Mod / 01
Redefining UI.
The shared UI enginebehind Minecraft screens.
From the management screens and station departure boards of Train System Utilities to the control screens of Spatial Audio System, Manta is the UI engine shared across multiple BelugaLab mods.
It renders every kind of screen, from menus to displays inside the world, through one common system.
Point of view
Consistency is built into the foundation.
Rather than developing a different UI for each mod, Manta aims to deliver a consistent experience through a shared system.
New features and visual elements are implemented as shared Manta features wherever possible. The improvements gained there are carried over to the other mods, so the more development goes on, the more polished the UI as a whole becomes.
Consistent Interface
Manta provides shared UI components such as buttons, toggles and dialogs.
Controls, animations and the way hints are shown are shared as well, so different mods can be used with the same feel.
What you learn on one screen carries straight over to another.
Two mods, three screens. One shared UI system.
Screen & World
UI in Minecraft is not limited to menu screens.
Inside the world, too, there are many kinds of screens, such as station departure boards and large monitors showing service information.
Manta also supports these displays in the world. By using the same rendering system as ordinary control screens, it delivers consistent design and visuals wherever they are shown.
In-game Guides
There is no need to switch to a browser every time you look up how to do something.
Manta supports an in-game Wiki, so explanations, images and how-to guides can be read inside Minecraft.
Guides can also embed UI that actually works. The screen is operated automatically along with the explanation, and the content and guidance text change step by step.
Because the flow of operations can be seen on screen, even complex features can be understood by watching them actually work.
Efficient Rendering
Improving UI performance is not only about rendering speed; reducing unnecessary work matters too.
Manta is designed to keep unnecessary updates to a minimum when nothing on the screen has changed.
By doing the necessary work when values or content change, it aims to keep the load on the game low even on complex management screens.
Multiplayer Consistency
Something that works correctly in single player can show different content to each player in multiplayer.
Manta is designed to manage screen state with the server-side information as the reference.
Even when several players are in the same world, it puts weight on keeping information consistent and showing the same state.
Verification
Whether a screen is rendered correctly cannot be judged from the code alone.
With Manta, screens are displayed in an actual Minecraft environment to confirm that they look and respond as intended.
We also check that adding features or changing the internal structure has not caused unexpected changes to existing screens.
Keeping existing behavior intact, not just adding new features, is an important standard of development.
Generations
Manta's internal design has evolved through seven generations so far.
Each generation kept the existing features while gradually improving rendering performance, shared functionality, maintainability and more.
The current seventh generation focuses less on adding new features and more on integrating existing ones and cleaning up duplicated implementations.
Rather than implementing the same purpose in several ways, it consolidates them into shared mechanisms as far as possible, aiming to reduce complexity and make future development and improvement easier.
Improvements to Manta reach users through updates to each mod that uses it.
Principles
When developing a new feature, we first consider whether it can be achieved by combining existing mechanisms. We increase what can be shared and avoid implementing the same feature over and over.
Even when the internal structure changes, keeping existing features is the rule. When moving to a new design, we make sure the controls and features that came before are not lost.
When Manta is updated, we also check compatibility with the mods already released. When introducing a new mechanism, we verify its effect on existing screens and features, with an emphasis on keeping a stable environment.
Interactive elements such as buttons have a shared minimum size. Being easy to actually operate, not just the look of the screen, is an important requirement of UI design.
Where it lives
Manta is not distributed as a standalone mod.
It is built into the mods BelugaLab develops, and you can use Manta by installing any of those mods.
It is currently used in the following mods.
Train System UtilitiesA mod for railway equipment and operations management→
Spatial Audio SystemA mod for building sound environments in the world→The Manta version used in each mod can be found in the distribution history.