Ludovic Marie
5eb224a909
The whole of Horizon is in beta, so the channel that installs every build as soon as it is built is called Alpha; Stable keeps its name. The launcher's Settings, the update-channel command, the MCP tool, the release notes footer and the docs say Alpha. update_channel is saved as "alpha"; "nightly" and the old beta_builds switch still read as Alpha. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Horizon documentation
To play, use the launcher; the project site is playhorizon.dev. These pages are for developers.
Build and run
- Build from source: your own copy of the game, resource preparation,
cargo run. - Native client: options, controls, the dedicated server,
horizon-ctlscripting, packaging, architecture. - Host a server: install
horizon-server, prepare the game files, first run,server.toml, the commands, the web panel, backups, services and Docker; what works today and what doesn't yet. - Hosting a server: design:
horizon-server, the design and the plan: install,server.toml, the CLI, the web panel, backups, services, Docker, and the bot benchmark against vanilla. - Agent control: what AI agents can drive in the launcher and the game, and the design of the control socket,
horizon-ctland MCP. - Graphics: the Simple and Advanced graphics settings, the graphics benchmark and what it measured.
- Benchmark: Horizon against vanilla 26.3 and vanilla with performance mods, on the same machine, world, path and settings: what is measured, how it is kept fair, how to reproduce it.
- Shader packs: how the renderer draws a frame, the Horizon WGSL shader pack format (stages, uniforms,
pack.toml, hot reload), and the plan to translate OptiFine/Iris packs. - Extras: optional zoom, minimap, FPS and keystroke overlays and auto-reconnect, all off by default.
- Mods: Horizon's own mod system (Rust, sandboxed WebAssembly), how to make and install mods, and what carries over from Java mods.
- Modpacks: porting whole packs (ATM10 and smaller): import, inventory, carry-over, an agent per mod with a harness against the Java original, coverage, and how "10x" is measured.
- Launcher: installs, updates and starts builds; its CLI and MCP server; releasing it.
- Versioning: how releases are numbered from 0.2 (
v0.2.x,launcher@0.2.x), how installs from before 0.2 get there, and the steps for the day 0.2 ships. - Resource packs: everything a 26.3 resource pack can change, whether Horizon honours it, and the proof.
- Opt-in data collection: the consent, exactly what is sent, how it is stored and sent.
- Benchmark report format: the versioned JSON every benchmark writes (game, launcher,
tools/perf_bench.py), the local log and, with consent, the upload. - Menus: the title, world list, create world, multiplayer, options and pause screens share the launcher's design tokens and fonts (
crates/horizon-theme), drawn byui_themeover a live frozen backdrop (game/backdrop.rs, blurred and graded bypost.rs). Options → Interface → Menu style switches to vanilla's screens (Classic, kept inhorizon.txt;HORIZON_MENU_STYLE=horizon|classicoverrides it, and scripted runs default to Classic). Title (webm), worlds, options, pause.
Parity
- Rust rewrite status: completion criteria, how to reproduce the validation, and per-area scope.
- Parity workflow:
tools/parity.py, the gate, other machines, merging. - Area notes: block behaviours and ticking, section meshing.
- Version ports: how a new Minecraft release is detected, diffed against the pinned one and ported, and what stays manual.
- Decompilation and research lab and decompilation status: the local game inspection workspace the harnesses build on.
Architecture: world generation
- World generation: the pipeline from noise to features.
- Noise generation, compiled density functions, structure density, terrain filling.
- Biomes: lookup, temperatures.
- Surfaces: material surfaces, material conditions, rule libraries, vertical anchors, value providers.
- Carving, heightmaps, feature placement.
Architecture: world data and simulation
- World data: chunk storage, palettes, region files.
- Block-state codecs, scheduled ticks.
- Collision geometry: shapes, collision, movement and fluids.
- Face visibility: which model faces the mesher emits.
The earlier Java track (no longer developed)
- Java performance packs, with Vulkan on your Mac, collector comparisons, profiling, process memory and tick state. The Fabric server starter is retired: host a server with horizon-server.