Luanti 5.13.0

[Krock]

Luanti 5.13.0 has been released!

Blog post: https://blog.luanti.org/2025/08/10/5.13.0-released/

Highlights

• Persistent ID's for Lua Entities. See ObjectRef:get_guid()
• Pasting multi-line text on Windows now works correctly.
• The minimap now displays drawtype = "air" nodes correctly.
• Various API additions
• Various other bug fixes and improvements
• Added new bugs to fix later

Changelog: https://docs.luanti.org/about/changelog/#5120--5130
Source code: https://github.com/luanti-org/luanti/tree/5.13.0

Downloads

Refer to the Assets section on the GitHub release page.

Which file do I need to download?

• Windows: win64 (common), win32 (old systems)
• MacOS: macos*_arm64 (for Apple Silicon), macos*_x86_64 (for Intel systems)
• Android: arm64-v8a (common), armabi-v7a (older devices), x86 (ChromeOS, budget), x86_64 (ChromeOS)
• Linux: check for updates in your package manager (WIP)

[birdlover32767]

finally, Luanti 5.13.0 :D

Persistent ID's for Lua Entities. See ObjectRef:get_guid()

nice addition

[TenPlus1]

Yaaaay! thanks devs :P

[ROllerozxa]

Bit of a smaller update than usual but good to have frequent releases. One nice change is that the keybind to immediately exit to the main menu is configurable and no longer set to Shift+ESC by default, so you don't accidentally leave a multiplayer server during a heated gameplay moment.

I have also gotten my builds of Luanti updated for 5.13.0, if anyone is using those:

• Luanti Windows RUN_IN_PLACE=0 builds
• Luanti Linux AppImage builds
• Luanti Linux headless server builds

[hezem]

This update is smaller than 5.12.0, still pretty good!

[Linuxdirk]

Great release as always, thanks to anyone involved.

I already updated using my custom PKGBUILD and faced no issues at all!

[Blockhead]

It's good to see incremental updates. Perhaps mod & game authors will start supporting 2 minor versions, or users will make it more of a habit to update.

[DragonWrangler1]

horray!

[Wuzzy]

This was a surprise release. No release candidate this time? I actually planned to help with testing this time. Oops.

Newly spawned entities now have a persistent GUID, see ObjectRef:get_guid() (sfence)

The entity ID is a very welcome addition. Thanks.

Vectors passed to C++ API functions may no longer have nil components.

I found this in my own games and it basically just triggers warnings for now. Still adding such warnings is always a good thing to also ensure stability of mod/game code. Luckily, there wasn’t a lot in my games I had to fix.

core.show_formspec now allows showing a player inventory (Krock)

How can I detect in Lua if this feature is available (e.g. for backwards-compatibility)? It doesn’t seem to be mentioned in core.features.

Tabs in formspecs can now be changed using Ctrl(+Shift)+Tab (siliconsniffer)

This means that this page needs to be updated:
https://docs.luanti.org/for-players/inventory/#controls

Main menu ContentDB usability improvements (grorp)

Huh? I’ve checked the page, both the offline content list, and the online mode, and I don’t see any change at all. Weird.

The Luanti version is now printed after the ASCII logo (sfan5)

Now make the ASCII Luanti logo use a capital letter "L" and it’ll be perfect. :D

New API function core.get_mapgen_chunksize() (sfan5)

Thanks, but don’t we already get the same information with core.get_mapgen_setting().chunksize? Why was this added? Was it added for the off-chance that mapgen chunks may one day no longer be cube-shaped? :D

[Linuxdirk]

The Luanti version is now printed after the ASCII logo (sfan5)

Now make the ASCII Luanti logo use a capital letter "L" and it’ll be perfect. :D

I wish it would be possible to disable this unnecessary noise, though.

[rubenwardy]

core.show_formspec now allows showing a player inventory (Krock)

How can I detect in Lua if this feature is available (e.g. for backwards-compatibility)? It doesn’t seem to be mentioned in core.features.

This is a client feature. You should check formspec_version (if it was bumped) or protocol version

Main menu ContentDB usability improvements (grorp)

Huh? I’ve checked the page, both the offline content list, and the online mode, and I don’t see any change at all. Weird.

You can now click install on a package before the package page finishes loading

[Blockhead]

New API function core.get_mapgen_chunksize() (sfan5)

Thanks, but don’t we already get the same information with core.get_mapgen_setting().chunksize? Why was this added? Was it added for the off-chance that mapgen chunks may one day no longer be cube-shaped? :D

Yes:

Mods often manually parse the chunksize setting. If we want to ever change how this works (soon 😉) breakage will instantly occur.
With this API function it's both easier and future-compatible for mods.
[#16289]

[ShallowDweller]

1st of all, thanks for the update and all the great work!

on LMDE:
good news: this version is already available in the app manager
bad news: the update manager does not seem to be able to detect the package or that it was updated (this has been going on since v 5.12, but i was busy irl) i had to install it to get the update (instead of just updating it) and it would not leave the updates available list (at least not until i uninstalled and reinstalled).
.it also seems like i'll have to manually move my settings and mods/games/textures to the new launcher or re-download everything, but that's an inconvenience more than a serious issue (specially since the saves from v 5.11 are probably incompatible and require conversion anyway).
leaving this here in case someone else has the same issue.

EDIT: now i have 2 versions of luanti on my system:
5.11, which has desktop and start menu shortcuts;
5.13, which i can only access from the app manager (let's see if i can figure out how to put a desktop shortcut on that one)

[Wuzzy]

core.show_formspec now allows showing a player inventory (Krock)

How can I detect in Lua if this feature is available (e.g. for backwards-compatibility)? It doesn’t seem to be mentioned in core.features.

This is a client feature. You should check formspec_version (if it was bumped) or protocol version

Thanks, it was the protocol version that helped, it works as intended. It still leaves a bad taste in my mouth to rely on the protocol version for that.

I would like it more if core.features wouldn't be riddled with holes each release. There should be a rule that core.features MUST be updated when creating a PR for a Lua feature unless you can use an "if" to check if a function exists. Or else it is likely to be forgotten when the release day comes.

[MatyasP]

Newly spawned entities now have a persistent GUID, see ObjectRef:get_guid() (sfence)

The entity ID is a very welcome addition. Thanks.

How has defined the unicue IDs / unique settings for vehicles AdvTrains? Is this update for AdvTrains and AdvTrains-based mods change: minor, halfly-important or crucial?

New API function core.get_mapgen_chunksize() (sfan5)

Thanks, but don’t we already get the same information with core.get_mapgen_setting().chunksize? Why was this added? Was it added for the off-chance that mapgen chunks may one day no longer be cube-shaped? :D

It seems like that you want... to have torus-based world! :D

My questions are:
1) What is planned to be in 5.14?
2) Which month is planned to be 5.14 released?

[rubenwardy]

I would like it more if core.features wouldn't be riddled with holes each release. There should be a rule that core.features MUST be updated when creating a PR for a Lua feature unless you can use an "if" to check if a function exists. Or else it is likely to be forgotten when the release day comes.

core.features can only be used to check server features as it is on the server. We don't have a mechanism for checking client features other than the protocol version or formspec version

[Desour]

My questions are:
1) What is planned to be in 5.14?
2) Which month is planned to be 5.14 released?

1) There are no exact plans. Whatever is ready will be shipped. You can make guesses from open PRs and milestones though.

2) The release milestone has the planned release date usually: https://github.com/luanti-org/luanti/milestones
(Next one (and this one) are scheduled such that next one should be released before the next game jam.)

core.features can only be used to check server features as it is on the server. We don't have a mechanism for checking client features other than the protocol version or formspec version

If it requires new server AND client, there should be both core.features and protocol / formspec version bump, no?
Looks like an oversight to me.

[Blockhead]

Newly spawned entities now have a persistent GUID, see ObjectRef:get_guid() (sfence)

The entity ID is a very welcome addition. Thanks.

How has defined the unicue IDs / unique settings for vehicles AdvTrains? Is this update for AdvTrains and AdvTrains-based mods change: minor, halfly-important or crucial?

There is no relation to Advtrains at the moment. Trains and wagons have their own IDs tracked by that mod, but AdvTrains only uses Luanti's entity functionality when a train is visible: Every time a wagon becomes visible to more than 0 players, wagon and coupling entities are spawned. When the wagon becomes visible to 0 players again, it and its couplings get destroyed as entities. There is not much benefit to persisting the entities with unique IDs and moving them around in unloaded areas; that would seem only to add to the processing taken for trains not in loaded areas, which is not good for performance, and the simulation of trains needs to be kept lightweight.

[Wuzzy]

I would like it more if core.features wouldn't be riddled with holes each release. There should be a rule that core.features MUST be updated when creating a PR for a Lua feature unless you can use an "if" to check if a function exists. Or else it is likely to be forgotten when the release day comes.

core.features can only be used to check server features as it is on the server. We don't have a mechanism for checking client features other than the protocol version or formspec version

Oh, wait. Now that makes sense. I guess I was confused because I'm building a singleplayer game, where there is no meaningful distinction between server and client. Oops!