Technic News

The ModJam is a 4-day modding competitions where contestants try to create a simple, but complete mod in a limited period of time.  This year, 41 mods were created in 96 hours, and the ModJam team want YOU to vote on which is the best!  Lots of old favorites, such as dan200, AbrarSyed, Calclavia, and aidancbrady participated this year, but a TON of entries are from brand new modders, and the contestants in this exciting competition could use your support!

Download all of the completed mods here:  http://www.mediafire.com/download/7btly6nwm8ihri8/modjam_aug2013_submissions.zip

Then, when you've tried them all out, vote on your favorites here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1i_PKBMKtyiKdJUrgUhDEX4egHFz_mRpDxjiTGcChagw/viewform

Enter whatever you like for your nickname, but be sure to select the options saying you didn't enter a modjam entry (contestant and community voting are kept separate).  You can ignore the Participant ID field.  Thanks for supporting new, creative mods!

Voltz 2.0.4 is now marked Recommended in the launcher- users are advised to click the cogwheel under the Voltz icon and ensure that they are set to "always use recommended builds" from here forward. This release represents the completed 1.5.2 build for Voltz, and a return to regular updates for the modpack. 2.X Voltz maps are not comptible with 1.X Voltz maps, and servers will be required to start fresh.

Server owners can obtain the new server file from the following link: http://mirror.technicpack.net/Technic/servers/voltz/Voltz_Server_v2.0.4.zip

Server owners will want to replace all server files with the ones from the server package- all server files have changed since 1.X.

ErogenousBeef has been working on a rad new way to generate power. Wylker has an ~exclusive~ sneak peak to show of his progress.

Technic has always brought you more Minecraft- lately, we've been working behind the scenes to bring you better Minecraft, too! A few nights ago, we brought you improvements that now allow Mac users to install Java 7. On Monday, we'll bring you the new version of Big Dig, with a custom rendering improvement developed by Technic Staff. From there, this custom renderer will find its way into all Technic products, and we'll even be making the fixes available to all very, very soon.

Check out the following two screenshots- the first is with ordinary Minecraft Forge, build #710. The second is with our custom-built Forge improvement.

Before:

After:

As you can see, they're both pictures of the same thing: a fountain of Thermal Expansion Destabilized Redstone, behind some Forestry Stained Glass, behind some Minefactory Reloaded stained glass. In the first picture, only the closest transparent object is visible. But using our internal renderer fixes, the objects render correctly.

These fixes aren't perfect. Water, entities, tile entities, and particles still have some oddball behavior that's out of our control. However, we hope we'll see a lot of new, beautiful builds that make use of these improvements soon. So on Monday, grab the new version of Big Dig and make something incredible!

If you're interested in using the fixes for yourselves, a modified version of Forge Build 710 will be available on Monday, and in the next two weeks, we'll put together a more permanent home for these fixes.

Hi. 
There is a good chance that quite a lot of you will be getting down and dirty with Mine Factory Reloaded in the very near future, specifically because powercrystals has been hard at work with RedNet, and when you see it in action you'll appreciate why.