Modder runs Minecraft inside Hytale, develops cross-play between the games

Polygon reports that 15-year-old modder Sadat Sahib (iamcxv7 / SSquadTeam) has created mods that run Minecraft inside Hytale's world map and enable cross-play between the two sandbox builders.

Hytale launched earlier this month in what developer-publisher Hypixel Studios called "very early access," and its makers prioritized a framework for modding. Following its release on Jan. 13, the game has accrued 5.6 million mod downloads on CurseForge, with over 2,000 currently available. Sahib, who has also made Doom and Windows 95 run within the Hytale map, explained on Reddit how he runs Minecraft Classic 0.30 entirely on the server with a custom software renderer: "I'm running Minecraft Classic 0.30 entirely on the server with a custom software renderer I wrote from scratch. No GPU, no OpenGL calls - just pure CPU-based 3D rendering. Every frame, I compute the pixels myself and stream them to players through Hytale's world map system." He said the cross-play mod rests on "packet trickery" and that he is slowly adding features like combat and cross-play chat, though development remains incomplete.

Currently neither mod is available to the public, and Sahib said the cross-play mod is still "really unstable," but it is a work in progress. Since release, many players have been pushing Hytale's limits, and the rapid output from the modding community suggests further experiments are likely.

Key Topics

Tech, Sadat Sahib, Hytale, Minecraft, Hypixel Studios, Curseforge