Wishes for Minetest 0.4.11 (or 0.5)

[jogag]

This is the 300th post here!!!

While we can survive without shaders, client lua scripting is required for games like minetest.
By e.g. processing mobs locally, game will speed up. Other things that use the server massively, like computing mesecons and adding particles, could be done by clients. Why do I have to wait up to 20 seconds to take a thing from a normal furnace?
And why do I have to register a new block at startup time to have different textures?
With the texture-changing approach I can draw characters directly on the texture, which is a speed-up for signs (and servers). I can also draw random footsteps on blocks, which is very great.

EDIT: this is the 301th post :(

[Hybrid Dog]

texture-changing of nodes would mean that many information needs to be sent to the clients, How about something "decal"s? They're less than a particle (except that their texture can be changed in multiple ways (like acceleration, velocity of objs)), it's just like the infotext meta string, and can be rotated and positioned a bit. It would be a lot better than using objects (the current way) because they don't even need to exist if no player is near it.

There's a single thread, so everything added to it needs to wait until the stuff before is executed, i.e. there's no scheduler. l made a mod simulating one, function_delayer (see github).
So if one mod e.g. sets 100 and more times a node on the same position, a mod from a newbie, my sumpf mod once did ~this and people wondered why the mapgen worked so extremely slow, a delay appears which can take indeterminate time.

[Dragonop]

+1 for Hybrid Dog, is there a request for this on GitHub?

[Hybrid Dog]

is there a request for this on GitHub?

l think there isn't. l called it decals because in sauerbraten the setting is called sth like enable decals.

[Ferk]

I think the main problem with changing textures is that there's no space anymore in the c++ map objects to store additional node information. Making a new node is just changing the content id that already exists so that works.

If what you mean by decals is storing an overlay texture in the metadata as a special "decal" field, like it's done for infotext, then that's doable.

But I don't think that decreases the info needed to be sent to the client (you still have to send metadata updates). I actually don't think having to register additional nodes at startup is much problem for the performance, ideally you would only need to start the server once and only restart for updates or maintenance. This feature would be more for the sake of modders convenience, not efficiency I think.

[Hybrid Dog]

decals shouldn't be stored in metadata

[Ferk]

So where? I doubt they can be stored in the node c++ object.

If they are only in the lua node definition then they won't really be stored per-node. If they are just kept in memory then they will have to be re-generated every time each node that can have decals gets loaded.

Maybe you meant the last thing. Something like a on_get_texture(node) function done in lua that only runs client-side? Maybe that would work if we had client-side lua support in such a way. Then the client-side lua code in the mod will have to implement some way to keep track of which nodes need to have which texture from the perspective of the client when the on_get_texture gets called.

[Hybrid Dog]

l mean sth like particles which can be rotated and get a different texture instead of acceleration and velocity

[Ferk]

For particles (other than the standard effects) the server needs to give all sort of details to the clients for it to create a "particle generator" with information (like the velocity and acceleration that you mentioned). That's done from lua in the server and a message needs to be sent to the client to let him know about those parameters. You are not avoiding sending messages by using that, and if you want to make the texture change permanent without storing it then every time a new client gets in range it will have to be recalculated and sent again.

If decals are done client-side only then you might find that two people might see different textures in the same node, or maybe when you visit the area a second time the textures might have changed for no reason, if they were not stored somehow (metadata? paramtype? a different registered node?) or recalculated in a consistent way (which would require client-side scripting).

[Hybrid Dog]

l just thought that maybe shaders could be used to put the infotext of meta automatically on the sides of the node (text with shadow), currently infotext is shown on the left side…

[Ferk]

Good idea, I guess that could be done and be completely client side.

Personally, my main problem with the infotext is that sometimes it's hard to read. I would also be already happy if it had some small semitransparent black box as background or something, like the formspecs have by default. In a way not having to fit the text in the sign can be a good thing.. it's just that it's not very easy to read at times.

[Kpenguin]

I would like to see a quick move feature for the inventory so you can move stuff from your inventory to chests, armor slots, furnaces, etc. by shift+clicking.

[Don]

I would like to see a quick move feature for the inventory so you can move stuff from your inventory to chests, armor slots, furnaces, etc. by shift+clicking.

Shift click is already done.

[Kpenguin]

I would like to see a quick move feature for the inventory so you can move stuff from your inventory to chests, armor slots, furnaces, etc. by shift+clicking.

Shift click is already done.

Oh, okay. Thanks for pointing that out. :)

[firefox]

directional lighting

horizontal and vertical. currently everything is lighted vertically.
if you put a light next to another block, that block is lighted from above, even though the light is next to it.
same if you put light under a block. (or a stair/slab in this case)

[Kpenguin]

I'd like to see a different indication that you're taking damage other than the screen flashing red. It makes it very hard to fight when you're doing pvp, but you can't see to hit the other player because of the red flash. Maybe a sound when you're getting hurt? I like Minecraft's pvp animations and sounds a lot.

Also, maybe make a little knockback on the swords when you hit someone.

[benrob0329]

I would like to see knockback as well, but that would require several physics changes such as weight and a weapon knockback setting.

[TenPlus1]

I would like it if all of the entities including the player model should work the same way, being able to set accel and velocity on a whim, whereas now the player model is separate from everything else.

[Kpenguin]

I'd like your nametag to be hidden when you're sneaking.

I'd also like an option to disable nametags.

[benrob0329]

I'd like different sneaking mechanics altogether. For e.g. when you push shift your camera goes down so that is looks like your 1 block tall, your character goes into a sort of sneaking potition (a crawl or gmod type sneak), and you can now walk in 1 block high areas.

[Kpenguin]

I'd like different sneaking mechanics altogether. For e.g. when you push shift your camera goes down so that is looks like your 1 block tall, your character goes into a sort of sneaking potition (a crawl or gmod type sneak), and you can now walk in 1 block high areas.

Well, that would be cool, but rather complicated to implement. I think we should start with the nametag. ;)

[kaadmy]

Ahem.
My solution doesn't work too well, as the text shadow doesn't change with the text color.
https://github.com/kaadmy/pixture/blob/ ... l.lua#L133

[Kpenguin]

Ahem.
My solution doesn't work too well, as the text shadow doesn't change with the text color.
https://github.com/kaadmy/pixture/blob/ ... l.lua#L133

Where is model.lua file located in the Minetest folder directory? I'd like to try playing around with it.

[kaadmy]

[...]

Where is model.lua file located in the Minetest folder directory? I'd like to try playing around with it.[/quote]
It's a different name: mods/default/player.lua

[KCoombes]

I would like to see a scalable world size, without having to recompile the engine each time.

[rubenwardy]

map_generation_limit in Minetest.conf. make sure you read the docs in Minetest.conf.example

[kaadmy]

Make what sizescalable? the 31000 node limit? Somebody correct me if i'm wrong, but you probably shouldn't change that.