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Open source voxel game engine Minetest has a new release

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Inspired by Minecraft and Infiniminer, the open source and highly moddable voxel game engine Minetest has a new release available now.

Since it's only a game engine, out of the box it's a little bare-bones. It does have a default Minetest Game, which is slowly expanding with more but it's quite basic. In this latest release the Minetest Game itself gained Wild Cotton, Straw Stairs/Slabs became usable as fuel, there's new textures for Dry Shrub and Brake Rail plus some new particle stuff for leaves and TNT.

After going over the changes, here's a few quick other highlights for Minetest itself:

  • Smoother camera movement for jumping
  • More precise player control handling
  • DPI scaling for Windows
  • Optional tone mapping for entities
  • New map generation options
  • Lots of networking improvements and a PostgreSQL authentication backend
  • Tons of bug fixes

The key with Minetest is the modding scene and it's quite big. This release expands the modding API again with new vector functions that will be useful for working with rotations, the Zoom key is now exposed to the API, mods can check if creative mode is enabled, scalable texts in the HUD are in, server-side translations are possible and more.

With a built-in content downloader, there's tons of extras available for it including whole conversions and simple game modes like capture the flag. It also downloads what you need when you try to join an online game—nice. Checking in on it today, there's multiple hundreds of people playing it online.

What are your favourite packs to play with Minetest? Let your fellow readers know where it's best to get started. You can find out more on the Minetest website. You can download it easily as a Snap, a PPA for Ubuntu is available too or Flatpak.

After more sandbox-like survival games? Have a look at Vintage Story too.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments

randyl Jul 10, 2020
This project amazes me somewhat. The original Java implementation of Minecraft had some limitations due to the language choice. So, some people reimplemented Minecraft in C++. I like how this game focused heavily on the community and modding to generate specific content while they develop the engine. To me, it's a great example of a truly collaborative FOSS experience.
In addition to the other package formats, user An0n3m0us on the Minetest forums maintains an Appimage version of Minetest on Github.
Dunc Jul 10, 2020
Quoting: RandomizedKirbyTree47In addition to the other package formats, user An0n3m0us on the Minetest forums maintains an Appimage version of Minetest on Github.
Totally OT, but until I saw the source on that GitHub page I'd never realised that AppImages are based on ROX-style application directories, which are basically a UNIX-ization of the RISC OS original (!Run becomes AppRun, !Help becomes ./Help, etc.). How cool is that? Build an AppImage on an ARM platform, and you're practically halfway to an Acorn Archimedes.
Lemosbash Jul 12, 2020
Tested this game a little bit, people really underestimate it, it's not minecraft, even though it's similar, we should not expect a minecraft 2 from it, this game is great, and i see MUCH potential in it
Diable Jul 15, 2020
Quoting: LemosbashTested this game a little bit, people really underestimate it, it's not minecraft, even though it's similar, we should not expect a minecraft 2 from it, this game is great, and i see MUCH potential in it

And that's what keeps Minetest from going mainstream. The lack of a base game mode that plays like actual Minecraft.
kneekoo Jul 17, 2020
Quoting: DiableAnd that's what keeps Minetest from going mainstream. The lack of a base game mode that plays like actual Minecraft.

Content -> Browse online content -> Games -> MineClone 2 -> Install

It's not a full-blown Minecraft replica but it has a lot of its features and it keeps getting updates and polish. :)
randyl Jul 17, 2020
Quoting: kneekoo
Quoting: DiableAnd that's what keeps Minetest from going mainstream. The lack of a base game mode that plays like actual Minecraft.

Content -> Browse online content -> Games -> MineClone 2 -> Install

It's not a full-blown Minecraft replica but it has a lot of its features and it keeps getting updates and polish. :)
The community modding system is the powerhouse behind this game. The experience doesn't limit players to "just Minecraft". I think that is pretty rad.


Last edited by randyl on 17 July 2020 at 3:56 pm UTC
kneekoo Jul 24, 2020
True. :) But we have to acknowledge the close relationship of the modding community and the Minetest developers, which is quite healthy. For instance, Wuzzy - the founder and main developer of MineClone 2 - also contributes improvements to Minetest to support Minecraft-like features and mechanics. And he's not the only modder doing "upstream" contributions, so Minetest's future is pretty exciting.

As for MineClone 2, the next update will include potions, tipped arrows, Enderman improvements, fixed mobs and other tweaks and fixes. :) So... woo-hoo!


Last edited by kneekoo on 26 July 2020 at 4:03 pm UTC
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