Programming with Python in a recent version of Minecraft

Question

I've been teaching Python programming to a friend's son using the book Adventures in Minecraft. This book comes with a starter kit that contains a pre-configured Bukkit (v.1.6.4) server, and targets Minecraft 1.6.4.

My friend's son would like to use a more recent version of Minecraft, unfortunately Bukkit is no longer maintained.

Is there another way to use Python with Minecraft? I've googled a bit but without success. I'm not a player of Minecraft myself so there is a lot of Minecraft terminology that I don't understand.

Thanks

Answer 1

There are a wide variety of ways to interact with Minecraft programatically, including an official Javascript "add-on" API to the "bedrock" version of Minecraft, APIs for Minecraft servers, unofficial hacks on the client side to the Java version of Minecraft, and other specialized offerings. They are briefly introduced at Minecraft modding (Wikipedia) and covered in more detail at the Official Minecraft Wiki. (I'd love to see a good comparison of how comprehensive each approach is, and how the APIs compare....)

Here I'll cover just one approach, which explains how to connect with Python to a "Spigot" Minecraft server and manipulate the world and players. It supports a Python 3 API rooted in the Minecraft: Pi Edition for Raspberry Pi described at <Stuff about="code" />: Minecraft.

The full explanation, with videos for a Windows 10 environment, is at Learn Python With Minecraft — Part 1: Setting Up The Environment | by Carlos Argueta | Medium. Here is a quick summary of the steps, as I did them in Debian Linux "Buster" in the standard Crostini virtual environment on a Chromebook (Pixelbook Go):

• Download Minecraft (Java version)

• If necessary, download and install Python, e.g. version 3.8

• Download Carlos' Minecraft server, which seems to be based on Spigot and CraftBukkit, from https://sourceforge.net/projects/learn-python-minecraft-win/files/latest/download

• Unzip Carlos' server

• Run python -m pip install minecraftPythonAPI.zip

• Start the server up via java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar spigot.jar (Carlos provides a .bat file for that for Windows). When you run spigot for the first time, it automatically creates a new Minecraft world for you

• Notice which version of Spigot you're running. It is listed towards the top of the output of the java command, and is currently 1.14.4. More specifically in my case: [Server thread/INFO]: This server is running CraftBukkit version git-Spigot-ea7e48b-368f4e9 (MC: 1.14.4) (Implementing API version 1.14.4-R0.1-SNAPSHOT)

• You need to launch the same version of Java Minecraft as you're running on the server. That requires using the Minecraft launcher, and downloading a different version (currently 1.14.4) as shown in his video number 5.

• Run the matching version in multiplayer, and add your server, by specifying a network address as "localhost".

• Note that Minecraft defaults to creative mode

• Run some Python code like this, which just shows where the player is, and then moves the player:

from mcpi.minecraft import Minecraft
mc = Minecraft.create()
PlayerTile = mc.player.getTilePos()
print(PlayerTile)
mc.player.setTilePos(0, 140, 0)

See also an early demo of the Pi interface but note you have to change two lines to import via mcpi rather than minecraft, e.g.
import mcpi.minecraft as minecraft.

More code snippets are at the github repo Learn-Python-With-Minecraft

A completely different option out there might also be of interest. It allows Python programming for Minecraft version 1.12.2 from 2017, and is supported with these instructions, which covers installing the older version, and handles Python 2.7 or 3: Python Coding for Minecraft : 18 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables. There are recent comments from the author so it seems to still be relevant.

Answer 2

Using jycraft and Spigot, I think you could easily get a server up and running with python.

Answer 3

Minecraft Education Edition (https://education.minecraft.net/) offers an immersive integration with Python, however this requires an educational account so that's not a general solution for everyone.

Besides this, there are a number of Java environments, but I don't know about Python environments. I did find this article: https://medium.com/@kidargueta/learn-python-with-minecraft-part-1-setting-up-the-environment-fa0c7f9e3ca6

Answer 4

Unfortunately, Minecraft mods are (as far as my knowledge goes) coded in Java. But, you might be able to convert the .py files into .jar using a program such as Jython. I steal it from here:

Distributing Python Scripts as Jar Files with Jython

Answer 5

You could get a Raspberry Pi which has a special version of Minecraft that can easily be scripted with Python. The default OS for Raspberry Pi's is a Debian fork called Raspbian which comes with the special version of Minecraft preinstalled.

There are tons of tutorials online and Mag Pi #41 is actually dedicated to Minecraft creations.

Here is a link to the tutorial I first used after getting my Pi. It starts with the very basics and will walk him through all the steps involved in creating mods with Minecraft.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-minecraft-pi/

A Raspberry Pi can be had for ~$35 dollars and most people have all the other peripherals needs(Micro SD card, Micro USB for power, keyboard, mouse, monitor).

As a side note if he ends up liking programming there are tons of cool projects that can be done with a Raspberry Pi with varying degrees of difficulty.