Welcome to the website for BetterThanMinecon 2016 2.0 - the irregular Minecraft modding convention... in Minecraft!
BTM 2016 2.0 is an online Minecraft modding convention made in Minecraft itself. It's also the best place to meet your favourite modders and check out their mods! Voice chat and other facilities will be provided just for that. You'll be able to see mod booths for both the more and less popular mods, as well as check out panels on a variety of subjects! On top of that, you can expect a lot of fun, silliness and surprises!
Despite the goofiness, this is actually happening. Hopefully. Like
the two previous ones.
More information
Important Information
- Java 8 is required. Quite a few mods in the pack depend on it.
- We're using Minecraft 1.9.somethingorwhatever. A microphone is not mandatory, but very highly
recommended for interaction - and it is required for panels!
You'll probably also need a reasonably good computer due to the high FPS requirements of the conplace - if you're using a low-end laptop
s F-, see me after class., you might want to stick
to the streams.
- Yes, it's free. Just grab the modpack (when it's time) and join us!
- Videos and streams of the panels are more than welcome! Last January, our server was at half
capacity, but this year I expect a lot more attendees. Every stream can ease the
load, if only by a little bit. We might even have an official livestream this time!
- Do not take this too seriously. It's just a way to have some fun and enjoy our modding company.
- If you want to apply for something that's not a booth or panel, use the same form and select "Something completely different".
- The name of the convention comes from the fact its first run was created as a side-effect of modders being annoyed with Minecon online and is actually a play on "Better than Wolves".
- We have an OpenComputers demo competition this time! Read further below, or
here's a thing you can click on to get to the relevant info.
Mod Booths
| Mod |
Author |
| Actually Additions | Ellpeck |
| Additional Banners | Darkhax |
| Automated Redstone | CD4017BE |
| Autoverse | masa |
| BetterMinecraftChat | blay09 |
| Better With Mods | BeetoGuy |
| Blood Arsenal | WayofTime |
| Blood Magic | WayofTime |
| Charset | asie |
| Chisel | Half the modding community |
| Cömputronics | Vexatos |
| Cooking for Blockheads | blay09 |
| Correlated Potentialistics | Aesen |
| CraftingCraft | blay09 |
| Crafting Table IV | Elec332 |
| Crafting Tweaks | blay09 |
| Dark Utilities | Darkhax |
| Deep Resonance | McJty, Elec332 |
| Draconic Evolution | brandon3055 |
| E-Flux | Elec332 |
| Ender IO | HenryLoenwind, tterrag, CrazyPants |
| Ender IO Addons | HenryLoenwind |
| EnderStorage | ChickenBones, covers1624 |
| Ender Utilities | masa |
| Extra Food | dmf444, Mincrmatt12 |
| Fancy Fluid Storage | Lordmau5, Drullkus |
| Fire's Random Things | TheFireplace |
| Flamingo | Vexatos |
| Fluxed Crystals 3 | Jared |
| Forestry | mezz |
| Framez 3 | amadornes |
| HolographicVictoryMonument | abecderic |
| Inductive Automation | CD4017BE |
| IndustrialCraft 2 | IC2 Dev Team |
| Integrated Dynamics | kroeser |
| Magneticraft | Magneticraft Team |
| MahMeat | heldplayer |
| Metallurgy 5 | Shadowclaimer, others |
| More Anvils | TheFireplace |
| NotEnoughWands | romelo333 |
| OpenAutomation Reborn | Sandra |
| OpenComputers | Sangar |
| OpenComputers MIPS | Marisa Kirisame |
| OpenRadio | XDjackieXD |
| Parcels and Packages | SSBlur |
| Progressive Automation | Vanhal |
| Quaritum | Eladkay |
| Random Things | Lumien |
| Rarmor | canitzp |
| RFTools | McJty |
| Roots | Elucent, Leordas |
| Simple Grinder | Rumaruka |
| Sprockets | Flaxbeard |
| Soul Shards: The Old Ways | TehNut |
| Starvation Ahoy | dmf444, Mincrmatt12 |
| Taam | xanderio, founderio |
| ??? | amadornes |
| TechReborn | modmuss50, Gigabit101, Prospector |
| Tesla API | Darkhax |
| The One Probe | McJty |
| TIS-3D | Sangar |
| Totemic | ljfa |
| Translocators | ChickenBones, covers1624 |
| TrashSlot | blay09 |
| Vanilla Immersion | PaleoCrafter |
| Wireless Redstone - CBE | ChickenBones, covers1624 |
| XNet | McJty, Elec332 |
| YeOldeTanks | shadowfacts |
Panels
NOTE: This list is subject to change depending on panelist availability.
| Topic/Title |
Panelist |
| IC2 Mystery Panel | Aroma1997 |
| MCubed - A project to build a Curse alternative | Gaelan |
| OpenGL for Minecraft Modders | GreaseMonkey |
| OpenOS 1.6 - What's New? | payonel |
| TIS-OC | Sangar |
| Translation in a Nutshell - the Chinese modded Minecraft community | 3TUSK, exzhawk |
| Will it run on Minecraft? - MIPS for OpenComputers | GreaseMonkey |
Timetable
DO YOU EXPECT ANY OF US TO BE THAT ORGANISED THAT FAR AHEAD OF THE EVENT NO YOU DO NOT
NO TIMETABLE FOR YOU
(until closer to the event)
Following are details on the OpenComputers Demo Competition, as that probably requires the most time to prepare. The rules might be updated in the next few days, but they should more or less stay the same:
- The following categories are being considered: Demo, EEPROM, Game, Tool, Artwork and Wild. This is not final, however - categories with few entries may get merged into other ones and new categories might be created. We will show every demo, however voting will only be allowed in official categories. We might also consider separate Demo categories for Tier 1 and Tier 2 OpenComputers machines with RAM scaled accordingly - please contact us if you’re interested!
- Entries are accepted until July 29th. Multiple entries from one person are allowed (Marisa, don’t go too crazy please I'll just be adding a few hundred, ze).
- For categories Demo, Game, Tool and EEPROM:
- The compo machine is an OpenComputers Case with a Tier 3 GPU, 2 megabytes of RAM, a Tier 3 Lua 5.3 CPU and the latest version of OpenOS available at the time. Additional cards/peripherals may be requested - especially for sound - however we do not promise they will qualify outside of Wild (especially if they overpower OpenComputers’s built-in capabilities)!
- Hint from the organizers: OpenComputers has highly limited audio capabilities, but Computronics provides a Beep Card, Noise Card and a Tape Drive! Do look into them.
- If you use the Tape Drive for audio, generating your music inside OpenComputers is considered good form even if it requires preload time to write to the tape.
- Any additional requirements, the author(s) and a short comment will be shown on an info panel before the demo is displayed.
- For categories Demo, Game, Artwork and EEPROM:
- No wireless/Internet connectivity is allowed - your demos must be self-contained.
- For categories Demo and EEPROM:
- If your demo requires any user input, please let us know. If your demo requires any custom OSes/preparation, please let us know.
- In the Demo category, your demo must fit on one unit’s worth of an OpenComputers storage medium (floppy disk or hard drive). Please note that floppy disk contributions are encouraged as they’re cooler - and if we get enough of them, we might make a separate category for them!
- In the EEPROM category, your demo must run fully off an OpenComputers EEPROM card and load no external data.
- In the Game category, we’re going to do our best to play your game - please provide some sort of documentation on how to play the game.
- In the Tool category, you can show non-game applications for OpenComputers - though this will probably involve you either providing some sort of demonstration or showing it off yourself (in which case, audio chat is necessary).
- In the Artwork category, your demo should be in the form of a static display on a Tier 3 GPU, coupled with its own Lua-based loader.
- For the Wild category - go wild! You can use Robots, Drones, even TIS-3D or redstone! If you want to use a completely different mod, let us know beforehand so we can discuss it and install it.
- Note: Your demo can’t bring down the entire server in lag. Vanilla redstone might not be a good idea - we recommend Glowstone Cooling(tm).
- If you need any additional mods, please contact us beforehand (at least 2 weeks before the convention) to discuss. We will definitely deliver the development builds of OpenComputers, TIS-3D and Computronics current for mid-July 2016. We reserve the right to move entries using additional mods to the Wild category, as well as to not allow certain mods.
For examples of what can be done with OpenComputers, we recommend to look at the OpenComputers forum. Here’s some reasons why you should look into OC as a democoding platform:
- Neatly sandboxed - meaning some interesting limitations and it won’t grind the server to a halt
- 160x50 Unicode GPU with 256 colours (16 configurable) and a fair set of operations
- Lua 5.3-based powerful and modular architecture
- Helpful community and good documentation
Feel free to take a look at this for
documentation, and this or this
for inspiration. Even though both of those were primarily coded in C and
Java. Most demos nowadays use other languages to generate data. We're not stopping you,
but it is less cool.
We recommend exploring OpenComputers, as well as other mod peripherals such as the Computronics Beep Card, Noise Card (audio cards :D) and Tape Drive.
Final note, the GPU call limitations:
- Getters are generally free.
- Tier 1 GPUs provide 64 cycles, Tier 2 GPUs provide 128, Tier 3 GPUs provide 256.
- Tier 1 GPUs provide 2 colors, Tier 2 GPUs provide 16 colors, Tier 3 GPUs provide 256 colors (16 definable).
- setBackground/setForeground/fill take 2 cycles, copy takes 4, set takes 1, setPaletteColor takes 16.
- PS. On tier 1 GPUs, setPaletteColor takes 32 cycles.
NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG. NOT
EVEN HUGGED BY MOJANG. I RECEIVED AT LEAST TWENTY FREE HUG TOKENS FROM LAST BTM'S
CRASHES AND I STILL DIDN'T GET THEM. COME ON, DINNERBONE.
The phrases "BetterThanMinecon 2016 2.0", "#BTM16", "Bug
Testing Marathon", and "NullPointerException" are not registered trademarks of anyone.
The phrase "Make Minecraft Great Again" is probably a registered trademark of The Trump
Organization, however, we haven't checked so we're not sure.
May contain traces of nuts. Ask your doctor if Water is right for you. Do not drive while
operating heavy machinery.
BetterThanMinecon 2016 2.0