More information on the Minecraft 1.7.2 update

Discussion in 'Bukkit News' started by EvilSeph, Nov 15, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Offline

    EvilSeph

    Things are progressing nicely towards our first development build of CraftBukkit for Minecraft 1.7.2. Although this update did not provide or add as much feature-wise as previous Minecraft updates have, this is probably one of the more complicated and larger updates we've had to work with from a mod development standpoint. With "almost all of [the code in Minecraft] having been changed - be it little or big" (according to Mojang), there has been significant shifting around of code and logic - to the estimated tune of ~220k lines changed - within Minecraft, resulting in our slowest and most involved update yet.

    Managing expectations - information about our initial CraftBukkit 1.7.2 builds
    Five days ago (on November 10th) I sent out a tweet trying to describe what our initial findings were regarding the impact this Minecraft update has on the project but it's frustratingly very difficult to communicate everything I want or need to in 140 characters. Nonetheless, sending out tweets is still our best form of communication that doesn't push other important topics out of view (like the potential structure loss PSA).

    The tweet was meant to explain that while we will definitely have development builds, our analysis and evaluation of the update (through reading the code and following Minecraft feedback/bug reports from the community) has revealed that there are issues in Minecraft that may prevent us from getting anything stable or reliable out. This was purely meant to assist us with managing expectations as to the quality, stability and reliability of any builds we're able to give out.

    As for the 'issues we cannot fix' aspect of the tweet, this is due to the nature and policies of the Bukkit project: it is not so much that we are unable to fix the issues ourselves (though this can sometimes be the case), but rather that the issues present are not the project's responsibility to fix and, instead, would be better addressed by Mojang. While we do sometimes make exceptions if we have a really good reason to do so (like to fix a security issue), we try and avoid altering the way Minecraft itself behaves and functions. This is both a conscious decision as a project and a necessity, as too many changes to Minecraft's inner workings can mean significant increases in the complexity and amount of work required for the update process.

    It's not so much that we choose not to fix these issues, but rather that we need to be fully conscious and aware of the impact doing so could have on the update process and our day-to-day maintaining of the project. If the fix for an issue touches too many internals within Minecraft, for example, it usually makes the update process significantly more complex, resulting in (what could be an avoidable) increase in the amount of time it takes us to update. As much as we'd like to fix every issue we come across, doing so would mean updating to new Minecraft versions will take even longer than they currently do.

    This is why we have the minimal diffs policy (a policy which eliminates unnecessary changes to the Minecraft code), it results in a speedier and less buggy update for everyone. Although it undoubtedly limits the developers in our project, I think you'll agree that it's a worthy sacrifice and limit to impose upon ourselves in order to ensure that the downtime of your server between updates is as minimal as we can possibly achieve.

    If we were not personally responsible for updating the core of our project, we'd have much more freedom to experiment. As it is, however, the Bukkit project handles updating, development and the maintaining of both a plugin API (Bukkit) and a Minecraft server mod (CraftBukkit) in order to produce the server you all know and love.

    To be clear:
    • There WILL be development builds; we're still working towards getting our first one out.
    • Due to significant changes in how Minecraft works, it will take us a while to get our Bukkit API updated. Hence, it is highly unlikely that all the plugins you are using will work on our initial development builds.
    • There will MOST LIKELY be promoted builds, but they'll be lower quality than you could usually expect from us due to issues we can't address.
    What does updating CraftBukkit involve?
    To give you an idea as to why this update is taking longer than usual, I need to briefly touch on what our update process involves. Every time a Minecraft update is released, we have to go through a repetitive, time consuming and dry multi-step process.

    A simple breakdown of the process is as follows: decompile the server -> learn the new names (they change with every update) -> figure out how they apply to Bukkit's naming system -> learn what changed/what's new in the update -> update the changes we make to the server to support Bukkit -> get the code to compile -> fix issues that come up.

    Since we're working with a code base that is unfamiliar to us, we can sometimes find ourselves having to jump back to a previous step. For example: we may come across a piece of code that we're not familiar with and once we're able to figure out what it does, we realise that we've named something incorrectly which we then have to go back and fix. It is this fluid and unpredictable aspect of the update process that makes it difficult to come up with a communicable ETA or any progress/status updates.

    Though this process may seem inefficient or ineffective, this is the same process that we've used and improved upon to get all of our updates out (even our fastest ones) over the 3 years the project has existed. Bear in mind, the overview provided here barely touches the surface of our update process and is intended to give you a remote idea as to what we have to deal with for every update. This brief and simplified breakdown of our 'steps' does little to explain the varying level of difficulty or complexity of each step, for example.

    How can I help?
    The best way to help us out is to get involved.

    If you're a server admin: once we have our first development build out, we'd appreciate any testing you could perform and any issues you can report. Please bear in mind that development builds are unsupported and should not be run on production servers.

    If you're a plugin developer: once we have our first development build out with proper API support, we'd appreciate if you could test the build out and report any missing or broken API to our bug tracker.

    If you're looking to help us out with the update, you'll have to work towards that goal by getting involved in other aspects of the project first. Due to the sensitive and extremely team oriented nature of the update process, we require that you build a relationship and demonstrate your commitment to the project before getting involved with updating will benefit the process. As the update process is incredibly repetitive and mundane, intense commitment is a key requirement for the team.

    We know this update is taking longer than usual but I assure you we are working our hardest to get it done. Thanks for your patience and continued support, it makes a huge difference and really helps us push onward!
     
  2. Offline

    Rockslide


    How do you figure? What's your counter argument?
     
    Europia79 likes this.
  3. Offline

    sakura_blades

    Mojang is working on implementing the Plugin/Modding API now, that's part of the reason the code changed so much this Update.
    Mojang said they had added/changed lines in the code already that was on the way to the API's release, but it is a long and probably difficult process that you can't really have out all at once.

    Especially if they're trying to release this new code and update with more Minecraft features at the same time, as many of us know I'm sure... Not everyone bothers to read most things, if anything... If Mojang were to just release a 1.8 with JUST the modding API, imagine how many people would go ahead and complain that they didn't' see anything new and didn't see the reason for such a big update or whatever, and why didn't Mojang add new things?
     
  4. Offline

    anklesneeze

    So nice to hear about how things are going!
    Thanks for all the effort!
     
  5. Offline

    Maximvdw

    Thank you bukkit ;)
     
  6. Offline

    IanM_56

    Great Job,
    Keep Up The Good Work.

    I would love to help, yet I don't have enough knowledge in Java.. currently.
     
  7. Offline

    LandonTheGeek

    Thanks for the update guys. :)
     
  8. Offline

    MrMag518

    This reminds me of the beta 1.8 update, that took ages lol.

    But keep up the good work Bukkit, we all love you and truly appreciate your awesome work!
     
  9. Offline

    ONI Ricky

    Thanks for all the hard work you guys put in! I now see how grueling of a process it is and understand a lot better. This update was much needed and I am thankful for it. It's time for the community to give back people, go crazy with the bug reporting and testing.
     
  10. Offline

    xavierarmadillo

    I think Mojang likes the free labor and is milking it. You guys need to get them to buy you out. You deserve to have a lot of money back for your time to add features they should have done themselves. I don't mind the down time, I was able to double the ram and add a second xeon dual core cpu to my server :)
     
  11. Offline

    sean_skroht

    I completely agree with this. Much of Minecraft's popularity and financial success is due to the attraction of new players to the versatility that Bukkit brings to the game. Many of the younger players that come onto my server wouldn't even bother with Minecraft if it weren't for plugins that provided the increased ability to trade, roleplay, PvP, spleef, play mini-games etc. And I get requests all the time to add new plugins that people really enjoy.

    Yep, the Bukkit staff certainly do deserve to earn a wage from Mojang for this.
     
    Europia79 likes this.
  12. Offline

    spluton

    Thanks for the update, I guessed there was tons of code lines to go trough and tiny details that have to be fixed

    By the sound of your post, it look like you are getting closer to something you will be able to do a first test run and then have a dev build out, that is encouraging

    Until then... I keep torturing my players with new survival temp map ( map that last for 1 week only ) omg just can't believe how many death we saw so far, people will just be more happy to see bukkit is back when it does
     
  13. Offline

    Madam Questing

    You guys are my heroes. Sending good thoughts your way.
     
  14. Offline

    LHammonds

    Keep doing what you guys do. It is very-much appreciated.

    As for me and my crew, we are content playing on our heavily modded 1.6.4 server and just messing around with the vanilla 1.7.2 server for now.

    Thanks,

    LHammonds
     
  15. Have to admit, I'm still curious as to what these issues actually are that team bukkit feels Mojang should fix.
     
  16. Offline

    batbat

    Thanks for the info EvilSeph. I have a server that I run for a few friends. We have already committed to losing our old world in anticipation of 1.7. That being said I can offer my server and my friends as a testing ground for the Dev builds. I'm just wondering if there is a process you prefer people go through for said testing or is it just a matter of running it and reporting any issues that may come up to the forum here?
     
  17. I may be wrong, but this is what I interpreted.
     
  18. Offline

    EvilSeph

    Just wanted to clarify a point regarding 'issues we cannot fix', so I've updated the article with the bolded text below:
    Edit:
    After I wrote the extra information below to provide more insight, we decided it was important and useful information that should be added to the actual article, so I've added it as well.

    For those of you who need more insight:
    It's not so much that we choose not to fix these issues, but rather that we need to be fully conscious and aware of the impact doing so could have on the update process and our day-to-day maintaining of the project. If the fix for an issue touches too many internals within Minecraft, for example, it usually makes the update process significantly more complex, resulting in (what could be an avoidable) increase in the amount of time it takes us to update. As much as we'd like to fix every issue we come across, doing so would mean updating to new Minecraft versions will take even longer than they currently do.

    This is why we have the minimal diffs policy (a policy which eliminates unnecessary changes to the Minecraft code), it results in a speedier and less buggy update for everyone. Although it undoubtedly limits the developers in our project, I think you'll agree that it's a worthy sacrifice and limit to impose upon ourselves in order to ensure that the downtime of your server between updates is as minimal as we can possibly achieve.

    If we were not personally responsible for updating the core of our project, we'd have much more freedom to experiment. As it is, however, the Bukkit project handles updating, development and the maintaining of both a plugin API (Bukkit) and a Minecraft server mod (CraftBukkit) in order to produce the server you all know and love.
     
  19. Offline

    VergilPrime

    Perhaps then a branch of CraftBukkit could later be made that fixes those things and therefore allows greater freedom for devs.
     
    daboross and DarkofMoria like this.
  20. Offline

    grid21

    Is there a way you can let Mojang know that you found bugs in the code that is preventing you from making a full bata or RB build of Bukkit? Does Mojang take feed back from the Bukkit team since you and Dinner bone work for Mojang?
     
  21. Offline

    TheSkyShaft

    Well, it's great to hear that bukkit will maybe soon be released.
    What that would have been cool was if The Bukkit team and Mojang could Update the game together and make a multiplayer version that supported vanilla, so Mojang could help with codeing problems when the bukkit team got stuck.
    Bukkit is really useful, and is almost as old as MC, so i don't understand why The bukkit team and Mojang haven't started some what of a partner ship
     
  22. Can't wait for the 1.7.2 update. Keep up the good work, and I will grab it and test it as soon as it comes out!
     
  23. Offline

    ryancwh

    Hopefully this development build for 1.7.2 doesn't take more longer because one of my favorite server's are waiting for the 1.7.2 build! for new maps,ranks etc!!! hope all goes well bukkit team!
     
  24. Offline

    cloud342

    I'm glad to hear the update is coming out just fine! I can't wait to get back to server administrating however but my patience can handle it.

    Good job anyway.

    ~Cloudy
     
  25. Offline

    danmark2312

    Thank you so much for the update! :D
    It helped alot :D Great to know that you are working hard on this :D You definitely have my support! :D
     
  26. Offline

    Jaiguru

    Thanks EvilSeph. Love the work you do and appreciate you keeping us updated. Don't forget to take some personal time.
     
    Europia79 likes this.
  27. Offline

    Europia79

    Jan 2012, i was over at my sister's house and my nieces were playing Minecraft (which i had no clue about). I got to jump on their account and test it out... Only reason i bought the game was because I played on a craftbukkit server.... Now, i'm just 1 person, but i bet Bukkit has sold many, many copies of Minecraft.

    Minecraft would be NOTHING without Bukkit plugins and the Craftbukkit server. Just wanted to let out my frustration with Mojang... How does Mojang continually release update after update with shitty server software ?

    With Vanilla Minecraft, you can't even do something as simple as /sethome. I mean, really ??? Craftbukkit is a thousand times better than the Mojang server software! Thanks for working so hard on this project.

    I am really curious tho, How many people (like me) bought the game because they played on a Craftbukkit server ? Who the heck would play on a vanilla server and that would motivate them to buy this game ? lol
     
    JjPwN1, Benroyjam, almazio1 and 4 others like this.
  28. Offline

    IchigoKG

    Thanks for your effort.
    I have a craftbukkit server 1.6.4, and I always liked the work to make you.
    if it's in my hands, I like to help when they have the first craftbukkit 1.7.2, I have a small server for testing, not to damage my main server minecraft.
     
  29. Offline

    Codygreen3

    Keep up the good work bukkit team! I'm perfectly fine with waiting for bukkit 1.7.2 if it's going to be a stable development build.
     
  30. Offline

    Fred12i12i

    Thanks for the update :)
     
  31. Offline

    Crypt_UK

    You don't need to install anything - just change your hosts file. Read this post to find out how : http://blackcrypt.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/interweb-speed-up/
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page