electronics, etc.

The stable Minetest is here, as some people probably have already noticed. I decided to, after a month of no features being added, stuff in a good bunch of bugfixes by me and others, and call the end result Minetest 0.4.1. (There was, in fact, a 0.4.0 too, but it had too many problems to be worth announcing 8)).

Stable?

“Stable” in here means “is in a known supportable state”. It:

1. does not contain all features we’d have wished for,
2. is not bug free

but

1. it works,
2. we are familiar with its rough edges and
3. all planned features can be easily added without losing compatibility to the current version.

Who made this?

Built upon the proven base of Minetest 0.3, Practically all of Minetest 0.4 has been designed and implemented by me and kahrl. In the winter of 2011-2012, huge efforts, for apparently no benefit, were taken to ensure the core design would be suitable for what it could become.

Thanks goes to the users and modders too, who daringly jumped into the ripped-apart game and sculpted it to their needs, and the occasional engine contributors.

Kahrl went missing three months ago – and is still missing. I predict we will not see him ever again, for whatever reason that could be. His clever mind will, however, be forever present in the gears of Minetest.

Get it!

Therefore, you can now find the 0.4.1 Windows package on the download page, and the appropriate branches and tags on github.

There currently does not exist a complete changelog since the latest of the 0.3 series. I’ll figure that out and post it in the near future. It will be LONG. as. hell.

What?

We want to see how Minetest performs as a mini-MMO platform. We set up a server solely for the purpose of stress-testing the latest version of the vanilla Minetest server.

We need as many players as we can get. We’re aiming to reach 100 during the next few days. Call all your friends and neighbors!

Updates:

UTC 19:30 Update: The server got roughly 15 simultaneous players during the initial two hours. The player number currently is roughly 7, and we are now seeing if the server will gain more less hasty users in a longer timespan.

Upcoming Tue 19th UTC 17:00: The “cram everybody in” minute!

How to join?

A Windows build of the very latest 0.4 (which works with this) can be found at:
http://minetest.net/packages/nightly/minetest-0.4.dev-20120606-c57e508-win32.zip

Linux users should read the readme and build a version from github.

Connect to minetest.ru:30001 (that is, address minetest.ru, port 30001)

Check out the chests at the spawn, build something and hang around. Check out the main site, the forum and the wiki too.

Less important stuff:

Stairs in Minetest!

You may be interested in the fact that the version this server uses now has stair and slab blocks included. It does not contain any additional mods though.

The server will be up for at least many hours from now, probably for a few days.

The collected data will be used for purposes of optimization and general knowledge.

The world might be transferred on a more persistent server if it gains lots of interesting buildings.

Download for Windows: https://github.com/downloads/celeron55/minetest/minetest-0.4.dev-20120606-win32.zip

Others can go and grab their stuff from github or the download page, as usual.

Known bugs:

• It is network-incompatible with 20120408, altough it doesn’t act like it was. Do not use this to connect to a 20120408 server. I intended to update the protocol version number but accidentally left it out…
• I am not sure whether the deprecation of register_on_placenode and register_on_dignode is actually what I want. In any case, mod makers need not hurry; they won’t be removed in a good while because many mods use them. (also in 0.4.dev-20120603)

What’s new (0.4.dev-20120603 -> 0.4.dev-20120606):

• Fix loading of old signs
• Fix a network bug
• License change to LGPLv2/later by agreement of major contributors. If you think Minetest contains code made by you that you do not wish to distribute under this license, point me to it and we’ll figure out what to do to it.
• minetest.place_node
minetest.dig_node
minetest.punch_node
nodedef.after_destruct
minetest.serialize, minetest.deserialize (by wokste)
• Replacements in cooking and and fuel recipes (an ancient patch by kahrl); groups in crafting recipes (by me)
• Many small things (see commit history)

Download for Windows: https://github.com/downloads/celeron55/minetest/minetest-0.4.dev-20120603-win32.zip

Others can go and grab their stuff from github, as usual.

Got my ass up and implemented the basis of the new node metadata stuff that kahrl intended to do (with some help from darkrose). Mostly a modding API change and a bunch of other technical things. Not really any new game content this time.

Known bugs:

• It is network-incompatible with 20120408, altough it doesn’t act like it was. Do not use this to connect to a 20120408 server.
• It fails to load content of old signs. Can even cause a crash… and maybe world corruption. Make sure to have backups!

Both have now been fixed in the latest github master. I will release a new snapshot build in a few days.

What’s new (since 0.4.dev-20120408):

• Reworked node metadata <- This breaks some mods. And is awesome.
• Furnaces are better, as allowed by the new metadata API
• Fix unable to join server the first time with a non-empty password
• Fix ABM handling on block activation (fixes some problems with some mods (nature?))
• static_spawnpoint setting
• Lots of small bugfixes
• --world list (command-line)
• Support modpacks being in a directory under the mod directory. Modpack directory needs to contain modpack.txt (empty as for now).
• Many small things (see commit history)

I just noticed we’re already having some ass-hurtery in the comments section of “I’m alive!”:

#1:
You are an idiot
work on minetest you dumbass thats the only thing that you can you loser

#2:
It’s stupid to pause it before 0.4 is released.
I will definitely not continue it, because I do not really know C++ and have a 3D RPG (indiedb.com/games/kelgar) to work on.

Aren’t people lovely? 8D

We’re currently missing kahrl, and I have no idea where he’s gone. A few days back I went onto #minetest-delta and sorted out new release requirements of Minetest 0.4.0 here:
http://minetest.net/wiki/doku.php?id=roadmap:must_do_for_0.4.0

Latest commits of minetest and minetest_game:
https://github.com/celeron55/minetest/commits/master
https://github.com/celeron55/minetest_game/commits/master

The community seems to be more and less changing all the time, but one thing prevails: Those who are able to do stuff are always busy with other things, and those who don’t have the skills always have time. 8) Well, gotta live with that.

In other news, here’s a wiki page I made about the possibility of making Minetest dual-licensable commercially:
http://minetest.net/wiki/doku.php?id=dev:commercial_licensing

It will probably not happen, but I’ll give it a go.

If you are more interested in developing Minetest given the possibility of dual licensing, go and add yourself on the list of interested people.