Last year, we introduced MCSkinn. Built upon the robust foundation of MCSkin3D, MCSkinn underwent extensive renovations and updates, quickly gaining popularity among users.
However, during development, we encountered numerous challenges. The aging codebase of MCSkin3D resulted in slow rendering performance, and expanding its capabilities proved difficult; MCSkin3D repository is under GPL license, which makes it hard to go further. Additionally, many users requested mobile and cross-platform versions, which were beyond the limitations of the WPF framework.
Following the release of version 1.2.8, we largely discontinued development on the WPF version and shifted our focus to web technologies. Today, We're excited to share some details about the new version of MCSkinn that we're striving to release soon.
Something Nice is Coming
The new MCSkinn inherits the classic (v1.2.8) version, but we refactored almost all of the code, bringing more features like lighting, animation, palette, and much more! Also more models will be included, and the performance and fluency have improved a lot!
While our development timeline is tight, we can confirm that the new version will encompass all features available in Legacy 1.2.8. Additionally, we are working on or planning the following:
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UI Overhaul: A complete UI redesign using iNKO-UI for a cleaner, more streamlined user experience.
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Floating Toolbar: Similar to tools like Figma and Inkways, we've moved the toolbar to the bottom and made it floating for easier access.
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Layers: Divide skins into different parts for individual editing and then combine them into a whole. (This feature is still in the planning stage and may be available later than other features.)
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Immersive Preview: Preview skins in various scenarios. For example, see how your skin looks in different lighting and environment conditions, use an proper animation to see how it moves, drag the body parts to see how it looks in different poses, and more.
We have many more ideas in the pipeline, so stay tuned!
The Legacy Version
The current version of MCSkinn, renamed to 'MCSkinn Legacy', will be maintained for a while, but no new features will be added, and it will finally be deprecated. I'm sorry for the issues you may have encountered while using MCSkinn Legacy, and I hope the new version will be better and meet your expectations.
Though the new MCSkinn has a better performance and more features, it may perform worse than the legacy version on low-end devices. So we strongly recommend sticking with the legacy version if you're using an older device.
The MCSkinn legacy used some GPL-based code. Even if we have finally rewritten all the code, we will consider release the soruce code of the legacy version when the new version is ready. We're still discussing this, so it's not a sure thing yet.
Pricing
For the Legacy version, we offered a completely free uses with optional donations. However, due to increasing development pressures, we may introduce paid features in the new version. Rest assured, features available in the Legacy version will remain free.
Also, we will try our best to provide a free version with all the features you need, and the paid version will mostly include some features that are not necessary for most users. The original intention of MCSkinn is to provide a free and powerful skin editor for Minecraft players, and we will stick to this principle, unless we have a serious financial problem.
Open Source?
In addition, something really unexpected and unpleasant happened to us recently, one of our open-source projects, was humiliated and insulted by someone, and that really hurt us and the whole community.
Since the new MCSkinn has refactored ALL of the code, and no GPL-based code is used, we're afraid that the same thing will happen again. So, we have nothing to do but to make MCSkinn a closed-source project. We're sorry for this decision, but we hope you could understand.
For more information about the incident, please check here: https://docs.inkore.net/blog/2024/09/17/reflection-interest-in-opensource-community (that really hurt us a lot).
Stay Tuned!
We're still working on the new MCSkinn, and it's not ready yet, so we can't release it to the public now. However, we strongly welcome you to our community and let you know when the new version's ready. Please stay tuned, we really don't want you to miss the brand new MCSkinn.
Join the MCSkinn community
- Discord server: https://discord.gg/m6NPNVk4bs
- QQ Group (China Only): 798154797
- More links: https://inkore.net/about#social
Thank you for your support and understanding. We're looking forward to seeing you guys again in the new MCSkinn!