Modding Tutorial for Minecraft 1.6.2
Introduction
With the update to Minecraft 1.6, Mojang made the process for installing mods onto the game much more complicated than it was previously. This tutorial is meant to help walk you through the process that is now the standard for installing mods. In this specific tutorial, I will be installing the following mods: Forge ModLoader (Recommended-1.6.2), Optifine, Rei's Minimap, Kobata's Inventory Tweaks, bskprksCore, bspkrs's Armor Status HUD, and MC Capes (Forge edition), in that order. I'm going to be using the official Minecraft Launcher, so if you use Magic Launcher or some other alternative, I can't help you. Updated on 8/1/13 to be compatible with Forge 9.10.0.804
Programs Used: Notepad++ and 7-Zip
Programs Used: Notepad++ and 7-Zip
Step 1.-Backing up the affected folders
Locate your "versions" and "mods" folders in your .minecraft folder. (To find your .minecraft, go to Start and search %appdata%, or go here for help with finding it on a Mac: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/649868-mac-support-101/#entry8508708) Make a new folder on your desktop (I named mine "Old Versions Folder") and copy-paste your current versions and mods folders into the one you just made. If something goes wrong, we can always revert to these backups.
Step 2.-De-cluttering
Now that we have a backup, delete all of the folders inside the "versions" folder, and delete the entire "mods" folder. This will make sure that your Local Version Editor will be clutter- and confusion-free. Deleting the items in the mods folder made sure there wouldn't be any compatibility issues when updating.
Step 3.-Getting a clean 1.6.2 installation
Since we deleted all the folders inside our versions folder, we need to run Minecraft once to create a 1.6.2 folder for our first mod (Forge) to work off of. The launcher defaults to downloading the newest version of Minecraft, so all you need to do is log in and hit play.
Step 4.-Installing Forge
Now that we have a clean 1.6.2 installation, we're able to begin modifying the files. First, run the recommended version of the Forge installer, select the "Install Client" option if it isn't already, and click Ok. (As of writing this, the recommended version is 9.10.0.804.) This will make Forge's own folder in our versions folder, alongside the 1.6.2 folder. NOTE: If double-clicking the Forge installer does not run the program, but instead opens the .jar file, do the following: Right click "minecraftforge-installer-1.6.2-9.10.0.804.jar" and click "Open with...". When the menu pops up, select Java(TM) Platform SE Binary and click Ok.
Step 5.-Creating our custom folder
Make a new folder in your versions folder called whatever you want your "custom version" of Minecraft to be called. For example, I named mine 1.6.2-Modded, and I'll be referring to it as this throughout the remainder of this tutorial. Whenever I say 1.6.2-Modded folder/.jar/.json, just replace the name with whatever you decided to name yours. Now, go into the folder Forge created and copy both files that are inside it. Finally, go back into your versions folder, enter your new folder, and paste both files.
Step 6.-Editing the .json
While in the 1.6.2-Modded folder, rename both files the same thing you named your new folder. Once you're done with that, right click on the .json file (if it doesn't show you the file extension, it's the one with the page icon) and select Properties. From there, on the "Opens with..." line, click Change. Select Notepad, click Ok, then click Ok again in the Properties window. (I used Notepad++ instead of Notepad to make viewing the file easier, but either program works.)
Once that's done, double-click the file and find the line near the bottom that looks exactly like this: "id": "1.6.2-Forge9.10.0.804",. Highlight the part that is inside the quotation marks (1.6.2-Forge9.10.0.804) and replace that with the same thing you named your .json file you're currently editing. Since I named my folder 1.6.2-Modded, that's what I'm going to replace it with. Save the file and close it.
Once that's done, double-click the file and find the line near the bottom that looks exactly like this: "id": "1.6.2-Forge9.10.0.804",. Highlight the part that is inside the quotation marks (1.6.2-Forge9.10.0.804) and replace that with the same thing you named your .json file you're currently editing. Since I named my folder 1.6.2-Modded, that's what I'm going to replace it with. Save the file and close it.
Step 7.-Adding Optifine and Rei's Minimap
Go back into your 1.6.2-Modded folder and open the .jar file. You can use whatever file archiving program you like to do this, but I used 7-Zip. (A popular alternative is WinRAR.) Now, open up the OptiFine.zip file you downloaded (the version I chose was Ultra, but you may prefer a different distribution), select all of the files inside it, and copy them over into your 1.6.2-Modded.jar.
Once all of the files have transferred, delete the folder named "META-INF" in 1.6.2-Modded.jar. If you don't do so, Minecraft will not launch.
After you've deleted it, open up your [1.6.2]ReiMinimap_v3.4_01.zip file and copy the items inside into your 1.6.2-Modded.jar. That's it for editing the .jar, so you can close that.
Once all of the files have transferred, delete the folder named "META-INF" in 1.6.2-Modded.jar. If you don't do so, Minecraft will not launch.
After you've deleted it, open up your [1.6.2]ReiMinimap_v3.4_01.zip file and copy the items inside into your 1.6.2-Modded.jar. That's it for editing the .jar, so you can close that.
Step 8-Creating the Mods folder and installing the remaining mods
Now that we have Forge installed, we are able to install mods that depend on Forge, which in our case are Inventory Tweaks, MC Capes, bspkrsCore, and bspkrs's Armor Status HUD. Instead of running Minecraft to cause the necessary mods folder to be created, we're going to create one ourselves. Go back out into your .minecraft folder and create a new folder called "mods" exactly as shown, without the quotation marks. Once you've created it, go inside it and copy all of the previously listed mods into it. After the files copy over, we're done with those windows, so you can close both.
Step 9-Configuring the launcher to load our modded installation and finalizing!
Now that we have all of our mods installed, all that's left to do is get the launcher to run our custom Minecraft files. To do so, open the launcher and click the New Profile button. Just to keep everything neat, I'm going to name it the same as everything I've previously renamed: 1.6.2-Modded. (Type this into the Profile Name field.) After you do that, click the dropdown menu next to "Use version" and select "release 1.6.2-Modded". Next, check the box titled "JVM Arguments:", put a space after the part that says "-Xmx1G", and copy the following into the field, exactly as shown: -Dfml.ignoreInvalidMinecraftCertificates=true -Dfml.ignorePatchDiscrepancies=true Finally, click Save Profile and select the new 1.6.2-Modded profile from the dropdown menu titled "Profile:". Click Play and let the fun begin!
Step 10.-Restoring previous mod data (Optional)
When we deleted the mods folder in the beginning of the tutorial, we also deleted all of the data that the mods had previously saved, if you used the mods in a previous version of Minecraft. (For example, waypoints made in Rei's Minimap) To restore this data, delete the new data folder that was created in the mods folder. After you've done that, copy any files in the original mods folder other than the mods themselves (using Rei's Minimap as an example, you would copy the rei_minimap folder) into the new mods folder.
If the above instructions did not work and launching your game resulted in a crash or any other problem, it was an error on your end. I followed along with this tutorial as I was putting it together, and in the end I was able to successfully launch the game.
Minecraft is a product of Mojang AB.
Minecraft is a product of Mojang AB.