The Weird History of Minecraft Datapacks

This video is about the history of #Minecraft #datapacks. I didn't see any video that talked about the history of the amazing community based around Minecraft #commands and datapacks. This is a brief history, but perhaps in the future I could make an even longer, more extensive overview. But I think it's important that our community remembers the great contributions of @SethBling, @TheRedEngineer, @Awhikax, @kanokarob, and so many others. If there are interesting story arcs I missed (and I'm sure there are) please let me know in the comments!
Just to be clear, I don't have a problem with all "Minecraft, but" style videos or Manhunt videos. The only thing I have a problem with is "Minecraft, but acacia wood fence gates drop OP loot!" As long as there's a bit of effort put into the datapacks, those styles of videos are actually entertaining, in my opinion.
Also, I have no beef with dream, whatsoever. I really enjoy his content and admire his speedrunning abilities.
Music used was mostly songs within the game. But I also used this one:
Monkeys Spinning Monkeys by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@DerpinMegaJurk]

Datapack creator here! This is... impressively accurate, right down to catching CreeperMagnet complaining about OP loot. Very interesting video! An interesting story arc that was missed here is that Hashs, one of the more well-known members of the community, was able to gain attention from PMC side moderators using a forum post on the website, and, after a bit of time, was recruited to the site moderation team to help clean up the datapacks category. While the damage was, for the most part, already done, we have another person in a place where they can make a real difference towards making the environment for datapacks much nicer again.

[@Amrith369]

Thanks for covering this issue. I’ve been working in commands/datapacks since 2015, and it’s interesting to see the whole history compiled so cleanly.

[@Whimzee]

Thanks! I learned a lot while researching this, and really enjoyed watching the old SethBling videos.

[@dukeofshades]

Oh hey it’s the guy who made the shield hero pack! Love both you and whimzee’s stuff!

[@theexiiedfeiiow4748]

10:57 In case you didn't know, CreeperMagnet_ is actually the lead developer of The Creeper's Code. Another popular and massive content-packed datapack which existed quite some time ago. And yes, as a self-proclaimed skilled datapack creator, I have to agree that this trend is totally tarnishing our community's brand. Things were never the same and all I could feel is shame. Glad you decided to make a video like this in the first place. I really appreciate it. Gonna have to hit that red "subscribe" button for that. Heard that you're also the creator of some fairly awesome hi-effort datapacks so that boosts my tendency to do so.

[@kanokarob]

A great and sufficiently thorough history of data packs and how far they've come, with great sources detailing where they are now. I hope more people come to realize that data packs are not all small tweaks or amazing landscape generators, as important and prevalent in the community as those styles of packs are, and discover the expanse of gameplay that can be found in Florcraft, New in Town and more. One thing I will say is that many larger creators that utilize data packs these days have tried expanding beyond the resource un-intensive clickbaity concepts such as X Drops OP Loot and such. Channels like xNestorio and Craftee use much more impressive data packs developed by their teams which, while do have a simple concept as any successful data pack does, still deliver a lot of content in a professional package, if not for public distribution. These channels are helping expand the definition, push the boundaries, and increase the popularity of data packs for those developers that work for them and those that do not, who have yet to be as discovered as myself or others.

[@Dominexis]

It has been such a fascinating history to watch unfold, thanks for covering it! It saddens me to know that data packs can do such ludicrously powerful things and people barely scratch the surface of what is possible. Hopefully us data pack veterans can train the next generation right so that they can harness the power beyond even what we can dream of.

[@dukeofshades]

Thanks for talking about this, creative datapacks are one of my favorite things about the game, but the other end of the datapack spectrum is pretty low end.

[@ThumbKnuckle]

Before armor stands, command blocks couldn't do all that much, so adventure maps relied more on mobs and resource packs before 1.8. 1.9 added chain and repeating command blocks which are what were probably the biggest addition to the command scene before datapacks, though right now I actually really prefer mod development.

[@DuskbeakMUSIC]

Ive seen some youtubers make videos with datapacks from planetminecraft and the youtuber doesnt even give credit and says they made the pack. I also checked the release dates of both the video and the datapacks upload to planetminecraft and played with the datapack and its exactly the same datapack in the video.

[@Whimzee]

Yeah that's happened to me several times now where huge KZbinrs have taken my Datapacks and not given me any credit whatsoever. It's demoralizing, but at the same time, I'm happy that I get to show my work to more people, even if hardly anyone knows its me who made it.

[@icy73]

It's nice to see datapack history layed out like this, bit of a nostalgia trip for me. I'm biased of course but I'm mildly disappointed you didn't mention Mechanization, especially since it's the only datapack (I know of) which has been in continuous development for over 5 years. You can see it's transformation from command blocks to function scripts (1.12 was weird- and speaking of which you completely this step out of the video) to very early datapacks all the up to today.

[@gp2k918]

Nice video keep up try to get 1k ( thx for reading my question )

[@Gunamantha_]

Ayo you still remember me that make the "apotheosis sword of all dimension" that sword with a longest name and greatest name in it yeah it has power you wanna know the power of this sword, here it is "apotheosis sword of all dimension" Lore : this sword possess the power of all gods -has 4 different attack : 1. Widest sword aura of destruction, when attack will summon "widest sword aura of destruction" that deal 340 duodecillion damage or /fill ~15 ~1 ~15 ~-15 ~-1 ~-15 air 0 destroy This can cut mountain easily 2. Devoured by void / basic attack, when attack the enemy will die instantly and go to the void. 3. Sword spin, when the sword drop it will summon 1 giant sword that spin and it will track enemy and kill them while the sword spinning for 25-30 second 4. ultimate lightning strike, when attack summon 20 lined up lightning that can break everything and can kill everything 7 unique ability : 1. Summon void blackhole, summon void blackhole 20 block above you that will suck nearby mob and kill them in the center of the black hole (The black hole has explosive ring like the ring of saturn but explosive) 2. Time stop, for 20 second 3. Planet destruction, create mini planet that will explode 4 . Summon 10 "shadow of the cosmos", fight for you and explode every 1,5/2 second 5 . Idk 6 . Dimensional teleportation, can teleport you to = the end, nether, and overworld 7. Supernova Star, Summon dwarf star that explode like Supernova when explode and lava is everywhere V7 ability : 1. Extinction of the planet, kill everything nearby player 2. Destruction of universe, when use it will teleport you 40 block upward and explode every enemy nearby player 3. Strike of annihilation, enemy nearby you will have levitation 5 15 true, when in the air they will struck by lightning bolts and fall to their demise 4. bane of the god, make enemy nearby you will have poison 10 255 true, wither 10 255 true, nausea 10 1 true, weakness 10 255 true, slowness 10 255 true, and any bad effect Passive ability : 1. Projectile devourer : Snowball, trident, arrow, wither skull/dangerous skull, llama spit, shulker bullet, fireball/small fireball/dragon fireball. ←(this projectile can't hit you when using the sword) 2. Immortal V7 passive ability : 1. Doomsday trident, summon big trident that facing upward that kill everything nearby Lightning of destruction, summon lightning that kill 2 mob nearby player every 2 second, that deal 340 duodecillion damage Damage : 1. 340 duodecillion.

[@Gunamantha_]

Hope it was worth it to read the whole thing

[@Whimzee]

This sounds incredible! I'd love to see it, did you make a datapack for it?

[@Whimzee]

@@Gunamantha_ It was very worth it, it's full of great ideas and was a fun read!

[@Awhikax]

Nice video. You already know my opinion on all this thanks to Kanokarob's video so I don't have much to add. 🙃

[@Whimzee]

Thank you, Awhikax! It's very cool to see you here :)

[@Gunamantha_]

I makes some changes in my sword and it almost done "apotheosis sword of the creator" Lore : this sword possess the power of all gods and all dimensions -has 4 different attack : 1. Widest sword aura of destruction, when attack will summon "widest sword aura of destruction" that deal 340 duodecillion damage And also can cut mountain like a paper 2. Devoured by void / basic attack, when attack the enemy will die instantly and go to the void. 3. Sword spin, when the sword drop it will summon 1 giant sword that spin and it will track enemy and kill them while the sword spinning for 25-30 second 4. ultimate lightning strike, when attack summon 20 lined up lightning that can break everything and can kill everything 6 ability : 1. Summon void blackhole 2. Time stop, 20 second 3. Planet destruction, create mini planet that will explode 4 . Summon 10 "shadow of the cosmos", fight for you and explode every 1 second 5. Dimensional teleportation, can teleport you to = the end, nether, and overworld 6. Supernova Star, Summon dwarf star that explode like supernova (the dwarf star bit bigger that planet destruction) v7 ability : 1. Extinction of the planet, kill every enemy nearby you 2. Destruction of universe, player will tp to 40 block in the sky and all enemy nearby player will explode 3. Strike of annihilation, make enemy float in the sky and striked by lightning afthe that they will fall to their demise 4. bane of the god, give all enemy nearby player a bad effect Passive ability : 1. Projectile devourer : Snowball, trident, arrow, wither skull/dangerous skull, llama spit, shulker bullet, fireball/small fireball/dragon fireball. ←(this projectile can't hit you when using the sword) 2. Immortal 3. summon lightning destruction, cast 2 lightning at enemy 4. summon "doomsday void ​dragon head", summon 2 "doomsday void dragon head" that track enemy lifetime : 6 second summon : every 8 second damage : 340 duodecillion Damage : 1. 340 duodecillion

[@Whimzee]

It's coming along very nicely! I like the changes. What's the difference between the regular abilities and the v7 abilities?

[@Gunamantha_]

@@Whimzee 5 changes : I get rid of doomsday trident because it's lagging the game and the chunk won't load and i change it to "doomsday void dragon head" because it's more powerful and not laggie It has 6 ability instead 7 because idk what to do the V7 ability it just an upcoming ability so it has 10 ability The changed is the name of the sword from Apotheosis sword of universe the v6 To Apotheosis sword of all dimension v7 To Apotheosis sword of the creator (the last name) And when it done the sword name gonna be "Perfected apotheosis sword of the creator" Devoured by void / basic attack I change the area attack from 5 to 25 block in radius and it's no longer have particle because it's to laggie

[@Whimzee]

@@Gunamantha_ Wow, it sounds like it's really coming together nicely! You should definitely try to find a way to post it to planet minecraft or at least find a way to save it / back it up. I think future you would be happy to have it, especially given how much hard work you put into it. Did you make any custom textures for it? Or is it exclusively a datapack? Either way, great work!

[@Totally_Bonkers]

my first exposure to datapacks was the gimmicky ones. I haven't even begun to realize their full potential, and it makes me feel sad

[@GearsDatapacks]

As a datapack creator, thank you so much for this video. Datapacks are such a cool and interesting part of the game that not enough people know about. I haven't been in the datapack community for very long (since COVID), so I'm happy to see the history before I joined. And, after watching SethBling's videos, it's amazing what he managed to do and they have inspired me to make more complex datapacks.

[@SuperTitanA]

In my opinion i think Minecraft datapacks future is to be compined with mods. And btw i think your content is just perfect you have your work you focus on it but at the same time in your free time you make datapacks for fun and that's what i really need a simple content for fun not for living. And one more thing do you by any chance will try to make a mod for a change

[@Whimzee]

Thank you! And I might explore making a mod in the future. There's just a lot more set up involved with it and development time would take even longer. Although, I do Java development for a living, so maybe I'll be able to do it quicker than I think I can. If I ever come up with an idea that I'm really excited about and can't accomplish using datapacks alone, I'd explore mod development.

[@rx97_mc]

Good overview, being active in the MinecraftCommands community, I've seen really quality things about datapacks which makes me love them. I was hoping to see some references for VanillaTweaks and Gamemode 4 since those were big influences in commands early on.

[@sheepcommander_]

Yooooo this showed up on the MCDP discord lmao this is great

[@Whimzee]

Thank you! What's the MCDP discord?

[@clancysleepovergetyourblankies]

@Whimzee Minecraft Datapacks

[@sheepcommander_]

@@Whimzee Oh the link to it got auto-deleted by youtube

[@sheepcommander_]

@@Whimzee It got posted on the MineCraft Datapacks discord server "LMAO CREEPER SHOWS UP" and I watched the vid mainly for that, 10:58 lol

[@sheepcommander_]

AHAHAA THE 14:41 PART IS SO FUCKING FUNNY AS AN AMERICAN

[@minlego.]

back in 2017-2018 i really was into no-mod / one command thing but then there were datapack and i just stopped, then today i'm starting to look at how i can use them

[@saveriogwyn5112]

Yoo why was Kevin's one chunk series in the list of data pack trash that's a true banger

[@Dejwiu]

IMO even worse than the still present flood of "but op" data packs is the fact you either have to get lucky or make "but op" data pack to thrive on PMC. Man, gotta love seeing your data pack that you've spent 13 months to make be lower than "walking gives you OP loot" data pack...

[@willratcliff6111]

Love it! I think you're an awesome creator, love the commitment and personality.

[@sentinel_2551]

Are you going to do a lets play sometime, i know you said it in you're video bit im still asking, also will it be with some of you're datapacks

[@Zero-4793]

this hurts. im a smaller dp creator. my biggest "vanilla plus" has ~60k views and ~4k downloads. and when i see it on the list it is surrounded by "minecraft but..." and "blank drops op loot" quick and dirty content. it hurts so much to see my dp compared to them, something that i put my heart into for 3 years. once it reached the 3rd page of best datapacks, now its much lower (also cuz i stopped working on it, moved to new projects). Im glad to have seen your video tho, to more fully understand why.

[@theDmama]

Great video! TheDerpyWhale sent me lol

[@sentinel_2551]

You definitely deserve more subs

[@moddingmadmc3913]

You deserve so many more views! too much effort for me lol

[@Ellivers]

Good video!

[@Luvolly_E.]

Could you make a tutorial for how to make a datapack? I'd really like to make my own datapack, but i dont really know how to do it and can't really find any good tutorials. I and probably many others would really appreciate you making one (if you have the time to do that). On that note a quick Question: how hard would it be to make a tnt that converts nearby chunks/blocks into falling state?

[@Whimzee]

I think at some point, I'll make a video that points people in the right direction for how to make a datapack. For example, a video about what resources are available / and giving basic guidance for the type of datapack you want to make. I highly recommend checking out Legitimoose if you're just starting out. He has by far the best beginner tutorials. I learned the basics from him. If you want something more niche or advanced, Cloud Wolf is your guy. In terms of converting nearby chunks / blocks to falling blocks, I think that would be a lot more difficult than you'd expect. It would take me a while to figure that out, and I'd like to think I know commands very well.

[@Luvolly_E.]

@@Whimzee thank you for the fast reply (didn't expect that), I'll take a look at those Creators and await your video =) I guess the "Earthquake tnt" won't really work because it would need to check for every single block there is... like "/fill ~-15 0 ~-15 ~15 256 ~15 falling block replace block" but maybe someday it's possible... anyways, have a nice day.

[@XavCrafty]

quality content!

[@XavCrafty]

i cant believe how underrated you are :C

[@XavCrafty]

my cousin takes 5 mins to make a vid and now she has 15k

[@Whimzee]

@@XavCrafty She must be pretty good at KZbin then, that's awesome! And thank you :) I put a lot of time into this video.

[@Zero-4793]

it would be nice to search by hearts/diamonds, since they seem to be better judge of quality also to know what the criteria for "best" is some math of various values ig

[@Garden_of_Edin]

Do you have any tutorials that people can watch to learn how to make datapacks?

[@christianl2024]

are datapacks differnet to mods in a way that theyre bound to a certain world and mods to a certain version

[@grummtheenderman1131]

excuse me I have a question, are all of Whimzee's datapacks compatible or none of them or some of them. If it is some of them please tell me which ones are compatible.

[@Whimzee]

I think some people have seen compatability issues when merging the Sabre of the Lightning Master datapack and The Spooky Spirit Staffs datapack. I plan on merging them all into one giant datapack hopefully some day soon.

[@BoyOHBoy123]

I like data packs cause I don't need to boot up forge, but now there are so many that I don't care (also I want the Primates Datapack.)

[@red_x4533]

wait my minecarft boy has a gf WTF not fair

[@lostzwolf7269]

datapacks are the best, thay are mods that work in multiplayer (even if only one player downloads it) and apply evreywere) i now just casually popped in and added all of your minecraft updated stractures like pyramid temple and dungeon, you need one for the end now btw please ?

[@VisiVersa]

Based

[@coldcrv]

from derpy whale and bruh this vid is well made

[@Whimzee]

Thanks dude! I'm glad you liked it. It's pretty different from my normal content, but I really enjoyed doing the research / making it.

[@thecheeseman4296]

i remember some shithead who almost bricked a server i played on because he decided to use one of those one command creations.

[@EternalGamingNet]

This was so interesting!

[@gp2k918]

Whimzee whyyyy 1 more month

[@Whimzee]

Hey mmoi ccua, I actually finished my most recent video but I'm holding off on posting it since it's a collab with another KZbinr and I'm giving them a chance to finish their video also. But hopefully I can squeeze in another video before then since, you're right, it's been too long. I think the other KZbinr will be done in about a week or so.

[@hoseja]

Mods but way worse (but Micro$oft can control them).

[@family0f573]

Can you make more

[@Whimzee]

Sure! do you mean datapacks or videos like this one?

[@Totally_Bonkers]

datapacks are like less powerful mods, but still good

[@ohadhabrnash334]

so thats why he hates datapacks he just thinks of datapacks as worse mods acily,those 2 think more or less the same