Virtual Reality Minecraft for SteamVR
Hey all and Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans. I launched this website 7 years ago! #holycrap.
Vivecraft for 1.20(.1) is available for testing as the mixin-based fabric/forge version. Currently you can get it on the Discord in #testing. Keep an eye on the Modrinth page for a full release.
The Spigot plugin is also available today. See Downloads.
-jrbudda out.
Hi, builds of Vivecraft for 1.19.2 are now available on Patreon. This build includes beta Forge mod support and some bugfixes!
The spigot plugin released for 1.19.1 works with 1.19.2.
Finally, a huge thanks to everyone contributing in the current Patreon push. It means a lot and I’m super happy at all the support!
-jrbudda out
Patreon subscribers of any tier can now download the VR or NONVR client installers for 1.19. The spigot server plugin is available on Github.
Yes. Eventually. If you cannot or will not support the project, all the previous versions of Vivecraft are still available on the downloads page. 1.18.2 just got mod support too and is still in active development.
There is no firm timeframe for 1.19 to be public. It depends very much on support levels. At the latest it will be made public when the next MC version supersedes it (Dec. / Jan. if Mojang holds to their release cadence)
This move was never going to make me popular, so let’s have at it.
My life and work situations have changed such that I no longer have the free time during the day that I once did to devote to hobby projects. In other words: Vivecraft now competes directly with my leisure and family time. To put it in concrete terms: this 1.19 update took me 2 solid weekends plus some evening time in the middle.
I now have to justify whether that time would have been better spent doing something else. I hate that I have to make that judgement, but monetary compensation for time spent is the most direct way to balance the scales, plain and simple.
There is a larger factor at play here, besides time, that I want to be clear about: I am not happy with the state of Vivecraft in general.
I love programming, I love VR, I love Minecraft, and I especially love making things that others find joy in. That’s what keeps me going. Sadly, forever updating mods in step with the 6-month release cycle is time-consuming, joyless, and frequently thankless. Ask any modder. Hours and days go by and the only result is a new version that does exactly what the old one did, but with a bigger number.
My sincere wish is that as the Patreon subscribers grow, I get back into developing fun new features and community compatibility. Here’s a quick list of what I would do if I could work on Vivecraft every single day:
The list goes on.
Lastly, let’s address the question a little less philosophically. Why Patreon, specifically? Why not ads, or sponsors, or some other form of monetization? The answer is simple. VR is still a niche industry. Minecraft VR is a niche community. I don’t have the luxury of millions of possible users out there to generate clicks.
One of the most beautiful aspects about the internet is in the finding of small, passionate communities willing to support the things they love. I’m only asking for a small donation to keep the joy in what I do, and your support means a great deal. Thank You.
-jrbudda out
Hello friends once again on July the 4th. Today is the 6th anniversary of the Vivecraft website, which means it qualifies for kindergarten this fall.
We’ve been busy in the past couple weeks. Doubtless you are aware that Minecraft 1.19 has dropped, and we will begin work on that version soon. In the meantime, we’ve been chipping away at Forge mod compatibility on 1.18.2.
The update is almost ready for release but if you’d like to help move it along or try it out now, you can grab a beta copy in the #testing channel of the Vivecraft discord. One neato new feature of the Forge-compatible version is Vivecraft can now be loaded by placing the mod jar into the /mods folder of your instance or modpack. There is a new button in the installer to help with this.
We’re waiting on Optifine to stabilize before proceeding but I don’t expect much trouble from this version, should be pretty quick and come out of the gate with Forge compatibility. It might also have limited support for OVR to avoid the need for SteamVR. The Quest 2 is by far the most popular VR headset nowadays, and I now own one myself to make testing easier. Keep an eye here for the release or hop into the discord to follow along.
Wish I had posted this sooner. R.I.P.
-jrbudda out
Hello. You can now find the 1.18.2 downloads on the downloads page. Forge compatibility is still on the to-do list, so stay tuned for that.
-jrbudda out
Hi ho and Merry Christmas. The 1.18 VR client and Spigot plugin is now out for download. These are in alpha as there are some planned features still missing. Please repot bugs either on github or discord.
-jrbudda out
Updates have been released for Vivecraft 1.16 and 1.15 to address the log4j security issue. Other versions of Vivecraft were not affected and the affected one’s only when installed with the Forge option checked.
Work on Vivecraft 1.18 will begin this weekend and it should launch with Forge support before Christmas.
-jrbudda out
Happy 4th of July, again, to you wonderful people.
I can’t believe it’s been 5 years today since I launched the Vivecraft website, and only a few months more than that since I got into VR and started modding it. It’s been fun and rewarding.
I also can’t believe how little the VR landscape has really changed in all that time. As novel as VR was when it was new, I’m still here with my O.G. Vive (plus upgrades and index controllers), and I really don’t see much reason to buy anything newer. Here’s hoping the future holds some more innovation.
Anyway, Mojang seems intent on releasing new versions of Minecraft well into the next century, so here’s to 70+ more years of Vivecraft! (I don’t care how outdated the name gets, I’m not changing it)
Speaking of which, many of you are likely wondering about a timeline for the 1.17 release, and many of you have already come and pestered the discord bot about it. Well, we’re working on it. I would guesstimate another 2 weeks or so til there’s a working build. 1.17.1 should drop in that timeframe so that will be our target.
I currently do not have any new VR features planned for Vivecraft 1.17, as there was already a lot of under-the-hood work needed, but am always open to suggestions. What I do have planned, however, is native Oculus support. I was going to add OpenXR support, but after talking to folks that have used it, the consensus is it’s just not ready. All the implementations of OpenXR (steamvr, oculus, and wmr) leave a lot to be desired, so we’re not pulling the trigger on that yet. Will evaluate again in 6 months or so. Instead, I went through the exercise of making Vivecraft function on different VR runtimes, adding back in the native libOVR support that it originally had in Minecrift as a test. So look for that in 1.17.
Also keep an eye out for a new installer that allows you to pick your version and VR runtime and is a little less janky than the java installer we’ve been using up until now. Should go live with 1.17 as well.
On another topic, we get a lot of questions about a Fabric version of Vivecraft, or at least a Fabric-compatible version. For those of you unaware, Fabric is a Minecraft modding API that has exploded in popularity over the last year or so as an alternative to Forge. Lots of mainstay Forge mods have launched Fabric versions and quite a few of them have dropped Forge altogether. These reasoning for this I won’t get in to, but it’s something we’re well aware of. Vivecraft itself is not a Forge mod, but we’ve staunchly maintained Forge compatibility over the years because, well, Minecraft without mods just wouldn’t be the same.
The obstacle for us at this point is that, frankly, neither Techjar nor myself have any experience writing Fabric mods, or the time and motivation needed to rewrite Vivecraft from scratch. So I’m asking for your help.
If you, or anyone you know, is well versed in mixins and Minecraft and wants to take up the mantle of a Fabric conversion, send us a message on our discord and we’ll talk about it. If we can’t find any volunteers to bring on the team for this, I don’t foresee any progress towards a Fabric version until something significant changes with Forge or Optifine that forces the issue.
Keep an eye on this space for more 1.17 news and have a safe and happy holiday!
-jrbudda out
VR and non-VR clients now available through the downloads page. This is mostly just to update Optifine and Forge for compatibility.
Stay safe out there.
-jrbudda out
Hello you Covid Cats and Quarantine Quetzalcoatls. I hope you are all keeping safe and distanced out there.
Just a quick update to point out that the clients and plugins are all now updated for 1.16.4. Hit the downloads page to get yours.
I’d like to make a special shout-out to this recent UpIsNotJump video. Funny and of a questionably high production value.
Also this video from Mully, Joshdub and their… friends. It’s none of the above. It’s mostly incoherent shouting, but I’ve come to expect nothing less.
I haven’t been doing a very good job recently of finding and promoting quality Vivecraft content on youtube or twitch, and I know there’s a ton out there. If you find some great content you think I should link, or even want to promote your own, please drop me a line on discord. I promise I’ll watch it.
-jrbudda out.