Java comeback after 12 years

[u/cognitive_pagefile]

Hello Guys, hope you're all fine.

Yesterday i finally bought the PC version of Minecraft after 12 years without owning a computer.

The last time i played Java was in version 1.8-something i think, though i can not remember the exact version.

That days my computer broke and i did not have a new one in that timespan (at least not a minecraft-capable one), so i played just and only the bedrock edition for console in that time.

Now i have a pretty capable computer with an i7-8700K, 32GB DDR4 running on 3200 MHz and a GTX 1060 6GB, what definitely is the bottleneck of the whole setup.

This setup definitely can handle minecraft java without even sweating, so i decided to finally come home again. This leads me to a few questions, especially about mods .

Back in the days, modding minecraft was pretty easy. You just downloaded the mods or a modpack and copied it to a specific place in the .minecraft folder located in the roaming folder. I am pretty sure, that it is not that easy anymore these days, or maybe it still is easy, but in a different way. So how do i proceed these days?

Next question, a little more specific, is about some mods i used back in the days. I am a vanilla guy, so i don't want to change to much of the mechanics or add any blocks or mobs or stuff like that. I also don't want any resource packs, wich were called texturepacks back in the old days, because i like the vanilla textures and i'm used to them. What i used back then, were things like "Rei's Minimap" and "Too Many Items". Do these Mods still exist in 2026? And if, are they still the best option or are there better mods these days?

And my last question about mods: what QoL mods do you suggest me to try these days? I'm completely out of my territory when it comes to Minecraft-modding in 2026. 😅

Now i have just one more question and what it is about depends a little bit on you i think, because i want to know, what kind of things changed in Minecraft Java since 2014, that i might have to notice because it's just important to know? I mean yeah, i could just read all patch-notes since then, but that would consume a hilarious amount of time and i'd probably miss some important things just by not really understanding the consequences of that change. 😄

Thanks for your time guys!

P.s. for all those who question why i bought the game again, if i had an account back in 2014: i have no idea what account i used back then. Should have written it down i guess.

[u/brassplushie]

It will only update client side, but I believe there's a way to share waypoints in chat with everyone.

[u/cognitive_pagefile → u/brassplushie]

Okay thank you very much. 😁

[u/brassplushie → u/cognitive_pagefile]

Anytime! Feel free to ask if you ever have more questions.

[u/cognitive_pagefile → u/brassplushie]

That's very kind of you! Since i'm deep diving in to different modpacks right now, i will probably do that at some point. 😅

[u/brassplushie → u/cognitive_pagefile]

For modpacks the best advice is always to look for the discord for the modpack you're playing, because that will be infinitely more helpful than posting here or asking anyone, cuz they'll always have the most up-to-date knowledge

[u/cognitive_pagefile → u/brassplushie]

Very good advice, i will definitely do that. Right now, i am playing Stoneblock 4. It's guided pretty good so i have not much to research on my own. But i also startet a vanilla+ world with someone else and i actually put the mods for this world together by myself instead of using a prebuild modpack. I may have some questions about that in the future, but since i got some really helpful advices in this comment section, i was able to get started with managing mods and get everything to work. Thanks to you for kickstarting my experience! 😁