Hello folks,
So, it’s been nearly one month since the 1.8 update (24 days to be exact), and thankfully much of the chaos has settled down. The most critical of bugs have been panned out, and games are being played without game-breaking glitches. Our servers are stable, our playerbase has adjusted, and the network continues to fly turbulence-free with MCGamer Airlines. Heck, the Development team is finally able to focus less on bug-fixes and more on the Leaderboard Update. Now that we’re over the pain of adjusting to the most recent update, people are learning to live with the changes.
However, some people just cannot be convinced to adapt to such changes. A lot of negativity still exists surrounding the 1.8 update, whether it is justified (or even factually correct) or not. When people hyperbolically compare 1.8 to some form of plague, much perspective is lost. And for that reason, we would like to share with you some of the benefits of the 1.8 update.
So without further ado, let’s jump right into the list:
Fewer Hacks and Less Hackers
A most unintended of silver linings: 1.8’s incompatibilities extended to hacking clients as well. 1.7 had a very long development cycle, so a large number of hacks were created for it. However, 1.8 is still relatively new, and many of the hacks for 1.7 have not been updated to work with 1.8. As such, there are a number of hacks that only work with 1.7, but do not work with 1.8.
The end result? Fewer hacks- and fewer hackers- on our network.
That’s one way to stop hackers: stay one update ahead of them.
Performance Increases (especially with the current version 1.8.3)
One of the most common complaints about 1.8 we heard soon after the update was a complaint that 1.8 caused serious performance issues with certain PC’s. Players were reporting that their FPS would slow to a crawl, and many refused to use 1.8 since Optifine was not yet compatible with early versions of 1.8. Even our servers were often less than stable.
But the Developers at both MCGamer and Mojang heard about the issues, and saw to fixing them right away. On our end, our Developers spent weeks on constant fixes and enhancements to the servers, and their efforts are the main reason why our servers are as stable now as they were before. On Minecraft’s end, Mojang’s developers pushed a number of fixes to 1.8, 1.8.1, 1.8.2, and 1.8.3 to fix a number of smaller issues that were leading to the large client side performance issues. And shortly afterwards, Optifine created a version of their performance improvement mod that works with 1.8.
In general, it seems like most of the performance woes have been improved, if not fixed altogether. Some players are stating that their FPS has doubled since the update, and some players even report that they get higher FPS than they did with 1.7. While your mileage may vary, it seems like the majority of the playerbase is no longer severely affected by 1.8-induced performance loss.
New Map Blocks and Items
Got an eye for mapping, but you just can’t find the right block? Maybe you’re decorating a room, but you just can’t find the right item to tie the room together. Well maybe 1.8 can help!
For all the mappers out there, 1.8 includes a number of new decorative blocks and items for you to use. Build a great hall for a castle, and hang a series of banners in your favorite colors. Complete your armory with armor stands, or scare potential players with an armored-out dummy. And make the Mars-themed SG map of your dreams thanks to the brilliantly-orange Red Sandstone (props to whoever makes the first map based on the 1990 version of Total Recall).
And for you Deadly Descent-ers, Slime Blocks could be quite the game changer.
The Spectating Feature
A common request in the Feature Suggestion section of the forums was the ability to spectate players from a first person perspective. In response, we often had to state that while the Developers could do it, such a function would be rather difficult and hack-y to do. Ultimately, the idea was continually pushed off since it did not seem to be worth the amount of time and effort required to create it.
Well thankfully, we weren’t the only ones with the idea in mind. And as such, Mojang themselves lauded the spectate function as a new feature of 1.8. The inherent spectate ability allows for a more integrated and more stable version of spectating to be used that does not require a work-around or tricky modifications.
Increased Developer Efficiency and Abilities
We mentioned it before and we’ll mention it again: perhaps the most important aspect of the 1.8 update is that it allows our Developers to focus. Supporting both 1.7 and 1.8 required something called, “dual protocols”, which essentially allows the servers to operate with users using either versions. This is great for being available to the most players, but this greatly complicates development work by creating 2.5x the amount of work: the Devs have to write one version of code for 1.7, another version for 1.8, and then ensure that the dual protocols for both 1.7 and 1.8 work together properly. This significantly slows down development, hinders development ability (since everyone is forced to work on a stunted version of 1.7 to ensure compatibility), and creates many possibilities for bugs and breakages. Dedicating ourselves solely to 1.8 prevents all of those issues.
In addition, adopting 1.8 early gives us a developmental and experience boost when it comes to the next Minecraft update (which has already been announced), 1.9. Many other networks are hesitant to switch over to 1.8 because they are comfortable where they are now with 1.7 or dual protocols of their own. However, when 1.9 comes around, they will be forced to play catch-up (first going solely to 1.8, then from 1.8 to 1.9), and will likely fall into many of the same problems we had. But we’ve gone past that transition, and we’re quite experienced with 1.8, so the transition to 1.9 should be relatively easier compared to them. That’s one benefit of early adoption.
Lastly, there are a number of back-end improvements and fixes that 1.8 introduces as well. However, only our Developers understand the improvements, so I will just say that they exist.
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As always, there will be supporters and dissenters in any decision, but I feel that 1.8 has earned an unfairly negative reputation amongst people who are simply too used to how things were. As such, I hope that this list, along with everything we do with 1.8, will help offer a counter perspective to everyone who blindly hates the update.
On the first day of the 1.8 update, Devin
(and I) described the general process for Minecraft updates: “large update comes, large updates cause temporary problems, devs fix the problems, everyone enjoys the update afterwards”. And just as history predicted, that came true.
1.8 is here to stay; whether you choose to accept that and adapt to it, or dig in your heels and refuse to change, is up to you. But for the MCGamer Network, we choose to embrace the change, and we want to focus on the benefits that 1.8 has to bring us.
