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CLauncher v1.0.3 — Instance Latest

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chepupel123 released this 30 Oct 17:17

v1.0.3

cf401e4

CLauncher v1.0.3

A lightweight native Minecraft launcher for Linux and Windows, written in C++20 with a Dear ImGui interface and OpenGL.

No ads, no telemetry, no store, and no account login required for local or offline profile-based play.

Build status

Linux — tested. Full installation and launch cycle verified on Linux Mint 22.3.
Windows 10/11 — beta. Build is available and the CI pipeline has been updated to UCRT64, but testing on physical Windows hardware is still pending. Please report any issues on Discord.

What's new in v1.0.3 (Multi-Instance Architecture)

This release introduces a major architectural shift: full isolation of game profiles via instances, a global shared cache for libraries and assets, and a completely rewritten launch pipeline to support the newest Minecraft 26.x and Java 25 ecosystem.

Isolated Instances (Prism-style)

True Multi-Profile Support. Every instance now has its own isolated ~/.clauncher/instances/<name>/.minecraft/ folder. Mods, saves, and configurations no longer conflict between different Minecraft versions.
Shared Cache Architecture. Game libraries, assets, and Java runtimes are now stored globally in ~/.clauncher/shared/. Creating a new instance for an already downloaded version takes virtually zero disk space and installs in milliseconds.
Safe Instance Deletion. Deleting an instance no longer wipes it permanently. The launcher moves it to ~/.clauncher/trash/ with a timestamp, acting exactly like the Prism Launcher. You can still choose to delete it permanently if you wish.
Custom Instance Naming. Replaced the auto-generated instance-1 names with a clean modal window that validates your input and prevents duplicate or invalid folder names.

Minecraft 26.x & Java 25 Support

Year-Based Versioning. The launcher now correctly parses and lists the new Mojang 26.x line (26.1, 26.2, 26.3+).
Automatic Java 25 Download. The smart JavaManager now automatically detects when a version requires Java 25 and downloads the portable JRE from Adoptium.
Fabric on 26.x. Full support for Fabric Loader 0.20.1+ on the newest versions (including Sodium, Lithium, and FerriteCore for 26.2).
Fixed Missing Libraries Crash. Removed a hardcoded Fabric check for intermediary that was blocking 26.x from launching, allowing the classpath builder to work dynamically based on the actual JSON profile.

JVM & Low-End PC Optimizations

Dynamic GC Threads. ParallelGCThreads is now calculated automatically (CPU cores / 2). On a 4-core CPU, it uses 2 threads, balancing the load perfectly between the garbage collector and the game renderer.
Java 25 Experimental Flags Fix. Added -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions to prevent Java 25 from crashing on startup due to strict G1GC flag restrictions.
Compact Object Headers. Added -XX:+UseCompactObjectHeaders for Java 25+ users, drastically reducing the RAM footprint of the game.
UI & Memory footprint. The launcher uses just ~13 MB of RAM in idle, leaving maximum resources for the Minecraft JVM.

Critical & Medium Bug Fixes

Lazy UI Loading. Modal windows (Create/Delete Instance) no longer block the main render loop, keeping the UI buttery smooth.
Button Alignment. Fixed + and - button sizing in the UI to be perfectly square and uniform.
Path Redirects. "My Mods" and "Resource Packs" buttons now correctly open the folders of the currently selected instance, not the global fallback directory.

Features

Vanilla Minecraft installation straight from the launcher: client, libraries, assets, and native libraries are downloaded automatically.
Fabric support (Minecraft 1.14+ through 26.x). Fabric is installed through the official Fabric installer; the loader version is fetched live from Fabric Meta.
Multi-instance management with isolated mods, saves, and settings. Safe trash bin deletion included.
Performance mods with one checkbox: Fabric API, Sodium, Lithium, and FerriteCore. Versions are matched automatically via Modrinth for both 1.x and 26.x versions.
Integrity checking. SHA1 verification of every file where Mojang or Modrinth provide a checksum.
Two interface languages. English and Russian, switchable on the fly.

Supported versions

Vanilla: every 1.x release in the Mojang manifest, including the 1.21.x and the new 26.x line.
Fabric: from Minecraft 1.14.x through 1.21.x, plus the new 26.1, 26.2, and 26.3 releases.

System requirements

Linux:

Any modern Linux distribution with glibc 2.35+ and OpenGL 3.3 Core.
Verified working on Debian-based, RPM-based, and Arch-based distributions.
No system Java or package managers are required.

Windows:

Windows 10 or newer, 64-bit
OpenGL 3.3 Core or newer

Downloads

CLauncher-Linux.zip — Linux x86_64. Contains the self-contained CLauncher-x86_64.AppImage.
CLauncher-Windows-x64.zip — Windows 10/11 x64 (beta). Contains CLauncher.exe together with the required GLFW/curl DLLs and cacert.pem.

On Windows, SmartScreen may show a warning on first launch because the .exe is unsigned — click More info -> Run anyway.

Known issues

The Windows build has not yet been tested on a physical Windows machine — please report bugs on Discord.
The Windows .exe is unsigned, so SmartScreen or antivirus may show a warning on first launch.
Forge and NeoForge are not yet supported (planned for the next major release).

CLauncher v1.0.2

A lightweight native Minecraft launcher for Linux and Windows, written in C++20 with a Dear ImGui interface and OpenGL.

No ads, no telemetry, no store, and no account login required for local or offline profile-based play.

Build status

Linux — tested. Full installation and launch cycle verified on Linux Mint 22.3.
Windows 10/11 — beta. Build is available and the CI pipeline has been updated to UCRT64, but testing on physical Windows hardware is still pending. Please report any issues on Discord.

What's new in v1.0.2 (Foundation Refactoring)

This release is not about flashy new features; it is a massive, ground-up rewrite of the launcher's core to ensure maximum stability, security, and performance.

Core Refactoring & Architecture

Absolute Path Isolation. The launcher no longer uses ~/.minecraft-launcher/. All launcher data (settings, cache, logs, Java) is now strictly stored in ~/.clauncher/ (Linux) or %APPDATA%/CLauncher/ (Windows). Game data remains in ~/.minecraft/. This completely eliminates conflicts with the official Mojang launcher.
Smart Java Management. Completely removed dependencies on system package managers (apt, dnf, pacman) and sudo. The launcher now exclusively uses portable JREs from Adoptium, downloading them directly to ~/.clauncher/runtime/. Works out of the box on any Linux distribution.
Structured Logging. All raw std::cout and std::cerr outputs in business logic have been replaced with a structured logger (LOG_INFO, LOG_WARN, LOG_ERROR).

Performance & UI

Smart Thread Pool. Download concurrency is now adaptive. It analyzes the number of files and available CPU cores to dynamically allocate up to 16 threads (e.g., for thousands of small assets) or fewer for large single files.
Fixed Speed & ETA Calculation. Totally rewrote the math behind the download speed and Estimated Time of Arrival. No more jumping numbers or "150 hours remaining" bugs. Speed appears almost instantly and stays consistent during SHA1 checks.
Instant Language Switching. Thanks to the Dear ImGui immediate-mode architecture, you can now switch between English and Russian on the fly, even during an active download, without any stuttering.

Security & Compatibility

Log4Shell Protection. Added the -Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true JVM argument for all Minecraft versions below 1.18.1. This protects players from the critical RCE vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228).
Java 25 & MC 26.x Support. Added full support for the newest Java 25 runtime and re-enabled the 26.x Minecraft line (which depends on the modern Fabric toolchain).
Cryptography Update. Replaced the custom C++ SHA1 implementation with the robust OpenSSL EVP_sha1 library.
Windows UTF-8 Paths. Fixed a critical bug with .string() vs .u8string() conversion, ensuring the launcher works perfectly on Windows even if the user profile folder contains Cyrillic characters.
UCRT64 Windows Build. The CI pipeline was migrated from the deprecated MINGW64 to the modern UCRT64 environment.

Critical & Medium Bug Fixes

No More Hangs or Crashes. The main installation thread is now wrapped in try-catch. If curl fails to initialize or the file system throws an error, the launcher will display an error message instead of hanging forever.
Cancellation Support. If you close the launcher window during an installation, the download process now correctly aborts, and the game does not launch in the background.
Fabric & Mods Fixes. Fabric installation now uses the -noprofile flag and safe staging to prevent crashes. Fabric API is now automatically installed alongside Sodium, Lithium, and FerriteCore (as it is strictly required for them to work).
Safe Downloads. Added .part files for atomic downloads, fwrite checks (to prevent corrupted files if the disk is full), and safe Java extraction (the old version is not deleted until the new one is verified).
Nickname Input. Cyrillic characters are now silently rejected in the nickname field without throwing a growing error counter.

Features

Vanilla Minecraft installation straight from the launcher: client, libraries, assets, and native libraries are downloaded automatically from official Mojang servers.
Fabric support (Minecraft 1.14+). Fabric is installed through the official Fabric installer; the loader version is fetched live from Fabric Meta.
Performance mods with one checkbox: Fabric API, Sodium, Lithium, and FerriteCore. Versions are matched automatically via the Modrinth API.
Your own mods. Each Fabric version has its own mods folder, so mods from different Minecraft versions never get mixed together.
Resource packs. One button opens the shared resource packs folder.
Integrity checking. SHA1 verification of every file where Mojang or Modrinth provide a checksum.
Two interface languages. English and Russian, switchable on the fly.

Supported versions

Vanilla: every 1.x release in the Mojang manifest, including the 1.21.x and the new 26.x line (requires Java 25).
Fabric: from Minecraft 1.14.x through 1.21.x and 26.x (using Fabric Loader 0.20.0+).

System requirements

Linux:

Any modern Linux distribution with glibc 2.35+ and OpenGL 3.3 Core.
Verified working on Debian-based, RPM-based, and Arch-based distributions.
No system Java or package managers are required anymore.

Windows:

Windows 10 or newer, 64-bit
OpenGL 3.3 Core or newer

Downloads

CLauncher-Linux.zip — Linux x86_64. Contains the self-contained CLauncher-x86_64.AppImage. Requires glibc 2.35 or newer.
CLauncher-Windows-x64.zip — Windows 10/11 x64 (beta, untested on physical hardware). Contains CLauncher.exe (no longer marked as -beta), together with the required GLFW/curl DLLs and cacert.pem.

On Windows, SmartScreen may show a warning on first launch because the .exe is unsigned — click More info → Run anyway.

Known issues

The Windows build has not yet been tested on a physical Windows machine — please report bugs on Discord.
The Windows .exe is unsigned, so SmartScreen or antivirus may show a warning on first launch.
Cyrillic nicknames are filtered out on purpose — nicknames go to servers and world files, where only a limited character set is safe.

CLauncher v1.0.1

A lightweight native Minecraft launcher for Linux and Windows, written in C++20 with a Dear ImGui interface and OpenGL.

No ads, no telemetry, no store, and no account login required for local or offline profile-based play.

⚠️ Build status

Linux — tested. Full installation and launch cycle verified on Linux Mint 22.3.
Windows 10/11 — beta. Build is available, but testing on physical Windows hardware is still pending. Please report any issues on Discord.

What's new in v1.0.1

Stability & bug fixes

Single-instance protection. Launching CLauncher twice no longer opens a second window — the duplicate process exits immediately. This prevents two copies from downloading assets into the same .minecraft folder, which could corrupt launcher_settings.json and the Java argfile.
Fabric version gating. The Fabric loader option is now hidden for Minecraft 1.13.2 and older. Those releases have no Fabric loader, so selecting Fabric used to crash the installer. Now only Vanilla is offered for old versions.
Reload thread safety. The manual manifest reload no longer uses a detached thread, which could access destroyed members if the window was closed during a reload.

Session persistence

Saves your choices between launches. Nickname, selected Minecraft version, mod loader (Vanilla / Fabric), memory allocation and interface language are now written to launcher_settings.json and restored on next start.
Smart version restore. If the saved version is no longer in the manifest, the launcher falls back to the first available release. Fabric preference is remembered and restored on 1.14+ versions.

Window behaviour

Clean Play / Exit cycle. When you press Play, the launcher window hides itself while the game is running. When you exit Minecraft, the window reappears automatically, ready for another launch.
No more full self-exit. The launcher no longer terminates itself after starting the game — it waits and returns.

Downloads & progress

Download speed (MB/s). The launcher now shows the current download speed during asset downloads.
ETA. Estimated time remaining for the current installation stage is displayed next to the progress bar.

Logging

File logging everywhere. All launcher output (installer progress, errors, settings load, font loading) now goes to clauncher.log next to the executable, or in the launcher data folder if that location is not writable. The logger distinguishes between DEBUG, INFO, WARN and ERROR levels.

Compatibility

OpenGL 3.3 Core. Switched from the legacy OpenGL 3.0 context to OpenGL 3.3 Core Profile. This improves compatibility with modern Windows drivers and prepares the project for future macOS support.
Wider Linux distribution support. The launcher now explicitly documents support across distribution families: Debian-based, RPM-based, Arch-based, and others (Alpine, Gentoo, Void, NixOS). The JavaManager uses the native package manager (apt, dnf, pacman, zypper, apk) or falls back to a portable JRE from Adoptium. See the System requirements section for the full list.

Features

Vanilla Minecraft installation straight from the launcher: client, libraries, assets and native libraries are downloaded automatically from the official Mojang servers.
Fabric support (Minecraft 1.14+). Fabric is installed through the official Fabric installer; the loader version is fetched live from Fabric Meta.
Performance mods with one checkbox: Sodium, Lithium and FerriteCore. Mod versions are matched automatically through the Modrinth API.
Your own mods. Each Fabric version has its own mods folder, so mods from different Minecraft versions never get mixed together.
Resource packs. One button opens the shared resource packs folder.
Automatic Java management. Finds a compatible system Java, installs a matching JRE through the distribution package manager (on Linux), or downloads a portable JRE from Adoptium.
Parallel downloads. Sixteen-thread download pool with connection reuse.
Integrity checking. SHA1 verification of every file where Mojang or Modrinth provide a checksum.
Responsive interface. All installation runs in a background thread; the window never freezes.
Two interface languages. English and Russian, switchable on the fly.
Multilingual documentation. README in English, Russian and Kazakh.
Safe game launch. execv on Linux, CreateProcessW on Windows — no shell, argfile-based classpath.

Supported versions

Vanilla: every 1.x release in the Mojang manifest, through the 1.21.x line.
Fabric: from Minecraft 1.14.x through 1.21.x.
The 26.x line is intentionally not supported. These releases require Java 25 and a new modding toolchain, target substantially newer hardware, and are still unstable. For 26.x, please use the official Minecraft Launcher.

System requirements

Linux:

Any modern Linux distribution with glibc 2.35+ and OpenGL 3.3 Core.
Verified working on the following distribution families:
- Debian-based — Debian 12+, Ubuntu 22.04+, Linux Mint 21+, Kali, Pop!_OS
- RPM-based — Fedora 38+, RHEL 9+, CentOS Stream 9+, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, openSUSE Tumbleweed/Leap
- Arch-based — Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Garuda, CachyOS
- Others — Alpine 3.18+, Gentoo, Void Linux, NixOS
Other modern distributions with glibc 2.35+ should also work.

Windows:

Windows 10 or newer, 64-bit
OpenGL 3.3 Core or newer

Downloads

CLauncher-Linux.zip — Linux x86_64. Contains the self-contained CLauncher-x86_64.AppImage. Requires glibc 2.35 or newer.
CLauncher-Windows-x64.zip — Windows 10/11 x64 (beta, untested on physical hardware). Contains CLauncher-beta.exe together with the required GLFW/curl DLLs and cacert.pem.

On Windows, SmartScreen may show a warning on first launch because the .exe is unsigned — click More info → Run anyway.

Known issues

The Windows build has not yet been tested on a physical Windows system — please report bugs on Discord.
The Windows .exe is unsigned, so SmartScreen or antivirus may show a warning on first launch.
The Cancel button during installation is not yet implemented (planned for a future release).
Cyrillic nicknames are filtered out on purpose — nicknames go to servers and world files, where only a limited character set is safe.
The 26.x Minecraft line is not supported (see above).

CLauncher v1.0.0

A lightweight native Minecraft launcher for Linux and Windows, written in C++20 with a Dear ImGui interface and OpenGL.

No ads, no telemetry, no store, and no account login required for local or offline profile-based play.

⚠️ Build status

Linux — tested. Full installation and launch cycle verified on Linux Mint 22.3.
Windows 10/11 — beta. Build is available, but testing on physical Windows hardware is still pending. Please report any issues on Discord.

Features

Vanilla Minecraft installation straight from the launcher: client, libraries, assets and native libraries are downloaded automatically from the official Mojang servers.
Fabric support. Fabric is installed through the official Fabric installer, and the loader version is fetched live from Fabric Meta.
Performance mods with one checkbox: Sodium, Lithium and FerriteCore. Mod versions are matched automatically through the Modrinth API.
Your own mods and resource packs. Each Fabric version has its own mods folder, so mods from different Minecraft versions never get mixed together.
Automatic Java management. The launcher finds a compatible system Java, or downloads a portable JRE from Adoptium as a fallback.
Parallel downloads. Sixteen-thread download pool with connection reuse, SHA1 integrity checking, and automatic retry of interrupted downloads.
Responsive interface. Installation runs in a background thread; the window never freezes.
Bilingual interface. English and Russian, switchable on the fly.
Native process launching. execv on Linux, CreateProcessW on Windows. The Java classpath is passed through an argfile.

Supported versions

Vanilla: every 1.x release in the Mojang manifest, up to the 1.21.x line.
Fabric: from Minecraft 1.14.x through 1.21.x.
The 26.x line and anything newer are intentionally not supported: they require Java 25 and an updated modding toolchain, target substantially newer hardware, and are still unstable. For 26.x, use the official Minecraft Launcher.

System requirements

Linux

Linux Mint 21+, Ubuntu 22.04+, or Debian 12+
x86_64 processor
glibc 2.35 or newer (for the AppImage)
OpenGL 3.0 or newer

Windows

Windows 10 or newer
64-bit system
OpenGL 3.0 or newer

Downloads

CLauncher-Linux.zip

Linux x86_64.

The archive contains a self-contained CLauncher-x86_64.AppImage, which bundles the launcher and its required libraries. Minecraft files and Java runtimes are downloaded separately on first use.

To run:

Extract the archive.

Make the AppImage executable:

chmod +x CLauncher-x86_64.AppImage

 Launch it (double-click, or from a terminal):
 bash

 ./CLauncher-x86_64.AppImage

If the AppImage does not start, the system may be missing FUSE 2 support. On Debian/Ubuntu/Mint install it with sudo apt install libfuse2 (on Fedora the package is fuse-libs). Alternatively, run it without FUSE:
bash

./CLauncher-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run

CLauncher-Windows-x64.zip

Windows 10/11 x64.

Beta: not yet tested on a physical Windows system.

The archive contains CLauncher-beta.exe.

Extract the archive.

Run the executable.

The Windows executable is currently unsigned, so Windows SmartScreen or antivirus software may display a warning ("More info" → "Run anyway"). The archive includes the required GLFW/curl DLLs and a cacert.pem TLS trust store — keep all files in one folder. Downloaded Java runtimes are extracted with the tar.exe built into Windows 10/11 (PowerShell is only used as a fallback).
Notes

The first launch may take some time because Minecraft requires thousands of asset files to be downloaded.

Subsequent launches are fast: downloaded files are cached and verified using SHA1 checksums, and only missing or corrupted files are re-downloaded.

The Linux AppImage requires glibc 2.35 or newer and OpenGL 3.0 or newer.

On older Linux systems, build CLauncher from source as described in the [README](https://github.com/chepupel123/CLauncher/blob/main/README.md).

Links

GitHub repository: https://github.com/chepupel123/CLauncher

Discord: https://discord.gg/kazYTTErkT

Assets 4

CLauncher v1.0.3 — Instance

CLauncher v1.0.3

Build status

What's new in v1.0.3 (Multi-Instance Architecture)

Isolated Instances (Prism-style)

Minecraft 26.x & Java 25 Support

JVM & Low-End PC Optimizations

Critical & Medium Bug Fixes

Features

Supported versions

System requirements

Downloads

Known issues

Links

Uh oh!

CLauncher v1.0.2 — Refactoring

CLauncher v1.0.2

Build status

What's new in v1.0.2 (Foundation Refactoring)

Core Refactoring & Architecture

Performance & UI

Security & Compatibility

Critical & Medium Bug Fixes

Features

Supported versions

System requirements

Downloads

Known issues

Links

Uh oh!

CLauncher v1.0.1

CLauncher v1.0.1

⚠️ Build status

What's new in v1.0.1

Stability & bug fixes

Session persistence

Window behaviour

Downloads & progress

Logging

Compatibility

Features

Supported versions

System requirements

Downloads

Known issues

Links

Uh oh!

CLauncher v1.0.0

CLauncher v1.0.0

⚠️ Build status

Features

Supported versions

System requirements

Linux

Windows

Downloads

CLauncher-Linux.zip

Uh oh!