Minalien Dev Blog
Game, Mod, & Software Development Blog
MFFS 2.3.0.0.1
Quick update on the MFFS build released earlier. The forcefield generation problem has been fixed. A new build can be downloaded at:
https://bitbucket.org/SeargeDP/modularforcefieldsystem/downloads/MFFS%202.3.0.0.1.zip.
MFFS v2 2.3.0.0.0 [Early Testing Build]
An early testing build for MFFS 2.3 is now out! Please note that this is a very early testing build, and many things may be broken. But that’s what I want – I want to know what bits and bobs are broken at the moment, so that Searge and I can add them to our list of things to fix. At this moment, most of the features of MFFS are functional – BuildCraft 3 & IndustrialCraft 2 power for the Extractor, IC2 Macerator and TE Pulverizer recipes for Forcicium, Monazit ore world generation, forcefield modules, etc.
The following mod compatibilities should still be present:
- BuildCraft 3
- IndustrialCraft 2 (Beta build 291+)
- Thermal Expansion
- Railcraft Beta
Please note that ComputerCraft support is currently unimplemented, and support for Universal Electricity has been removed (and is not planned to be re-implemented).
There is, however, one very damaging bug at the moment, with regard to forcefields. This is being worked on, but I feel it is time to get a build out so that other aspects of the mod can be tested while this is being worked on. If you attempt to make a forcefield that is very large, you will crash with an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException. This issue is on top of our maintenance priorities at the moment. I do not recommend using this build of MFFS for any production server – this is a bug-hunting release, intended for people to hunt for bugs. Period. Please do not add this to any mod lists (such as NotEnoughMods) until a stable version has been released. Thank you.
Please submit all bug reports to the MFFS Bitbucket repository: https://bitbucket.org/SeargeDP/modularforcefieldsystem/issues.
Download (Direct) (Requires Forge 7.7.1.651 or later.)
Modular Forcefield System v2
Something that has bothered me quite a bit recently has been the way that the Modular Force Field System mod has been handled with Thunderdark’s (the original developer) disappearance. When he chose to leave, he offered MFFS up for grabs, and the person who received it was Calclavia, of Universal Electricity. The way the mod has been handled has been a little bit controversial to some – accusations of obfuscation (most of which is simply a transliteration into Chinese, Calclavia’s native language) changing the mod to be closed-source (until re-opening it recently), and so on. I personally am not a fan of the way in which Universal Electricity mods are handled in general, and so I have decided that I will maintain the MFFS 2 mod, much in the way immibis has maintained the original MFFS mod.
With the maintenance and development of this mod, I have four prevailing goals:
- Keep the mod up-to-date with updated Minecraft and Forge versions.
- Maintain Thunderdark’s original GPL3 license.
- Maintain the open-source nature of this project.
- Introduce new features and mod compatibility, while maintaining the feel of MFFS2 as it was while in Thunderdark’s care.
Maintaining MFFS2 is going to be somewhat time-consuming, but I really enjoy this mod and feel that it will be an entertaining experience.
My first order of business with this project is to port the MFFS2 code, as-is, to 1.5.1 (updating, of course, to the latest BuildCraft and IndustrialCraft APIs). However, after it is stable, I will begin the process of refactoring the code to match newer Forge mod standards, clean the code itself and provide documentation for all aspects of the mod. As I stated earlier, I will be focused on maintaining the open-source nature of the original mod through the GPLv3 open-source license. I will be maintaining a code repository on GitHub after the mod has reached a state where it can build and run properly for Minecraft 1.5.1.
New tutorial up: Multi-Block Structures in Minecraft Forge
The next tutorial is up! This one gives an overview of how to add multi-block structure functionality to your existing mod. I went with a little bit of a different style for this tutorial than I usually do – I’d love to hear any feedback as to which style is preferred for future tutorials! New tutorial can be found here.
Multi-block Tutorial Cleanup
Unfortunately, it seems the next tutorial in my series is going to take a little bit longer than I had originally anticipated. I’ve finished the code and gotten it functional, so I’ve entered my cleanup phase and realized… that it’s a bit of a mess. So, I will be taking some extra time to clean up the code and in-source documentation, because I’ll not be releasing messy code in a tutorial. With any luck, a couple hours of tinkering, refactoring and general housekeeping will get this tutorial up and ready to go!
In the mean time, here’s a little bit of a teaser of what we’ll be building in the tutorial:
Introduction to CryENGINE 3 Scripting Workshop
This afternoon, I ran a workshop at my University covering CryENGINE 3 scripting with Lua and FlowGraph. While I’m still waiting for the edited version to be posted (removing some of the pauses and troubleshooting periods, and hopefully a little clearer), the video of the workshop is available on my University’s UStream page, here.
The PowerPoint presentation can be found here, while the game files (and the Powerpoint presentation) can be found here. To open the game file archive, you’ll need a program capable of extracting 7-Zip files.
New tutorial up: OBJ Rendering in Forge
I’ve just added a new tutorial, covering the use of custom Tile Entity renderers with the new OBJ loader in Minecraft Forge. Catch it over at my Tutorials page.
Under Construction
I’ve recently rebuilt my server, so this development blog is temporarily under reconstruction.