Video tutorial available here
Overview
This page contains documentation about and the usage of Mod Pack Creator. I’ve written it in the order from when you download the application bundle till you are inside Minecraft with an installed mod pack!
This guide is based on Mod Pack Creator v0.5.3.4 and Mod Pack Installer v0.5.3.2
Contents:
- Download and installation
- Folder and File structure
- Layout and usage of Mod Pack Creator
- Using Mod Pack Installer
- Detailed explanation of how it works
- Troubleshooting
Download and Installation
The Mod Pack Creator bundle (Creator and Installer) can be downloaded from this link:
Clicking it will open a page with and ad, with at timer on the top right corner. Once the timer has run out you can click “Skip Ad”, to continue. You will then be redirected to a new page, where you will find a “Download” link in the middle of the page, which will then show a prompt about where you want to save the file.
Once downloaded open the location you saved the file to. The file downloaded is called “ModPackCReatorInstaller.rar” and requires you to have WinRAR or another packaging utility that can open/extract .rar files.
The rar file will contain only one file: “Updater.exe” . This file has several purposes, and the location where you extract or place this file, will also be the location where the bundle will be installed. Its main purpose is to download the newest version of the software directly from my server. This means that it is also used by Mod Pack Creator to update it self when needed, which means that you should not delete Updater.exe once you have downloaded the main files!
Extract “Updater.exe” to where you want the bundle to be installed to. After extraction, run it, and you will be presented with a very simple interface with only one button being: “Start”. Click this to let the program download all the newest version of the tools. Be aware that this can take some time depending on your computer and your internet connection. When done you will be asked if you want to start Mod Pack Creator or not.
The Next section of the guide will describe the folder and file structure of the program.
Folder and File structure
If you have successfully used “Updater.exe” to download the newest version of the program, you should now see the following files/folders:
- bundles\installer\Mod Pack Installer.exe
- bundles\launcher\launcher.exe
- bundles\README.txt
- Mod Pack Creator.exe
- Updater.exe
- ModPackCreatorInstaller.rar (optional)
If you have the file “ModPackCreatorInstaller.rar” you can now delete it as it is no longer needed.
Files you store in the “bundles\installer” folder, will be copied to Mod Pack Creators output directory, once a mod pack has been created. This could be useful for a general readme file, that you know you will always want to bundle with your mod packs as an example.
Layout and usage of Mod Pack Creator (Creating a mod pack)
In the root of your installation folder you will find “Mod Pack Creator.exe”. This executeable is, as the name suggests, the one you will use to create mod packs. Open it up, and you will be presented with some message boxes, asking you to accept a disclaimer, and maybe update the program or some other messages. After you have continued through the message boxes you should see Mod Pack Creators main window:
You can fill out the data in whatever order you want to.
The top line contains a menu bar, with a “File” and “Application” menu. The “File” menu lets you save a mod pack configuration, for later use with the load function. It also has a exit button, that quits the program. The “Application” menu will have a “Check for updates” button, which will go check for updates (this is also done automaticly when the program is started up, and the result is shown in the bottom bar). If a update is found you are asked if you want to download and install it. If not you can still force the update. If you give the answer to update Mod Pack Creator, it will close and Updater will start up and download the newest application update and lastly restart Mod Pack Creator, in the downloaded version. The “Application” menu will also hold a “About” button which will display your current version, and changelog.
The bottom bar in the main window will show you the status of the automatic update check that is performed when the application is started up. Later this will also hold other relevant information.
Installer configuration tab
The first tab, “Installer configuration”, which is the one you get to when starting the program, will hold some required and optional settings, you can give the Mod Pack. The three top most, is required to be specified, and the below is optional. Use the right most button with the question mark, to get help for each setting. If the field is optional, you can use the checkbox to the left of each setting, to specifiy if the setting should be included or not. This is so that you can add settings in Mod Pack Creator that you may not want to include in the mod pack at the given time.
Note for this tab:
- When you specify a Minecraft version the mod pack was made for, the installer will do a check if that version of minecraft is installed or not on the destination path. The installer will only let you install the Mod Pack if it has detected the specified Minecraft verison.
- If you include a Forge version, you must include one that is downloaded as an installer from the Forge repositories. The installer will then do a check if that forge version is installed or not, and only be able to continue the installation if it is installed.
Included content configuration tab
The tab “Included content configuration” is the place where you add the main content to your mod pack. This tab will have serveral child tabs being
- Internal Mods
Use the two browse buttons, to add either a single mod file or a whole folder of files. Files added here will be installed to the “destinationpath\internal_mods” folder. They are also automaticly added to the generated Magic Launcher profile under the Internal mods list. - Mods / Config files
The only difference of these two tabs is their destination: The files under the Mods tab will be installed to “destinationpath\mods” and the files under the Config tab will be installed to “destination path/config”. Use the two browse buttons, to add either a single config or mod file or a whole folder of files (like your current minecraft installations config or mod folder). The area “Destination paths” is used to determine if you have some files that should be installed in another place than their defaults. Their paths are relative to destination path the user specifies under the installation. - Custom files
Custom files are very much like the Mods and Config files tabs, but they are not installed to any specific directory other than the destination path specified by the user in Mod Pack Installer. You can therefore here use the “Destination path” area to specify any sub directories you wish to install those files in. An example could be an optional ressource pack. You can then add the ressource pack in this tab, and sepcify the default Minecraft ressource pack directory in “Destination path” area. To add files to this list, use the two browse buttons, to add either a single file or a whole folder of files. - Profile generation
At this time this tab only holds a child tab of Magic Launcher. Here you can specify the settings for the automaticly generated Magic Launcher profile. Later more tabs will follow, with other clients to create profiles to (Vanilla, lite loader etc.) - Installer lists
When Mod Pack Installer is run, theres a button called “Mod Pack Information” the users can press to see whats inside the mod pack. The lists they see is those which you create here. As an example you can combine the Mod Pack Version number you specify on the first tab, with the changelog you can create here. - Minecraft it self
This tab holds changes to, as the tab name suggests, Minecraft it self. You can include a Resource Pack here, that will be set as default, and edit the contents of that resource pack, being the main menus background or the yellow splash text that is shown along side the logo in the main menu of Minecraft. If you dont supply a resource pack, but you want to change the background and splash text anyways, Mod Pack Creator will automaticly create a resource pack that will be included and set as default with the two things you provide. The Server area lets you add default listed servers under the Multiplayer list. Servers.dat is the file you must add here, and can be found under your currently installed Minecraft directory’s root.
Output tab
The output tab only has one input field, which is where you want to save the mod pack you are about to create to. When you press the button “Create Mod Pack Installer”, all the settings you have provided earlier will be processed and the output of that process is shown on the Output tab, in the black console window. If anything goes wrong an error will either be displayed in this console or in a message box shown to you (or both)
When the process is done, your output directory will hold a “package.mpp” file along with the files from your “bundles\installer” folder, which should at least be with the file “Mod Pack Installer.exe”.
Using Mod Pack Installer (Installing a mod pack created with Mod Pack Creator)
When you finish creating your mod pack with Mod Pack Creator, the output folder you specified, will hold two files:
- package.mpp
This is main content file, that holds all the data, you provided in Mod Pack Creator (mods, configs, forge, version information etc.). This file is essential and needed for the Mod Pack Installer to work let alone start up. - Mod Pack Installer.exe
The main executeable, that will read the data to be installed from package.mpp.
Mod Pack Installers layout is different, and therefore hard to give a precise walkthrough. However, as it is also pretty basic to use, a quick overview is in its place.
When you open op Mod Pack Installer, some tasks are being performed even before the main window is shown:
- Mod Pack Installer, gets and reads its configuration from the package.mpp. If it cannot find the package.mpp file, a message is shown, that it cannot continue
- Is the required Minecraft Version installed on the default or specified installation path? If not, prompt the user
- If forge is included, a check is performed to see if it installed on the default or specified installation path. If not, the main installation button is disabled, and a forge install button is enabled instead, leaving the user no choice but to install the included forge version, before Mod Pack Installer can continue its installation.
- The main window is shown to the user
The main windows layout will depend on how Mod Pack Creator has configured it. However, some parts is always there, mainly the bottom controls:
- The progress bar
The progress bar will show you the status of the installation, when its being run. It also shows output from a Forge installation of disrepancies are being downloaded - Mod pack version
The version of the mod pack - Designed for Minecraft
Which version the mod pack was designed for, and also which version is required to be installed before the installation can continue - Mod pack information button
Pressing this button will show you the included mods, and changelog for the mod pack optionally specified in Mod Pack Creator (In the Included configurations tab -> Installer lists tab) You can double click the mods, and you default browser will open up and do a google search for the name, on minecraftforums.net. Inside the form a about button will also be available, to let you see the version and changelog of the Mod Pack Installer application it self. - The Main installation button
Pressing this button, will install the mod pack to the specified installation path.
When the installation is run, based on what the mod pack has included, a magic launcher profile is automaticly generated, and a shortcut is placed on the desktop, to launch magic launcher.
All the user would need to do is launch this and log on which will then load the Minecraft client with the mod pack.
Detailed explanation of how it works
To be written…
Troubleshooting
Because this program is pretty new, there are no common bugs to explain here. If you do however have a problem with the tool or otherwise need assistance, want to ask a question about it or maybe even have some feature suggestions, feel free to ask in the official Minecraft Forum thread