Minecraft mods are a great way to spice up your game, whether it’s a small mod which simply enhances the graphics or a big mod which completely changes the game. However, each mod is installed in the same way.
Installing mods isn’t very difficult, but many people are confused about how to do it. Then there are also issues involved with installing multiple mods, as not all mods work (well) together.
To install a mod you first need to find the folder in which you have to install it and that’s the step most people are often confused about.
Finding the folder
To file you have to install the mods in is called minecraft.jar, which is found in the bin folder in your .Minecraft folder.
To find the .Minecraft folder, either go to C:Documents and Settings*USER*Application Data.Minecraft (replace *USER* with your windows account name) or enter %appdata% in the windows search bar, then open roaming -> application data -> .Minecraft.
Note, you may need to reveal hidden files before you can see the application data folder. This is done by opening any folder, then click on “tools” in the tools bar at the top, then click folder options. A pop up will appear with a list, click on the view tab and scroll down to “Hidden files and folders”, tick the “Show hidden files and folders” box.
Once you’ve found the .Minecraft folder, open the bin folder and then open the Minecraft.jar file with a program like 7zip or winzip. You may need to right click the file and select “open with” and select the program manually. If you don’t have such a program, you can download 7zip for free.
Once you’ve opened this file, all you need to do is open the mod you’ve downloaded with the same program you opened the jar file with and move all the folder inside it to the minecraft.jar file.
However, please read the post you’ve downloaded the mod from to see if there are any special instructions. Some mods require you to move some files to other folders, like mods which use special sounds. Those files are often moved to the config folder and the mod folder in the .minecraft folder, though as mentioned, it depends on the mod you want.
IMPORTANT: If the mod you’re installing is the first mod you’re installing, you will most likely have to delete the META-INF folder inside the minecraft.jar file. If you don’t, starting Minecraft will cause you to only see a black screen.
The META-INF folder doesn’t return the next time you want to instal a mod, so you will only have to delete it once.
You may also have noticed many of the nature-type blocks, like grass, vines and ferns, are gray. This is because a light shader is applied to them in game, which is what makes every biome look different.
If you want to change the colour of the grass in biomes, you will have to alter the shader, which can be found in the misc folder in the Minecraft.jar, the files are called foliagecolor.png and grascolor.png, however, editing these files isn’t as easy as editing the other textures, so I’d advise you to leave this file alone until you’ve gained some experience. We will cover those files in a future texture pack guide (probably part 2).
Not all mods can be used together, as some mods will use or edit the same files. This confuses a lot of people as they don’t know why or how to check what doesn’t work together, but it’s actually quite easy.
To find out whether 2 mods can work together, simply move all the files inside the file to a folder, just like you’d move the files into the minecraft.jar file. If the mods use the same files, moving the files into the same folder will cause windows to alert you of 2 files with the same name. This usually means the mods cannot work together and means you have to find an alternative.
However, don’t think mods cannot work together because they have the same folder. Folders can be the same, but files cannot. The difference between a folder and a file is that a file is placed inside a folder. For example, an image called image.jpeg will be placed inside a folder called images. While it’s fine to merge 2 folders called images, it’s impossible to merge 2 files called image.jpeg.
Note that this method doesn’t hold when you move folders into the minecraft.jar file, as the mods use altered versions of the minecraft files which allow Minecraft to work together with that mod.
Some mods require another mod to work. This will generally always be mentioned in the post you download the mod from and the mods you need are usually modloader and similar mods, which can often be downloaded in the same post. Those mods are qutie small and are installed in the same way as normal mods.
A final note, some mods can work together despite using the same files. Some files are merely used to indicate what ID number a block has or which texture to use on a mob. These files can be edited to allow both mods to access the same files, or in the case of textures, you will have to choose which texture you like best and use that.