Forgix - A way for merging mod-loaders into a singular jar


Forgix is a brand-new tool that allows Minecraft modders to combine numerous mod-loaders into one jar!

What is it?

Forgix is a tool that is used to combine numerous mod-loaders into a single jar.

How does this benefit me as a regular user?

You don’t need to know much about Forgix as this is a tool for developers, but the mods you use may simply have a single file that you need to download, so you don’t have to worry about which mod-loader you’re installing for.

Is it stable enough for production use?

Yes, in its current state, it is quite ready for production usage and has worked on all mods I’ve tested and should work on your mod as well, even if your mod’s code base is very cursed. If anything breaks, simply open an issue on GitHub.
You could wait for update ‘1.3.0,’ which improves stability and adds a few new features though that update would release anytime between now and 4096-01-01T00:00:00Z.

How it all began

Forgix began as an experiment to see if I could merge multiple mod-loaders into one; I know it’s possible (despite the fact that a lot of people said it wasn’t), and after a lot of trial and error I managed to make a working prototype for semi-automatic jar merging, which was actually quite bad and was hard-coded to only work with the mod I was working on.
After realizing that it was doable, I rewrote the entire thing so that it could be used by the public, and so Forigx was born (the name is generated by an AI).

How it works

Forgix makes advantage of a JVM feature that only loads the classes that are called; by altering the packages slightly, we can make it such that each mod-loader calls its own package and does not interfere with other mod-loaders.

So, for example, Quilt goes into quilt.mod.json and calls the entry-point from there, but we’ve updated the packages so that it only calls Quilt entry-points and not other mod-loader entry-points, and JVM will never load other classes since Quilt would never call them.

Usage and Documentation

First apply the plugin in your root build.gradle

Applying the plugin

Groovy

Using the plugins DSL:

Click to view
plugins {
    id "io.github.pacifistmc.forgix" version "<version>"
}

Using the legacy plugin application:

Click to view
buildscript {
    repositories {
        maven {
            url "https://plugins.gradle.org/m2/"
        }
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath "io.github.pacifistmc.forgix:Forgix:<version>"
    }
}

apply plugin: "io.github.pacifistmc.forgix"

Kotlin

Using the plugins DSL:

Click to view
plugins {
    id("io.github.pacifistmc.forgix") version "<version>"
}

Using the legacy plugin application:

Click to view
buildscript {
    repositories {
        maven {
            url = uri("https://plugins.gradle.org/m2/")
        }
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath("io.github.pacifistmc.forgix:Forgix:<version>")
    }
}

apply(plugin = "io.github.pacifistmc.forgix")


Remember to change <version> with the latest version! You can get the latest version from Forgix Version.


Then configure it to work with your mod! This process is going to be automatic in the future but I haven’t gotten time to make that yet.

Configuring the plugin to make it work

This is the normal configuration that by default should work on almost all mods.

forgix {
    group = "org.example.mod"
    mergedJarName = "example-mod"
}

The group is the common package name for your mod and the mergedJarName is going to be the name of the merged jar that it’s going to create, if the mergedJarName doesn’t have an extension then it’s going to give it the extension jar but keep in mind that sometimes the version number might be detected as an extension which at that point it won’t give it the extension jar and you’ll have to manually do that.

Running the task mergeJars (after running build) would create the merged jars in the Merged folder. (In the future this might be in the build/libs/merged folder)

If you don’t want to run mergeJars manually then you could add this. (In the future this might be the default behavior)

subprojects {
    // ...
    build.finalizedBy(mergeJars)
    assemble.finalizedBy(mergeJars)
}


Documentation for each Forgix configuration!

Click to view

Root container (“forgix”)

  • group (String)

    • This is the common package name for your mod; it is usually the maven group.
    • A required value for now.
  • mergedJarName (String)

    • This is the output jar’s name. If the name does not contain an extension, the extension jar is added; however, it sometimes identifies the version number as an extension and does not add it; in that case, you need to manually add the jar extension to the name.
    • A required value for now.
  • removeDuplicate (String)

    • This removes a duplicate package from the merged jar. For example, if you have a core package that is replicated across all mod-loaders but doesn’t need to be then you might use this to remove the duplication.
    • This can be used numerous times to remove multiple duplicates, but if there are a lot of them then it’s best to use ‘removeDuplicates’ which accepts a list.
Forge sub-container (“forge”)
  • projectName (String)

    • This is the name of the Forge project. This is set to “forge” by default.
  • jarLocation (String)

    • This is the location of the built Forge jar from the project that’s specified in projectName. By default, this retrieves the jar with the shortest name, which is quite scuffed but I don’t know how to retrieve the built jar without relying on loom or something similar, hopefully it’ll be better in the future though!
  • additionalRelocate (String, String)

    • Simply put, this allows you to define more groups, which is useful for relocating libraries.
    • This can be used numerous times to specify multiple relocations.
  • mixin (String)

    • This exists because Forge can be a nuisance at times, and sometimes Forge does something strange where we can’t actually identify mixins the normal way. However, if we don’t automatically detect the mixins, then this should be used to specify the mixins explicitly.
    • This can be used numerous times to specify multiple mixins.
Quilt sub-container (“quilt”)
  • projectName (String)

    • This is the name of the Quilt project. This is set to “quilt” by default.
  • jarLocation (String)

    • This is the location of the built Quilt jar from the project that’s specified in projectName. By default, this retrieves the jar with the shortest name, which is quite scuffed but I don’t know how to retrieve the built jar without relying on loom or something similar, hopefully it’ll be better in the future though!
  • additionalRelocate (String, String)

    • Simply put, this allows you to define more groups, which is useful for relocating libraries.
    • This can be used numerous times to specify multiple relocations.
Fabric sub-container (“fabric”)
  • projectName (String)

    • This is the name of the Fabric project. This is set to “fabric” by default.
  • jarLocation (String)

    • This is the location of the built Fabric jar from the project that’s specified in projectName. By default, this retrieves the jar with the shortest name, which is quite scuffed but I don’t know how to retrieve the built jar without relying on loom or something similar, hopefully it’ll be better in the future though!
  • additionalRelocate (String, String)

    • Simply put, this allows you to define more groups, which is useful for relocating libraries.
    • This can be used numerous times to specify multiple relocations.
Custom sub-container (“custom”)

Because I’m not going to develop a new container for each mod-loader, this is the one that handles everything else. Yes, this can handle Fabric and Quilt but not Forge. This configuration can be used numerous times to specify multiple loaders.

  • projectName (String)

    • This is the name of the project.
    • This is a required value.
  • jarLocation (String)

    • This is the location of the built jar from the project that’s specified in projectName. By default, this retrieves the jar with the shortest name, which is quite scuffed but I don’t know how to retrieve the built jar without relying on loom or something similar, hopefully it’ll be better in the future though!
  • additionalRelocate (String, String)

    • Simply put, this allows you to define more groups, which is useful for relocating libraries.
    • This can be used numerous times to specify multiple relocations.
An example of a complete Forgix configuration
forgix {
    group = "org.example.mod" // (Required Value)
    mergedJarName = "example-mod" // (Required Value)
    outputDir = "build/libs/merged"
    
    forge {
        projectName = "forge"
        jarLocation = "build/libs/example-mod.jar"

        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib" "forge.org.my.lib"
        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib.another" "forge.org.my.lib.another"
        
        mixin "forge.mixins.json"
        mixin "forge.mixins.another.json"
    }
    
    fabric {
        projectName = "fabric"
        jarLocation = "build/libs/example-mod.jar"
        
        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib" "fabric.org.my.lib"
        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib.another" "fabric.org.my.lib.another"
    }
    
    quilt {
        projectName = "quilt"
        jarLocation = "build/libs/example-mod.jar"
        
        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib" "quilt.org.my.lib"
        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib.another" "quilt.org.my.lib.another"
    }

    custom {
        projectName = "sponge" // (Required Value)
        jarLocation = "build/libs/example-mod.jar"
        
        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib" "sponge.org.my.lib"
        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib.another" "sponge.org.my.lib.another"
    }

    custom {
        projectName = "spigot" // (Required Value)
        jarLocation = "build/libs/example-mod.jar"

        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib" "spigot.org.my.lib"
        additionalRelocate "org.my.lib.another" "spigot.org.my.lib.another"
    }
    
    removeDuplicate "org.example.mod.core"
}

This project feels dead

Depending on how far in the future you are, it very well could be. I am not going to update this every day; all future updates will be bug fixes for issues I haven’t found, quality of life improvements, or resolving that one minecraft mod that won’t work due to how cursed its codebase is.
This tool has completed its function it was designed for.

6 Likes

This is quite an impressive-looking project!

I assume the intention here then is to allow people to create mods for all three loaders under a single codebase, right?

1 Like

So am I misunderstanding or could this be used to merge an architectury project into one jar?

1 Like

This looks really cool!

I have to admit that by reading the title I got quite confused! :sweat_smile:
I first thought it was something about running multiple mod loaders at once.
But after reading, I understood and really like the concept!

2 Likes

Err don’t really understood what you meant by

The thing it does is basically instead of having a separate jar for each mod-loader like there’s a jar for quilt, forge etc
It just combines all of them into one.

for a single codebase you could use Architectury which allows that.

1 Like

Yes it’s actually supposed to be used alongside Architectury but it works without Architectury too.

Oh I see, that makes a lot of sense! Thanks for clarifying that.

I shall be using this I think, thanks!

1 Like

Very cool! I don’t develop for Forge anymore, but this would be an amazing tool if I did.

I’d imagine this’d work with MultiLoader Template based projects too?

Yeah it will

1 Like

This was already answered a few posts above.