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Updated README with a better description of the project

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Albert Pham 2014-02-22 13:30:26 -08:00
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SKCraft Launcher
================
This launcher features a powerful package deployment system for
Minecraft. We use it to provide updates for our server, and you may
find it useful too.
This project provides an open-source Minecraft launcher platform for downloading,
installing, and updating modpacks.
Unlike the previous iteration of the launcher,
due to time constraints, we have gone back to making launchers suited for
one server (or one provider), meaning that you will have to modify the
launcher as necessary and distribute your own .exe, .jar, .app files
to fit your requirements. However, this is fairly easy to do because
nearly every string has been translated, and all the important
properties reside in one single file. See [the
relevant page](http://confluence.skcraft.com/display/LAUN/Launcher+Customization)
for more information. You are invited to fork this repository on
GitHub and make the necessary changes.
Introduction
------------
For the time being, the launcher is no longer a general purpose
Minecraft launcher.
We've maintained this launcher since the days of Minecraft Alpha (circa 2010) for sk89q's
(who you may know as the author of WorldEdit, WorldGuard, etc.) Minecraft server.
It continues to be maintained because other launchers are more difficult
to use, require more work to do everything, have fewer features, have come and gone,
and are not open source. (Plus, we can brand the entire launcher as needed and have full
control over its direction.)
* Users can very easily select and install modpacks. The interface makes it fairly
clear the available options.
* When building the modpack, convention is preferred over configuration. We do not like
having to maintain configuration files (or perhaps just I).
* The server modpack can be built from the same folder. (On previous launcher versions, we
accomplished this with a separate Python script that was not released. It was a pretty
old script, because it was made for the days when you had separate client and server
.jar files for mods.)
* The update system is extremely powerful and versatile, with incremental updates, file
removal detection, optional feature/mod selection, and so on.
For those are familiar with the 3.x launcher series, be aware that 3.x also served
as a general-purpose launcher. Unfortunately, that also split time away from "making a good
modpack/server launcher" and so that goal has been suspended for the time being. With
that in mind, you **no longer** ask users to install URLs for individual modpacks; rather,
you provide a URL that has a list of all available modpacks. This was a long desired
feature, but was never done due to time constraints.
This repository holds the 4.x version. As you may know, MC 1.6 changed how the
game was launched. Since the 3.x codebase was fairly ancient, the launcher was rewritten
to support MC 1.6 but primarily to also clean up the code. XML was dropped because
we have to bundle a JSON library now anyway, and we all know how much everyone hates XML.
Lastly, the source in this repository is the one for my (sk89q) server, so you will have
to remove the branding and change some property files. All of this is documented on the wiki.
* [Home page](http://opensource.skcraft.com/)
* [Documentation](http://confluence.skcraft.com/display/LAUN/Launcher)
* [Issue tracker](http://issues.skcraft.com/browse/LAUN)
Architectural Changes from 3.x
------------------------------
This launcher has gone through two major updates since the days
of Minecraft Alpha, but the update system (and its features) has been carried
over between launcher versions. The biggest change from
[version 3.x](https://github.com/sk89q/skmclauncher) is perhaps the changeover
to JSON from XML due to the new requirement that a JSON parsing
library must be bundled with the launcher (we use Jackson JSON). Prior
versions of the launcher utilized the JAXB implementation bundled with
the Java runtime.
Also note that we've decided to bundle additional libraries (notably
Guava), which brings the file size of the launcher up by a few
megabytes, which is fairly negligible.
Note that documentation may be lacking in some places. If you run into problems,
**do not be hesistant to ask**. While the launcher versions have always had many features,
documentation has always been lacking due to time constraints. The launcher also exists
primarily for my server and not for the purpose of providing a platform, but
we try to make as many resources available as possible.
Compiling
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