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Modloaders and how they changed modded Minecraft
The Minecraft modding community is one of the largest and most active ones out there.
People have been modding Minecraft since 2009, even before the game was officially released to the public. Initial mods created were mostly around the server-side, providing server admins with additional tools for maintaining and managing their servers. Some of those mods allowed you to see the timings of elements within a certain world, for example, while others allowed you to block the use of certain items in a game or just generally improve server/client performance.
Then came client-side mods, which introduced game content modifying and the addition of in-game content: These mods ranged from new weapon and tool types; through adding falling leaves and footprints; and all the way to adding a beautiful glow to torches, shiny stones, and lava buckets. Noice.
As time went by, the Minecraft modding community grew bigger and bigger. New mods kept emerging. It was an explosive era in the history of modding, but there was still one major setback: running more than one mod at the same time proved to be a cumbersome task.
If you wanted to play with two mods or more, you would have to manage it by yourself — which meant manually merging the code, line by line. You would sometimes even need to edit Minecraft’s base code (crossing your fingers while at it, hoping the whole thing would still work afterwards). And even if everything eventually worked well, it was still a daunting, time-consuming task to perform, which required skill and knowledge, making it elusive from the larger game base.
As an answer to this user pain, the ModLoader (a mod in itself) was born. It offered a framework for ‘simpler’ mods, i.e. mods that change existing in-game content (for example, support for high-resolution textures, or various glitch fixes). ModLoader allowed multiple mods to be loaded into the game simultaneously with relative ease. No manual tinkering was required. It was a game changer, and helped propel Minecraft modding into a whole new level, opening up the concept of Modpacking — quite literally ‘packing’ a collection of mods into a seamless, single game experience.
The ModLoader made things much easier for both modders and gamers. However, it was still far from perfect; ModLoader did not support bigger, more complex mods. For the purpose of creating that unique, complete game experience — all mods included in the modpack are significant in their own way, from the small and simple ones to the massive, complicated ones. But the latter add some entirely new features and functionalities to the game. From new types of blocks, through advanced building capabilities, and even new game mechanics — these ‘big’ mods were a significant step-up for the Minecraft modding ecosystem. They set a new standard in terms of scale, complexity, and innovation. A new mod loading solution was required to support the new era.
Determined to have these mods supported as well, the creators of several major mods joined forces and launched a new project. They named it ‘Minecraft Forge’ (later ‘Forge’).
It was built on ModLoader, and it pretty much picked up from where ModLoader stopped — providing many more functions and supporting a wider variety of mods through the Forge modding API.
Forge has been around for a few good years. It’s a true pioneer, the first framework of its kind. It really set the standard for dynamic loading of mods. It supports most mods in the ecosystem, and works with all Minecraft Java game versions. As the senior modloader, it laid the groundwork for the next generation of modloaders that started emerging afterwards.
The Minecraft section of the CurseForge app provides the next step in the evolution of modloader support, as it makes modpacking accessible, intuitive, and fun.
The app allows users to create multiple, personally curated profiles (modpacks) by easily browsing, adding, and installing mods from a huge repository of user-generated projects. It has a simple, user-friendly interface, and within a few mouse clicks — anyone can access the mod library and choose exactly which mods they want to load and play in their current game session.
And how are these mods then loaded and launched into the game? That’s right, through modloaders, such as Forge.
Recently, we’ve added official, full support for another great modloader named Fabric. Forge and Fabric conceptually do the same thing, but are implemented in different ways.
In a nutshell, Fabric is a modding toolchain that allows loading mods not only for officially released versions of the game, but also for unreleased versions, known as Snapshots. These may not be as steady and stable as the official versions, but they offer unique and interesting, even experimental game functionalities.
The Fabric loader offers an interchangeable API system with various tools for mod developers. This API system is actually built as a mod, so it can be loaded just like all other mods, but serves an additional, entirely different purpose — allowing gamers to develop their own mods rather than just enjoy different gameplay functionalities developed by others.
We’re super excited to officially support Fabric. It has been the most popular request in our idea suggestion portal and it’s really important for us to be as attentive as possible and listen to what our community wants the most. By supporting both Forge and Fabric and filtering the mods respectively, CurseForge makes modpacking fun and easy.
After completing the profile, users can then export and submit their profile-creation as a Modpack project, creating an endless cycle of game iterations, which millions of other gamers can download, play and… mod again.
This way, the game keeps offering fresh and new content remixes that reimagine the original gameplay. This is a complete ecosystem, from the community — for the community, inspirational, imaginative, and playful.
We’re excited to see what the future of modloading brings and what the community comes up with. We are committed to the Minecraft modding scene and will support future advancements in how users engage with the game through user-generated content and developments.
