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MCprep changelogs and releases

by Patrick W. Crawford

See past MCprep releases, along with respective release notes and artwork here. You may also directly download any MCprep version from this page.

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v3.6.1.2 | Bug fixes

RELEASE NOTES

3.6.1.2

  • Fix build command used in release script by @TheDuckCow in #629
  • Even more graceful translations startup handling by @TheDuckCow in #630
    • As a side consequence of this, we now have equivalent simplified Chinese support in Blender 2.8-3.x to the support we already had in Blende 4.x

3.6.1.1

3.6.1

    v3.6.0 | The Next Chapter

    RELEASE NOTES

    • New features
      • Implemented CommonMCOBJ Support by @StandingPadAnimations in #555 and #548 (…and more)
        • Right now, this is not used for much, but in the future, it will allow for many things previously impossible, such as chunk alignment and biome colors
        • A compatible exporter is needed to take advantage of CommonMCOBJ support; Mineways v11.07+ and jmc2OBJ 124+ both support CommonMCOBJ V1. Also see the full list of exporters supporting CommonMCOBJ
      • EEVEE Next in Blender 4.2 by @StandingPadAnimations in #586
      • First steps towards multi-lingual support, big thanks to @StandingPadAnimations.
        • To activate, simply change the active Blender language in user preferences. More contributions are welcome! See how to contribute your language here, every little bit helps; our goal is to make it so one day, no one will be confused by MCprep’s UI simply due to a language barrier
        • Partial Russian translation by @Aspirata in #582
        • Partial Chinese translation by @chisaato
      • Adding material no_prep properties by @zNightlord in #561
    • Improvements
    • Fixes
      • Fixed using Geonode weather effects in Blender 4.2, which a large number of users have started to face
      • Update documentation to included included Warden by @TheDuckCow in #610
      • Improved error message when prepping only mats with missing image paths. by @TheDuckCow in #611
      • Fixing typing which was breaking blender 2.90 and 2.80 builds by @TheDuckCow in #614
      • Add non_color_options to mcprep base data json by @TheDuckCow in #616
      • Fixed materials for meshswap fire and campfile to be alpha clip in Eevee, and to not show the on furnace emitter mesh
    • Removals
      • Removed MCprep Cycles optimizer by @StandingPadAnimations in #543
        • The MCprep Cycles optimizer (deprecated in MCprep 3.5.2) was full of code designed for an older era of Cycles (pre-3.0), and also had many hard to fix bugs. Thus, it was decided to remove the MCprep Cycles optimizer. See #541 for the full rationale
    • Internal development improvements / updates

    v3.5.3 | Bugfix update

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Fixed error while using texture swap in MCprep v3.5.2 via wrong keyword argument by @StandingPadAnimations in #532
      • This also includes a new unit test covering this function, which means such a problem should not be possible in the future.

    v3.5.2 | Bugfix update

    RELEASE NOTES

    v3.5.1 | Blender release compatibility

    RELEASE NOTES

    v3.5.0 | Major Refactor

    RELEASE NOTES

    • This release represents a major refactor of MCprep, milestone details here
    • Dropped Blender 2.7x support (#399)
    • Made contributing and releasing MCprep easier for developers
      • Introduction of the new bpy-addon-build utility to easily work with MCprep locally
      • Cross platform unittests to ensure all contributions can be validated
      • Removing the need for direct code changes when compiling prod vs dev builds of the addon
      • Created a better designed env class to hold state and data.
      • Support for a release candidate workflow going forward
      • Python type hinting used where possible, making it easier for development and debugging
    • Updated assets:
      • New Minecraft 1.20 textures and block references
      • Fixes to the BoxScape Studios villager rig by @Roni-Raihan
    • Affirming blender 4.0 support including most basic working of AgX (color values may still need further revisions)
    • Fixed issues when generating materials during json model loading. If you are importing a third party json block model, it should now handle more gracefully – even if it means importing without textures.
    • Fixed loading geo node weather effects in Blender 4.0

    v3.4.3 | (CRITICAL patch fixes)

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Critical patch fixes (wow, there were two):
      • Fixed error when loading Mineways wolds that had spaces in the names. This was due to a bug in the recently added code to auto convert MTL files for users with non standard color spaces installed. #393
      • Fixed an error that 2.9x and 2.8x users would face when loading rigs, complaining about the warden rig. It was a bug in the code that was loading the post 3.0x version of the blend file, instead of the pre 3.0x version. Actual rig files themselves are fine and unchanged. Fix by @CFeeney333 and @TheDuckCow #403
    • Fixed pre-exisitng but still critical bug with material loading on block spawning. We now use the MCprep generate materials instead of the material generator that came with this original code contribution. #391
    • Rig fixes:
      • Ender Dragon nose position fixed to be more centered. (reporting on discord, no issue url)
      • Frog feet are set to have transparency in eevee, they were looking black before. #392
    • Forcing users to restart if there is any update detected. #402

    v3.4.2 | (general updates)

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Effects fixes and improvements
      • Fix weather particles disappearing after file reload @TheDuckCow in #384
      • Add effects path to user preferences and advanced option by @zNightlord in #339
      • Set default particle planes folder and fixed emitter material by @TheDuckCow in #380
    • Material improvements
    • Sync materials improvement, creating an actual useful workflow by @TheDuckCow in #387
      • Added edit sync file button to quickly open (or create) the sync materials blend file.
      • Moving to use json lookup for sync mats, so that either vanilla or world importer names will be matched.
      • Never heard of sync materials? It’s a way to create custom materials once and reuse them on every future world import. On by default. More information here
    • World importer improvements
    • Added some guides on commits in CONTRIUTING.md by @StandingPadAnimations in #381

    v3.4.1 | (CRITICAL patch)

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Resolved the issue which everyone faced while trying to update MCprep and then reloaded assets #331
      • CRITICAL DETAIL: Because this was a bug in the updater code itself, you will need to manually reinstall MCprep (or trigger the update to 3.4.1 from inside blender twice, restarting blender each time). If you don’t do this, things will still work better, but you won’t get all the effects files that were failing before (ie no instant or particle effects)
      • Sorry everyone! This was the single biggest error causing release for MCprep by a large margin.. and was the result of an inadvertent library update over a year ago that didn’t rear itself as an issue until now.
    • Fixed missing textures on TNT explosion assets #326
    • Made rain fall somewhat more like rain (looked like snow before). #327

    v3.4.0 | Effects Spawning

    RELEASE NOTES

    • See in depth details about all listing in the 3.4.0 milestone here
    • New features:
      • Weather + effects Spawning #96
        • Long awaited, and the crown jewel of this update. You now have the ability to spawn in rain, snow, explosion effects, bubbles, and so much more.
        • This is really a rollup of several different features:
          • Geometry node based “wide area effects” (Kudos to Th3Pooka for the great node layouts)
          • Particle based wide area effects, pre-animated collections (with the feature of offsetting direct and indirect animations based on the active frame)
          • Animated image sequences, such as bubbles popping, read from resource packs directly and thus work with custom resource packs
          • “Particle planes” to quickly generate particle effects from a Minecraft texture, such as from footfalls. You can select any source image and it properly creates (or reuses) a collection with cut up variants of the texture plane to use for a particle system. Over time, will add additional modes for useful default behaviors.
        • All effects were made in a generic way. You will see subfolders in the MCprep resources folder, where you can add in your own effects if you like (just be careful during MCprep updates or when uninstalling MCprep that you don’t lose your work).
      • Panorama rendering #309
        • Perfect for any resource pack developers or someone who wants to customize their Minecraft startup screen. This will render out, from the current camera position, the correctly position files for a title screen panorama.
        • Major thanks to @Tiefseetauchner for contributing this code and putting up with code reviews!
      • Cycles optimization! Thanks to @StandingPadAnimations#290 and #239
        • Cycles optimization can be hard at times, so MCprep now comes with a new Cycles optimizer that does most of the heavy lifting for you. This is a new feature and actively seeking feedback and suggestions from veterans.
    • Improvements / fixes
      • Handle special cases via an extension to the MCprep data json file
        • Now when you meshswap spawn chests, they will be made as instances by default so you can animate them.
        • Prep material is turned off by default for several rigs, such as the Simple Villager, to support asset contributions that have special material node layouts that would be broken by prep materials (which is otherwise on by default to maximize compatibility).
      • New rigs and assets (see issue for which and credit) #318
      • Added the “Player Armored” rig, which is a direct extension of the Player rig but with all sorts of Armor already set up as meshes
        • This is not using any fancy materials or UV sliding, or rigs with drivers. For simplicity, you simply need to enable or disable the according collection in the outliner after use.
        • Not currently set up for the slim player rig.
        • The player rig itself is unchanged from the other Player rig that shows up, but they were kept separate to cut down on size (so if you don’t need armor, you aren’t bringing in all those extra meshes along with their sharp-bend drivers, which in large numbers slows down blender if you have several instances of the rig).
      • Fixing villager torso not deforming after restart #307
      • Support for splitting up which files can be imported by different versions of blender
        • It was very taxing to support old versions of blender consistently. Now, we have an approach where we can author rigs in the latest version of blender, and then export to FBX and re-impor into blend files used for older versions of blender. These older version-supporting rigs don’t have the bells and whisles of drivers, custom bone properties, or even constraints – but it’s better than nothing, and saves a lot of time of re-hand authoring. Fore more information, read here.
        • A file with the name “pre3.0.0” for instance tells MCprep this file should be preferred to open over the one that does not have “pre#.#.#” in the name. Several rigs how have one or more version-based variants thanks to this new feature. This is done at the overall file name level, MCprep does not parse for groups to have blender version name indicators (as the whole file was either saved in one version of blender or another anyways).
    • Numerous bug fixes, thanks for continuing to submit error popups when they occur.

    v3.3.0 | Blender-Minecraft update

    RELEASE NOTES

    • New features:
      • General Block Spawning #77
        • A huge feature a long time in the making! You are now able to generically spawn (nearly) any block from any Minecraft Resource Pack. This likely included spawning custom 3D models from Mods as well, but this is not yet highly tested.
        • Works based on the active resource pack, falling back to the one that ships with MCprep (e.g. if a resource pack references the generic Block resource defined by vanilla Minecraft).
      • Entity Spawning #148
        • Functions similar to MeshSwap spawning where collections are spawned from a resource file specified in user preferences. Generally entities are expected to be rigged, but it is not always necessary.
        • A few entities are included already, from community contributions. This includes a boat, minecart, shield, bow, crossbow, and arrow. More will be added over time. Community contributions are highly welcome (open a new issue with your contribution).
      • Redesigned the spawner panel. See visuals here.
      • A new default, simpler material for prep materials (Cycles + Eevee only). #263
        • Highly requested, this simplifies node layouts for the most common use cases.
        • The previous default was the “Specular” mode, which was suited for PBR resource packs (similar to how you could specify SEUS). You can always revert back to the original behavior choosing Specular from the prep materials dropdown, or when swapping textures.
        • Note: As a result of this simpler operation, you will likely find that light emitting blocks no longer emit very much light (this was accomplished using a falloff node, still available in the Specular/SEUS option).
      • New rigs added for: Zombie Villager, Stray, and Drowned. Thanks community! There are more mobs missing, consider contributing.
      • Added a super secret “Experimental” flag option in user preferences. #260
        • As new features come out in MCprep that are not fully refined, they will be hidden behind this flag. It is off by default, and the goal is that using features that are new will prompt user survey feedback (this functionality not yet implemented).
        • At the moment, no features are blocked behind the setting, so it doesn’t do much right now.
    • Bug fixes:
      • Fixing resource pack mapping for worlds from more recent jmc2obj versions. #248
      • Fixed lack of transparency for worlds from more recent jmc2obj versions. #246
      • Check for grayscale (used when swapping textures) speed increased. #178
      • Fixed Item Spawning where pixel grid was offset in blender 2.93+. #213
      • A slew of more specific bugs. You can see the most commonly ones reported here, note the tick box for which ones were resolved.

    v3.2.5.1 | (Patch Update)

    mcprep-splash

    RELEASE NOTES

    • New features:
      • Glow Squid mob contribution thanks to TRPHB Animation, #160
      • New power feature for item spawner: Spawn an item while in pose mode of a rig, and the spawned item will automatically be relocated and parented to the active arm. Common use case: have a lower arm selected, spawn a sword. Sample demo video.
      • Automated updates to the MCprep resource json, which performs mappings from Mineways and jmc2obj materials over to vanilla Minecraft textures.
    • Bug fixes:
      • Fixing the most commonly report bug, which was raising errors like KeyError: 'bpy_prop_collection[key]: key "Stone" not found.
      • Fixed errors with item spawner UV layout in Blender 2.93, read more: #213
      • Increasing backwards compatibility for material assignments thanks to some bug reports: be7f0da and another bug to do with consolidating materials 54cd0a2

    Note: Up until now, blender 2.72 was officially supported. Due to few (though non-zero) and new regressions that came up, the new minimum suggested install is now blender 2.78. Earlier versions may still technically work, but it is untested.

    v3.2.5 | Blender-Minecraft update

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Officially now supporting current Blender 2.93 and Blender 3.0 builds!
      • New versions of blender may always be unstable and create changes that break MCprep. In particular, the Blender 3.0 alpha is quite likely to introduce new issues that have not been uncovered yet. Reporting issues is the best way to help capture these.
    • Including official Minecraft 1.17 textures.
    • Fixed normal maps to used ‘closest’ interpolation to better match shader behavior #205
    • Added new mobs thanks to the recent Mob Challenge (details here):
      • Axolotl by Breadcrumb (see how to change type here)
      • Cave spider by Austin Prescott
      • Goat by TRPHB Animation
      • As always: Rigs included in MCprep have the CC-BY license, which means you are free to use them (even commercially!) so long as you give credit back to either 1) the individual rig owners, or 2) link to the overall credits section of MCprep here
    • Imported worlds will now properly name the individual blocks, and segment the collection / group name according to the world imported. More info.
      • This allows for managing multiple worlds more easily without having name clashes (e.g. collections being all named “Mineways_world”)
    • The “Report error?” will no longer trigger if a user has just updated MCprep in-place, and instead will suggest the user try restarting blender. Many errors can occur if the user doesn’t not restart directly after updating MCprep, try to always do so proactively!
    • A slew of minor bug fixes thanks to submitted error logs:
      • 78c1d43 Fixing error when material slot is empty
      • 99fb668 Fixing open user preferences error if package not found
      • 3ff8d86 Fixing regular expression escaping during animate textures generation
      • e682163 Improved user error messaging during OBJ importing
      • 331e90e Capturing non-blocking ValueError during Combine Materials operator
      • 596d331 Upgraded the in-addon updating code, resolving some previously reported bugs
      • b62f74d Stop Prep UI errors in prep materials operation

    v3.2.4.2 | (Patch update)

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Including latest snapshot (21w14a) items and textures (new mobs such as goats and wardens are not yet included).
    • Fixed issue where a custom Mob folder would not refresh the list of dropdown categories to match
    • Fixed issue where swap texturepack or animate textures could result in an error like uvx, uvy = active_uv.data[loop_ind].uv IndexError / AttributeError, due to the recently added check for valid UV (non scaled) layouts required for such features.
    • Fixed naming of poppy flowers in the meshswap file
    • Fixed meshswap torches, which would have some instances spawning without light-emitting lamps, or light values would be too low (due to animation set in older blender versions).
    • Fixed default zombie eye material to not go white when prepping materials.
    • Added simple first-layer head meshes with no 3D details for the Player and Player Slim mobs, hidden by default (both viewports globally and in render). This is a fast option if you want the full rig but just don’t want a 3D face.
    • Implemented the “Download username list” operator, under the advanced settings of the Skin Swapper.
      • Niche tool I built primarily to aid MCprep Community renders, you can paste in a comma-separated list of usernames, and MCprep will auto download all of them into the target folder (it will not try to apply them to any active character, you still need to manually apply skin afterwards).

    v3.2.4.1 | (Patch update)

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Fixed addon updater config issue, which was preventing new assets from being downloaded #171
      • NOTE! Because of the way the addon updater works, if you want to get the latest assets packaged in this release, be sure to update in blender twice (and restart blender after each update).
      • The first update will pull down the “corrected” python code, and the second update will then be able to correctly pull down assets. Installing the addon fresh (once) also works fine.
    • Create Sky now automatically increases all camera clipping distances when adding clouds #172
    • Added new special detection for “scaled UVs”, to alert users proactively when they try to swap resource packs or animate textures when they did not use Mineway’s “Export tiles to folder” feature.
      • More details on what this is and why it was added: #166
      • Not sure what this means? Check out this video, noting the last tick mark mentioned “for advanced users”.
    • The exclude meshswap collection is now not excluded (which is view layer specific), but rather hidden globally for both viewports and renders
      • To unhide, you’ll need to add the according extra columns into an outliner. Details: #170
    • Fix UV orientations for the bottom head (but inner and outer layer) for the Simple, Simple slim, and Shapekey player rigs.
    • Several minor bug fixes and better user warnings, thanks to the bug reports logged! 24511a5 and c08a638
    • Updated to the latest mappings for jmc2obj fa18837

    v3.2.4 | Community

    MCprep v3.2.4

    RELEASE NOTES

    • New tutorial series, and a special MCprep discord community – join here!
    • Created support for another texture pack formats: SEUS (Sonic Ether’s Unbelievable Shaders)! #78
      • To use, select SEUS from the dropdown in Prep Materials, or in the Swap Texturepack settings after ticking Prep Materials. This will correctly load resource packs, properly making materials emissive, reflective, or metallic as the resource pack was meant to be used.
      • HUGE thanks to Bytzo for the community code contribution here!
      • Note: This supports only for Eevee (2.8+) and Cycles (2.7+), not Blender Internal (2.7).
    • Created a Sync Materials operator
      • Now when prepping materials (and if Sync Materials is on), matching materials in the active resource pack’s materials.blend file will be loaded, instead of generating the fresh materials entirely. This includes both material settings and nodes, and is always read from the root of the active resource pack.
    • Added a Material Library panel, under Properties > Materials, demo here (#27)
      • This is a great way to quickly add materials to objects, and doesn’t require that you first import a world
      • It respects the active texture pack, including use of pbr materials including normal and spec (or rough/emission/metal) passes.
    • Several generated material improvements!
      • Stricter extra pass detection, so wrong textures on resource pack swap don’t occur (e.g. picking up the bark top normal map for the bark side material).
      • Inverting normals for texturepacks as they use an oppose direction (Cycles/Eevee only) #122
      • Improved, looser checks for grayscale images (previously, if any pixel at all was saturated even slightly, the test would fail)
      • Fix for blender internal (2.7) grayscale material detection
    • Long overdue updates for Minecraft 1.16
      • Added several missing mobs (see here for which ones were added and which ones are still deferred)
      • Added soul fire, soul torches, soul lanterns, soul campfires, shroomlights, and more to meshswap
      • Updated mapping file and included textures for 1.16
    • Fixed issue when mesh spawning carrots and potatoes (being over-scaled) #158
    • Meshswap material-to-object/collection mapping is now non case sensitive, improving mapping to Mineways worlds #152
    • Added Simple Player Slim model. Also renamed Alex/Steve rigs to be Player and Player Simple, and ensured both by default have non-modified second layers to make skin swapping easier. Note: there is not a Shapekey Player Slim mob yet, this might be in a future update. #146
      • Updated simple player to ensure in default view the simple player second skin is visible #139
    • Adding red-alert drawing for events like updates being ready or Restart Blender!, to make actions clearer
    • Many bug fixes – thanks everyone for continuing to report them!

    v3.2.3 | The Quarantine Update

    MCprep v3.2.3 Quarantine Update

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Enabled support for Mineways Texture Swap and Animate Textures
      • In order for this to work, you must use the somewhat newer Mineways option to separate textures into individual tiles, as opposed to a single texture file for all blocks.
      • A future update will enable this to work with the combined files too, stay tuned.
    • Updated “import world” operator will split world into it’s different materials automatically in 2.8
      • This makes obj importing more similar to 2.79, where the blocks come in as separate objects.
    • Improved use of collections in Blender 2.8
      • Imported worlds are placed in their own collection
      • Meshswapped blocks are placed in a Meshswap Render collection
      • Meshswap assets (used as the source for collection instances) are placed in an excluded view layer, which removes the appearance of blocks being “duplicated” after spawning (it was just due to seeing both the instance and the source)
      • If you want to edit or modify any of the meshswap collection groups (and you did not link the assets), then simply re-tick the box (un-exclude) next to the “Meshswap Exclude” collection in the outliner.
    • Restructured meshswap file
      • Updated block mappings for Minecraft 1.14+
      • Meshswap asset now only has one copy of assets named after the “canonical” vanilla minecraft texture (previously assets were split for both Mineways and jmc2obj).
      • With this system, objects are meshswapped based on the material being mapped to a canonical name in a resource json file to get the Vanilla texture name, or of there is a direct material name match to an object or group in the meshswap file.
    • Improved Meshswap
      • Code restructure to be more testable and simpler to implement additional changes
      • Added new meshswap blocks: campfire, lanterns, carved pumpkins, more flower types
      • Known issues persist: Door swapping, hanging lanterns are placed as though on the ground, things like furnaces and pumpkins aren’t rotated correctly. These changes however will make it easier to fix this in a future update.
      • It’s faster now!
    • Fixed grayscale textures with color overlay, to fix grass, water, and similar potentially desaturated blocks.
      • Implemented more automated check which analyzes image textures that might be grayscale, and then overlaying color back in if needed. This will solve issues when swapping texture packs (as resource packs make grass and other textures gray), as well as in the latest Mineways and jmc2obj exports which might export gray textures.
      • With some extra elbow grease, this also works with desaturated animated images like flowing or still water.
      • Note: The solid/textured view mode may still show desaturated images, as blender just plainly renders the source image. In rendered view however, it should appear correctly colored.
    • Fixed a number of additional bugs, thanks to in-blender user error reports. Keep them coming!
    • Implemented an adhoc testing suite, to make it easier and faster to ensure functionality is consistent across blender versions and keep up with changes better.
      • At the moment, MCprep still supports Blender 2.72* all the way through the current Blender 2.90 alpha (woohoo!)
      • * (some minor features not available in 2.72, use at least 2.79 if possible)

    v3.2.2 | The Hunt (for bugs)

    MCprep v3.2.2 artwork

    RELEASE NOTES

    • The hunt was good, and more bugs squashed
      • Suppressed error messages coming from warnings of operators called within other operators (e.g. prep materials called from within Mob Spawning)
      • Better module reloading, which will improve updating in-place (still best if you restart post-update)
      • Making MeshSwap only appear if in Object mode, as it should be
      • Thanks to everyone who reported the 400+ issues (yes man duplicates) in-addon bug reports and new issues on GitHub!
    • New and updated mobs:
      • Spawning villagers/vindicators/evokers used to immediately crash blender 2.8+, so I put them in a timeout in favor of newer mobs by Boxscape Studios
      • Added new mobs: Bees, Pandas, Foxes, Husk, Ravager, Elder Guardian
      • Fixed creeper’s default pose to have mouth in the frown position
    • Now won’t include “Collection” in the list of Mobs if found in any of the files

    v3.2.1 | Killer of bugs

    MCprep v3.2.1

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Mostly just bug squashing (sorry Mr. Silverfish)! Including:
      • Fixing 2.8 and 2.7 cross compatibility, including even better Eevee support
      • Better error handling when attempting to load mob scripts
      • Fixed node connections for the principled shader
      • Fix to enable mob spawning in Blender 2.70 (you can read that again)
      • … and loads of other errors. Thank you everyone for the over 1,500 bug reports logged from inside Blender (many being duplicates, which helped prioritize what to fix).
    • Initial work developed on Linked World Bridge, but not enabled

    v3.2.0 | New Horizons

    MCprep v3.2.0

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Added support for Blender 2.8! The same addon code will install in both 2.7x and 2.8x the same
      • If you get a popup warning when installing/enabling in blender 2.7x, you should be able to ignore it.
      • Please note that Blender 2.8 is still in beta, and thus can change and break things. Continued support in this somewhat unstable state is best effort.
      • All features for MCprep and cycles will function in 2.8
      • Special support for Eevee where relevant exists, including through the Prep Materials button. Objects will be labeled as transparent unless marked otherwise or unless the material is a known solid one.
      • A popup option for “mark all materials solid” works for all Cycles, Eevee, and Blender Internal. This is in particular useful for Eevee when wanting objects to cast shadows.
    • More mobs, and finally mob icons!
      • Thanks to Box Scape Studios for supporting the addition of new mobs: Llama, Evoker, Vindicator, Ender Dragon, Wither, Magma Cube, updated witch rig, Phantom
      • Fixed several mob inconsistencies, and in particular now all mobs should be scaled correctly by default with 1 Blender Unit = 1 meter.
      • All default MCprep mobs now show icons in the Shift-A menu and panel menus
      • Added icons to mob spawner. Matches to icon file name based on a thumbnail being present in an icon subfolder next to the blend file with a base filename matching the according group name (non case sensitive, but otherwise dash/underscore/space sensitive).
      • When installing a new mob rig, it will auto copy the icon if found; you can also go into advance settings to add/replace icon from a specific file if you like.
    • Added a new custom sky (See demo video, and animated example)
      • Special setups are made for Cycles and Eevee, but if using Blender Internal it will use the built in sun lamp atmosphere settings for a similar effect.
      • A single property (found on the “MCprepSunMoonControl” object) uses drivers to update the sun orientation as well as sky, and is capable of doing full day/night transitions. The value of this property is in hours, and will loop over every 24 hours (0 is midnight).
      • View more settings of this new sky shader by visiting the world tab or world nodes. Settings include: star size, global illumination (ie light the background actually gives off), rendering sun/moon in the background shader, and of course the hour time input itself (on import, is controlled by a driver)
      • With cycles, you can rotate this object around as you please, but it must be located at (0,0,0) for the sun/moon shader to work properly.
      • With Eevee, you can move the MCprepSunMoonControl object wherever, but you cannot rotate it – orient your scene around to fit (notice how this is reverse compared to cycles). This is due to current limitations in Eevee nodes.
      • Not available for Blender Internal as there are no such things as world nodes for that (plus, the equivalent exists by using “atmosphere” on a sun lamp)
    • Added option to import Clouds and Sun/Moon
      • Option is included as a part of the above “Create MC World” button.
      • Sun and Moon in this context is a physical mesh, which is unnecessary if using the Cycles/Eevee sky node group above.
      • Clouds are not pre-animated, but are design to automatically “fade out” with distance from the camera (Cycles/Eevee). Note that default cameras have ending distances of 100m; to properly see clouds, try setting a value to 1000m or more instead to avoid clipping of the cloud meshes.
    • Meshswap is now faster for 2.7x users! Will vary depending on the scene and number of unique meshswap blocks, but in some cases could be nearly 2x faster.
      • Note that MeshSwap in Blender 2.8 is known to be slower, even with these improvements. Note also that the scene will not refresh showing progress of meshswap like 2.7, it will only update at the very end. There is no workaround, so just be patient – and save before using the feature.
    • Fixed bugs, thanks to those who used the in-blender error reporting tool!
      • Error would occur when prepping worlds when no worlds existed, it will now create one if needed
      • Error would occur during generation of material image animation if no diffuse color found on the block
      • Error would occur when spawning an item from a file, saying ~”wrong uv context”. In fact, this feature was mostly rewritten and should be much faster and more stable now. Sample video.

    v3.1.1 | Spawned item spawner

    mcprep v3.1.1 artwork

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Added “Item” spawning
      • Yes! Now you can now finally spawn swords, arrows, potatoes, and more! See this demo video.
      • This works by generating meshes with the solidify modifier from source images. You can either load an item based on the current texture/resource pack (defaults to Vanilla Minecraft), or by selecting any arbitrary image from a file.
      • It currently can run slowly for higher resolution items or highly “filled in” items, future updates will aim to improve this.
      • Feature built in collaboration with Nils Söderman and his Minecraft Item Spawner.
    • Added “Scale UV Faces” operator for scaling individual UV faces about their own origin.
      • The “amount” factor is in the F6 / redo-last menu, defaults to scaling by 0.75.
      • Must be in edit mode, demo here.
    • Added “Select/Delete Alpha Faces” operator, allowing you to quickly select and delete faces of a UV-unwrapped mesh which are transparent on the active image.
    • Renamed mcprep_custom_texturepack_path to mcprep_texturepack_path.
    • New and improved mobs!
      • Added a “Simple Player” mob, for bare bones, minimally rigged characters. No eyes, making it useful for adding player skins without editing to account for eyes.
      • Added a “Shapekey Player” mob, which is uniquely useful for background characters and crowd simulations.
        • This ultimate light-weight “rig” doesn’t use any armatures, all the actions are animated from pre-made shapekeys. A default loop of walking and running cycles are setup, which can be layered with other actions like head turns or other hand motions.
        • Several default looping animations have been setup, which can be layered on top of other mini actions or other custom actions.
      • Added several new Passive mobs, thanks to Boxscape studios!
      • Fix how Storymode mob and the Shulker mob spawn
    • MCprep can now automatically convert pre 1.8 skin layouts to the new layered format!
      • When installing via Add Skin or Apply Skin from Username, look for the tickbox option “Convert layouts” which is now default to on.
      • Will not convert or overwrite existing files, conversion only happens when “installing” a skin which copies a source file into the active skin folder (under advanced settings, defaulting in the MCprep addon folder)
    • Improved how the spawner UI lists are loaded, now once you load them once, they are saved (cached) for future times you open the blender file.
      • Additionally, uncategorized mobs now install and load correctly
      • Fixed issue to prevent extra objects (typically bone shapes) from being added into the scene #2
    • Placing a meshswap asset (e.g. from Shift-A) with Make Duplicates Real (default) on now removes the extra empty previously added.
    • Fixed some other minor bugs, such as those report here (#58 (comment)) and a few reported via user error reporting:
      • Error would occur when prepping materials in blender internal with objects selected that had non-image based textures
      • Error would occur when installing a skin from file that was already installed (while illogical and pointless to do this, at the very least shouldn’t create an error)
    • If you already have MCprep v3.1.0 install, then you should be prompted to install the update directly!

    For help or any issues, create new issues here, or reach out to TheDuckCow at support@theduckcow.comor on twitter @TheDuckCow or on youtube. In the addon, consider keeping (anonymous) usage tracking enabled to help me understand how to improve this addon more!

    v3.1.0 | The resource update

    MCprep v3.1.0

    Click here to see the beta video showcasing most new features.

    RELEASE NOTES

    • THIS IS A MAJOR UPDATE, while the install should go smoothly, it might help to first remove the old MCprep, close Blender, and then re-open and install the new zip.
      • Also, updating from directly inside blender has been added, so this should be the last time you need to manually install!
    • Updated the minimum blender support version to 2.72 (Blender 2.8 support is in progress)
    • Added texture packs! Whoa!
      • While not 100% synonymous with Minecraft’s resource packs, you can use valid Minecraft resource packs with MCprep for changing texture packs.
      • Prep materials now generates animated materials! (Based on active texture pack, or the one shipped with the addon if none other specified). See a demo of that here.
      • Texturepack swapping added – by setting the resource pack folder location to a valid resource pack, you can change the texturepack based on the selected objects, even mixing different packs within the scene.
      • NOTE: Texturepack swapping and animate textures only works with jmc2obj worlds at the moment, Mineways support coming soon.
      • Re-organized the mcprep_resources folder; if installing the update on top of a previous version, the addon should automatically move previously installed custom rigs and skins to the correct location, ie from `//MCprep_resources/default_mcprep/rigs’ to ‘//MCprep_resources/rigs’
      • Added a sub-folder called “resourcepacks” which comes with Minecraft textures by default (in a standard texturepack format, + a custom premade image set for Mineways).
    • Added prep materials option (default: on) to auto-find and connect missing textures.
      • This means no more pink materials! (unless the material doesn’t match one found with the MCprep install).
      • Previously, if you moved the texture folders away from an unpacked blend file or obj, the textures would be reported as missing. Now, any missing texture can be swapped for the matching internal one. Existing textures that do exist on file or are packed in the blend file will not be changed (unless swap texturepack is enabled)
    • Overhaul of the Prep Materials button
      • Much smarter and more appropriate cycles materials have been added
      • Support for the principled node (can be disabled in the material settings, and will simply use legacy layouts for previous blender versions)
      • The “prep UI” button now also sets at least solid view level (or textured, if cycles is active), to ensure after clicking textures are visible immediately
    • Prepping cycles materials is now more efficient
      • If not light emitting, sample as light will be turned off
      • Only nodes that are required are generated/unmuted; e.g., if it’s not a reflective material, the glossy shader and mix nodes will be muted
    • Added operators for World Tools – including add sun lamp, and prep world. Prep world is a great tool which will optimize the blend file for typical Minecraft renders. In the case of cycles specifically, this typically will mean your scenes look better and render faster!
    • While MCprep has always notified you about updates, for the first time you can actually directly update the addon from inside blender. When an update is ready (automatically checked daily, unless turned off in user preferences), a notice will ask if you want to install this update (blender may hang for a moment while it downloads, and then you’ll need to restart Blender). This will work for this version of MCprep and afterwards (to upgrade to this v3.1.0, you’ll have to install the normal manual way).

    v3.0.2 | Parody Production Polished

    mcprep v3.0.2

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Added brand new feature: Meshswap block spawning!
      • You can now directly append meshswap groups into your scene from either the Shift-A menu, or the spawner panel
      • Currently only works on groups in the meshswap blend file, but you can change it to be any of your own custom files or add your own groups to that file.
      • Future versions will expand blocks available significantly.
      • Automatically can snap blocks to grid and auto prep materials (into cycles format or BI)
      • Demo link available here
    • Last version claimed compatibility improvement – this one actually makes it work properly for everyone. Enjoy your blending down to 2.72, for real this time!
    • Changed the default behavior of prep materials to not automatically consolidate materials, which was causing individuals to accidentally combine skins swapped.
      • If you find you have duplicate materials lying around, press combine materials button directly instead.
    • Updates to the updater code which had some installation issues previously and problems where it would continue to notify of an update even after the update was installed manually.
    • New popup layout for meshswapping, putting details in a dialog instead of cluttering the panel.
      • Not sure what everything does? Don’t worry – the default behavior does the same as what the button did in previous releases.
      • Removed the now unnecessary settings options under the MCprep main panel. This includes removing options like mcprep_use_lib (for setting initially to link groups or not) and the append layer setting, now in the new popup UI instead
    • Fixed “remove mob” operator for mob spawning, wasn’t working before. Also warns you if the file you’re trying to delete will also remove other mobs (in case the one file has multiple mobs inside as in some rig packs)
    • Removed the “jmc works best” lingo as both Mineways and jmc2obj can effectively be configured to work as well (be sure to see the diagram of optimal settings for both)
    • Removed the “quick 10x10x10 upscale” button that was made to accommodate mineways, as most people now use Mineays export for rendering which defaults to an appropriate scale of 1000mm high (or 1m) which matches meshswap scale.
    • Also made it so that when selecting the “open mineways” path on OSX, the path auto-fixes itself to end in “.app” if the input path is actually a subfolder.
    • Slightly adjusted Ghast rig, default view of creeper rig, villager rig, and removed extra slime rig.
    • Added a text-file link referring to the addon’s privacy policy.

    v3.0.1 | Painting a Better Addon

    mcprep v3.0.1

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Big compatibility fixes! MCprep now once again works in blender versions down as far as 2.72 (thanks everyone for logging issues)
    • Implemented ability to open jmc2obj/mineways from within MCprep directly
      • Set (and save!) the path to the program executables in the user preferences section
      • Save a default path for importing Minecraft world export OBJs
    • Applying skin now also updates the active UV image on the selected meshes
    • Added a whole new page about world importing for quick reference in the tutorial section of the preferences panel.
    • Added back in the local scene variable for source of mob spawner
      • This allows you to have a global saved preference, e.g. the built in mobs while still allowing you to save and keep individual files with different reference folders
      • To use, simply change the filepath in the spawner panel itself – this will be saved with the blend file, but will not affect other files or the default path.
      • Also added the relative blend filepath below the “spawn x” button, which is useful if you have multiple groups with the same name in different files, or if you are in the “all” category and have a WIP/old versions folder and see multiple versions of the same item.
    • Added a popup UI to mob spawning, forcing users to consciously decide to link or append and set location and pose
      • You can still one-click spawn in a rig by clicking on the right arrow icon in the UIList to instantly spawn the rig
      • This allows you to quick add characters in a scene without the popup, sort of like a shortcut.
    • Added a workflow for selecting an active mob for skin swapping, separate to mob swapping selected skin
      • This allows you to set a specific mob, e.g. the default Player mob, as active for skin swapping.
      • By using the “spawn_with_skin” operator, you can directly add a rig into a scene and apply a selected skin in one button click.
    • Fixed issue so that future popups notifying of new updates will correctly bring users to download page.
    • Other minor bug fixes/stability items.

    v3.0.0 | A Whole New Addon

    v3.0.0

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Complete code rewrite, which will allow for easier continued development and expansion
    • Added completely new Skin Swapping workflow
      • Operator to one-click apply a new skin to a selected rig from an image file. Works on the selected armature or objects
      • Operator to download a username’s skin and apply it to a selected rig. Works on the selected armature or objects
      • Built in list of stored skins for quick re-applying in the future, with the ability to add or remove from this list or select a new folder of skins.
      • Comes with a few skins out of the box
      • Note: Only compatible with Minecraft 1.8+ skins, in the future an auto conversion will be developed for older skin formats.
    • Retopologized and optimized the Fancy Feet Rig/Player Rig, now has an even pixel grid for easy extruding/face deletion
    • Added additional meshswap blocks
    • Added additional mobs to the mob spawner, including the Shulker and Blaze
    • New utility functions:
      • Improve UI: changes viewport settings optimal for Minecraft rendering
      • Combine materials: If there are duplicates of the same material name (e.g. after consecutive world imports or rig appends), this operator will consolidate them down to the lowest number of materials
      • Combine images: Similarly, if there are duplicates of the same image name (i.e. image, image.001, etc), this operator will consolidate the datablocks into the lowest number of unique image base names. Only available with blender 2.78+.

    v2.1.3 | Windows Band Aid

    v2.1.3


    RELEASE NOTES

    • Windows is a special operating system that decided to not play along with the the rest of the gang. Some change in blender’s filepath calculations on Windows made meshswapping and mob spawning not work in blender 2.76.
    • This update only patches that issue (both linux and OSX were fine all along). Big features coming soon, stay tuned!

    v2.1.2 | Mob Spawner Expansion

    MCprep-v2.1.2-artwork

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Made the rig folder a scene variable, so the path is saved with the blend file (default set to the one in the addon preferences)
      • This allows you to truly use the addon in a project with locally mapped rig folders without having to set the rig path for all blender instances/projects.
    • Added several more mob rigs, including spiders, zombies, rabbits, and VMcomix’s player rig.
    • Minor improvements to Mineways meshswapping
    • Added custom icons – only visible when using blender 2.75!
    • Created a “no category” section for mob spawning, so any rig in the rig folder and not in a sub-folder (a category) is also included.
    • Added more blocks for meshswapping, including sea lanterns, spawners, and more doors (note: doors still don’t quite meshswap correctly, turn off “join same mesh” to manually fix for each one)
    • Prototyped a function for shift-a adding meshswap objects, coming soon!
    • Added script support for the rigs, as implemented with the VMcomix rig
      • If your rig has a script e.g. to show/hide bones and for custom UI sliders, simply place the script in the same folder as the rig blend itself, and rename it to match the blend file but with the .py extension.
    • Fixed bug where clearing the pose also cleared drivers
    • Several other user experience and functional improvements

    v2.1.1 | Mob Spawner Release – Update

    MCprep-v2.1.1-artwork

    RELEASE NOTES

    • MCprep has been moved to its own tab in the toolshelf
    • Now, there is a mob spawner section – all spawnable mobs are now just a single press of a button away
    • Improved the user experience of adding custom mobs
    • Created mob categories, based on folder structure.
    • Added more mobs! Thanks contributors
    • Added “rig caching”, which previously made menu drawing slow and nonresponsive for a large number of rigs
    • Other minor bugs here and there and optimizations

    v2.1.0 | Mob Spawner Release

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Added the Mob Spawner functionality! You can now with a click of a button spawn in a variety of included minecraft rigs, or install your own!
    • Included rigs: Steve (Fancy Feet), creeper, horse, guardian, skeleton, wolf, and chicken. Credits for the creators of these rigs are on the readme page
    • This slightly random assortment of rigs will be expanded very soon, and eventually will cover all mobs in the game! Some optimizations need to be made first.
    • No significant changes have been made to meshswapping or material prepping.

    v2.0.2 | Mineways Fix + More Objects

    MCprep-v2.0.2-artwork

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Added several more objects/groups for meshswapping both for jmc2obj and Mineways, including: bookshelves, some doors, crafting table, enchanting table (pre-aniamted), and more flora.
    • Added the license for the models, CC-BY. If you use the meshswap files, give credit by linking to this addon!
    • Changed the default meshswap exporter to none, forcing users to select the right one.
    • MeshSwap now will keep the same selection after running as before
    • Fixed meshswap offset function (part of Mineways function), objects should be placed in the right place now
    • Merged the jmc2obj and Mineways meshswap blend file into one, using different layers for exporter specific objects
    • Now an option for joining meshswapped blocks together, on by default (equivalent behavior to previous versions). If turned off, all objects swapped in will remain separate, independent blocks.
    • Fixed torch rotation for Mineways and torch duplication with jmc2obj
    • Add preliminary support for swapping doors (oak and iron), but currently will be rotated wrong and, with Mineways, will swap in two overlapping doors. Also jmc2obj imports the wooden door instead of the iron door for reasons yet to be understood.
    • Cycles will used animated texture if one is present prior to material prep.
    • Added an auto-update checker, now if a new version of MCprep is available a label will appear in the addon window to get the new release.
    • Minor updates to opt-in usage tracking, now the user only needs to click the button once to enable/disable usage tracking without having to save user preferences. Please consider enabling it, helps to understand the users actions!

    v2.0.1 | Cycles Support and Meshswap Overhaul

    MCprep-v2.0.1-artwork

    RELEASE NOTES

    • Cycles support for material prepping
    • MeshSwap overhaul, is much more efficient now and removes many bugs
    • MeshSwap no longer over-imports groups, which previously cluttered up space on multiple uses
    • New addon structure, now also makes use of addon preferences.
    • The default meshSwap files for Mineways and jmc2obj are now held in the blender addon directory for cleaner, generalized access.

    v2.0.0 | MCprep Secondary Release

    RELEASE NOTES

    No official change log or release artwork exists for this version of MCprep, but was the first version to use the full release format. Before this point in time, MCprep was more of an elaborate script rather than full-fledged addon.

    v1.0.0 | MCprep First Release

    MCprep-v1.0.0-artwork

    RELEASE NOTES

    Decreed the first version of MCprep, included features such as a more primitive form of Mesh Swapping as well as Material Prepping. The associated video demo of the time is available here.

    v0.0.0 | First Commit

    RELEASE NOTES

    This is the earliest stage of MCprep that was in any way functional, and was only run as a script.