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The Cabin >> Raspberry and Other Pies >> MineCraft Server on O-Pi?
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1502851406

Message started by Fernando on Aug 15^th, 2017, 10:43pm

Title: MineCraft Server on O-Pi?
Post by Fernando on Aug 15^th, 2017, 10:43pm

About this time two years ago I was running a MineCraft Server on one of my PC Laptops under Windows. It ran great even though it was a slow unit (one of my Lenovo NetBooks with XP). I added a few modules and a couple of Realms to it and it was still running strong. It was slow, among other reasons, was because it was running on Java. There is a C/C++ complied version of MineCraft Server which runs a lot faster and still uses the Java Modules and Realms that I did not know about.

I was going to make this public but then Windows followed by Java and MineCraft Updated and nothing worked. It attempts to load and then it comes up with an OpenGL Error. OpenGL is the Open Source Drivers Library for 3D rendering, which Microsoft decided to use instead of rewriting their own Private Priority GL Drivers as they did with Win95 – Win2000/ME. They switched to OpenGL on XP.

The problem is this: OpenGL is on v1.0 and v2.0 on WinXP, and Win-Vista, you need both to get it going, so it’s OpenGL 1.0/2.0 on Windows. This is not needed on Linux. Normally, this runs fine. But Microsoft refuses to grade to OpenGL v3.0 on XP and Vista. On Win7, you need OpenGL v2.0 with v3.0, but not necessarily on Win8 and Win10. But MineCraft 10 (last year’s updates) makes calls for OpenGL v3.0 and if it is not there, halts the system dead!

The other part of the problem is use of the Intel GPU Cards. Like Microsoft, Intel is not updating the OpenGL drivers on their Express series, 900 series to 950 series video cards as well. Either you need to get one of their High End Pro cards or get an ATi-Rage or nVidia Video card. This is fine for a desktop but not for a laptop, and many laptops use the Intel 900 – 950 series GPUs, including Lenovo (IdeaPad), Acer, Asus, HP, Compaq, Toshiba, Dell and many others. Only High End laptops used ATi or nVidia GPUs, like Lenovo (ThinkPad series), Alienware, MSi, and a few others. Upgrading to Win8 or Win10 on a netbook with an Intel 900 – 950 GPU, though giving it the OpenGL v3.0 drivers, there would be a 50/50 chance of it working, and the system would run horribly slow. At minimum you would need a Dual Core CPU to run Win8 and Win10.

Note: This is not a problem for running MineCraft on Linux on these Intel cards as Linux comes with OpenGL v3.0.

Strangely, there has been a version of MineCraft for the Raspberry Pi. It is known as MineCraft Pocket Edition, and one can run Python scripts to change various parameters of the game, as it is done in teaching Python to kids in Britain. It has been on every Raspbian Debian release since Wheezy. It will run MineCraft Server but it will be very slow. Much of MineCraft’s operations run on the GPU through Java. The Raspberry Pi uses the VideoCore CPU, which is a single core GPU. This single core GPU also poses a problem in emulation of some higher end systems and video console games.

But the O-Pi and B-Pi uses the Mali 400 Dual Core GPU (400 – 600MHz) and runs them faster than the R-Pi runs the VideoCore GPU (200 – 350MHz). Plus some systems like the O-Pi and Nano Pi uses the Mali 450 Dual/Quad/Hexa core GPUs at over 600MHz. Running MineCraft on these systems should be a synch! The key is figuring how.

The O-Pi forum on Facebook comes up with answers for this- both on Java and Compiled C/C++ version of Minecraft Servers. The C/C++ tends to have a couple bugs not shown on the Java version but it is 99% playable.

All the MineCraft Servers do is generates the works and keeps tracks of items, players, and “the world” for player to log into and play on the field. The program is rather small, but it has a lot of overhead on the system. But if I can get MineCraft to run on an O-Pi and have others connect to it, I can go back promoting some ideas I had a couple of years ago. It looks like several others have had solved these questions I wanted answered on the FB Forums in the Orange Pi Group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1483270805309190/permalink/1721112914858310/
and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1483270805309190/permalink/1710430095926592/

Time to look at things and see where I can pick up where I left off. It is hard to believe that somebody is using an O-Pi Zero 512MB as a MineCraft Server and Client machine! The O-Pi Zero is only $9 compared to the Raspberry Pi 3 which is $35 and cannot do this!

Title: Re: MineCraft Server on O-Pi?
Post by Hondo I. Sackett on Aug 17^th, 2017, 12:49am

that is pretty cool. keep us up to date on that