Minecraft: Java Edition
Minecraft is a sandbox construction game, inspired by Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper, created by Markus Persson, the founder of Mojang AB. The game involves players creating and destroying various types of blocks in a three dimensional environment. The player takes an avatar that can destroy or create blocks, forming fantastic structures, creations and artwork across the various multiplayer servers in multiple game modes.
Minecraft is available to players for €19.95 (~£17.21/~$26.90). Singleplayer and multiplayer, when purchased, can be played in the user's web browser, or using the downloadable client. Minecraft Classic is available to play for free. Minecraft development started around the 10th of May 2009, pre-orders for the full game started being accepted on the 13th of June 2009. Minecraft's official release date was the 18th of November 2011.
Game Modes
Creative Mode Creative mode is one of the main game modes in Minecraft. It is playable in both premium and Classic and singleplayer and multiplayer versions of the game. The Creative game mode allows you to build and destroy blocks instantly in a manner in which you can build any sort of structure you would like.
Players are given an infinite amount of blocks to build with and no health Bar or damage to worry about. Taking advantage of this, players can create large constructions such as castles, roads, water fountains, and much more along with forms of artwork called pixel art. Not only have users designed buildings, pixel art and caves, but also mini-sports, such as Spleef.
Along with the absence of hunger and health, the player is also able to fly. Source
Survival Mode Survival mode is the game mode of Minecraft in which players can collect resources, build structures, battle mobs, fight hunger, and explore the land. It is currently the main focus in the development of Minecraft, being the only playable game mode in Beta until 1.8 with the reintroduction of Creative.
In Survival, players have an inventory in which they may gather items. These items may be combined using certain recipes to create Tools and other Items. This process is known as crafting. Most crafting recipes need a crafting table. Players are also able to create potions by brewing. Source
Hardcore Mode Hardcore mode is a Minecraft Game Mode that is a variant of Survival, differing primarily by the lack of the ability to respawn (instead, the world is deleted) and change difficulty. The mode was introduced in Beta 1.9 Pre-Release 2 and officially added in Minecraft 1.0. The idea came to Notch from a Minecraft gameplay blog on the PCGamer site. Source
Multiplayer (SMP)
Since the implementation of Multiplayer in Minecraft, people have been gathering together to create communities of Minecraft enthusiasts who play together in a creative (or warbased) manners. Today, it's normal for updates which happen in Minecraft to improve the Offline experience as well as the online, so anything you can do, you can probably do in Multiplayer.
To host a multiplayer server, you must have sufficient hardware. Most people have dedicated boxes, running Linux specifically, so they get the best performance on their machines. If you're looking to run a minecraft server, it's recommended you do so with specifally modified versions of the Minecraft Server code. Such modifications can be found under the name of "Bukkit", which is a server mod created to improve the minecraft server and allow users to install plugins, which do varying things, depending on the intent of the plugin. For some examples, please see Dev Bukkit and if you wish to set up a Bukkit based server, please see Setting up a server
If you wish to find a multiplayer server for minecraft, there are lists set up which are ordered by votes for the server and uptime. Such a list can be found here Minecraft Server List or at Minestatus
Mods
OptiFine (FPS boost/HD texture enabler)
Installing the OptiFine mod can help getting a better frame rate on most systems. It provides the user with a lot of extra graphical options. It also allows loading of HD Textures without a patcher.
MCPatcher HD fix (HD texture enabler/better grass/random mob colors)
Original HD texture enabler. As opposed to OptiFine, MCPatcher gets updated for every weekly snapshot. Most other Minecraft mods are compatible with MCPatcher.
TooManyItems (Inventory editor/gamemode switcher/time control)
TooManyItems provides the player with an on-screen inventory editor. It also enables one-click switching of gamemode in singleplayer, and gives the player control over the time. Also supports multiplayer,granted that the player has enough rights on the server. TooManyItems gets updated for every weekly snapshot. Most other Minecraft mods are compatible with TooManyItems.
MagicLauncher (Minecraft launcher alternative)
MagicLauncher is a external program that has all the features of the original, and many more.
Some features include:
- Selectable minecraft.jar
- Automatic version detection
- Selectable minecraft folder
- Selectable java executable
- Java memory limit
- Configuration profiles
- Load mods dynamically without changing minecraft.jar
- META-INF does not have to be deleted
- Automatic mod compatibility checking
- Automatic mod requirements checking (ModLoader, ModLoaderMP, Forge, GuiAPI)
Magic Launcher forum thread. Works with most Minecraft releases.
For more mods go to the Minecraft forum.
Tricks
Minecraft File Location on Mac
YourUserName>Library>Application Support>minecraft If you are running Mac Os 10 Lion, your library folder will not be accessible by default, you must instead follow the instructions on this page to unhide this directory.
Minecraft File Location on Windows
%programdata%>minecraft
Game crashes on 32-bit systems
If you are experiencing frequent crashes on 32-bit systems (especially when exploring the world), set the Render Distance to 'Normal' or lower. The 'Far' setting is only stable on 64-bit systems.
Fixing General Issues
If you are having problems with Minecraft and have no clue as to what to do, try making a backup of the .minecraft folder, then deleting the original. Then launch the game, download it again and see if there are problems. If your issues persist, Minecraft is not the cause. If the issues are gone, try adding the folders one by one until the issues are back, then delete/fix the problem folder.
Black Screen On Startup
This happens when a user installs a mod that had not been updated for the current version of Minecraft or when a mod is simply not installed correctly. Ways to fix this are to uninstall recently added mods/texture packs, or by simply deleting the .dat file altogether. If you choose the second method to fix this error, you must force update next time you open the program.
Enabling in 64Bit Mode & Allocating More Memory (Mac)
This is a longstanding problem with the game, which has a nice and easy fix.
- First Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed for your version of OSX, and make sure it is enabled in Java Preferences (/Applications/Utilities)
- Right click on the applications from finder and click "Show Package Contents"
- Open "Minecraft.app/Contents/info.plist"
- This can be Opened in Xcode, or any other text editing package on Mac.
- Find 'JVMVersion' key and then change it to '1.6+'
- Add an addition key to 'JVMArchs' with the value 'x86_64'
- Replace JavaApplicationStubs in
"Minecraft.app/Contents/MacOS/"
- with the default ones found in:
"/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/A/Resources/MacOS/"
This should boot you into 64bit Mode. If you wan't to increase the RAM allowance, then go into the info.plist and Change -Xms___MB and -Xmx___MB to what you want. The default settings are recommended here unless you have sufficient RAM to support more, or a high-resolution texture pack.
Allocating more memory (Windows)
If Minecraft runs unstable or you get the "Out of memory" message often, consider trying to allocate more RAM to Minecraft. By default only 512 Mb of memory is allocated to Minecraft and once that is filled you get the dreaded "Oom" Message. Here's how to increase the amount:
1. Create a batch file. (Rename an empty text file to .bat) 2. paste the following text into it: @Echo off java -Xmx(max memory) -Xms(min memory) -jar "C:\minecraft.exe location\minecraft.exe" 3. Save and double click the .bat file to start mc with the new settings 4. Press F3 and check the upper right corner
The amount of memory is entered in MB. Eg 1024 would be 1GB, and 2048 would be 2GB.
Allocating More Memory Linux
Run the command from console, using this command:
java -jar -Xms512MB -Xmx1024MB <PathTo>/minecraft.jar
Substitute <PathTo> with the path to the Jar file.
Running in a fullscreen, borderless window (Windows)
There are no command line options available for this, but spidEY, a user from the EdgeGamers forum, wrote a launcher that allows you to run Minecraft in a fullscreen, borderless window.
Forum post for the program, which works with the latest version of Minecraft (1.1).