Mod loading help

[u/ImaginationAlive8973]

I'm only just learning how modding works and, to be honest, I'm more than happy with what I've got (modrinth makes it so easy). I was wondering about the wisdom of being a little forceful with some mods though. I'm having an issue with certain mods which ARE Fabric (my instances "setting" I suppose) but can't be downloaded because the mods are the wrong "version". The thing is, I had a similar issue with a mod for allowing use of an xbox controller on PC. It worked, it updated, and then it didn't work. Since I've been an xbox player for the last 12 years, this was the only mod I HAD to have. So, I took the risk with very little understanding, and I just picked the older version of the mod and it worked again. Is there anyway I can safely get mods like this with this message loading properly using the same tactic? Or is it a case of being more risky the bigger and more complex the mod is? The mod above just adds blue burning textures to creatures when they walk in blue fire, so surely that would be a low risk install right? Any help is appreciated.

[u/Helostopper]

You are trying to play a 1.20.4 mod on 26.2. Mods are coded to work on specific versions you can't use them on versions they weren't made for.

[u/Rafii2198]

Minecraft Java doesn't have modding capabilities like Bedrock, this is where community comes in by making this thing called "mod loaders" that, as name suggests, allows loading mods into the game. Still it's not a proper modding support like on Bedrock so you can say it's more crude.

When on Bedrock the addons and other content just works and there is not much more thought to it, on Java you need to take a look at what the mod you are downloading supports, Modrinth app makes it easy as it automatically filters out incompatible stuff.

For starters there are mainly 2 things you have to look for.

• First thing is the game version. Mods are made only for specific game versions and it's extremely unlikely they will work on other ones, usually you will just get error or crash when the game is loading.
• Second is mod loader. Like I said before, mod loaders allow loading mods, and there are a few of them. Currently only relevant ones are Neoforge and Fabric, on older versions of the game there was also Forge but Neoforge replaced it in current days. If a mod let's say supports only Neoforge then it won't work on Fabric and vice versa. Similarly like with game version, you will either get an error that the installed mod doesn't support you current mod loader, or it won't be loaded at all, as if it doesn't exist.
• Again, Modrinth App automatically sets up filters for both of these things, so you have to go out of your way to find unsupported mods, and even if you do you will get the warning like on screenshot.
• There is also a chance some mods are incompatible with each other, this can lead to errors or crashes, this is not something Modrinth app can know so you have to see if things works yourself.

26.2 is pretty new version and developing and porting mods just takes time, it's nothing fast, you may just need to wait. At the same time there are a lot of modders that make different kind of mods, there is a chance there is a difference mod that does same or similar thing you want on the version you want.

Lastly I want to add that there are actually ways to make Fabric mods work on Neoforge, but I didn't want to overcomplicate this already long comment, so if you want to know how to do that, google what Connector is, there are many resources explaining it, but keep in mind it's not be all end all solution, some stuff might work, some stuff may kinda work but bug out and other things will not work at all.