Minetest 5.7.0 release candidate 1

[rubenwardy]

Hi all!

The Minetest 5.7.0 feature freeze has begun, which means we'd be very grateful for help testing the prerelease version. Feature freezes are a period of time before release where we fix bugs and do not add any new features, to improve stability. If all goes well, Minetest 5.7.0 should be released in week's time.

This release will be dedicated to Jude Melton-Houghton (TurkeyMcMac / jwmhjwmh)

Highlights

• New graphical effects: postprocessing shaders, bloom, and dynamic exposure
• Improved performance on high-end systems at large view ranges (some report 60FPS at 1000 nodes view range) (you need to change the client_mesh_chunk setting to benefit from this)
• Improved mapblock meshgen performance (will result in faster map loading)
• Lots of other performance improvements
• Rotating entity selection boxes
• Dynamic shadow improvements
• Android: support for using a fixed crosshair, like on desktop
• Mods can now find out the player's window size, which will allow for full-screen and more responsive GUIs
• It's no longer possible to load a world if mods have unsatisfied dependencies. Before, Minetest would automatically disable these mods - but it led to confusion. You will need to add the missing dependency or disable the mods

Known issues

• Infinite view range doesn't work

Please report any issues on GitHub or the forums

Downloads

• Windows: 32-bit 64-bit (Windows 10 or 11)
• Android: 64-bit (note: you'll need to uninstall any existing installs of the app first. This won't be needed with the actual release. Make sure to backup worlds.) (Android 5.0 or later)
• Linux: AppImage or self-compilation
• MacOS: .zip containing the app (10.14 or later)

Commit hash: 9ef3c8

[Inocudom]

)-( May Jude Melton-Houghton be remembered forever by version 5.7.0. )-(

[ronoaldo]

Very happy to see the improvements! Quick question, am I correct to assume Android builds will now be able to use the shaders we have in desktop, like shadows? Or I misunderstood the comment changes on Git?

As a side note, I have an unofficial and possibly easier to test Linux build for amd64 architecture here using AppImage. The one from the Gitlab repo was not working for me on Debian 11:

https://github.com/ronoaldo/minetestcli ... .7.0-rc1-1

[rubenwardy]

Very happy to see the improvements! Quick question, am I correct to assume Android builds will now be able to use the shaders we have in desktop, like shadows? Or I misunderstood the comment changes on Git?

Unfortunately, dynamic shadows are the one thing Android can't do - it requires features not available in GL ES. But Android will support the new post-processing shaders like bloom and dynamic exposure.

As a side note, I have an unofficial and possibly easier to test Linux build for amd64 architecture here using AppImage. The one from the Gitlab repo was not working for me on Debian 11:

https://github.com/ronoaldo/minetestcli ... .7.0-rc1-1

Ah thanks. Hopefully this will help someone, we should definitely fix our appimages in that case

[ronoaldo]

Oh that is cool. Thanks for the heads up! Again, congratulations for the continued work!

Testing up on my server and also on my mobile now. Super excited for the new screen info ☺️

[ronoaldo]

As a side note, I have an unofficial and possibly easier to test Linux build for amd64 architecture here using AppImage. The one from the Gitlab repo was not working for me on Debian 11:

https://github.com/ronoaldo/minetestcli ... .7.0-rc1-1

Ah thanks. Hopefully this will help someone, we should definitely fix our appimages in that case

Oops, it seems like this is no longer the case! Gitlab AppImage worked this time. Previous versions were not working. The only issue with the AppImage from Gitlab was the locale (I have mine set to pt-BR but it displayed in English), but it launched instead of raising an error! So probably already fixed!

This is the output of the program:

Code: Select all

$ ./minetest-gitlab 
2023-03-05 22:59:42: WARNING[Main]: system-wide share not found at "/builds/minetest/minetest/artifact/minetest/usr/share/minetest"
2023-03-05 22:59:42: WARNING[Main]: system-wide share found at "/tmp/.mount_mineteE3kfxy/usr/bin/../share/minetest"
2023-03-05 22:59:42: WARNING[Main]: Couldn't find a locale directory!
2023-03-05 22:59:43: WARNING[Main]: Could not load icon file '/builds/minetest/minetest/artifact/minetest/usr/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/minetest.png'
2023-03-05 22:59:43: WARNING[Main]: Could not load icon file '/tmp/.mount_mineteE3kfxy/usr/bin/../share/minetest/misc/minetest-xorg-icon-128.png'
Quit message received.

[rob123]

bloom not in default game

[Blockhead]

bloom not in default game

Good, bloom makes me feel like I need to get my eyesight checked. First thing I turned off in Oblivion. Post-processing should be minimised in most games in general but especially in Minetest Game in my opinion, which is supposed to be generic and widely appreciable.

To server owners and mod authors: This is the time, if you have time, to move your testing/staging environments forward to the release candidate and report the issues that you have. Don't wait until after the release and then complain, because by then you may have to wait for a point release (5.7.1) to fix your issues. Let's make it a great release so the usual suspects don't get sour over things breaking - which they may inevitably do, but with varying degrees of validity.

Update: I'm really annoyed by the lack of infinite view range, hopefully this issue gets the attention it needs for 5.7.0.

[TenPlus1]

Thanks for all your hard work guys, kinda wish the daily .deb build was working to test it out properly as the AppImage fails with a segmentation fault.

[rubenwardy]

kinda wish the daily .deb build was working to test it out properly

Fixed

[TenPlus1]

Yay! Thanks Rubenwardy.

[Andrey01]

It's nice to hear the feature freeze has finally begun. Actually this will be a release dedicated only to the postprocessing shaders. However, it's pity the dual wielding and the settings menu redesign will be missed in the upcoming release, also potentially my 3dline rendering feature could be timely reviewed and merged. So, there would be whole 4 major features included.

[Horka]

Great !
Thanks to all who have contributed.
(I tried it and it seems very good to me, the shaders are impressive.)
I just have a remark to make:
I don't know if this is possible or if this is planned. But for me I think it would be a pretty handy feature. would it be possible in future versions that we don't have to save our map and copy it to the new version.
There should be a link between the old and the new versions. I don't think this is your first emergency, but as a user of minetest for some time I give you my opinion and this is for me one of the downsides of minetest.
And again thank you to all those who contribute to the development of minetest.

[blocker]

Unfortunately no longer for MacOS High Sierra (10.13.x) on my iMac from 2011.
Please add the minimum version of MacOS in the description.

[rubenwardy]

Added, we support 10.14 or later

[runs]

The speed-up release.

[Wuzzy]

5.7.0 let's GOOOOOOOOO! :D :D

The screen info update sounds useful, maybe I'll finally be able to fix hudbars on all OSes. :-)

I've tested bloom already, this makes Glitch and Backrooms Test look very special. :D

It would be nice if there was a changelog *before* release so we know what we need to test. :P
At least we got the "highlights", which is better than nothing. xD

Besides: R.I.P. TurkeyMcMac. :-( The dedication is well-deserved.

[rubenwardy]

Improved performance on high-end systems at large view ranges (some report 60FPS at 1000 nodes view range)

At 1000 view range, the FPS on the Steam Deck has increased from 10 to 30 - 48.

Note that you need to change a setting to get this performance improvement (client_mesh_chunk = 4)

[ShadMOrdre]

In testing the new view distance range using sfans latest build, I encounter the following issues:

1. When view range is disabled, the unlimited view range is still limited by the view range setting. In previous versions, when unlimited view range was enabled, you could see all previously generated terrain. Now, I can only see what is within the view range.

2. In order to use this feature, would the client_unload_unused_data_timeout and client_mapblock_limit have an effect. In previous versions, I set unused data timeout to 3600 and mapblock limit to -1. I still have to set those two settings, or blocks will begin to unload before I've generated a 1km stretch of terrain to then view.

My system is: Win10 Pro 64bit on an i5-4590 3.3Ghz, 8GB ram, GeForce GT1030 with 2GB.

I have set the client_mesh_chunk setting to 4, as suggested. FPS begins to fall above 180 view distance, dropping to 2-3 FPS when viewing at 2km.

The three pics show the effect. Debug info is enabled in pics, showing relevant version info.

Any suggestions?


Shad

[Blockhead]

In testing the new view distance range using sfans latest build, I encounter the following issues:

1. When view range is disabled, the unlimited view range is still limited by the view range setting.

This is filed as #13224 over at GitHub. Go give it a thumb up and add any additional useful comments you have over there.

[Wuzzy]

The translation templates are now updated on Weblate. They are ready for translation: https://hosted.weblate.org/translate/minetest/

Here's a list of features I contributed to this release:

• New paramtype2: 4dir and color4dir: This allows a node to have exactly 4 possible rotations. Basically a simplified version of facedir, added to simplify code, but also to unlock more colors for such a simple node
• Attached nodes also work with facedir and 4dir.
• Nodes can be natively attached to the ceiling as well
• More DevTest stuff. Most importantly, a search feature was added for items

[JALdMIC]

You know if the function get_bone_position will by fixed for this release? because is broken(only give the position and is 0),this maybe not be difficult because when a object is parent to a bone this get their rotation and position.

[LMD]

You know if the function get_bone_position will by fixed for this release? because is broken(only give the position and is 0),this maybe not be difficult because when a object is parent to a bone this get their rotation and position.

No. This is nontrivial to fix serverside; it would require the server to read and perhaps even animate the models.

[Festus1965]

When I had to recompile as of lost server OS, I even did not think anymore to try 5.7.0-rc1 out,
after hosting now since 0.4.15 ? and witnessing now major benefit of new versions, in server side and also client side speed,
I just was sure 5.6.1 is old enough and proofed stability to give it a try, and was lucky to find out why 5.6.1 was rejecting find postgresql now, as 5.5.0 compiling on same system worked direkt.

Good Luck with 5.7.0 - I might jump on after 3 months out and active.

Sure thanks for the devs ... but as you know me, there are other things around minetest, that need to be improved.
servers-list with better focus on local server, as most gamer still are too ... to use nearby server and as even don't understand yet the concept of data transfer time and so pulling the rtt lag onto the engine itself.
The still declining player after a limited time over new year show clear - new versions are not helping against loosing player.

[mazes_80]

Fast privilege is now working, until now it was not fast under water.