more work than your CPU - which most do these days - it's a shame not to take advantage of it.For the first time, Minecraft will do so natively.

A consequence of this is MCPatcher and Optfine are effectively useless. I haven't heard whether a deal was reached, but I doubt it was necessary as Java (and thus Minecraft) uses OpenGL for rendering, so there are no secrets - only techniques. Color patches and mods across the board may be completely invalidated, depending on the planned adaptation path of the aforementioned mods.

What this means for us is the MCPatcher/Optifine features of the ACME and ACME Christmas Packs will not work. Frankly it's up in the air and only the guys at Mojang know what they plan to support. Are we getting random mobs? An easier system of modding textures, colormaps and connected stuff?

My impression of all this is that Mojang is laying the groundwork to support as many mods as are logical in the foundation of a plugin API. So far, so good.What's next? Until we know "advanced features" such as transparent glass are on hold.

It's not that Mojang hasn't made boneheaded choices, but the beauty of code is errors are usually correctable, features are buildable. We've been waiting a long time for the sort of performance and functionality that is being added, and I'm grateful for it.

Good work, guys!