Here’s Which Game Engine Minecraft Uses

It’s no secret that the Minecraft community is filled with players dwelling in coding, programming languages, and game development. Minecraft Java, the first and original version of Minecraft, is partially to blame here. Why? Because you can mod Minecraft, and to do so, you need to have a solid knowledge base on the three previously mentioned items. Game engines are an integral part of game development, so which game engine does Minecraft use?

What is a game engine?

For those who don’t know, a game engine is a software network designed to develop video games and contains relevant libraries and support programs. For someone who can’t picture what a game engine could be with this explanation since it’s rather techy and not meant to be understood by an average Joe, let’s put the definition into simpler terms.

A game engine is an environment for software development that makes video game development a lot easier through various programming languages. Think of them as applications that help you organize your code more efficiently. They usually feature physics engines that simulate world activities, a sound engine for controlling sound effects, an animation engine, and many other features.

In the early days of game development, each game developed would have its own game engine. They were designed specifically for that one game, but over time, people started using commercially developed game engines for all their game development needs. The differences between game engines are massive but mostly have to do with code libraries.

Game engines have enormous libraries of existing code, each focusing on doing something better than the other. During the process of deciding on a game engine you’ll choose for developing your game, you have to think of these things and set up goals for what you want your game to be and focus on.

Minecraft Java Edition

The fact that Minecraft Java Edition doesn’t have a game engine is weird but impressive simultaneously. Think of it this way. Notch used no help when developing the first version of Minecraft, and any addition to the game was made entirely from scratch, by hand, and with no help from a gaming engine.

There was once a time when modding the game was difficult, and you had to go into the game’s code and paste the code of the mod somewhere within the code of the game. People avoided modding during that time, and having more than one mod was nearly impossible without having the game crash and burn when you decided to run it.

That all changed with the introduction of Forge, which helps players install and run multiple mods at the same time. Developing a mod likely stayed the same, and it’s reserved for programmers but using them became more user-friendly. Today, modding Minecraft Java is something even a child can do, and it’s become the defining characteristic of this game version.

Minecraft Bedrock Edition

The critical difference between Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition is that Minecraft Bedrock was coded in C++ as opposed to the programming language of Java Edition, which is Java. The two programming languages differ significantly. Java is more straightforward, and you’ll learn it faster than C++.

The fact that Bedrock Edition was coded in C++ makes it a much more stable and powerful game than Java. In practical use, this means that you’ll experience almost no FPS drops, the game crashing or lagging, which is something Java Edition users are used to by now.

On the other hand, the programming language used to make Bedrock makes it impossible for programmers(the players) to modify the code (create mods for the game), which is why many are more fond of Java since it removes the limits set by Mojang and Microsoft when they made Bedrock Edition.

Bedrock Edition falls into the category of old game development, where a different game engine was designed for that game and that game only. The engine is called a Bedrock Engine. Each version of the game, whether it’s made for mobile phones, consoles, or something else entirely, was created with the engine and has a universal codebase.

The process of modding and why you can’t mod Bedrock

Minecraft Java Edition isn’t a fully compiled programming language, so it’s a lot easier to decompile. Decompiling is the process of turning the executable program back into the original, human-made code that programmers can read. This original code can then be modified, hence the name mod, which is short for modify.

C++, on the other hand, C++ is a fully compiled language; if you were to decompile it, you would be left with code written in an alien language or computer language that no programmer can understand. You can’t get that original code that a human wrote, and the reason you can’t modify this code is that you don’t understand it.

What about add-ons?

Add-ons are considered mods and can’t act like mods, either. They’re written in Javascript, which is not the same as Java. It’s a scripting language that gives anything you see in Minecraft its fundamental characteristics. You can make .json files which allow you to add new blocks. The things you can create using this system are limited compared to what you can do with mods.

Making add-ons for Bedrock doesn’t require much knowledge, but you can only make essential things. That being said, it would be possible to make mods for Bedrock Edition Minecraft if someone were to make a modloader coded in C++, which you could then inject into the game to create highly complex mods. It would, however, only be possible on Windows 10 Edition Minecraft and Minecraft Pocket Edition for Android phones. iOS and console users would be deprived of the modding experience since they have further limits that console manufacturers set on them.

Minecraft Dungeons

Minecraft Dungeons is a spin-off of the base game and was made using Unreal Engine. This makes it the first Minecraft game coded using a commercially available game engine, not one designed specifically for that game. The dungeon crawler genre inspired the game, and the developers wanted to explore what Minecraft could become in the future.

Initially, the game began development as any other Minecraft. Still, they wanted to incorporate high-quality animations, particle effects, and everything that would make it an action-adventure game. Hence, they decided to use Unreal Engine. They also wanted to include multiplayer in the game, which can be a complicated process, so Unreal helped solve those problems.

It would be hard for the game’s development team to develop it as quickly as they did if it weren’t for the engine simply because the development team for the game was relatively small, counting only 20 developers, even though Mojang has more than 750 employees today.

For personal projects, Unreal is free to use. You can use it to learn and get better at game development. If you were to start selling the product, you would only pay for the Engine, but the first million the game makes is free of royalty charges. Later on, the royalty is then 5%.

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