Topic category: Help with Minecraft modding (Java Edition)
(Focus on Bold Elements if you're feeling lazy to read and prepare for one heck of a yappy rant.)
If Title says it all for you, then you may skip ahead i suppose..
else,
V V V
CONTEXT/PROBLEM:
Problem is... I have big mods currently with MANY, Many advanced mobs or bosses with several animations for each with a varying amount of detail on each texture and model. Each mobs might have taken me between a day to 3-4 days total due to my time constraints of working.
- Updating to 2026.1 (From 2024.3) stole Geckolib from my possibilities.
- I understand that having Built-in stuff is nice, but in my head? The Java Animations and constraints are terrible. I now have to not only reanimate everything (to which i say hell nah) AND re-texture (possibly re-model) everything because they cannot take in per-face UV and smaller than 1x1 blocks.
"re-animate", You'd say i am wrong right? But no... I lose Keyframe Easing with Java. The only reason my animations look as nice is because of those smoothing / easings. Without them? Yeah, we're looking at some janky mess.
I might be somewhat invested into Animating, However i really am not looking forward to fight this.
I am truly wondering.. Is my time investment gone for the sake of 'Updating' ?
I AM AWARE OF:
- Plugins like Nerdy's Better Anims, but they only add blocks to allow playing out anims or switching textures dynamically which i needed.
- Updating should only be good due to having much more 'Power' for modding, right?
-> (To me? This isn't worth. My animations make me prouder, not to sound full of myself, but rather as someone enjoying what they made functional.)
- "Bruh, just take the hit" , Yeah nah.. Sorry, i don't work that way.
- "Why are you posting this?" , well? you've read it this far~ hehe.
(TLDR) - CONCLUSION:
Phew. Huge complaining aside,
Like usual, i immediately rattled my brain for solutions. I found some peeps mentioning it here or there, as well as Someone trying to revive Gecko for 2025.2 but this is not valid in my case.
I am now asking if someone knows if i could somehow 'keep' my nicer animations (Eased Keyframes) as well as to not have to re-texture dozens upon dozens of mobs per mod.
I still thank everyone who took moments of their valuable time to read this mega rant. But to everyone wondering why would i not update? This. Purely this. As weird as it'll sound, Geckolib is what made my mods so magical. Losing this Spark is not something i want.
Anyhoo, This was my experience with the new stuff! Short and.. unsweet. Take me with a grain of salt, i'm not saying everything is bad. I however strongly dislike Java's "lack" of modeling or animating in comparison to what i had. I am also not looking for Negativity despite me being... quite generous with my sad reaction to what i saw. Sorry if you find me Dramatic, but the sheer crush i felt is just.. higher than mild annoyance.
What model types are using now?
For the moment, i am still planning to regress, but i'll provide both.
My usual remains the .geo from Animated Geckolib Files used back when the plugin was in function.
For the newer ones (Built-in from MCreator), we are expected to use .java models, which are regular 'Modded Entities' files from Blockbench's regular options. (These ones are the 'limited' ones which i hate since textures+model+animations are shattered by them.)
It could be a bug of the converter if you are trying to convert them. There are many users using those Java animations daily with great sucess
Yes, I converted all of my .geo models to normal .java modded entities with basically zero issues arising, other than maybe pivot points.
To be brief, i understand why it 'breaks'. I'm just bothered that i would have to remake everything if i truly wanted to update. If i would have started by using Java at first, i wouldn't have this conversation~
When i played around in the Animation Tab, i couldn't find the Easing options anymore which made my animations look rough instead of smooth.
Textures were shattered from using Per-face UV (smaller than 1x1 units) which apparently is not usable by Java. (Model Included)
Basically, i don't think it's the fault of Blockbench by itself, but rather mine for using so many tiny cubes to shape up Models (Anime-like models for example, which needed extra touches of detail.)
Converting those already made models is just a nightmare if not just undoable. Someone first using Java and then always creating their new models in there would have no problems i assume. It's just me having tons upon tons of already made stuff which is not happy with Java Restrictions.
You can easily make small details by either scaling the texture up or increasing the model size and scaling the model down.
Other than uv nothing about the model should break. And uv mappings are easily fixed by moving the textures or uvs around.
That i am aware.
My problem is not about the lack of feasability, but rather that i would have to spend time fixing EVERY already existing entities, which are all quite detailed, be it animations and texture. (True, model shouldn't receive too much damage, only depending on how i made it though..)
If i was to make a New Project, yes, i could just use the 2026.1 setup, but for my old mods, it just seems unreasonable to use-up Hours upon Hours to re-texture (Or move UVs around which seems more tedious than painting it back) , as well as tending to the Animations' wounds.
To reiterate it all, My true beef starts with being stuck without Easings. I don't really wanna have 'Sharp' moving pieces that abruptly switch direction and so on. Each Smoothings i used gave some specific style to each animations, which are lost with Java Modded Entities' Rules. Without easing, to make it simpler, removes quite a lot of the 'aliveness' my characters show in their current state.
Perhaps i'm just having too high standards due to being used to Gecko eversince easings were a thing.
My only solution is to stay on 2024 for the old big stuff and maybe use 2026 for the future stuff not already made. Apart from that, i just best wait until someone comes up with a way to keep .geo stuff untouched.
You can change between linear, smooth, bezier and another in the animation tab for easing.
I will still look into it all for the duration of the time i'm still figuring stuff out since i still saw some very tempting plugins i need, but for today? I just want to make some progress here or there, so i'll continue on 2024.
Maybe there's a way with those 4 modes, but i still have to figure out how the heck they act. Maybe like i first said, i just missed the whole mark and went crying first before thinking.
(classic me~ hehe)