Show HN: Learn Python with Minecraft
github.com
Looking for feedback on my project to teach python by writing code that interacts with a Minecraft World.
github.com
It was interesting reaching the occasional child who assumed this kind of thing wasn't for them.
edit: actually mc renders locally so unless it was running at a really low resolution, I suppose it must have been painful
Also a quote from 2016: "The original team has stopped supporting it and starting with 0.9 MCPE became a lot more ambitious technically, which also means that it became a lot harder to strip down to run on a Raspberry Pi. Actually, we finished removing all Pi related code to reduce complexity in 2015."
If your interest is simply in running MC on a Pi you're probably best off looking into Java Edition, though I have no idea how capable the hardware actually is graphics-wise. If you're more interested in MC on cheap hardware, you're probably better off with a cheap Windows machine and the Microsoft Store/Bedrock edition written in C++ for performance.
also, I never understood the meme but can it run Minecraft? since the game engine and mods can be pushed as far as you want on latest high-end hardware, and does struggle/gives bad playability on low-end hardware
that said they have made an outstanding effort to at least make the game run on potatoes, even if it looks less glamorous
I was impressed how low resource requirements are for the server.
We had quite big world's with 5 or more players running pretty well.
The client is a different story and the graphics capability of a pi is five for pi edition but struggles with the others.
server: https://github.com/piqueserver/piqueserver client: https://github.com/yvt/openspades
This is potentially a nice way to get them into programming for the game - the only thing I worry about is maintaining compatibility with a product which Microsoft seem intent on wresting away from modders, perhaps only indirectly. Even making logins work is fraught with peril thanks to Microsoft's appalling IAM solution.
What is Microsoft doing in that regard? Last I was working on Minecraft mods they did a lot to support them, such as sharing the obfuscation map or making Brigadier open-source. Have there been other developments since then?
The IAM logins seem more like a security decision to me (assumably Microsoft has requirements on how their products need to do authentication), not one to keep away modders.
My son and I spent some time making custom weapons and the like using a tool called Bridge (https://bridge-core.app/). It's definitely not as powerful as modding once was in the Java version of the game, but you can do lots of pretty wild stuff with Bedrock if you're willing to jump through the hoops.
One "mod" that recently caught my eye was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUWRK0Jy9d0
Yeah, you have to buy it with "Minecoins", but I can't get too upset that Microsoft has allowed devs to monetize their efforts on the platform. There's still plenty of free stuff available and nothing to prevent kids (or adults) from taking a crack at their own mods.
My son was just recently playing with a site called Tynker, and without any help from me managed to get a custom item into the game, so if an 8 year old can do it, it's about as accessible as you could hope for.
I have always been put off by how commercial Bedrock seems as soon as you open it. But at the same time it sounds like interesting and official modding is available there.
Bedrock Edition is also iirc insanely locked down in terms of modding and it's the version Microsoft pushes the sales of the most. There's some amount of it possible, but forget about any of the ludicrous automation/engineering mods like you had back in Java edition.
Ping being to synchronously measure latency of the client - unused by vanilla
Bundle being to force packets to be processed together - very useful for sending clients display animations all at once
And then all the display entities to display text and itemstacks in the air, with custom interpolation and stretching - so advanced animations can easily be made.
The most hostile thing is Microsoft pushing the locked down Bedrock edition.
Bedrock also uses RCON but there are subtle differences with the commands available.
If Microsoft ever does drop Java Edition I'd likely rework this to support Bedrock. I'm hoping this won't happen - they are keeping Java up to date with Bedrock presently but the new editor mode for Bedrock is a worrying development (maybe).
Press C, code window appears, you can use Python, Javascript or a visual Scratch-like language, controlling an agent in the minecraft world to go and do things
https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/resources/computer-sci...
I happen to know that EE commands include the elusive 'GetBlock' that let's you query the contents of the world. I had to jump through some embarrassing hoops to provide this function for MCIWB.
My approach uses a remote interface called RCON to send Minecraft operator commands to the world. It can do everything you could do with Command Blocks or Operator commands and more because of the Python constructs like loops and branching.
The other benefit is that you get to use the latest developer tools such as VSCode and the latest version of Python as you are working outside of the Minecraft game to write your code.
It does provide a similar capability to MCIWB. It recreates the Education edition python interface which does let you set and get blocks and see when a player hits something.
Its a solution for people who learn education edition and then want to run the same code at home on a BUkkit server. (Bukkit is a Java server mod )
How do they not seem to realize the value in making it easy for people to hack it like this?
Look at the installation page...
https://gilesknap.github.io/mciwb/main/user/tutorials/01-set...
Why?
Can't we please have a way to trivially do this?
So I have quite a few prerequisites for my Python tutorials and this makes the first page intimidating.
However, installing and running MC java edition has got more fiddly since Microsoft took over. There was a horrible transition phase where accounts were being migrated from Mojang.
It's kind of OK now. But I'm sad that Microsoft is pushing hard on Bedrock Edition and look like they may try to ditch Java. This project could be adapted to Bedrock without much trouble but there is a whole class of things {NBT related} that you don't seem to be able to do via the remote interface in Bedrock.
The API is still really new and sparse but we are getting there.
What kind of interface - operator commands? or something more low level? The operator commands that MCIWB uses are really poor for querying the state of the world - hopefully this API would give us that?
Now I wonder if they'll use your project, or if there's another similar project they'll be using?
Regardless, the idea is great! I wish you luck!
They may be using Minecraft Education Edition which as come up a few times in the above conversations.
I'm going to take a look into it and come back to you on this question!
Here is my summary of findings https://gilesknap.github.io/mciwb/main/user/explanations/mce...