Overview
This project was created as a gift to a friend in the summer of 2022, which served to demonstrate my ability in writing code for legacy software and libraries.
This Minecraft 1.8.9 mod, while simple on its face, required me to dive into legacy documentation and
tutorials to understand how circa-2017 Minecraft mod libraries handled drawing GUI elements on the screen.
Using a helpful YouTube tutorial as a starting-off point, I was able to create code that, as I described in
the mod's PlayerGuiOverlay.java file, "draws the text on the upper-left corner of the screen
every time the game's vanilla overlay is rendered."
To compile and test this mod, I was forced to use an older version of the Forge Mod Development Kit (MDK 11.15.1.2318), a very old version of Gradle (2.14.1) to initialize and compile the project, and a 2016 version of IntelliJ IDEA (2016.1.4), as up-to-date development tools do not support software from this time. The use of a Linux virtual machine in VMWare Workstation Pro also greatly helped in running these development tools, as it allowed me to use them without disrupting the up-to-date tools installed on my host computer.
Methods used
Skills
- Ability to scour legacy documentation and code examples to put together a working product
- Ability to put together a working legacy development environment, using virtual machines
- Understanding of the principles underpinning Minecraft Java modding APIs—e.g., interrupting "vanilla" GUI rendering to insert mod GUI elements
Software, tools, and libraries
Project files
GitHub repository Download the mod from GitHub (.jar)Media credits
Article thumbnail and VMWare Workstation icon created by me. In-game clip created by Jayden B., used with permission. Forge icon is "Anvil" by LAFS from Noun Project, licensed under CC BY 3.0.