What's causing the Build 76 Delay

[Bioxx 796]

Ok so I'm seeing people ask for an eta on 76 all over the place because they expect it to be done in a single day. Conversion to 1.5 is a lot more time consuming than anyone expected. Mostly because it broke rendering. Unlike most mods out there, the TFC team prides itself in having most of its blocks not being simple 1m cubes. Unfortunately, when you start messing with the tenants of rendering in the ways that Mojang has done, we're forced to rewrite the rendering process for a significant amount of blocks from scratch.

So off the top of my head, here's whats holding us up:

• Any crops that render higher than a single block(corn) are now broken. Due to how I chose to go about handing these crops in the first place, this is going to require a full redesign of the BlockCrop class.
• Ores aren't rendering with their overlay.
• Fruit trees aren't rendering correctly.
• A bunch of others are probably broken as well.
• Need to do a full test of every single feature to make sure that nothing has been left in a broken state.
• Potentially hundreds of items have blank names in game due to how the item naming system changed.

On the bright side, I managed to fix the last "Missing Texture" error today so we're done with that annoying part.

[bart74 2]

Ok so I'm seeing people ask for an eta on 76 all over the place because they expect it to be done in a single day. Conversion to 1.5 is a lot more time consuming than anyone expected. Mostly because it broke rendering. Unlike most mods out there, the TFC team prides itself in having most of its blocks not being simple 1m cubes. Unfortunately, when you start messing with the tenants of rendering in the ways that Mojang has done, we're forced to rewrite the rendering process for a significant amount of blocks from scratch.

So off the top of my head, here's whats holding us up:

• Any crops that render higher than a single block(corn) are now broken. Due to how I chose to go about handing these crops in the first place, this is going to require a full redesign of the BlockCrop class.
• Ores aren't rendering with their overlay.
• Fruit trees aren't rendering correctly.
• A bunch of others are probably broken as well.
• Need to do a full test of every single feature to make sure that nothing has been left in a broken state.
• Potentially hundreds of items have blank names in game due to how the item naming system changed.

On the bright side, I managed to fix the last "Missing Texture" error today so we're done with that annoying part.

too bad,why mojang added this new texturing system? old one was a lot better

[Upthorn 1]

Thank you for taking the time to let the community know what the status is. It makes thing significantly less annoying for everyone to have this kind of communication from mod developers.

[Gwtheyrn 70]

AWWW!

*sulks as he puts away the torches and pitchforks*

Craptastic that Mojang decided to do things this way. I'm sure they had their reasons, but it still broke so many mods out there.

[Menoch 335]

AWWW!

*sulks as he puts away the torches and pitchforks*

Craptastic that Mojang decided to do things this way. I'm sure they had their reasons, but it still broke so many mods out there.

It often makes you wonder why companies/people approach things a certain way....

Thanks for the update, Bioxx. It is greatly appreciated. Also, will build 76 come with the Retro shag carpet and Captain Kirk command module implemented? Or will that be after Minecraft version 6.8.9, when mojang decides to do away with graphics altogether and they make us use our imagination?

If we do have to wait for those cool new features, that is fine... but I wont be happy...

Jk

Thank you for all your hard work! :)/>

[Enzer 60]

too bad,why mojang added this new texturing system? old one was a lot better

Outside of the initial conversion, from a texture artist standpoint this is actually a smart thing for Mojang to do. Relying on several sheets to contain all your texture is pretty poor practice. The new format allows Mojang to add new blocks to the game without instantly breaking 3rd party textures.

A new block gets added? That is cool, I don't have to wait for the snapshot to come out that has the texture in it, redo it in whatever style my pack is in, and hope that its location doesn't change on the sheet when the patch is finally pushed out. Texture artist are able to breath a little, knowing that new blocks or items will use the default textures and not break the rest of the texture pack.

The other benefit of the new format is not only was support for higher resolution textures added, but you can now mix resolutions. I can have 16, 32 or 64 textures in the same pack without issue, this was not possible with the old sheet format.

From the perspective of a texture artist making support for mods in their texture pack, it is also very handy. I know a few big texture artist who wished that modders didn't rely on texture sheets since it makes keeping mod support maintained really hard. A lot of mods update rapidly, adding new items, changing blocks and sometimes changing the location on texture sheets for various blocks. It is a right pain in the ass.

So yeah, is the intial change for converting textures over a big pain in the ass? Yes, but the benefits and long term impact the new format has, is worth the effort, I think.

Also, Bioxx, you are saying changes in rendering is causing issues, are you aware of the new rendering engine (a complete rewrite of the rendering engine, they've been talking about this since a little before the 2012 Minecon) that they will be implementing possibly between patch 1.6 and 1.7?

Can't find the other tweet, but Jeb indicated that a new launcher and LWJGL update are required before they can push the render. A recent tweet from Jeb stated that 1.6 is aimed for a May release. This tweet ( https://twitter.com/...256269926117376 ) reveals that the LWGJL and launcher will be pushed with 1.6, or at least planned to be, and recent talks on Jeb and Dinnerbone's twitter gives a good indication that the rendering engine is more than likely done and ready for testing (engine is being done by Grum).

While this sounds like its going to be a nightmare again with trying to get things working again with the new engine (it will), before people start bashing it because it is going to cause issues in the modding community (like the texture update), keep in mind that MC's current rendering engine (the one written by Notch) is really bad and is in dire need of an update. Furthermore, this rewrite will mark another step done in the process of them being able to get an API together (they need to get all the background engine stuff hammered down and working write before they push out an API.. otherwise if they push out the API then have to rewrite parts of the engine, guess what, the API breaks as does everything that uses it. This update will also allow the rendering engine to be more open to modders trying to tinker with it, while this may not be fully accessible until an API is out that allows the interaction, it is a step in the right direction).

[Bioxx 796]

Yeah I'm aware of the rendering update that's coming and i dread it with every fiber of my being. Having to fix all this crap once is enough. That said, obviously these changes are needed, and in the long term I'm happy to see them.

[Zerren 75]

I'm sure we can definitely wait for a finished product though. I have no reason to play 1.5 besides the inventory changes (shift dragging).

Those barrels and ingots though, man... Nice.

[PanRouge 5]

I think that everyone is dreading bricks...

[Enzer 60]

Yeah I'm aware of the rendering update that's coming and i dread it with every fiber of my being. Having to fix all this crap once is enough. That said, obviously these changes are needed, and in the long term I'm happy to see them.

Yeah, I only deal with texture work so I'm not affected by the rendering stuff, but I can only imagine how bad it is going to be for you when that update drops. That said the hard work you (and Dunk) put in to this mod is greatly appreciated.

[mayaknife 82]

Yeah I'm aware of the rendering update that's coming and i dread it with every fiber of my being. Having to fix all this crap once is enough. That said, obviously these changes are needed, and in the long term I'm happy to see them.

It'll be nice when (if?) Mojang finishes the API for minecraft. That won't eliminate all of these sorts of update problems, but it should get rid of a lot of them.

[Omicron 62]

Thanks for your hard work, Bioxx & the rest of your team!

Remember, whenever someone begs for an ETA or complains that it's not done yet, it's only because they love Terrafirmacraft so much that they can't wait

[bart74 2]

but how much time is needed before release? some days,some weeks,or some month? I can't wait for this amazing release that add a lot of things

thanks for all the work you done for TFC,you and your team

[PanRouge 5]

but how much time is needed before release? some days,some weeks,or some month? I can't wait for this amazing release that add a lot of things

thanks for all the work you done for TFC,you and your team

In another thread, he dunk said that it would be done by the end of the week if everything went smoothly. I'm guessing that we have another 1-2 weeks left with all the changes that need to be done. But hey, I have no idea.

[Menoch 335]

Heheh..... He-Dunk. Masters of the Terraverse!

[NavaehsRealm 1]

Bioxx, could you let us know what version of forge the build is being built on? Thanks.

[Gwtheyrn 70]

Bioxx, could you let us know what version of forge the build is being built on? Thanks.

Version 1.0! Just to troll you.

[Bioxx 796]

I wont know the forge version till the day we ship. I constantly update the forge version to stay with the latest when I'm converting to a new mc version.

[CreeperVon 22]

Ok so I'm seeing people ask for an eta on 76 all over the place because they expect it to be done in a single day. Conversion to 1.5 is a lot more time consuming than anyone expected. Mostly because it broke rendering. Unlike most mods out there, the TFC team prides itself in having most of its blocks not being simple 1m cubes. Unfortunately, when you start messing with the tenants of rendering in the ways that Mojang has done, we're forced to rewrite the rendering process for a significant amount of blocks from scratch.

So off the top of my head, here's whats holding us up:

• Any crops that render higher than a single block(corn) are now broken. Due to how I chose to go about handing these crops in the first place, this is going to require a full redesign of the BlockCrop class.
• Ores aren't rendering with their overlay.
• Fruit trees aren't rendering correctly.
• A bunch of others are probably broken as well.
• Need to do a full test of every single feature to make sure that nothing has been left in a broken state.
• Potentially hundreds of items have blank names in game due to how the item naming system changed.

On the bright side, I managed to fix the last "Missing Texture" error today so we're done with that annoying part.

Damn, that must be awful. I wake up every morning and check if it's updated. Oh, wait. Check out sethblings video. Minecraft 2.0 is coming out soon. Better update! (April fools, the joke is real though!)