Supporter Version FAQ

This page is more of a FAQ for those who want to know why I (Speiger) did the changes to Chunk Pregenerator.
Moving from a fully free mod to a partial free version of the mod.

Right out of the gate, if you hate it and/or don't want to use it that is fine.
I am not putting a gun to your head and say use it or I will do whatever.

Time to the list of the most questions I have read so far.

Why have you done that? All mods have to be free

Short Answer: Because I didn't want to give up the mod.
Long Answer: This is a death by 1000 cuts issue to me.

• By the Classification that the mod isn't essential and doesn't belong into modpacks,

• By the view that your work that ate thousands of hours is not more worth then a 5-10 minute copy of the idea,

• The expectation that the mod is updated on day 1 when the new game version comes out,

• That mods not seen by their developers and that said developers are seen to be replaceable,

• That I don't make this mod for me anymore, but to ensure the community has a high quality tool,

• That nobody would care if you ask for help, even directly.

• Even so I provide extreme good support.

• And finally after the barrel was overflowing, to show people what they lose if they don't appreciate something enough.

  Seriously I have been dominating the space mod in for years and nobody cared to support the project until I said the line is here, take it or leave it.
  And if mods have to be always free, then make your own version and maintain it for everyone else?

Isn't this against Minecraft's Eula1/Eula2/Illegal?

Short Answer: Illegal? No. It is 100% legal. About the Eula: Depending on how you interpret it... maybe? Most likely no...
Long Answer:

Spoiler

Honestly no. The Eula is full of holes and was never enforced to my knowledge (I could be wrong).
What most people say why it is not allowed by the Eula is this piece:

Any Mods that you create for the Minecraft: Java Edition from scratch belong to you (including pre-run Mods and in-memory Mods) and you can do whatever you want with them, as long as you don't sell them for money/try to make money from them and as long as you don’t distribute Modded Versions of Minecraft: Java Edition. Remember that a Mod means something that is your original work and that does not contain a substantial part of our code or content. You only own what you have created; you do not own our code or content.

So it states: We own the mods and we can do whatever we want as long as we don't make money of the mod or trying to sell it.
But ownership also includes the right to sell it.
So any mod that has a "Patreon reward" ingame is by that definition not allowed by the Eula.
Which a lot of mod devs argue: "The Eula allow cosmetic stuff except capes to be sold"

Regarding that argument: All features I have put behind a paywall so far are graphical in nature.
They visualize actions you can do within the game already present in the game.
Said visualization just makes them easier to access.
That makes the Cosmetic in their nature to begin with.
What can be said is that the "cosmetic nature" is getting close the line, but I am pretty sure it does not step over it.
Since the core functionality is still present.

Since the Eula has a few holes I doubt breaking it is even possible...
And besides I wouldn't want it enforced for this gem either:

If we want we can terminate this Agreement if you breach any of the terms or violate any of our policies. You can terminate it too, at any time; all you have to do is uninstall the Game from your device and the Agreement will be terminated. If the Agreement is terminated, you will no longer have any of the rights to the Game given in this licence. You do still have the right to things you have created yourself with the game of course.

This effectively says: Once you uninstall the game for whatever reason you lose the right to it.
Uninstalling could also mean reinstalling your PC... If all Instances are lost.

So yeah. I doubt the Eula is broken, to break something you need to enforce it to begin with.

Why not move open source?

Answer: There is a couple reasons.

• Ownership, Its my work, I own it.
• Thievery, I have been burned multiple times where projects/ideas were stolen... Both open and closed source. Also that wouldn't solve the issue.
  So yeah I am not open sourcing a project I really care about.
• No support: There are a lot of other Open Source Pregenerators out there (Chunky, Fabric Chunk Pregenerator). And the help people have gotten is rather limiting compare to what people want...
  So yeah no thank you.

Why not take sponsors on?

Answer: I did receive already a few sponsorship offers, but they were mostly: Have a free server and maybe some money if someone signs up with your mod.
And while that sounds great, these share deals are honestly for modpacks not mods.
The data that I have seen throughout asking around showed me that you get pennies from that.

Why did you remove previous versions of the mod?

Answer: Would you support the mod if it was 100% free and it had a "Here you can support me" advertisement on its release page and in the game?
Be honest, If that would be the case the mod wouldn't have changed.

Why should I use your mod instead of insert pregen mod x here?

Answer: Chunk Pregenerator has still a lot of features that others do not have.

Feature List

Gen Commands:

• Checking if Chunks were already generated and not redoing work.
• Flexible modes of what the pregeneration should do. (Only Terrain, Only Postgen, a world without features or Retrogen)
• Retrogen
• Normal Radius, Expansion (min/max radius), WorldBorder Radius
• Generation Shapes.
• Tasks can be stopped/paused at any time and when continued they remember what they did.

Generation:

• Up to 2x Worldgen Speed
• Playable while it is running
• Multithreaded worldgen
• Generating multiple worlds at the same time.
• A Task Queue
• Auto Restarter if the game crashes for some reason.

Information:

• A Hud / Detailed info on what happens during the pregeneration.
• Documentation that shows you exactly what the mod does and command examples.
• Warnings if your server is missconfigured that it will harm gameplay.

Deletion:

• Chunk pregen can delete parts of the world extremely fast without having to stop the game or use external tools.
• Flexible deletion modes: Radius, Expansion (min/max radius)
• Trimming of a world that isn't within a radius.
• Cleanup Trimming, which deletes only chunks that weren't occupied by a desired amount of time by players.
• Tasks can be stopped/paused at any time and when continued they remember what they did.

Misc:

• Benchmarking
• Dimension control. (it can load/unload dimensions)
• Dimension Specific seeds (1.19 or newer)

Fixes:

• Chunk Pregen fixes memory leaks within minecraft itself.
• Storage protection: Minecraft isn't nice to HDD/SDDs life cycle when generating a lot.

and a few more things.

Will there be no more free features in the future?

Answer: The free version will get new features, but it will be a case by case basis if they will be free or not.
Rule of thumb: If it is a minor feature then it will be free and if it is a major then it depends.

What will happen if you finally leave?

Answer: The idea was that I would remove the paywall and make free releases, without open sourcing, and then leave.
But the witch hunt that was done shortly after people found out made me doubt if I should do that.
Honestly time will tell.