FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

So I broke down and bought Minecraft, just to see what it's like, and well since I wanted ideas on how to improve the Immersive Sounds mod, the first thing I went to do was d/l Matmos sound mod for Minecraft. But it requires you to go through adfly, and then after watching the ads with all the bogus links to malware downloads, then it requires you to d/l and install iLivid which has all kinds of warnings of it being malware. WT? I can't even imagine someone doing that with a Minetest Mod. I can say I'm not overly impressed with Minecraft and its community based on my first impressions with it.

Ilivid is just an ad. You don't need it. But yes. The minecraft community has become about money, not creating a better game.

InfinityProject wrote:Ilivid is just an ad. You don't need it. But yes. The minecraft community has become about money, not creating a better game.

Ah, the secret is whatever you do on adfly do not click on any of the bazillion download links you see, click on "Skip ad". This is still BS.

It is. All it is is a stupid middleman to take you to a download link, just to get money.

Neuromancer wrote:So I broke down and bought Minecraft, just to see what it's like, and well since I wanted ideas on how to improve the Immersive Sounds mod, the first thing I went to do was d/l Matmos sound mod for Minecraft. But it requires you to go through adfly, and then after watching the ads with all the bogus links to malware downloads, then it requires you to d/l and install iLivid which has all kinds of warnings of it being malware. WT? I can't even imagine someone doing that with a Minetest Mod. I can say I'm not overly impressed with Minecraft and its community based on my first impressions with it.

They are thieving assholes. Who want money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblockplus
8D

Actually, I don't even understand why do most modders have adfly links. Lots of people use adblock -- and adfly gives ridiculously low amounts of money anyway by putting people at risk.

Yeah. Minecraft is a lot about money. Stick to minetest in my opinion. It is very easily modded, easy to make mods, completely free, runs faster than minecraft, and is limitless.

Calinou wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblockplus
8D

Actually, I don't even understand why do most modders have adfly links. Lots of people use adblock -- and adfly gives ridiculously low amounts of money anyway by putting people at risk.

+1 for the adblock plus. My webpages are loading so much faster now.

I think they get like $4 for exposing 1000 people to malware like livid and the like. I'm just glad no one does that here.

Neuromancer wrote:

Calinou wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblockplus
8D

Actually, I don't even understand why do most modders have adfly links. Lots of people use adblock -- and adfly gives ridiculously low amounts of money anyway by putting people at risk.

+1 for the adblock plus. My webpages are loading so much faster now.

I think they get like $4 for exposing 1000 people to malware like livid and the like. I'm just glad no one does that here.

Exactly.

Neuromancer wrote:So I broke down and bought Minecraft, just to see what it's like, and well since I wanted ideas on how to improve the Immersive Sounds mod, the first thing I went to do was d/l Matmos sound mod for Minecraft. But it requires you to go through adfly, and then after watching the ads with all the bogus links to malware downloads, then it requires you to d/l and install iLivid which has all kinds of warnings of it being malware. WT? I can't even imagine someone doing that with a Minetest Mod. I can say I'm not overly impressed with Minecraft and its community based on my first impressions with it.

for what i can see in the main page, is no needed of buying the game if you want to try it, there's a demo version (not the classic) limted to a five days or something...

how do I get rid of iLivid and download my mod?

kittyfaith3 wrote:how do I get rid of iLivid and download my mod?

This is how I've done it (as a noob) several times with likewise problems:

1. I look for 'how to remove', in this case iLivid) on the internet. Most of the times there are sites that show you some standard, usefull advice and examples to start with. In this case I found this:

Do only step 1 and 2!
http://forums.anvisoft.com/viewtopic-57-4661-0.html

I skip step 3-5 (don't want to download, those removal sites 'handy' tools, but that's my thing)

For step 3, cleaning my registers I download ccleaner from:
https://ninite.com/
Though you can also find a direct link:
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
or just find another registry cleaner.

I use standard settings for the cleaner (cause lack of expertise, I don't want to damage (too much)). Remember you migth not want to remove some cookies, when playing online games which 'save' info on your progress.

For step 4 you can use your (and/or) Windows standard anti-virus software.

Step 5 is just a general extra. I for example use Firefox Addblock plus.

* You could also try to do steps 1-4 starting in the Windows safe mode (you might though need an internet connection).

** If anyone knows a better way or sees errors here above, please improve/correct


Idk how to download minecraft mods, since I don't use Minecraft. For most minetest mods, you can follow the download link (on GitHub press the 'Download Zip button'). Then unzip the mods and modpacks in your minetest/mods folder. If you download a game, unzip it in the minetest/games folder.

Topywo wrote:Idk how to download minecraft mods, since I don't use Minecraft. For most minetest mods, you can follow the download link (on GitHub press the 'Download Zip button'). Then unzip the mods and modpacks in your minetest/mods folder. If you download a game, unzip it in the minetest/games folder.

That's pretty much how it works for Minecraft these days. You just download a jar file and dump it into the mods folder. The big difference being the annoyance of adfly. Adfly is a redirect service that earns the linker some small revenue. It's spread like cancer throughout the Minecraft modding community to the point that I think every mod I assembled for a modpack a couple of days ago had an adfly link. The more greedy ones actually breakup their mod into separate bits in order to max out the number of adfly clicks. I've heard some modders actually daisy-chained the adfly links so you'd have to go through several adfly pages before getting to your download link. But I've never experienced that personally. Really it's gotten to the point where some modders are using patreon and are holding back new features in their mods until they reach certain monetary thresholds.

That and their demands that users ask permission before they can assemble a modpack and distribute it have led to by far the worst modding community I've ever seen. Modding to me has always been a fun little side hobby as a way to add content to a game that yourself and maybe others can enjoy. I've never considered earning money from modifying a game. But these greedy little creatures think they can earn a living from their mostly broken and buggy mods. I find it disgusting.

I don't understand some of you seem to consider the act of wanting to make a profit off of mod development "disgusting".
The only thing wrong with it is how the Minecraft mod developers go about it. They willingly expose the users to proprietary malware/adware and give them proprietary mods.

jadedtest wrote:I don't understand some of you seem to consider the act of wanting to make a profit off of mod development "disgusting".

Really it's just a bit of culture clash. Essentially the same as the open source crowd vs proprietary software. Instead of the greed and underhanded practices we get from faceless corporations. We're seeing it on a much more personal level with Minecraft modders.

The only thing wrong with it is how the Minecraft mod developers go about it. They willingly expose the users to proprietary malware/adware and give them proprietary mods.

It seems like you're trying to downplay the whole malware thing. Ideally anyone that knowingly links users to such software would be banned. I'd certainly take such active steps to protect my users on a forum.

There's a spyware/malware tool that's completely free and trustworthy called Spybot Search and Destroy.

I've been using it since about 1998 and it's still my favourite. Read the attached PDF for install instructions, download link and other information. It's part of a tutorial I wrote on desktop help.

Whoopsie. PDF's not allowed. OK - here's the lot in text:

Spy Ware

This is the other biggest problem that Windows has. Spy Ware is software that's designed to run in the
background of your Windows and collect marketing information from you, which it sends back to it's maker. On
the surface that seems innocent enough, and it mostly is. Except that you end up with so many spywares
running that your computer becomes crippled. They're not viruses so your antivirus program won't touch them.
And the people that make these spywares really don't care if your computer gets slow and buggy just so long
as they get information.

This information is worth so much money to them that they write very sophisticated programs that hide from
msconfig and are very difficult to remove, you need special software to hunt them and remove them. Popular
antivirus programs like Nortons and McAfee now come with what they tell you is spyware removal, but that
marketing information from that many millions of computers really is worth an incredible amount of money, so
they still leave the spywares of the large corporations that financially sponsor them. These large corporations
are responsible for most of the spyware, all of them. Canon, Brother, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Sony Corp,
Nokia, iPhone, Toshiba, Asus, every single one you can imagine. They all do it. There are no exceptions.
So you need a spyware removal tool that you can trust. There's only one that I trust, and it's free. It's called
Spybot Search and Destroy and I've been using it since about 1997. You can get it from
http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors16/

This is for the older 1.62 version but it still does the same job as the newer one. The difference is that the
graphics aren't as fancy so the program runs quicker and you have the option of not installing a couple of
components. There's a couple of components that come with SpybotSD that you don't want. They are called
“SD Helper” and “Tea Timer”, they run in the background all the time checking every file and web page for
spyware and this slows your computer down.

So when you install SpybotSD you want to choose the Custom Install option and untick those two
components. You will also need to be connected to the internet when you install it because it won't run until it
has done it's first update. The installer program will end by asking if you want to run SpybotSD now, tick NO
because you need to run it as Administrator.

Do a right click on the SpybotSD icon that's been put on the desktop and in the little pop up menu choose “Run
as Administrator” so that SpybotSD has permission to remove spyware.
The first time you run SpybotSD it'll give you a “wizard” with questions to go through.
Yes, you want to create a back up of system registry. It always pays to be careful and spybotsd can use that
backup to undo any changes it's made if necessary.

Yes, you want to check for updates.
Yes, you want to “Immunise” the system. This rewrites the configuration files for your web browsers such as
Internet Explorer and Firefox to prevent them from automatically installing a lot of these spywares. Very nice.
Once you've been through that and the main program window is up you'll notice a menu of buttons down the
left hand side including Update and Immunise, but you want the one at the top, when that's open you'll notice a
button in the right hand panel that says “Scan”, click that. It'll take about 20 or 25 minutes to scan the whole
system, when it's finished scanning a new button will appear at the top that says “Fix”. Click it to remove
spyware.

It's not uncommon to have several hundred spywares running in the background on an average home user's
computer. Some are so cleverly written that they can't be removed whilst Windows is running, if this is the case
SpybotSD will pop up a message telling you about it and will offer to start itself before Windows has fully
restarted. Do This. Click yes and restart the computer. SpybotSD will start up before the Windows desktop
appears, and the desktop won't appear until SpybotSD has finished. You have to do the whole 25 minute scan
again but it really is the only way some of the spywares can be removed.

You should now notice a massive difference in speed of the computer and the internet.

Bugger it. Might as well post the first half of that tutorial.

Mods - please feel free to use any or all of my posts as you see fit, wiki maybe, might help poor bastards running Windows.

Background Programs

This is the most common problem with Windows, programs running in the background. Some programs like
your antivirus software have to run constantly in the background so that they can check every file as it's
opened and make sure you're not about to trigger a virus. Some programs will set themselves up to be running
in the background so that when you click the icon to start the program it appears to start quickly. But most just
start in the background so that it puts their logo in the taskbar next to your clock.

All these programs, and there are usually dozens of them, are using the computer's main processor and RAM
to run so the more you have running the slower your computer gets. Many of these programs are poorly
written and quite often interfere with each other and with the Windows system as well, this can make Windows
start to behave very strangely, maybe Office won't open, maybe the internet won't work any more, all sorts of
problems.

The fix is simple, we stop those programs from starting up when Windows first starts. We don't need to remove
any programs, just stop them from starting up automatically, you'll still be able to start any of them by double
clicking on their icons. Windows has a built in program for doing this, it's called MSCONFIG. Just type
msconfig into the program search bar and click on it to start it.

When msconfig opens you'll see a few little tabs across the top of the window, click on the one that says
“Services”. On this page click on the little tick box at the bottom that says “Hide All Microsoft” and a lot of
programs suddenly disappear from the list. That means anything crucial to the Windows system itself has now
been hidden, therefore anything remaining in the list is not necessary for Windows to run. It's all just extra
bullshit running in the background and slowing you down. Technically, once “Hide All Microsoft” is ticked, you
can go down that list of programs and untick all of them.

Then click on the tab at the top of the page labelled “Start Up” and untick all of the programs in that list too.
Windows 8 has done a new thing, it gives you a separate program for the “Start Up” programs list so you'll
need to apply the changes in msconfig first and then go to “Start Up Programs”. Any earlier version of
Windows you can do the whole lot in one go.

There are some exceptions you will want to leave in there, the antivirus and security software for one. Some
people also run programs that require a database running as a service, if so ask them what that program is
and leave it running too. It doesn't matter if you accidentally remove too much, you can always go back into
msconfig and just tick the appropriate box again.

Once you're done click “Apply” down in the bottom right corner and then close the program, it'll ask you if you
want to restart the computer. Yes, you do. When Windows starts back up it'll be like a different computer, some
people have told me that their computer now runs faster than it did the day they brought it home from the
shop.

On some computers you'll find that the user doesn't have an administrative login. This means that when you
click the “Apply” button in msconfig a box will pop up telling you that you don't have permission to make these
changes. Don't worry, no Windows has any real security. Just click OK on that box then click “Apply” in
msconfig again. That “permission denied” message will only pop up 2 or 3 times then Windows will accept your
changes and offer to restart.

If you do this to a computer in a large company network you'll very quickly get a phone call from the IT desk
asking how you did that, don't tell them. If they're getting paid to do this professionally then they should know
better.

Cheers,

Andrew.