Mods



Mods (short for modifications) are anything that changes Minecraft's game content from what it originally was. Mods are becoming increasingly popular and in-depth, adding whole new experiences and goals to the game.

Purpose of mods
Most mods in Minecraft add content to the game to alter gameplay, change the creative feel, or give the player more options in how they interact with the Minecraft world. Most people who mod Minecraft use MCP to do so. Some may be bigger expansions, such as the Aether mod, which adds a significant amount of new content to the game, such as new blocks, mobs, abilities of the player(s), and items to create and use. Other mods add more settings and options to optimizing speed, graphics, or gameplay of the game. Others, such as MystCraft and Portal Gun, bring another game's features and experiences into Minecraft. Others are "Toy mods" that bring another less useful but entertaining and playful experience to Minecraft. Server mods or plugins mainly give server admins more options and ease of use, and most mods for single-player have a server version that allows or optimizes the mod in multiplayer. Ideally, the creator of a mod updates the mod whenever the game updates - bringing more content, bug fixes, or optimizations. Otherwise, the mod may not work with a newer version. Many in the community appreciate the additional experience and ease of use that come with mods, while others play the original game with only the original content. Minecraft mods are generally safe to install, but one should exercise caution with mods to prevent crashes, deletion of game or save data, system instability, or potential malware infections from a bad link or the mod itself. A good way to protect your game from such problems is to back up various files, such as the .minecraft folder, if you choose to use mods. There are many mods or plugins available to complement the original game or give server admins more options and control over their servers.

Mods and bugs
If you install a mod, no matter how simple, it may stop the game from working properly. If that happens, there may not be much point reporting bugs on the bug tracker, because Mojang does not undertake to support modified versions of the game. If you encounter a problem while using mods and want to report it, first remove all of your mods and see if the problem still happens. If so, it can be reported on the relevant Issues page here on the Minecraft wiki. Otherwise, try to reproduce the problem with the fewest possible number of mods, and then report the problem to the author(s) of those mods; Mojang won't be able to help.

If Minecraft crashes, a modified game is flagged in the crash report. The following link explains how to obtain a crash report. (Note: If your Minecraft has never crashed, following those instructions won't find anything.)

The crash report text will include a line near the top which will say one of:

Is Modded: Probably not Is Modded: Very likely Is Modded: Definitely {name of custom client}

A shortened example crash report is given below:

undefined

The code that checks for mods is fairly simple, and it's not always correct; it may say 'probably not' even with mods installed. However, it's very difficult to get the 'very likely' message if you haven't modified minecraft.jar somehow, so that's essentially a 'yes'. There's also a 'definitely' message, seen when a Bukkit server crashes and possibly under other similar conditions, like with the Minecraft Forge API installed.

'Probably not' appears when the client/server brand appears to the in-game check to be unaltered (often termed 'vanilla') and the meta-inf file is still there. 'Very likely' appears when the meta-inf file is not present but the client/server brand seems to be vanilla. 'Definitely' plus the client name appears when the client is not vanilla. For example, you might see something like:

Is Modded: Definitely: Bob's Custom Mod

Official Plugin API
The Plugin API is an upcoming feature that allows modders to easily add more content to the game. For more information, see the above link.

How to install mods - Modloader
The above link provides a comprehensive guide on how to install mods using the Modloader API. Some mod packs have auto-installers that make adding mods to Minecraft extremely easy for the beginner modder. If you are an advanced modder you would know that it also involves extracting and adding modified files manually which create a different feel or certain type of gameplay to Minecraft.

How to install mods - Forge
The above link provides a basic guide on how to install mods using the Forge API. The Forge API is a lot more complex than the Modloader API but it makes installing mods very easy. A video tutorial is also included in this guide.

How to create mods
The above link will try to assist in how to create mods, including the usage of APIs.

Outdated mods
Any mods for earlier versions than the previous major version of Minecraft are unlikely to get updated, and are considered dead mods. These mods can be deleted from the list and moved to the article linked above.

Modding programs and editors
The above link gives showcases tools for installing and making mods.

Client mods
TIP: Use +  (Windows or GNU/Linux) or  +  (Mac) to find a mod you are looking for, however you must first expand the tables.

Client mods are modifications to your game files themselves. They are not custom clients, and they require modification of minecraft.jar. Like high resolution textures, they only work with the launchers, and won't work if you play through a browser.

The most common form of client mods are aesthetic and/or functional (such as the iMod). However, some client mods add new content to the game (Such as the Supplycrate mod), and others fix issues with the game.

As the Minecraft server software will ignore custom content from client side, most of the client mods which add new content to the game do not work in SMP unless a modification has also been installed on the server. Some authors of client mods have made server versions of their mods available, and others have not. A few of the Loader/API type client mods (e.g. ModLoader and AudioMod) and many of the functional client mods (e.g. Optifine, Rei's Minimap and TooManyItems) have effect in SMP straight away, without any modification on server side.

Adding/editing client mods to the wiki

 * 1) When adding a new mod to the list, first please check that the mod is not already listed in one of the sections on the page.
 * 2) Please put the mod in the correct section. If it adds new mobs, items, blocks or dimensions, put it in New Content. If it changes features of an existing item or adds settings, like adding a new difficulty level or making mobs drop more experience, put it in Aesthetic and Functional Mods. If it fixes a bug in "vanilla" Minecraft, put it in Fixes.
 * 3) Please keep the mods in alphabetical order. It's much harder to find older, established mods when they are buried beneath the mods that have been thrown on top of them.
 * 4) Do not place unreleased mods, especially if they have a message in the download link such as "This mod will be released soon". Also, '''do not place download links. It only adds to the frustration of potential spam, plus, if there are no pictures, people are less likely to download the mod.

Thank you for following these simple rules.

Note: The guide below works for the "New Content" and "Aesthetic and Functional Mods" sections.

Before adding mods, you must understand the code used. For this example, we will use Single Player Commands.



The first line,, indicates that the Mods/entry template is being used; the final   ends the template.

The next line,, is self-explanatory.

The third line,, is a brief description of the mod. Don't make this too long, perhaps copy and paste the first few lines of the description of the mod.

is the latest version number. Usually this is in the thread header or in the body of the thread. If the version is not specified, use the latest release version as the version number (e.g. if the mod is compatible with the latest version of Minecraft and the thread doesn't specify the version, use   in place of the version number).

is the address of the mod's forum thread. A similar line, starting with, can also be used if the mod has a website as well. (This should not be used for a direct download link.)

is the latest compatible version of Minecraft.

indicates that no modding API (such as ModLoader) is required. (If it is needed,  should be used.)

is the Mod creator/author.

is whether the mod is SMP compatible or not. Valid inputs are those accepted by tc. To change the display text, include the template manually:

If you are updating a mod, all you have to edit is the website address and the version number.

'''Tip: If this guide is still confusing, copy and paste a mod's code and edit it accordingly.

'''Please note that if you're looking for a mod for the latest Minecraft version, the author may have forgotten to update the version number on this page. It will usually have the right version on the Minecraft forum thread.

Server mods
Server mods are modifications to the official Minecraft server software.

Server mods are commonly designed to make administration of servers easier by implementing tiered privileges for commands (such as kicking, banning etc.). They are frequently implemented as "wrappers" which do not actually modify the main server .jar file, instead monitoring its output and sending commands to it.

The list below only includes stand-alone server mods, and does not contain server mods, which are required to be installed server side for specific client mods to work in SMP. These mods are listed above under Client Mods.

For a list of out-of-date server mods, see here.