Since using Minetest 0.4.16 stable on Xanadu it has been noted that quite a few players are exploiting this feature to cheat on server by running bot-chat-text, opening ANY chest to steal items and of course finding ores without the need for digging... Something has to be done to stop this as it takes the fun out of the game entirely and has players complaining of stolen items...

Personally I would like to see this feature disabled entirely but am aware of specific switches available on 0.5.0 to disable certain components of this, which sadly can be re-enabled by pre-compiling your own minetest client with the changes reset...

Server security is more important,

Adds directional lighting and (very subtle) specular on everything, including models, if shaders are enabled. Model shading requires the models to be properly exported with normals (well, obviously...)

Shading depends on the sun (or moon) angle and changes properly during the day/night and eases smoothly during a dawn/dusk transition.

Before/after screenshot:

I just wanted to check if this already done, or planned, or possible. If not possible i am seriously concerned.

Client-provided clientmods that cannot be prevented by a server creates a huge potential for irritating low-level troublemakers and cheaters on a server, and makes trouble much easier to cause. There are already clientmods being distributed on the forum and servers can do nothing to protect themselves.

Before now you would have to hack a client, now it's as easy as installing a mod. Server admin are already driven crazy by irritating client behaviour and now it will get much worse.

I am not asking for removing the ability to use client-provided clientmods, just a way for a server to prevent any connected clients from doing so, or not allowing clients using client-provided client mods from connecting.

Arguing that 'it is already possible with a hacked client' is no argument, it should not be made easier, and not supported and encouraged by the distribution of clientmods that servers cannot protect themselves against.

I seem to remember someone, maybe sofar, discussing this and getting the assurance that such an ability as i request would be added. Has it been? WIll it be? Why has it not been? @sofar was this you and what is your opinion?

/////////////

Here's a specific example of how this will ruin a survival server ..

The oredetect clientmod already in use effectively makes the world transparent around a player to a certain distance, any node can be detected and its co-ordinates displayed. The server cannot prevent this or even know which clients are using it. Some say the range is limited, however the valuable ores from gold to diamond are only separated by 13-17 nodes, so a detection radius half of this is enough to detect almost all valuable ores around a player.

Players with high standards who don't want to cheat in survival will not use the mod, but then will suspect other players are using it and are gaining an advantage, this makes them feel frustrated. Players with moderate standards will see the advantage other players have and will be tempted to use the mod, the more players that use it the more pressure there is for the rest to use it. Players with low standards will use the mod to cheat, and therefore gain an advantage over other players and are rewarded for their low standards.

The whole concept of MT is that 'you can't effectively see through solid objects', but now an unknown set of players can do this, and the server cannot choose, police or detect this in any way. This creates an atmosphere of anarchy, cheating, frustration, suspicion and mistrust, with the worst players having an advantage and being rewarded, having fun, while the server is ruined for everyone else.

I have read the arguments that CSM is harmless because it can only read map and not write to it, however i have explained above how this alone can ruin a survival server.

///////////////

For some servers unregulated client-provided clientmods is not an issue so let them, but at least allow servers to decide and protect themselves. MT has always been about the server providing and controlling anything of significance, and servers have always been able to protect themselves and police what happens.

If it is not possible to add the abililty i request then the only thing to do is to not allow client-provided clientmods at all, as i understand it CSM was originally intended to be server-provided mods only, for very good reason. CSM will then still bring many benefits and server admin will add the reasonable clientmods that players want, but at least it is in a controlled way, it is known what is provided to all players and no-one can gain a secret advantage over anyone else.

@celeron55 please could you consider this issue?

GitHub is being acquired by Microsoft. That means, while it will probably remain usable for a year or so, it will be changing to discourage participating in free software projects like Minetest. EDIT: and to become more “user-friendly,” that is, featureless full of ads user-tracking, service. So we may have to move somewhere.

By the way, it would be nice if you tweet GH your disappointment on the acquisition (unless you like MS, of course—but then you play MC and not MT, don’t you?)

Reported by NiklasGamerHD ✔ on Discord

Minetest version

0.4.17.2

OS / Hardware

Operating system: Android 7.0 Model: Huawei Honor 6A GPU model: unknown OpenGL version: unknown

This PR implements shadow mapping with PSM (Perspective Shadow Mapping), PCF filtering and "colored shadows". The implementation it's originally based in the XEffects shadow mapping examples.

How this works:

1. To be able to make it work with Irrlicht(MT) the Nodes must be added (and removed ) to a Shadow caster list to cast shadows.
2. The draw function in RenderingCore updated to do the depth pass.
3. Render all the nodes that casts shadow in a RTT. 3.1. Render ClientMap depth every 0.2 seconds to avoid excessive drawcalls. 3.2. Render depth for all dynamic entities 3.3. Mix both depth textures in the Shadow Texture.
4. execute standard DrawAll, with the Shadow Texture attached.

The textures used are (3x): irr::video::ECOLOR_FORMAT::ECF_R32F for depth irr::video::ECOLOR_FORMAT::ECF_G32R32F for depth+color(encoded)

Both in 16bits if configured, but the tests I did, anything below 32bits causes lot's of precision problems.

To do

This PR is Ready for Review.

• [x] Calculate sun POV frustum
• [x] nodes added and removed from shadow caster list
• [x] Render depth pass
• [x] Write node and objects shaders
• [x] Vanish shadow on artificial light.
• [x] "Colored shadows"
• [x] Different quality configurations.
• [x] PCF & Poisson disk filtering.
• [x] Tweak PSM distortion function for every quality.
• [x] Wield items shadows.
• [x] Moon shadows.

Future improvements.

• Check if mesh generation is able to remove the shadows encoded in the map

• Depth shaders using standard MT shader.cpp style (I wasn't able to make it work), so we can make things like shadows for waving plants and leaves.

• Reduce drawcalls.

How to test

Go to settings tabs, enable shaders, select quality from Dynamic Shadows dropdown.

The default values are: Ultra low: -shadow_map_max_distance: 80 blocks -shadow_map_texture_size: 512 -shadow_map_color: false -filter level: 0

Low: -shadow_map_max_distance: 120 blocks -shadow_map_texture_size: 1024 -shadow_map_color: false -filter level: 1

Medium: -shadow_map_max_distance: 350 blocks -shadow_map_texture_size: 2048 -shadow_map_color: false -filter level: 1

High: -shadow_map_max_distance: 350 blocks -shadow_map_texture_size: 2048 -shadow_map_color: true -filter level: 2

Ultra High: -shadow_map_max_distance: 450 blocks -shadow_map_texture_size: 4096 -shadow_map_color: true -filter level: 2

The values Ultra Low and Low only work when the map doesn't have too big elements, and even with normal maps it could have some artifacts.

This PR is high demanding because the amount of drawcalls so it's only recommended for slightly modern hardware.

The configuration can be changed within the "All Settings" section -> shadow

Examples:

Configuration:

Examples:

What does the PR do?

1. ARM64
2. The latest version of all dependencies
3. Build using Linux, Windows, MacOS
4. Build in Android Studio
5. Significant optimization + LuaJIT!
6. ~~Localization support~~
7. Fix language problems in chat, inside the game, everywhere
8. Java part improvement
9. Improving everything you want;)
10. Full ReDo everything from scratch!

Did you know that the Android port in MultiCraft has been rewritten to make it proprietary? Was it spent several thousand dollars and hundreds of hours of work, tests and corrections? And then I decided to publish all the source code under the LGPL license!

Note: comments are accepted only from players and developers with experience in developing for Android. Let mapgen-nerds, trolls and other participants silently. Thanks.

Building on Windows for console lovers right now looks like this. ./gradlew.bat assemblerelease

On Linux/macOS ./gradlew assemblerelease

But the best part is Android Studio. Just open the project, connect the phone and press the Run button and after 2 minutes the game will be installed on your phone! Windows, Linux, MacOS!

What's inside?

Gradle clones the repository with ready deps (irrlicht, freetype, curl, etc.) Then he will kindly prepare Assets, compressing it into an archive for very fast copying from APK to sdcard Then he will compile Minetest for arm-v7a and arm-v8a Compiles Java code with support for AndroidX and AppCompat for full compatibility with Android 4.1-10 And finally he will create 2 APKs: arm-v7a and arm-v8a (of course, with different assembly numbers, to meet the requirements of Google Play).

Is it long? Let me show the result of a clean build from my PC: BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 2m 19s 48 actionable tasks: 47 executed, 1 up-to-date https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJMUhECMPcY Yes, I have a powerful workstation, maybe it will be 1 minute longer on your PC! Enjoy it.

Based on master branch (last commit at the moment).

ARM: https://github.com/MoNTE48/minetest/releases/download/android/app-armeabi-v7a-release.apk (recommended) ARM64: https://github.com/MoNTE48/minetest/releases/download/android/app-arm64-v8a-release.apk

new/changes:

• sneaking won't actually hover you in the air, releasing shift guarantees not falling down (same as in MC)
• sneak-jump no longer goes higher than a normal jump (^ was required for this)
• sneaking no longer avoids fall damage
• you can sneak on partial nodes (slabs, sideways slabs) correctly

downsides:

• sneaking doesn't "go out" as far anymore (0.29 instead of 0.4)
• can't jump when sneaking out as far as possible (breaks the sneak ladder)

This request adds to possibility to colorize nodes dynamically, using hardware coloring.

How to use: Add color = {r = <?>, g = <?>, b = <?>} to your node definition to get static color. Add palette="image.png" to let Minetest colorize the node dynamically based on the param2. You can add color = <?> to any tile too, to overwrite any global behavior (for example to only allow dynamic color for the top tile of grass).

Advantages: Modders will be able to create colored nodes, while Minetest will not create new textures for them in the memory (unlike texture modifiers). This may make framerate higher on worlds that use a lot of colored blocks for buildings. Makes modders able to colorize nodes based on their param2.

Disadvantage: Old clients are "colorblind". They see the textures without colorization. When shaders are disabled, memory usage is increased (Minetest has to store colors as well).

This pull could add particle blend, glow and animation to particle and particle spawners. Solve #4232 How it looks: https://youtu.be/9y-izjlxPmE Test code: http://pastebin.com/URY3QitQ (outdated) Test texture: http://imgur.com/c5sidRL

[Adopted from #6537]

• Remove hard-coded association of dig and place actions, with LMB and RMB respectively.
  • These actions are still bound to LMB and RMB by default.
• Allow binding actions to mouse buttons.
• ObjectRef:get_player_control now returns dig and place fields. Note: The old LMB and RMB fields still exist alongside dig and place, to ensure backwards compatibility.

Tested, works. This PR is ready for review.

Video demonstration

https://youtu.be/0Ca7nEMiq_U

How to test

• Suggested keymap to test this PR:

  keymap_place = KEY_KEY_L
  keymap_dig = KEY_KEY_X
  keymap_inventory = KEY_LBUTTON
  keymap_jump = KEY_RBUTTON
  

• Tweak repeat_place_interval, and test it by selecting a place-able item (e.g. a node), pointing at a node, and holding down the "place" keybind.

Due to code changes around keypress detection, it's advisable to also test various digging, placing, use-ing, and secondary_use-ing scenarios, and carefully observe that nothing has broken. Note that this PR doesn't modify any part of the actual digging and placing, even in a subtle manner. So if a change is noticeable, please do let me know.

https://github.com/minetest/minetest/pull/12636 causes Android to crash with IrrlichtMt9, which was updated to in the Android dependencies 4 days ago

To do

This PR is a Ready for Review.

How to test

Test that you can start Minetest and launch a world on Android

Problem

Garbled columns in displayed help text after minetest --help on CLI like:

  --migrate <value>           Migrate from current map backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-auth <value>      Migrate from current auth backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-mod-storage <value>Migrate from current mod storage backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-players <value>   Migrate from current players backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --name <value>              Set player name

Solutions

Supposedly amend internals of minetest --help on CLI like:

  --migrate <val>             Migrate from current map backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-auth <val>        Migrate from current auth backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-mod-storage <val> Migrate from current mod storage backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-players <val>     Migrate from current players backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --name <val>                Set player name

NOTE: Supposedly changed from <value> to <val> intentionally.

Alternatives

Naturally the change from <value> to <val> would be more effort in the change but the MT help text on CLI is almost too broad already and thus the shorter <val> as proposed above. IMO would add to the readability and no ambiguity because <val> clearly means value, I presume..

Further amendment:

Please also consider changing the overlong option --migrate-mod-storage to a shorter --migrate-mods on same level of dis-ambiguity, I presume. This would require a deprecated --migrate-mod-storage during MT 5.6.2 and/or MT 5.7.0 in parallel to the shorter --migrate-mods until the latter shall become the single option with MT 5.7.1 supposedly.

Additional context

ref #13121

Minetest version

MT 5.6.1_1

ref the minetest port from MacPorts

OS / Hardware

Operating system: macOS 11.7.2 BigSur CPU: x86_64

Summary

CLI minetest --help should display the help text and exit.

Furthermore, the help text should be amended from:

--help                      Show allowed options

supposedly to new help text:

--help                      Show allowed options and exit

and being consistent to the new exit after help by the improved MT program.

However, the command starts the full MT GUI with a claimed MT world after the help text was displayed on Terminal i.e. macOS CLI. This should NOT happen, I presume.

Usually, commands like tar --help and certainly minetest --help should display the help text and exit without further operation. This would be similar to the minetest --version and more compatible with usual CLI experience.

Furthermore, might be linked to #13116 but this was not tested and thus not sure about keystrokes (yet).

Steps to reproduce

Just give it a try on CLI like:

% /Applications/MacPorts/minetest.app/Contents/MacOS/minetest --help
Allowed options:
  --address <value>           Address to connect to. ('' = local game)
  --color <value>             Coloured logs ('always', 'never' or 'auto'), defaults to 'auto'
  --config <value>            Load configuration from specified file
  --console                   Starts with the console (Windows only)
  --gameid <value>            Set gameid ("--gameid list" prints available ones)
  --go                        Disable main menu
  --help                      Show allowed options
  --info                      Print more information to console
  --logfile <value>           Set logfile path ('' = no logging)
  --map-dir <value>           Same as --world (deprecated)
  --migrate <value>           Migrate from current map backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-auth <value>      Migrate from current auth backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-mod-storage <value>Migrate from current mod storage backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --migrate-players <value>   Migrate from current players backend to another (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --name <value>              Set player name
  --password <value>          Set password
  --password-file <value>     Set password from contents of file
  --port <value>              Set network port (UDP)
  --quiet                     Print to console errors only
  --random-input              Enable random user input, for testing
  --recompress                Recompress the blocks of the given map database.
  --run-benchmarks            Run the benchmarks and exit
  --run-unittests             Run the unit tests and exit
  --server                    Run dedicated server
  --speedtests                Run speed tests
  --terminal                  Feature an interactive terminal (Only works when using minetestserver or with --server)
  --trace                     Print enormous amounts of information to log and console
  --verbose                   Print even more information to console
  --version                   Show version information
  --world <value>             Set world path (implies local game if used with option --go)
  --worldlist <value>         Get list of worlds ('path' lists paths, 'name' lists names, 'both' lists both)
  --worldname <value>         Set world by name (implies local game if used with option --go)
2023-01-07 11:31:07: [Main]: Automatically selecting world at [/Users/XXX/Library/Application Support/minetest/worlds/world1]

However, the minetest --version command works as expected:

% /Applications/MacPorts/minetest.app/Contents/MacOS/minetest --version
Minetest 5.6.1-MacPorts-rev1 (OSX)
Using Irrlicht 1.9.0mt8
Using LuaJIT 2.1.0-beta3
BUILD_TYPE=Release
RUN_IN_PLACE=0
USE_CURL=1
USE_GETTEXT=1
USE_SOUND=1
STATIC_SHAREDIR="minetest.app/Contents/Resources"
STATIC_LOCALEDIR="minetest.app/Contents/Resources/locale"

Hope this helps.

Keep on the good work and prosper.

🌻

Minetest version

5.3.0

OS / Hardware

Operating system: Debian 11.6 linux 5.10.0-20-686 CPU: (Almost certainly doesn't matter but...) Pentium M @ 1.7Ghz

GPU model:Intel 82852/82855GM OpenGL version: 1.3

Summary

When running under opengl 1.3 the game fails to render when the "undersampling" option is set to a value larger then 1.

Steps to reproduce

1.) Insure minetest runs under opengl 1.3

2.) In the "minetest.conf" file set "undersampling" to "2" or larger.

Please note: undersampling works properly under opengl 3.0. This is not an issue with running under non-longmode (64bit) linux.

Possible solution: Issue a compatibility warning about "undersampling" when running under opengl1.3.

Problem

When pressing the home button on Android, the game seemingly continues to run in the background. There is no sticky notification to indicate this, and I was entirely unaware until I had the mineclone2 world select menu open and heard music in the background. This can cause battery drain.

Solutions

This should probably be configurable.

On singleplayer worlds and menus, if the user presses the home button the game should probably be paused and frozen, and on multiplayer worlds it should probably disconnect.

Alternatives

Alternatively, Minetest should have a sticky notification that indicates it is running.