Web Browsers and Media Players in-game with Coherent UI

[HingedPrism]

I'm trying to get a mod project started. I think it has the possibility of being very popular. It would add in-game web browsers and media players. These would not only be fun decorations(computers, TV's and movie screens) for the game but they could also be very useful in multiplayer. The access to web content in Minecraft would open up new possibilities for in-game stores and displaying information for things like leaderboards.

The way I propose to do this is by creating a mod that integrates Coherent UI into Minecraft.

 

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I have been in touch with Coherent Labs. They said this project is possible and they have a Java Wrapper written that they will give to me.

 

Quote from Coherent Labs R&D Director Nick:

In general, all you need is sufficient access to the graphics pipeline so you can write data that comes from Coherent UI into the game's surfaces. Client input is very easy, too - we have APIs for mouse/keyboard events so you just convert your input events into Coherent UI input events and everything is taken care of.

I'm not experienced with the Minecraft API (or Minecraft modding at all, for that matter), but from what I gather the mods should be written in Java. We don't have an official port for that platform, so you'll need to take our C++ library and create a Java wrapper. We do have some basic experiments for such wrapper that can render a page and take input (which might be enough for an in-game browser/media player) that we can provide to save you some hours of coding.

So, basically that's it - you need a Java wrapper for our C++ library and access to the graphics pipeline so you can write texture data.

 

I have been working on recruiting a more advanced Java programmer than myself to take over this project. I have had some success and talked to some nice people but haven't set up anything firm yet. I need to learn more about what is involved in making this mod. Could someone smart please look into this and tell me what you think? Can this be a Forge compatible mod? How difficult is this going to be?

[TwIxToR_TiTaN]

Overwolf adds to almost every game a ingame teamspeak, facebook, twitter, webbrowser and more

[HingedPrism]

Overwolf does look very cool. But it's an overlay, windows that show up on top of your game screen.

I want Minecraft TVs, computers and movie screens. Objects inside the game. Imagine when you join a new server, instead of reading a giant wall of rules, there could be a large video monitor on the wall that tells you the rules and shows related video clips and flashy graphics. Adventure maps could include video screens that are triggered to play when the player is near to enhance the storyline or the player could be made to play a minigame before they can advance in the map.

Coherent UI can do a whole lot more than just add video screens into the game. Some examples are, it can make HUDs, it has social integration and it says that it supports WebRTC which I believe includes Teamspeak.

Thank you for visiting my thread.

 

 

[TwIxToR_TiTaN]

There is already a mod like that: http://popularmmos.com/webdisplays/

[HingedPrism]

No, I don't think that mod does the same thing. It's inaccessible to many users and has many limitations.

I think that this Coherent UI mod will be significantly different and have new and better features. Coherent UI has a whole website explaining the things it can do.

First off, respect to the modder Montoyo. He worked hard and made something cool. The Web Displays mod never made it out of beta and the modder says that he is unable to update it any further without a complete rewrite. You are forced to use 32bit Java, which limits the amount of RAM you can use and excludes some other mods. I don't use the Web Displays mod for that reason. It's not compatible with Mac or Linux. It has some other limitations, like it can't play full-screen videos from Youtube. At the end of the official Web Displays mod thread everyone is saying that the mod is dead. The author was only active for a short while and hasn't replied to questions on his thread or posted at all in 6 months or ever outside of that thread.