Minecraft on M1

[iandk]

Hey there!

Is anyone playing Minecraft on their M1 Mac?
I have a Mac mini M1 with 16GB RAM and two 4K screens connected.

But Minecraft is running pretty bad, even tho I set the resolution to 1920x1080 in game.
There's lots of stutter and micro lags.

 

[Ethosik]

Hey there!

Is anyone playing Minecraft on their M1 Mac?
I have a Mac mini M1 with 16GB RAM and two 4K screens connected.

But Minecraft is running pretty bad, even tho I set the resolution to 1920x1080 in game.
There's lots of stutter and micro lags.

Minecraft in general has been horrible. My $4,500 i9 Vega 48 iMac struggled with it and my GTX 1080/5700XT on my windows computer has problems too. This is why I prefer the Windows 10 version - buttery smooth even on my old Surface Pro 2.

Try getting OptiFine and see if that helps. I always need it even on powerful computers if I’m using the Java version.

 

[marzer]

Minecraft in general has been horrible. My $4,500 i9 Vega 48 iMac struggled with it and my GTX 1080/5700XT on my windows computer has problems too. This is why I prefer the Windows 10 version - buttery smooth even on my old Surface Pro 2.

Try getting OptiFine and see if that helps. I always need it even on powerful computers if I’m using the Java version.

Have you tried Optifine on Big Sur? Since upgrading to BS, Optifine has no affect on my Minecraft installation. Even after a clean wipe and install. It was running fine on Mojave and Catalina. Can't find anyone discussing this anywhere and I've been experiencing it for months now. Hard to believe I'm the only one trying to run Optifine under macOS 11! 😛

 

[Gnattu]

The in-game resolution only affects the fullscreen resolution when you set "FullScreen: On" in the Video Settings, the macOS native full-screen is still considered as window mode by the game.

 

[Coheebuzz]

Could be affected by the same system bug that was introduced in 11.2 and has been causing stuttering in games such as WoW and FF when v-sync is turned off, try enabling it and see if it makes any difference.

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

I don’t play Minecraft on my M1 Mac but it would be good. The CPU Cooler may kick in here and there but it would be like 10 decibels at most. It probably will lag a tiny bit when you get into big chunks of your Minecraft World but overall, Minecraft on a M1 Mac would be perfect. But I would still recommend a Gaming PC over a M1 Mac. CPU-3950x

 

[ArPe]

I thought everyone abandoned that and started playing Roboblocks.

 

[BlairMALL]

I currently play Minecraft (12.2.2) on my Mac mini M1. It plays fine, but I do notice a little more sluggishness when I attempt to use new versions (17... I think). I am curious as to whether or not an M1 compatible version of Java and/or Minecraft is even being considered. Any thoughts?

 

[jdb8167]

I currently play Minecraft (12.2.2) on my Mac mini M1. It plays fine, but I do notice a little more sluggishness when I attempt to use new versions (17... I think). I am curious as to whether or not an M1 compatible version of Java and/or Minecraft is even being considered. Any thoughts?

I know nothing about Minecraft but M1 native Java has been out for months. You can get it from brew.sh or download it from here for example.

 

[BlairMALL]

I know nothing about Minecraft but M1 native Java has been out for months. You can get it from brew.sh or download it from here for example.

Java may be native, but I don't think Minecraft currently is. I am just wondering if anyone knew whether or not Minecraft was developing a native app or not. Judging by the massive response this post is getting, I don't suppose this is an easy thing to discover. Here's hoping...

 

[BlairMALL]

Minecraft in general has been horrible. My $4,500 i9 Vega 48 iMac struggled with it and my GTX 1080/5700XT on my windows computer has problems too. This is why I prefer the Windows 10 version - buttery smooth even on my old Surface Pro 2.

Try getting OptiFine and see if that helps. I always need it even on powerful computers if I’m using the Java version.

I have never heard of OptiFine. I will investigate. Thanks, xWhiplash!

 

[BlairMALL]

Have you tried Optifine on Big Sur? Since upgrading to BS, Optifine has no affect on my Minecraft installation. Even after a clean wipe and install. It was running fine on Mojave and Catalina. Can't find anyone discussing this anywhere and I've been experiencing it for months now. Hard to believe I'm the only one trying to run Optifine under macOS 11! 😛

Great point, marzer! I am running BS, but I am just now looking into OptiFine. I hope it does work.

 

[BlairMALL]

I don’t play Minecraft on my M1 Mac but it would be good. The CPU Cooler may kick in here and there but it would be like 10 decibels at most. It probably will lag a tiny bit when you get into big chunks of your Minecraft World but overall, Minecraft on a M1 Mac would be perfect. But I would still recommend a Gaming PC over a M1 Mac. CPU-3950x

Thanks, macsareveryinteresting! I play Minecraft a lot, and since I moved to the Mac mini M1, I have had no cooler kick in at all. And it plays very smoothly. However, I have have remained on MC 1.12.x because my previous Mac couldn't handle higher versions. After getting the M1, I tried the latest version and it was a little slower (assuming because of Rosetta 2). Anyway, I am back to 1.12.x and waiting for an M1 native version of Minecraft...

Also, I agree about the gaming PC, but I just don't want to do it. I have owned Apples since 1985, and I just can't do it. Lame, I know.

 

[Krevnik]

Java may be native, but I don't think Minecraft currently is. I am just wondering if anyone knew whether or not Minecraft was developing a native app or not. Judging by the massive response this post is getting, I don't suppose this is an easy thing to discover. Here's hoping...

Java apps by their nature are not "native". They rely on the Java virtual machine to produce the final code that runs on the CPU. So if Minecraft is running under Rosetta, it's because they are relying on a copy of the OpenJDK that wasn't built for ARM64 yet. In terms of the fix, Minecraft is using a Microsoft build of the OpenJDK, so that would need to be updated to include an ARM64 build. That's pretty much it.

Edit: Disappointingly, the version of the JDK that 1.17.1 is using is from April 2021, which means whomever owns building this particular copy of the JDK is sitting on their thumbs a bit on ARM support.

The launcher and updater is native, but that's a smaller piece of code, and doesn't need to be super performant, so letting it be Rosetta for a bit isn't a huge issue IMO.

 

[BlairMALL]

Java apps by their nature are not "native". They rely on the Java virtual machine to produce the final code that runs on the CPU. So if Minecraft is running under Rosetta, it's because they are relying on a copy of the OpenJDK that wasn't built for ARM64 yet. In terms of the fix, Minecraft is using a Microsoft build of the OpenJDK, so that would need to be updated to include an ARM64 build. That's pretty much it.

Edit: Disappointingly, the version of the JDK that 1.17.1 is using is from April 2021, which means whomever owns building this particular copy of the JDK is sitting on their thumbs a bit on ARM support.

The launcher and updater is native, but that's a smaller piece of code, and doesn't need to be super performant, so letting it be Rosetta for a bit isn't a huge issue IMO.

Thanks, Krevnik! This is a very solid and thorough answer! I don't think it would be wise to expect a native version of OpenJDK will be in the works or developed in the near future, but still, good to know in order to manage expectations.

 

[Krevnik]

OpenJDK supports AArch64 on Linux, so it should be possible to bring it to the M1. But yeah, I guess if there's no official support, I shouldn't be too surprised that Mojang/Microsoft's internal builds of it don't support it either.

 

[jdb8167]

OpenJDK supports AArch64 on Linux, so it should be possible to bring it to the M1. But yeah, I guess if there's no official support, I shouldn't be too surprised that Mojang/Microsoft's internal builds of it don't support it either.

OpenJDK is already M1 native. See my post above. Microsoft was instrumental in getting it released. So Microsoft didn’t update Minecraft to use their own technology.

 

[iModFrenzy]

I just wish we could play the bedrock version, but they blocked it from running on Mac. So everything is cross platform but Mac, thanks Microsoft.

 

[JMacHack]

Great point, marzer! I am running BS, but I am just now looking into OptiFine. I hope it does work.

Optifine is goddamn amazing, and has been since Notch was hamfisting code.

Thanks, macsareveryinteresting! I play Minecraft a lot, and since I moved to the Mac mini M1, I have had no cooler kick in at all. And it plays very smoothly. However, I have have remained on MC 1.12.x because my previous Mac couldn't handle higher versions. After getting the M1, I tried the latest version and it was a little slower (assuming because of Rosetta 2). Anyway, I am back to 1.12.x and waiting for an M1 native version of Minecraft...

Also, I agree about the gaming PC, but I just don't want to do it. I have owned Apples since 1985, and I just can't do it. Lame, I know.

1.12.x is great because of all the mods. Vanilla just doesn’t do it for me anymore, even with the latest updates.

 

[BlairMALL]

Optifine is goddamn amazing, and has been since Notch was hamfisting code.



1.12.x is great because of all the mods. Vanilla just doesn’t do it for me anymore, even with the latest updates.

WooHoo! Glad to have another fan of 1.12.x. I thought I was alone in not wanting to upgrade. Thanks, JMacHack!

 

[Krevnik]

OpenJDK is already M1 native. See my post above. Microsoft was instrumental in getting it released. So Microsoft didn’t update Minecraft to use their own technology.

What is annoying (and perplexing) here is that Microsoft doesn’t offer any early access or supported builds for M1 from Microsoft’s own download pages for their flavor of OpenJDK: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/java/openjdk/download

As Minecraft now sits on top of the Microsoft Build OpenJDK, would you expect Mojang to ship on a build that Microsoft doesn’t even offer up as early access at this point in time, due in part because the last EA build for M1 was from Nov of last year? I don’t know how many developers will switch JDK distros just to get M1 support.

 

[jdb8167]

What is annoying (and perplexing) here is that Microsoft doesn’t offer any early access or supported builds for M1 from Microsoft’s own download pages for their flavor of OpenJDK: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/java/openjdk/download

As Minecraft now sits on top of the Microsoft Build OpenJDK, would you expect Mojang to ship on a build that Microsoft doesn’t even offer up as early access at this point in time, due in part because the last EA build for M1 was from Nov of last year? I don’t know how many developers will switch JDK distros just to get M1 support.

On this page Microsoft talks about their major contributions to the M1 port. But then their download link goes to the page you linked which has no support for the M1 on MacOS. I have no idea what drives Microsoft.

OpenJDK​

Microsoft is committed to working with industry partners on OpenJDK for the common good of the Java Ecosystem. Our default policy is to upstream all patches when they are accepted.

Microsoft is proud to have contributed the Windows on Arm port in 2020 as well as having made major contributions to the macOS M1 port.

 

[Krevnik]

On this page Microsoft talks about their major contributions to the M1 port. But then their download link goes to the page you linked which has no support for the M1 on MacOS. I have no idea what drives Microsoft.

Same as any other enormous company. Microsoft more than most has a habit on letting what they've been working on internally out into the spotlight, and tooting their own horn on things they wind up failing to back up with a budget.

On a related topic though, there's some interesting comparisons I've run between using an i7 Mini vs an M1 Mini as a Minecraft server, and it's... complicated. It looks like the M1 at least currently does have a bit higher overhead involved with virtualization using Apple's frameworks (either via Docker Desktop or Parallels) than the i7, but it's a flat overhead. So you can still push things further on the M1 before you run out of headroom. Interesting.

For example, using a view distance of 20 on a fairly fresh world, with Fabric as the server and using Lithium + Starlight for performance improvements... The i7 within docker or a VM was faster than the M1. But take it out of the VM and run it bare, and the M1 was hands down faster. Up the view distance to 24 to create more load, and the M1 starts pulling ahead, even in the VM.

 

[JMacHack]

WooHoo! Glad to have another fan of 1.12.x. I thought I was alone in not wanting to upgrade. Thanks, JMacHack!

I’m a fan because of Realistic Terrain Generation and Biomes O Plenty. Having the terrain gen be that much more pretty beats out vanilla any day. Plus with a shader pack I can take screenshots that are beyond gorgeous.