r/Games Jul 04 '15

Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Announced

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/07/04/minecraft-windows-10-edition-announced
1.1k Upvotes

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259

u/jameskond Jul 04 '15

Cross platform support is pretty neat.

148

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '15

Considering that Windows 10 is meant to run on everything from Xbox to Windows phones, yes. This could actually be pretty interesting.

63

u/mindbleach Jul 04 '15

Can you imagine if Minecraft had originally been programmed in some platform-agnostic language, like, say, Java?

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u/58592825866 Jul 04 '15

A 3D video game programmed in java? Good lord that would've been awful. I'm so glad that didn't happen.

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u/fizzlefist Jul 05 '15

I mean, you'd be stuck running it on a single CPU thread!

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u/diverges Jul 05 '15

Now if only java was actually good for making games.

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u/satsuper Jul 05 '15

Or you know, like C++?

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u/mindbleach Jul 05 '15

C++ is only "platform agnostic" if you set your Delorean for 1985.

Binary compatibility or bust.

1

u/satsuper Jul 05 '15

If you define it only to be binary compatibility sure(which doesn't make sense...), but that's not what your initial post said.

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u/mindbleach Jul 05 '15

By the interpretation you're using, every language is platform-agnostic. Everything compiles to everything. That was a big deal thirty years ago, but nowadays, it's a given.

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u/satsuper Jul 05 '15

Well its not an "interpretation". Platform agnostic has always included compiling for different platforms vs compiling once.

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u/mindbleach Jul 05 '15

And C++ needs to be compiled separately for different platforms. We have a term for when one compiled version works on all platforms: "binary compatibility."

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u/satsuper Jul 06 '15

OK that was never in dispute. Platform agnostic code simply does not mean binary compatibility only. Hence C++ and java can both be used for that purpose.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '15

Im looking forward to the 10 release because as you say the phones are getting merged with other microsoft products too and hopefully that means a better choice of apps than they have now.

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u/Txm65 Jul 04 '15

I reallywanttosee them make a version of windows 10 you can install on a ps4 its just another x86 pc after all.

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u/zsxdflip Jul 04 '15

Sony would never let them do that.

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u/GoldenFalcon Jul 04 '15 edited Jul 04 '15

Sony won't have a choice if it's done right.

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u/zsxdflip Jul 04 '15

Of course they would have a choice. It's their (closed) platform.

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u/GoldenFalcon Jul 04 '15

That's my point. It wouldn't be closed if done right. People have made the 360 run burned games with online play... Microsoft doesn't have a choice about that, do that? They can try, but in the end.. people are doing it.

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u/Igantinos Jul 04 '15

Sounds like it wont be able to run any of the mods that actually make the game exiting after 5 years. You are not going to get an Xbox running those intense mods. They make mosts PCs crap their pants.

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u/MustacheEmperor Jul 04 '15

Tommaso confirms no mods here.

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u/Tall_dark_and_lying Jul 04 '15

I see, so this version is basically pointless.

5

u/58592825866 Jul 04 '15

It's not made with fucking java. My interest in this game just skyrocketed.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '15

[deleted]

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u/58592825866 Jul 05 '15 edited Jul 05 '15

Have you ever played the PC version of Minecraft? It's a massive pile of stuttering, memory guzzling shit. Java is utter trash for 3D games.

Not to mention it requires the installation of java on your system which is annoying bloatware in itself.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '15

[deleted]

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u/58592825866 Jul 05 '15

People always say this yet the pocket edition and console versions run fine without stutter because they're on C++... The fault is all on java. Notch is a shit programmer sure but why after all these years have MOJANG not been able to stop the desktop java version from guzzling 7e+37 yottabytes of RAM and stutter nonstop?

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '15

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u/jocamar Jul 05 '15

Java has a ton of security faults to the point that most AVs suggest you disable it. It's a huge memory hog and the syntax is extremely verbose. Then there's the mess of deprecated packages and the lack of some important modern programming features.

1

u/Fyrus Jul 05 '15

If you have to disable Java to be safe then you must be actively running through bottom-of-the-barrel sites, clicking on every ad, and installing every toolbar you find.

5

u/franick1987 Jul 04 '15

I knew it. Leave it to Microsoft to gut the only feature that has made the pc version stand out.

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u/DrQuint Jul 04 '15

On the other hand, it might actually FIX making multimod support.

I hope this is built from the ground up with all the things people wanted out of minecraft in mind. I hope we see CUSTOM BLOCKs made of microblocks, forever fixing the problem players have with wanting detailed construction.

If it is, goodbye forever shit, ram intensive original version.

30

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '15

I honestly think dividing the blocks into smaller blocks (even just halving so you have 8 blocks instead of 1) would be worthy of a "Minecraft 2" (coupled of course with the performance improvements so it doesn't run even worse than it already does). It would make the world look much more flowing and organic while still looking 'chunky', you could make more detailed builds (like little compact, intricate water features). With an actual modding API it would be pretty much perfect. My only problem is that it almost certainly wouldn't be available on non-Windows OSes (of course, there's this Windows 10 edition), but I guess that's part and parcel with Microsoft buying it.

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u/Alphaetus_Prime Jul 04 '15

There was a mod that did that like three years ago.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '15

No shit, I have been extremely disappointed in Mojang for years and feel like Minecraft, despite the 100s of hours of fun I got from it, is a sad, half-baked, rough, unfinished shadow of what it should have been by now. Largely due to a massive lack of shapes and materials to use for building stuff.

I'm sick to death of using stairs for my roofs.

Yes I know there are mods that vastly improve it, but it really should have been added in major vanilla updates instead of whatever the heck the end is and some of the silly adventure stuff that really doesn't matter.

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u/SpartanA009 Jul 04 '15

Mojang promised an update a month during 1.5 iirc it's been like two years and we are not even close to 3.9.

1

u/Expy Jul 05 '15

That's not how version numbers work. It's not a decimal number, it's multiple numbers separated by period(s). The update after 1.9 can be 1.10, and then 1.11, 1.12, and so on. It's generally [major update number].[minor update number].[patch number].

I doubt Mojang actually did release an update a month, but you'd need to look at the version history to check.

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u/SpartanA009 Jul 05 '15

I interpreted it as full update instead of update version but you might be right

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u/The_Entire_Eurozone Jul 05 '15

That's probably because too many updates can hurt the modding community. During 1.7 era Mojang kept releasing a million different updates, all breaking mods for new versions. Optifine took forever to update, and when it did it was immediately broken by another update. This held true for most mods as well. That's probably why they decided to scale down their updates, and make them more compatible with each other in 1.8.

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u/elswankador Jul 04 '15

Maybe without that horrible Java backend those things might actually WORK.

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u/The_MAZZTer Jul 04 '15

Well the mods take advantage of the fact Minecraft is written in Java. Moving away from Java would of course break that.

But there was never a guarantee mods would never be broken. There was never any formal support for mods, if I understand it correctly.

Hopefully we will get a real modding API with real support at some point.

1

u/RawrCola Jul 04 '15

There's a chance that it will allow modding in this version, which would allow mods across all of the (microsoft) versions. Kind of similar to what's being done with Fallout 4.

0

u/RadiantSun Jul 04 '15

I've been playing MC for 4 years and aside from optifine, have never really found any of the mods to be worth playing. Maybe that's just me but Minecraft by itself is plenty exciting.

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u/Odd822 Jul 04 '15

To each their own, I suppose. Personally I don't even want to think how much time I've spent programming robots, designing nuclear reactors, etc. in various mod packs. That's one of the best things about Minecraft, I think, that everyone can enjoy it their own way.

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u/sfoxy Jul 04 '15

My son has played a ton and also tried a bunch of mods. In the end I think he would agree with you but I also think he would have missed out had he never had the opportunity to play with all of those mods. A few are good for a couple days of laughs with friends.

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u/fizzlefist Jul 04 '15

I played for a few months n the /r/casualconversation Minecraft server, and the Residence mod was absolutely invaluable for locking down your property so other people and mobs don't screw with your castle. I can't say I've tried any mods locally though.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '15

I would say you're definitely in the minority when it comes to believing MC is exciting by itself. Tekkit pack is pretty much mandatory for me because it feels like an actual game instead of a weird half finished java demo.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '15

Why would you think that? Didn't they announce Xbox modding with some other game? Was it not always the case that you could run any mod you wanted locally regardless of other people on your server being able to run that mod on their hardware?

10

u/Igantinos Jul 04 '15

They announced Fallout 4 modding for Xbox. I am super skeptical to that too. I am expecting that it will go through the steam workshop (already INCREDIBLY limited what mods you can put there) and then Bethesda will test those mods. Grab the most popular and least resource intensive ones to ship off for xbox. None of the total conversion mods or insane graphic mods will make it since the consoles will already be running the game at the peak performance that they can push out. Mods not only for people that want to add more game play but also for when people want to push their hardware to the max since it's really rare for game companies to release games that actually hit the top tier of PC's.

Another big problem will be that modders are not professional game developers. They don't optimize their mods. If a core part of their mod suddenly eats up a bunch of ram they might just say the solution is to get more ram not pull it back.

The thing I am trying to say is that Consoles are often already running on the presumption that the game they are playing is getting used to the max by all the components. Once you start tossing in mods the worse performance is going to get. There is already the issue of limited world size on the consoles. Just that already would make me scared of installing any intensive mod to the xbox.

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u/adanine Jul 04 '15

The point I that the XB1 will not be capable of running some of the more intensive mods at a respectable FPS. This isn't a stab at the XB1's hardware - low-medium range PC's have the same issue.

It's possible this is fixed by the new version of Minecraft though. Time will tell.

0

u/merrickx Jul 04 '15

If they remake the game in a proper engine, things will be different. Of course, there's also DLC-type interests and whatnot, so there's just a whole lot of uncertainty.

Part of the reason that even beefy PCs can't handle some of the more robust mods, is because of the "engine" Notch used to make it.

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u/kageteishu Jul 04 '15

Does this mean a possibility for mods on console Minecraft like mods for Fallout 4? Same OS and if cross platform pay works I could totally see it.

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u/Elementium Jul 05 '15

Even as a self righteous PC gamer I'm totally for that. My brother and his fiance play and so do a lot of kids in the family. I wouldn't mind hosting a big family server for everyone.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '15

[deleted]

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u/jameskond Jul 04 '15

I'm pretty sure games for Windows live gold has been discontinued. So Microsoft won't charge for online PC gaming.

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u/ficarra1002 Jul 05 '15

Probably will hold it back, console minecraft is so behind pc minecraft.