This month, TurkeyMcMac joined the core dev team, post-processing and bloom were merged, and Android crosshair support was added. Minefall released on ContentDB, BlockExchange got a graphical rework, and more!
Engine News
TurkeyMcMac was added as a core developer this month. He has been contributing to Minetest for a while and has demonstrated a high level of technical ability.
x2048’s post-processing Pull Request was merged, as well as a work-in-progress version of a bloom shader. Post-processing is a technique implemented as part of the graphics modernization project, and will result in improved performance for tone mapping. It also allows new graphical effects to be implemented in the future, including depth-of-field and volumetric lighting (god rays).
For now, bloom is a client-side setting only, but mods will be able to control
it in the future too. Bloom lets light bleed into dark areas and creates a glow
around bright objects. You can try out the bloom shader by building Minetest
from source, enabling shaders, and then entering All Settings. Search for
bloom, enable it, and experiment with the other two bloom settings, bloom
intensity and bloom radius. More shaders will be coming soon!
Crosshair support for android has been merged. Unlike desktop, Android defaults to punching/placing/digging where you tap. With this new feature, users can enable the crosshair to have an experience closer to desktop.
Desour is working on a refactor of Minetest’s sound system. It will make sounds load faster, add a doppler effect, and fix many sound bugs - such as fading not working on positional sounds and sounds not pausing during the pause menu.
Games News
Nodecore
Nodecore received a
significant performance update. Warr1024 found that
TurkeyMcMac’s LuaJIT Profiler
was particularly useful in finding the cause of performance issues - much more
useful than the built-in profiler. That helped him discover functions that were
more expensive than expected, such as minetest.check_player_privs().
Cave Game
Olive made Cave Game, a recreation of Notch’s first implementation of Minecraft. It has Stone and Grass. Yeah, that’s about it.
Minefall
Minefall was released on ContentDB. It is a new take on the Minetest Game concept. Its main feature is the ability of players to levitate if they have enough stamina. Also, it has hostile mobs and flying whales.
Mods News
BlockExchange
BuckarooBanzai rewrote most of the frontend part of the BlockExchange project - it should now be fairly usable/stable. Also, it has moved to a new home/address: https://blockexchange.minetest.ch/ instead of the .land domain).
Mese Trains
Xenon released the first version of another Advanced Trains expansion pack. So far it only includes the MeseJet, a bullet train that has color-coded line numbers displayed on its side.
TNT Tag
debiankaios released TNTtag. Don’t get tagged with TNT, and if you do get tagged, be sure to tag someone else before the time runs out and the TNT on your head explodes!
Textures
OhCeeDee Texture Pack
ROllerozxa released the OhCeeDee texture pack, inspired by FVDisco’s oCd Minecraft resource pack.
Art and Builds
Server News
Nodecore Community Server
nodecore.mine.nu:30000
Nodecore was updated with the performance updates in the games section above. That makes the performance of the Nodecore Community Server better than ever.
A.E.S. Minigames
minetest.eticadigitale.org:30010
A.E.S. has a new beta minigame: Tnttag! There are also two new skins for you to find and unlock by completing parkours.
The November Block League tournament is coming up! BlockLeague is a shooter minigame that is best described as “Soccer with guns”. It now has passive skills and a menu for choosing them. Check out the pads to the side of the Blockleague island to choose your skill. There will be up to 8 teams of 3 players each for the tournament. See the details here for how to sign up.
In Other News
Mindustry3d
GeneralBaker began a project to recreate Mindustry in 3d in Minetest. The first stable release is still a long way off, but the project is looking for contributors. Check it out here: Forum and Git
Blog Content
This is our 8th Minetest monthly update. So far, content for the blog has mostly been collected on an ad-hoc basis - the blog editors see something interesting and put it in the blog. We have had a few content creators approach editors about the blog, but we’d like to see more people suggest content using the issue tracker (GitLab Mirror). It prevents us from missing or forgetting about something. Thank you to those who have used the issue tracker.
Thanks to our post contributors this month: MisterE, rubenwardy, Peppermint Patty, Warr1024, BuckarooBanzai, wsor, x2048.