DataDumper & Brief Update

Hello out there, it has been a while! More on that in a bit; first I want to introduce a mod that I’ve started for Minecraft which should interest anyone who likes to export their worlds for printing, rendering, or whatever else you might do with it.

DataDumper

DataDumper is a Forge mod for 1.7.10 that exports all loaded block and item data, and more importantly, it supports exporting configuration files for use in jMc2Obj. It tries to use block information to configure the block exports correctly, including with the correct textures attached. It’s not perfect now (it doesn’t have all of the same standard export options as the original configs), but it works for nearly all blocks and gets you much closer to a pretty render than trying to do any of this by manual efforts.

Basically, the only work the user has to do is combine the textures from the mods they’re using into a resource pack. Then, jMc2Obj can use that resource pack and your world file to export the correct textures and all of your modded blocks (no more pink unknown cubes).

I want to improve support for standard and popular modded blocks, which will probably involve contributing some custom block exporters to jMc2Obj for blocks like IndustrialCraft wires.

I hope that contributors will join me in my efforts to make it easy and possible to export render-ready modded Minecraft worlds, so please help out if you’re interested.

What have I been up to?

As I said, it’s been a while, but I have been busy. Although I hadn’t made any large improvements to the 3Delight shader I was working on (it was working great and I haven’t the need for it), I’m pleased to say that after a few years and releases of 3Delight, it still compiles perfectly and does what I want it to 🙂

I dived deeper into programming and have been doing that professionally and as a hobby. I’ve contributed to a few open source projects, some for other games such as Kerbal Space Program, and games like that have also kept me well occupied.

As news of Windows 10 was arriving I completed a full transition to GNU/Linux (Arch, if you’re wondering) to get away from that shitshow. Well, I still run the occasional Windows in a virtual machine, passing through my GPU for slick performance, but only for the few games that still only run on Windows. Customization and productivity, achieved.

To wrap up: I’m slightly working on my shader, I’m working on better exports of modded Minecraft worlds, so you can export some renders 😉