Living Horizon (website)
The one-page site of the Living Horizon mod, live at mc-skin-creator.github.io/living-horizon-website. In a few seconds it explains what the mod does, shows it before / after, says which versions it runs on and hands out the right file to download. A fully static Angular 22 site, deployed to GitHub Pages, with no server and no database.
The hero: the animated horizon in the background is drawn live on a canvas.
No hardcoded data
Anything a source can answer is asked of that source:
- Version, date, release files, GitHub downloads: GitHub’s releases API (pre-releases skipped).
- Changelog: the
changelog/en.mdfile of the mod’s repository. - Minecraft versions, loaders, tested or needing testers: the mod’s build configuration (
stonecutter.properties.toml), parsed in the browser. - CurseForge and Modrinth downloads: their respective APIs (Modrinth shows “Coming soon” while the project does not exist).
The page first renders from a JSON snapshot, then asks every source from the browser, with a 30-minute cache (GitHub allows only 60 anonymous calls an hour). A source that fails keeps the snapshot, and with neither, each section has its fallback. CI refreshes the snapshot on every build and once a day: a new mod version shows up on the site without touching it.
The version and loader matrix is read from the mod’s configuration, with the tested builds and those looking for testers.
Illustrations made with the game
- Animated pixel-art horizons, drawn on canvas at low resolution and scaled up without smoothing, like the game’s own pixels. Each scene exists in two states: life limited to the render distance, or extended to the horizon. Every motion is a function of time, so both sides of the slider move in step.
- Mobs built from the game’s models. A Python script reads each model out of the Minecraft client method that builds it, by replaying its bytecode (through
javap), poses it and draws it one pixel per pixel of its texture. Nothing is drawn by eye: every box, pivot and texture offset is the game’s. - Players made with MC Skin Creator: the characters in the illustrations are skins composed in my other project, exported as animated avatars.
- A before / after slider that opens on real in-game screenshots, then on the illustrations.
The concept: without the mod, the far terrain is empty; with it, it lives.
The slider, on a far-off village.
Download and deployment
The download section offers the right jar for the chosen Minecraft version and loader, with the Java version it needs and what it depends on, and adds up the downloads of every platform. The site is built by GitHub Actions on every pull request and deployed to GitHub Pages on every merge into main. Developed with Claude Code, on the same branch and review flow as the mod.
The right file for your version and loader.
Unofficial project. Not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft. “Minecraft” is a trademark of Mojang Studios.
