More information on the Minecraft 1.7.2 update

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

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  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

    JustinBaldeo

    I require world edit because I have OCD.
     
  3. Offline

    gerardvanschip


    Yup I know, thats why we build a HUGE wall around our entire map, we will regen the land beyond the wall so the difference should be less jarring. Thats just for our 1.6 map, we use multiverse so we have a pure 1.7 map as well. Our game map is flatlands so not an issue.
     
  4. Offline

    DamnHippo

    EvilSeph, whats up with this tweet of yours?

    "We do NOT recommend running our first few @CraftBukkit 1.7.2 dev builds, they WILL be unstable, entirely unsupported & need a lot of testing"


    If bukkit isn't out, don't post something like that! Simple... People like me think bukkit is out now.
     
  5. Offline

    broro08

    DamnHippo He's just letting everyone know that it will be very unstable, but a builds a build. Be grateful for what the Bukkit team is doing here.
     
    lDucks likes this.
  6. Offline

    JaguarJo

    DamnHippo He's telling us before it is out so that everyone doesn't just grab it and start using it for their public servers right away. If he waited until the day it was available, warning us that it is unstable would come too late for some.
     
  7. Offline

    matto_felice

    I am kinda surprised that Mojang and Bukkit don't have some sort of partnership worked out by now.
     
    zok likes this.
  8. Offline

    DamnHippo

    JaguarJo thanks for the replying without treating me a tard @brono be nice treat people the way you want to be treated.
     
  9. Offline

    broro08

    DamnHippo Sorry if I sounded mean. wasn't trying to. I just hope that a build will be released before sunday.
     
  10. Offline

    Mikesteel

    Well I've looked in there and haven't seen 1.7.2. Is there not a development build out for 1.7.2?
     
  11. Offline

    DamnHippo

    I hope so aswell, I wish it was done like 3 weeks ago.
     
    broro08 likes this.
  12. Offline

    mcwurth


    people like you is the reason why do not give out an ETA. it is very good to know they are going to have an unstable dev release out. it shows they are actually trying VERY HARD to get us what we want. show some respect boy.
     
    malandrix_bunny and lDucks like this.
  13. Offline

    Boeing747guy

    Can't wait until they release at least a stable dev build. I wanna get my server back up so me and my friends can play
     
  14. Offline

    gerardvanschip




    Nothing up, he's just making sure people understand it might hose their servers and maps. With that in mind admins like me will make a FULL backup of our server before trying out the dev release.



    Do what I did, backup your whole 1.6.4 thing, then run Vanilla 1.7.2, once bukkit 1.7.2 comes out you re-install your 1.6.4 stuff and add the 1.7.2 map as a multiverse thing.
     
    spluton likes this.
  15. Offline

    Thronk

    When we realized that bukkit will take longer than usual to update, we simply created a new 1.7.2 world and started playing on it, creating a new spawn, etc... Our old 1.6.4 world, being over a year old, is still in the server files on ICE till we have multiverse. Then players can go back and forth retrieving their items earned bringing it to the new 1.7.2 world. We're also going to copy over structures with WorldEdit when available.
    This provides a cleaner transition and gives our players the opportunity to explore the new content early. When Minecraft releases a big update like this, especially adding new biomes, it comes down to making an important decision to start fresh (reset) to avoid any problems that may arise as some have already mentioned. Good thing that Minecraft doesn't have huge changes in their updates like this frequently :)
     
  16. Offline

    iSayCr4pAlot


    if ( Player === Unpatient )
    {
    console.log("Go code your own bukkit");
    }
    else
    {
    console.log("Then Wait");
    }
     
  17. Offline

    MinecraftrGuy

    I would guess it should be out sometime Saturday - Wednesday.
    Don't take me on this though, I'm not coding bukkit.

    Thanks guys for bukkit!
     
  18. Offline

    LetCraft

    it was like 1 year ago since i had my bukkit server active ... so guys do u know how to play on a 1.6.4 Craftbukkit server with Minecraft 1.7.2? because all bukkit servers clearly do not pause their servers 'til next bukkit update.

    and btw... happy thanksgiving
     
  19. Offline

    turt2live

    You don't. You use the built-in feature of the launcher to go to 1.6.4.
     
  20. Is there only one Unpatient!?
     
  21. Offline

    Ultra1108

    When is 1.7.2 coming out?!?! I've been waiting like a month!
     
  22. Offline

    turt2live

    "soon". As per the other 340 thousand threads.
     
  23. Offline

    JustinBaldeo


    Better late than never.
     
  24. Offline

    spluton

    did someone saved EvilSeph from the nether portal ? if he gets too dizzy in there he won't be able to help with the codding o.o

    ( in reference to his tweet :
    *****
    EvilSeph 9 h ago
    Stuck in a nether portal, can't get out! HELP!!!
    *****
     
  25. EvilSeph@EvilSeph 26 november
    We'll likely have an unsupported, unstable @CraftBukkit 1.7.2 dev build this week if nothing comes up: first dev build that simply compiles.


    Its like waiting for Christmas :p
     
  26. Offline

    Kodauer

    It really is like Christmas, isn't it? A bunch of us greedily waiting for something we're not willing to pay for.


    Anyways, when EvilSeph tweeted about a dev build "this week" did he mean literally this week (before/on Saturday), or within a seven day period?

    Thanks to the bukkit team for everything they do - without it, minecraft wouldn't be what it is today.
     
  27. Offline

    palyons

    It really doesn't matter if we get the first working build of CraftBukkit 1.7.2 this week or not. None of our existing plugins will work anyhow, since it was stated that the API should be relied upon at all in EvilSeph's tweet. So we will still have to wait a few days for them to port the existing API into the new CraftBukkit.
     
  28. Offline

    LetCraft

    'Built in feature'?:p
     
  29. Offline

    ccrama

    I can get rid of the annoying posts in 9lines! :D

    Code:java
    1. public void onAnnoyingPost(AsyncPlayerPostEvent e){
    2. for(Player p : Bukkitforums.getImpatientPlayers()){
    3. if(Lists.getLists().Annoying.contains(e.getPoster().getName())){
    4. e.setCancelled(true);
    5. e.getPoster().sendMessage(ChatColor.RED + ChatColor.BOLD + "STFU AND WAIT");
    6. p.sendMessage(ChatColor.RED + "Another of your kind is posting!");
    7. }
    8. }
    9. }
     
    4everLink and jimbo8 like this.
  30. Offline

    redpandaman1

    I'm so glad!! This is so salient to me because i've been waiting for this forever! Thanks team! Keep up the good work!!
     
  31. Offline

    Bobcat00

    What's an "Inpacient" player?
     
    JustinBaldeo likes this.
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