Minecraft D Edition

An independent voxel game project written in D. Windows currently supports interchangeable DirectX 12 and Vulkan renderers while the Vulkan path is being prepared for Linux and MoltenVK on macOS.

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Minecraft D Edition is an independent fan-made project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Mojang Studios or Microsoft. Minecraft is a trademark of Microsoft.

Install and update

Windows releases currently use a small per-user web installer and a lightweight launcher. The setup executable contains no game archive: the launcher obtains verified runtime files from the GitHub Test release, then downloads only the content shards containing changed files on future launches. Worlds, options, EOS configuration, and other player-owned files are never part of the update manifest. Release building, publishing, rollback behavior, and smoke tests are documented in docs/distribution.md.

macOS and Linux will be distributed as their own native packages rather than including every operating system's executable in one installation. All desktop builds continue to share the game rules, assets, world format, and multiplayer protocol, so native packaging does not prevent cross-play. The target layout is documented in distribution/, and the protocol compatibility boundary is documented in docs/cross-platform.md.

Player installations default to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Minecraft D Edition and contain no GitHub publishing access. Development and releases use the separate Admin checkout at C:\Minecraft D Edition_Admin.

Layout

• assets/minecraft/ mirrors Minecraft Java Edition's client-resource namespace.
• data/minecraft/ mirrors the modern Java data-pack namespace.
• source/minecraftd/ separates shared game code from client, server, audio, networking, world, and platform graphics code.
• distribution/windows/ contains the active Windows installer and updater; distribution/macos/ and distribution/linux/ own their future native packaging without duplicating game code.
• tools/ contains local asset-import utilities.
• tests/ is reserved for unit and integration tests.
• docs/ contains generated import manifests and project notes.

Renderer selection

DirectX 12 remains the default Windows renderer. To test the independent Vulkan backend on Windows, start the same game executable with:

.\Minecraft D Edition.exe --renderer=vulkan

Use --renderer=dx12 to force DirectX 12. The Graphics API option under Video Settings also selects DirectX 12 or Vulkan for the next launch. Building the Vulkan backend currently requires the Vulkan SDK through VULKAN_SDK; the installed game only requires a working Vulkan graphics driver.

The shared-backend boundary, supported render passes, current limitations, and planned Linux/macOS packaging are described in docs/renderer-backends.md.

Imported Minecraft assets are for local development only. They are not original project assets and should not be redistributed with the game without permission from their copyright owner.

Current controls

• WASD moves, Space jumps, Left Ctrl sprints, and Left Shift crouches by default. These and the other implemented gameplay inputs can be rebound under Options > Controls > Key Binds > Keyboard & Mouse.
• Hold left mouse to mine; the arm, destroy-stage overlay, particles, and block-local sounds progress together.
• Right-click places the selected block stack when the target face is clear.
• 1 through 9 or the mouse wheel selects a hotbar slot.
• F5 cycles first person, third person behind, and third person front.
• Options... is available from both the title screen and pause menu. Its Java 26.2-style hierarchy includes dedicated Online, Skin, Sound, Video, Controls, Mouse, Key Binds, Language, Font, Chat, Resource Packs, Accessibility, Telemetry, and Credits screens. Implemented controls apply immediately and persist in data/options.txt, including rebindable keys, auto-jump and hold/toggle controls, skin layers, sound categories, chat layout, VSync/frame limiting, brightness, smooth lighting, clouds and particles. Future-only settings are visible but disabled. Sliders support click-and-drag and use the horizontal resize cursor instead of the link-hand cursor.
• T opens Java-style chat. Type a message, press Enter to send it through the integrated TCP chat server, or press Escape to cancel.
• Escape opens the pause menu. The integrated server freezes only while the host is its sole player; joining immediately resumes the world, and menus do not pause multiplayer sessions. Publishing requires confirmation, then opens a read-only server information screen where the private EOS invitation can be copied. If EOS is unavailable, the screen clearly falls back to a LAN-only address.
• On the title screen, Right Shift + Plus + 1-9 opens that many total local clients for multiplayer testing.

Each singleplayer world binds an authoritative integrated game server to a Windows-assigned port. Publishing normally exposes a private mcd://eos/<host-id>/<session-secret> invitation. EOS performs NAT traversal and can relay traffic, so Internet players do not configure either router. Direct-connect entries also continue to accept host:port for LAN play and persist a display name and address. Additional local processes connect as Steve2 through Steve9 in server join order. The server owns the world at 20 TPS and validates movement, collision, mining, block placement, survival state, dropped items, inventory changes, and chat. Clients predict their own movement, reconcile acknowledged inputs, and interpolate snapshots for remote players. The server processes every sequenced input exactly once, including inputs arriving together in one network burst. Disconnected clients retry every two seconds; idle peers time out after ten seconds.

Joining clients receive a complete authoritative terrain snapshot before play. Remote players render with camera-facing nameplates (64-block standing range; 32-block, depth-tested range while crouching), while the local player's own nameplate remains hidden in third person. Bare-hand PvP is server-authoritative: the server validates a three-block entity ray, applies health damage, hurt tint, camera response, and Java-style normal or sprint-hit knockback. A hit made while falling is a critical hit: it deals 1.5x damage and broadcasts the vanilla critical-hit particles and sound to every client.

The currently registered empty-hand loot follows the imported vanilla tables: grass blocks and dirt drop dirt, while stone breaks without a drop unless a correct tool is added later. Dropped blocks bob and spin, have a ten-tick pickup delay, play the vanilla pickup sound, and stack to 64. Hotbar block icons use an isometric cube and the stack's five-tick count-change pop animation.

Multiplayer integration smoke test

C:\D\dmd2\windows\bin64\dmd.exe -i -Isource tests/network_smoke.d
.\network_smoke.exe

The smoke test opens two loopback clients, verifies unique login IDs and shared snapshots, acknowledges predicted input, mines a block authoritatively, picks up its drop, updates the inventory, and places the resulting stack.

To verify the installed EOS SDK and local Developer Portal credentials without opening a window:

.\Minecraft D Edition.exe --eos-smoke-test

For the final two-PC relay test, set "forceRelays": true in both PCs' data/eos.local.json. This deliberately disables the direct peer route; a successful connection then proves Epic's relay path is carrying the session. Return it to false afterward for the lowest available latency.

The complete host/join and forced-relay checklist is in docs/eos-two-pc-test.md.

Import installed Java Edition sounds

python tools/extract_minecraft_sounds.py --target-assets assets

The importer reads Mojang asset indexes, restores the logical assets/minecraft/sounds/... paths, verifies each object by SHA-1, and writes an audit manifest under docs/. Minecraft Java audio objects are already Ogg streams, so they are copied without re-encoding. If a discovered audio object is not Ogg, the tool can invoke FFmpeg when it is installed.

Import installed Java Edition textures

python tools/extract_minecraft_textures.py --target-assets assets

The texture importer verifies installed vanilla client JARs against their version metadata, ignores mod-loader wrappers, and reconstructs the union of namespaced textures under assets/minecraft/textures/. Newer installed versions win when a texture changed. PNG files, animation .png.mcmeta files, and atlas definitions are validated and recorded in a manifest under docs/.

Import the remaining client resources and game data

python tools/extract_minecraft_client_resources.py --project-root .

This importer selects the newest verified vanilla client and copies its remaining data-driven resources under assets/minecraft/ and data/minecraft/. It also reconstructs non-audio files from that version's hashed asset index, including languages and font data. Compiled Java classes are deliberately not copied.