Minetest

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Minetest
Original author(s)Perttu Ahola
Developer(s)Minetest team
Initial release0.0.1 / November 2, 2010; 13 years ago (2010-11-02)
Stable release
5.8.0[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 4 December 2023
Repositorygithub.com/minetest/minetest
Written inC++, Lua
EngineIrrlicht (Irrlicht-MT fork)
PlatformMicrosoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Android
TypeSandbox, survival
License2013: LGPL-2.1-or-later[2][3]
2010: GPL-2.0-or-later[4][5]
Original: Proprietary[6]
Websitehttps://www.minetest.net/

Minetest is a free and open-source voxel game creation system. It is written primarily in C++ and makes use of the Irrlicht Engine. Minetest provides a Lua API allowing users to write their own games and mods. It is cross-platform, being available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, some BSD descendants, some GNU variants and Android.[7]

An in-game browser lets users download games and modifications from the ContentDB website.[8] The five most popular games by downloads are VoxeLibre, Minetest Game, NodeCore, Tutorial and Subway Miner.[9]

Over a decade of active development Minetest has garnered critical acclaim and gained in popularity; since November 2013 Minetest has been downloaded over 1.4 million times from GitHub[citation needed] , and the Android version of Minetest has over a million downloads on the Google Play store[10] .

Gameplay[edit]

The meeting of dry plains, green plains, and jungles
Player character near dry plains, green plains, and jungle biomes

The game world of all Minetest games is composed of voxels which are mostly cubes aligned in a 3D grid. However the player and creatures can move around freely. In Minetest voxels are called nodes. Different nodes represent various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava.

The most popular games for Minetest are VoxeLibre (formerly Mineclone2) and Minetest Game.[11] Both are sandbox building games.

VoxeLibre is a full game with animals, monsters, interesting biomes, whereas Minetest Game is a lifeless sandbox with mostly landscape nodes.

While technically playable without, Minetest Game relies on modifications to add creatures, more biomes, gameplay mechanics, armours, weapons, tools, decorative nodes and so on.

The gameplay of VoxeLibre revolves around picking up and placing these nodes, gathering materials, crafting items and nodes by placing them in a crafting grid in the inventory window, smelting ores in the oven, farming crops, animal husbandry, eating food and defeating monsters to survive. Some nodes can only be picked up with certain held tools the player has to craft.

Snowy conifers at the edge of ice plains
Snowy conifer biome at the edge of ice plains

As players explore the world, new areas are procedurally generated, using a map seed specified by the player. A new game puts the player in the center of a voxel cube 62 thousand nodes across, so the player can travel 31 thousand nodes in any direction (sideways, up, or down)[12] before reaching the invisible wall at the end of the world.

The world is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields; the terrain includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and various lava/water bodies. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, and one full cycle lasts 20 real-time minutes.

Minetest provides two play style options across games: Enable Damage and Creative Mode. Disabling damage prevents dying, thus losing items and the possible frustration it might cause and Creative Mode provides players with infinite resources to build whatever they want without having to gather them first.[13]

Multiplayer[edit]

Built-in Internet server browser
Built-in Internet server browser

Minetest offers players to play together over the internet or the local network by joining a server or hosting their own.

Players can either connect by IP or select the server from the built-in server browser if the host chose to publish it there by selecting the checkbox.

Instead of centralized account systems proprietary games use for the whole software, Minetest allows registering and logging into accounts on each individual server.

Customization[edit]

Built-in content browser

Minetest provides an interface for games and mods written in Lua. Mods are server-side and work out of the box when playing on servers, with no installation required.

Minetest features a built-in content browser showing packages uploaded to ContentDB, allowing users to install games, mods and texture packs with a single click. Over 2300 packages are available there as of May 2024[14] and many more on the forums.

  • Default texture pack
    Default texture pack
  • RPG16 texture pack
    RPG16 texture pack
  • Hand Painted high resolution texture pack
    Hand Painted high resolution texture pack
Crystal cave biome generated by caverealms mod
Crystal cave biome generated by Underground Realms mod

Mods can be used to add or modify nodes, gameplay mechanics, tools, weapons, armour, monsters, player skins and the user interface.

The full source code of Minetest and most of its games and their artistic assets such as textures and sounds, are distributed under free licenses, making it easier to publish modified versions and derivatives.

  • Interior design using Home Decor mod
    Interior design using Home Decor mod
  • Interior design using Home Decor mod
    A horse from the Mob Horse mod


Development[edit]

Minetest-c55 0.4.dev, April 8, 2012 build

Minetest was originally released in November 2010 under a proprietary license.[6] Shortly afterwards the license was changed to the GPL-2.0-or-later license.[5] By agreement among major contributors, in June 2012 the project license was to be changed to LGPL-2.1-or-later, though at the time small parts still remained under the GPL-2.0-or-later license.[4] In September 2013, the transition was complete.[3] While LGPL-2.1-or-later remains the main license for the Minetest engine, other free and open-source licenses are used for various other parts of the latest release.[2]

Perttu Ahola was the only developer working on the project for about six months, until Ciaran Gultnieks started making code contributions in May 2011.[15] The roster of contributors grew and changed over the years. As of July 2020, there are 9 active core developers and 15 active contributors. Project participants do not have set roles, but rather keep their activity within their respective areas of expertise. Perttu Ahola's role morphed over the years: whereas initially it was engine development, now it is mostly Web-hosting and administration, assigning core developer, moderator, and other roles to people, as well as being the final word in cases where other developers are unable to render a decision.[15]

Since version 5.0.0 the in-game browser lets users download games and modifications as well as their dependencies from a website called ContentDB.[8]

As of Minetest 5.8.0 the Minetest Engine no longer ships with a default game.[16]

Usage in education[edit]

Minetest has been used in educational environments to teach subjects such as mathematics, programming, and earth sciences. Such examples are:

  • In 2017 in France, Minetest was used to teach calculus and trigonometry.[17]
  • At Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil, Minetest was used to teach programming in a variant called MineScratch.[18]
  • In 2018, for Laboratory Education and Apprenticeships (EDA) at the Paris Descartes University, Minetest was used to teach life and earth sciences to year 6 students who could not observe some phenomena in person but could experience them in the Minetest virtual world.[19]

Reception[edit]

Opensource.com listed Minetest at #1 in its "Best open source games of 2015",[20] stating that it is maybe "the most complete alternative to Minecraft", and noted its expansibility, stating that it contains a user-friendly API for creating mods in Lua.[21] PC Magazine listed Minetest among "The best Sandbox Creation Games for Minecraft Fans".[22]

See also[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Minetest.
Wikinews has an interview related to Minetest:

References[edit]

  1. ^ "5.8.0".
  2. ^ a b "LICENSE.txt". GitHub. October 25, 2021. Archived from the original on January 3, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Remove doc/gpl-2.0.txt, add doc/lgpl-2.1.txt". GitHub. September 28, 2013. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Switch the license to be LGPLv2/later, with small parts still remaining as GPLv2/later, by agreement of major contributors". GitHub. June 5, 2012. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Working version before block send priorization update". GitHub. November 27, 2010. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Initial files". GitHub. November 26, 2010. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
  7. ^ "Minetest". December 11, 2023. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Content Flags". December 11, 2023. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  9. ^ "Games". ContentDB. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  10. ^ "minetest - Android Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  11. ^ "Games". ContentDB. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  12. ^ "Official website". Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  13. ^ "Minetest, Free and Open Source Sandbox Game... | Linux Game News • Minetest, Free and Open Source Sandbox Game Inspired by Minecraft". linuxgamenews.com. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  14. ^ "Packages". ContentDB. Retrieved May 29, 2024.
  15. ^ a b "Open source game developer Perttu Ahola talks about Minetest with Wikinews". Wikinews. June 30, 2020. Archived from the original on July 12, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  16. ^ "Minetest 5.8.0 released!". December 11, 2023. Archived from the original on December 11, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023.
  17. ^ Boutet, Henri. (January 2017). "Mathématiques et "serious gaming": l'exemple de Minetest" [Mathematics and "serious gaming": the example of Minetest]. Mathématice (in French) (53). Archived from the original on June 29, 2019. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  18. ^ da, Rocha, Jhonata (November 23, 2016). "MineScratch: integração minetest-scratch para apoiar o ensino de programação" [MineScratch: Minetest-Scratch Integration to Support Programming Teaching]. Repositório Institucional da UFSC (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on February 3, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2019.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Pauty-Combemorel C. (February 7, 2018). "Utilisation d'un jeu vidéo dans le cadre de l'enseignement des SVT: le cas de Minetest. De 0 à 1 ou l'heure de l'informatique à l'école" [Using a video game as part of the teaching of Life and Earth Sciences: the case of Minetest. From 0 to 1 or computer time at school.] (in French). Archived from the original on October 11, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  20. ^ Muilwijk, Robin (December 30, 2015). "Best open source games of 2015". Opensource.com. Archived from the original on May 1, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
  21. ^ Baker, Jason (October 12, 2017). "10 open source alternatives to Minecraft". Opensource.com. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  22. ^ Cohen, Jason (August 28, 2019). "The Best Sandbox Creation Games for Minecraft Fans". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
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