Add modpack post

2020-09-28 12:24:46 -04:00 · 2020-09-28 12:24:46 -04:00 · 4fcffb55e2
commit 4fcffb55e2
parent 79b0afa87e
3 changed files with 146 additions and 0 deletions
--- a/.vscode/settings.json
+++ b/.vscode/settings.json
@ -1,12 +1,16 @@
 {
    "cSpell.words": [
        "Bazel",
+        "Curseforge",
        "DSLR",
        "Keybase",
+        "Minecraft",
        "Rclone",
        "Starlark",
+        "buildscript",
        "libc",
        "microcontrollers",
+        "modpack",
        "videographers"
    ],
    "compile-hero.disable-compile-files-on-did-save-code": true
--- a/_drafts/2020-10-15-CorePack-Development.md
+++ b/_drafts/2020-10-15-CorePack-Development.md
@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+---
+layout: page
+title:  "Using Bazel to create Minecraft modpacks"
+description: "An overview of how I automated the build process for CorePack"
+date:   2020-10-15 20:00:00 
+written: 2020-09-27
+categories: bazel workflow git minecraft
+excerpt: >-
+    I decided to modernize my system for producing builds of my personal Minecraft modpack using the Bazel buildsystem.
+redirect_from: 
+ - /post/XlA00k24/
+ - /XlA00k24/
+---
+
+*All content of this post is based around the work I did [here](https://github.com/Ewpratten/corepack)*
+
+Back in [2012](https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Java_Edition_1.2.5), I got in to Minecraft mod development, and soon after, put together an almost-vanilla client-side modpack for myself that mainly contained rendering, UI, and quality-of-life tweaks. While this modpack never got published, or was even given a name, I kept maintaining it for years until I eventually stopped playing Minecraft just before the release of Minecraft [`1.9`](https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Java_Edition_1.9) (in 2016). I had gotten so used to the features of this modpack, that playing truly vanilla Minecraft didn't feel correct.
+
+Recently, a few friends invited me to join their private Minecraft server, and despite having not touched the game for around four years, I decided to join. This was a bit of a mistake on their part, as they now get the pleasure of someone who used to main [`1.6.4`](https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Java_Edition_1.6.4) constantly walking up to things and asking *"What is this and how does it work?"*. I have started to get used to the very weird new collection of blocks, completely reworked command system, over-complicated combat system, and a new rendering system that makes everything "look wrong".
+
+One major thing was still missing though, *where was my modpack?* I set out to rebuild my good old modpack (and finally give it a name, *CorePack*). Not much has changed, most of the same rendering and UI mods are back, along with the same [GLSL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL_Shading_Language) shaders, and similar textures. Although, I did decide to take a *"major step"* and switch from the [Forge Mod Loader](http://files.minecraftforge.net/) to the [Fabric Loader](https://fabricmc.net/), since I prefer Fabric's API. 
+
+## Curseforge & Bazel
+
+I don't remember [Curseforge](https://curseforge.com/) existing back when I used to play regularly. It is a huge improvement over the [PlanetMinecraft](https://www.planetminecraft.com/) forums, as curse provides a clean way to access data about published Minecraft mods, and even has an API! Luckily, since I switched the modpack to Fabric, every mod I was looking for was available through curse (although, it seems [NEI](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/notenoughitems) is a thing of the past).
+
+My main goal for the updated version of CorePack was to design it in such a way I could make a CI pipeline generate new releases for me when mods are updated. This requires programmatically pulling information about mods, and their JAR files using a buildsystem script. Since this project involves working with a large amount of data from various external sources, I once-again chose to use [Bazel](https://bazel.build), a buildsystem that excels at these kinds of projects.
+
+While Curseforge provides a very easy to use API for working with mod data, @Wyn-Price (a fellow mod developer) has put together an amazing project called [Curse Maven](https://www.cursemaven.com/) that I decided to use instead. Curse Maven is a serverless API that acts much like my [Ultralight project](/blog/2020/09/17/ultralight-writeup). Any request for an artifact to Curse Maven will be redirected, and served from the [Curseforge Maven server](https://authors.curseforge.com/knowledge-base/projects/529-api#Maven) without the need for me to figure out the long-form artifact identifiers used internally by curse.
+
+Curse Maven makes loading a mod (in this case, [`fabric-api`](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/fabric-api)) into Bazel as easy as:
+
+```python
+# WORKSPACE
+# Load bazel_maven_repository
+http_archive(
+    name = "maven_repository_rules",
+    strip_prefix = "bazel_maven_repository-1.2.0",
+    type = "zip",
+    urls = ["https://github.com/square/bazel_maven_repository/archive/1.2.0.zip"],
+)
+load("@maven_repository_rules//maven:maven.bzl", "maven_repository_specification")
+load("@maven_repository_rules//maven:jetifier.bzl", "jetifier_init")
+jetifier_init()
+
+# Declare any mods as maven artifacts
+maven_repository_specification(
+    name = "maven",
+    artifacts = {
+        "curse.maven:fabric-api:3049174": {"insecure": True}
+    },
+    repository_urls = [
+        "https://www.cursemaven.com",
+    ],
+)
+```
+
+The above snippet uses a Bazel ruleset developed by [Square, Inc.](https://squareup.com/ca/en) called [`bazel_maven_repository`](https://github.com/square/bazel_maven_repository). 
+
+## Modpack configuration
+
+Since my pack is designed for use with [MultiMC](https://multimc.org/), two sets of configuration files are needed. The first set tells MultiMC which versions of [LWJGL](https://www.lwjgl.org/), Minecraft, and Fabric to use, and the second set are the in-game config files. Many of these files contain information that I would like to modify from Bazel during the modpack build step. Luckily, the [Starlark](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/skylark/language.html) core library comes with an action called [`expand_template`](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/2.0.0/skylark/lib/actions.html#expand_template). `expand_template` is basically a find-and-replace tool that will perform substitutions on files. Since this is an action, and not a rule, it must be wrapped with a small rule declaration:
+
+```python
+# tools/template.bzl
+def expand_template_impl(ctx):
+    ctx.actions.expand_template(
+        template = ctx.file.template,
+        output = ctx.outputs.out,
+        substitutions = {
+            k: ctx.expand_location(v, ctx.attr.data)
+            for k, v in ctx.attr.substitutions.items()
+        },
+        is_executable = ctx.attr.is_executable,
+    )
+
+expand_template = rule(
+    implementation = expand_template_impl,
+    attrs = {
+        "template": attr.label(mandatory = True, allow_single_file = True),
+        "substitutions": attr.string_dict(mandatory = True),
+        "out": attr.output(mandatory = True),
+        "is_executable": attr.bool(default = False, mandatory = False),
+        "data": attr.label_list(allow_files = True),
+    },
+)
+```
+
+In a `BUILD` file, template rules can be defined as follows:
+
+```python
+# BUILD
+load("//tools:template.bzl", "expand_template")
+
+expand_template(
+    name = "my_config",
+    template = "config.json.in",
+    out = "config.json",
+    substitutions = {
+        "TEST_SUBS": "hello world"
+    }
+)
+```
+
+Using the following example file as `config.json.in`, this rule would have the following effect:
+
+```js
+// config.json.in
+{
+    "key": "TEST_SUBS"
+}
+
+// config.json
+{
+    "key": "hello world"
+}
+```
+
+
+## Packaging
+
+Once mods are loaded, and configuration files are defined in the buildsystem, I use a large number of [`filegroup`](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/be/general.html#filegroup) and [`genrule`](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/be/general.html#genrule) rules to set up a directory hierarchy in the workspace, and wrap everything in a call to [`zipper`](https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/v2ray/ext/-/blob/bazel/zip.bzl#L23:25) to package the modpack into a ZIP file.
+
+Finally, I use [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/features/actions) to automatically run the buildscript, and publish the resulting MultiMC instance zip to the [GitHub repo](https://github.com/Ewpratten/corepack) for this project.
--- a/about.md
+++ b/about.md
@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ I exist in various places around the internet. Mainly:
 - Email: `ewpratten@<this_domain>`
 - [Twitter](https://twitter.com/{{site.twitter_username}})
 - [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/{{site.insta_username}})
+ - <a data-toggle="modal" data-target="#discord" href="">Discord</a>
 - <a data-toggle="modal" data-target="#snapcode" href="">Snapchat</a>
 - <a data-toggle="modal" data-target="#devrant-disclaimer" href="">devRant</a>
 - [GitHub](https://github.com/{{site.github_username}})
@ -97,4 +98,21 @@ This website uses free assets from:
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+        <h4><em>ewpratten#9114</em></h4>
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