Forge + OptiFine Tutorial on MineCraft 1.8

These work but a very specific procedure is required.  Follow this procedure or you will spend hours (like I already did) just to find out it only works this way.

Java Classloading can get very complicated and technical even for an experienced Java engineer such as myself.  Both Forge and OptiFine are very sophisticated mods and do a great deal of dynamic work upon loading of the MineCraft application.  Consequently, there is often difficulty getting the two working together.  This solution is guaranteed to work and is relatively painless.

Mmmm!  Delicious!

Preparing a Clean MC

You must start with a clean and unmodified MineCraft Jar for the version you wish to use. This tutorial was written with 1.8.7 as the latest.  If you haven’t done any messing with McPatcher or Forge before this is probably the case already.  If not:

1. Go to your “.minecraft/versions” folder and delete that entire folder for the version you wish to use.  Oh, and stop using McPatcher and use Magic Launcher instead.  🙂
2. Run the vanilla MineCraft Launcher.  Configure a profile to use that version of MineCraft and launch.  The application will re-download a completely clean copy of that version.
3. Exit

Installing Forge

1. Download the Recommended version of the Forge “Installer” for MineCraft 1.8.  Even if you are Windows, you do not need the “Windows” Installer. Just get the regular one.  The specific version I used at this time was 11.14.3.1450
2. Double-click the downloaded Jar and run with “Java”.  It will bring up a window and prompt you to confirm the location of your “.minecraft” directory.  Be sure “Install Client” radio button is selected and click OK.  This should download a bunch of dependencies and complete successfully.
3. Re-launch the vanilla MineCraft Launcher.  You will notice a new profile called “Forge”.  Your original clean profile is unmodified.  Edit the profile name if you desire (recommended “Forge-1.8”) and launch.  Please note that Forge at this time is simply “1.8” with no minor version number.  Mods that specifically require newer versions than generic 1.8 may have issues at this time.  You should see this upon successful boot. If not, figure out what you did wrong and fix.

Installing OptiFine

Unfortunately, at this time you cannot use Magic Launcher for this.  Normally you can just add OptiFine to the Magic Launcher list of mods and everything just works but there is a couple extra steps here to work with Forge.

1. Download this specific version of OptiFine: “OptiFine 1.8.0 HD U D3”.  Newer versions will not work with Forge.
2. Place the JAR in the “.minecraft/mods” folder.
3. You can launch MineCraft with the standard launcher or Magic Launcher at this time.  Be sure to use the “Forge” modified JAR/profile.  Note: Magic Launcher may show the OptiFine status in red as that looks like an error saying “internal Mod”.  That is ok.  MineCraft should start fine and you should be able to go into the Video Options and see the “Quality” / “Performance” options that OptiFine provides.

Installing Other Mods

You are all set.  You can use either Forge or Magic Launcher to load standard client mods or Forge mods.  I, of course, recommend Magic Launcher for this but however you wish to do it is fine.   Happy Crafting!