After the release of Minetest 5.7.0 in April, there were some improvements to the API for craft items. MineClone2 got the “Safe and Sound” update, there were major mod content updates, and Zughy made a promotional poster for Minetest.
Engine News
We released Minetest 5.7.0 in April, read the release blog post for all the details.
The ability to override item images has been merged now. This will make it much easier for modders to change the appearance of items in your inventory, unlocking more possibilities.
Buttons in the user interface can now be styled differently when they are focused, making it possible to give context to users who are not using a mouse.
Miscellaneous improvements include that markdown is now properly used for the Lua API documentation, Desour implemented crafting performance improvements, and some audio bugs were fixed.
Games News
MineClone2
MineClone2 v0.83, the “Safe and Sound” update, was released. The new version brings many quality-of-life features to players and server owners. Elytras used to move faster than the map generator could keep up with, so the maximum speeds on Elytra have been adjusted, and are now accessible in settings. New background music was added and some nodes now have new footstep sounds. The sunset visualization has been improved, and individual biomes have tinted water and greenery. Mobs can ride minecarts now, and bamboo can be broken by pistons.
There are tons more improvements across the board; see the full changelog here.
Exile
Exile by Mantar was updated to fix holes appearing in Exile’s landscape (aka waffling). This only fixes new areas by default, but the update also includes a command to fix already-generated terrain.
Mods News
X Farming
X Farming by Sakel saw a massive update to make farming more enjoyable.
The new additions include:
- Bees for apiculture, along with honey and other nodes. Bee “mobs” are nodes, so they are performant.
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Interactive candles which can be coloured with dyes. There are 4 possible candle nodes, which can be obtained by placing more candles in the same spot.
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A BBQ stove on which to place up to 6 (cookable) items. It acts like a furnace but does not require fuel.
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Rice farming
- Shareable food which can be placed in the world allowing anyone wielding a bowl to take a portion of that food.
Miscellaneous additions include ropes and pillows.
Finally, X Farming no longer has mandatory dependencies. It works with Mineclone out of the box and can be easily adapted to any other game.
Automobiles Pack
A new car, the 1977 Trans Am, was added to Automobiles Pack by Apercy. The vehicle introduces a 2-speed automatic transmission with visual cues for the player.
Easter Eggs
Ineva, Sven, Glubux and Apercy have shared the Easter Egg mod from the Yourland Server. Search the wilds for naturally-spawning easter eggs, and enjoy yummy chocolate!
Art and Builds
Education
Minetest at Journée du Libre Éducatif
Thomate and Lemente, who use Minetest to host various workshops, as well as Riwad Salim and Vincent Puig from the IRI Foundation who work on the UNEJ project, were invited to present how to “develop an educative and contributive digital common with the Minetest platform” at the French “Journée du Libre Éducatif”, an event dedicated to FOSS in education (find the full event program here). The main goal was to present the possibilities of Minetest and the benefits of Free Software in Education, with projects such as Minestory, Minetest Classroom, and Blockalot, to a handful of teachers and educators from across France. Guests were also able to meet and discuss how to better cooperate and contribute to the Minetest edu ecosystem.
For more info, you can get in touch with them and other educators on Discord and Linkedin.
In Other News
Minetest Poster and Minetest presentation in Italy
Zughy made a poster to promote Minetest as he presents Minetest at various conventions this summer. It is under a creative commons license, so anyone is free to print it out and post it on local posterboards. So far, there is an Italian and an English translation. You can find the files here.
Minetest-related website shadow banned by Bing (and DuckDuckGo)
The website of one of our code developers was banned by Bing and DuckDuckGo last year for an unknown reason. The website hosts the Minetest Modding Book along with some other Minetest-related resources. If you’d like to know more or think you might be able to help, rubenwardy wrote a blog post last month about the situation.
Play Store Availability
While it happened in May rather than April, we would like to note that Minetest (5.7) is once again available on the Android Play Store.
Thanks to our post contributors this month: MisterE, rubenwardy, Lemente, Sakel, Apercy, Ineva, Notsowow, Andrey01.