Can MineRL connect to a Minecraft server?

[lostmsu]

I would like to make an environment, that involves human player interaction.

If that is not currently possible, what is the best place in MineRL code to start with in order to add that feature?

[lostmsu]

It seems a similar feature was present in 0.3, but is no longer in 0.4. Is there no one to maintain it, or has there been a decision to completely remove it?

[Miffyli]

Hey, it is not that it has been removed, it is just not updated to work with 0.4.x ^^. A PR to fix this would be welcomed!

[lostmsu]

@Miffyli I am still more interested in the ability to connect to a remote server instead of hosting one. Multiple reasons: world persistence, live player interaction, existing public world interaction.

[Miffyli]

This has no support in MineRL as it has not been of interest (yet), but I think with bit of tinkering you could modify the interaction code to work for this if need be :). Note that you might get some other headaches, though (e.g., server has to have the same mods enabled).

[ddPn08]

I wanted to get a Minerl agent to join my server, which led me to this issue. Has this feature been considered for implementation yet?

[Miffyli]

Unfortunately no, there has been no plans to support this in MineRL.

[ddPn08]

I see. If possible, I would like to implement it myself, but is the implementation cost quite high?

[Miffyli]

Hmm hard to say without knowing how to solve, as it could be easy (it is Minecraft underneath, after all) or very difficult if the modifications have broken it for Minecraft servers.

Also, even if someone creates this functionality, I might be hesitant to include it in the library as it could be used for griefing (connect to others' servers). Yes, there are better options for that, but I would stay on the cautious side to avoid bringing harm to people outside the research community 😅

[ddPn08]

I see. I certainly didn't consider that risk. I'll try it myself for now. Thank you very much!