Bedrock support is back

by RockTheFlag

Yes, you read that right - bedrock support in the GamesLabs network is back! This update took a long, long time, so we knew that we have to explain why.

To join the GamesLabs network / Minescape / Craftscape or any other games, you can use play.gameslabs.net as the ip or bedrock.gameslabs.net

What are the differences between Java and Bedrock?

The GamesLabs network supports both Java & Bedrock editions, and it seems like a simple thing to do, however there are both visual & back-end changes that make it not as easy as it sounds.

The network is built on a custom framework with the support for 3d entities (custom mobs), cosmetics, UIs and more. These features (and the entire framework) are built for the Java edition of the game, as the network was originally built for Java edition (prior to bedrock even existing! Our most famous game - Minescape has been released in 2012 by us, on a custom framework that kept evolving and has remained online ever since).

Due to the network being based on java, some of the before mentioned features have to be converted / changed in order to work for bedrock:

  • The resource packs have 3d models that have to be converted to bedrock models
  • The furniture items have to be adjusted & converted to bedrock entities
  • The UIs have to be adapted to bedrock ones (custom button based UIs rather than chest menus)
  • The packets / game features need to be adjusted to support bedrock actions that may not be possible on java
  • The game itself needs to be adjusted & new features must be introduced, as bedrock support comes with ability to join & play on devices that may make it harder to play than intended

and more... These differences between the games are constant and require additional time aside from normal network updates that impact all players, not just Minecraft: Bedrock edition server players.

Minecraft version updates

Prior to recent versions of Minecraft, the base server software provided by Mojang was obfuscated and the methods were changing each and every single Bedrock update, meaning each time Minecraft updated the bedrock edition, changes were needed on our side too. Those changes may sometimes be easy, fast, but sometimes they would decide to completely change how basic things work and we had to re-do things.

Thankfully, recent versions of Minecraft have become not obfuscated and methods now remain the same, or if not - easily trackable.

Future support

With the before mentioned changes to Minecraft: Bedrock edition, we have also had a major upgrade to the network's back-end allowing us to stay up-to-date with both Java and Bedrock editions easier. We stand to maintain bedrock support for the foreseeable future.

Account linking

We thought that mentioning this here is a good idea, despite the feature existing for a long time:

Players can merge their bedrock and java accounts in the network hub by clicking on eachother. The player to initiate the click (merge) is the profile that will be kept as the main, and the other one will be linked to it, meaning you can join the server on java edition, then switch to bedrock and keep the same data / account across network's games, despite using different accounts.

The end

This short article was here to highlight the issues we've had in past and to celebrate the fact that bedrock support is back. Make sure to keep your eye out for more network related articles to come soon.