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MiniatureCraft 2.x Alpha Edition

Antelux's Photo Antelux 16 Jan 2015

Alright! Time for a quick update on what I've been doing.

Because I thought the old main menus were ugly and ugh and stuff, I've been experimenting with a new, tab based menu.
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Of course, from here you can see an incomplete version of the menu.
Though, I want some thoughts on if it looks okay so far. I'm always able to change it's colors and stuff.

You can select different tabs simply by clicking on them. Simple.
From the singleplayer tab, you'll be able to create worlds, and load preexisting ones.
From the multiplayer tab, you'll be able to add and play on other servers.
Ideally, from the mods tab, you'll be able to not only see what mods you have installed, but you'll also be able to browse other mods from here. It'll just grab a pastebin link with a list of mods and their descriptions. Of course, there will need to be mods out for players to play, so on the game's release, I'll probably release some mods as well. (A computer mod, and maybe some other simple stuff)
From the options menu, you'll be able to rename your player, set their color, turn on or off Stream Mode, and maybe some other stuff. (Options to set themes for the launcher maybe?)

I've been thinking of adding a "News" menu. Potentially, it'll act in the same way you see info on the Minecraft launcher on startup. (What's been added to new updates, the game's current status, other fun messages, etc)
Anyway, let me know what you guys think about these features. Once I'm done with the interfaces and menus, the game will be around 95% complete, the rest being just sandbox related scripts.
We're almost there!
Edited by Detective_Smith, 16 January 2015 - 01:36 AM.
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Agent Silence's Photo Agent Silence 16 Jan 2015

Can you PM me a beta so I can start modding away?
It is such a glorious program!
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Antelux's Photo Antelux 16 Jan 2015

I've been considering to have a pre-release for those who just can't wait.
It'll probably be out this weekend if I do plan to release it. Otherwise, for now, try to keep your excitement in :P
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Antelux's Photo Antelux 20 Jan 2015

Sorry for such slow progress, finals are coming up, gotta study, etc.
However, I think I finally got a sand boxing script up. We're getting there.
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Antelux's Photo Antelux 23 Jan 2015

I wasn't too sure if I could do it. Had to borrow some stuff from my OS I gave up on a long time ago.
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Theoretically, I should actually be able to run the game in the game, in the game, in the game... you get the point :P
Computers are looking likely to come. Though, they wouldn't use the default ComputerCraft OS, but rather something really simple.
I'll name it "MicroOS" :P

Anyway, beside some slight problems I'm having with the event listening, looks like modding is rather powerful. I made that computer mod in 32 lines.
Though, as of now, I have yet to put in multi-computer support. Any computer you open would run the same coroutine. I'm sure I can add the support in an extra 10 lines or so :P

So, that's just a quick sneak peak. Still dealing with my finals, but hey, we're getting somewhere.

EDIT: Wow I used :P three times... er, four now.
Edited by Detective_Smith, 23 January 2015 - 12:35 AM.
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Bomb Bloke's Photo Bomb Bloke 23 Jan 2015

What's that, a 37x11 display? If I can scrape together time, I'll see if I can't write your first treasure disk. :lol:
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Geforce Fan's Photo Geforce Fan 25 Jan 2015

don't forget pocket computers
can't wait to run a computer on minecraft on minuaturecraft on my computer!
efficiency at its finest
Edited by Geforce Fan, 25 January 2015 - 02:55 AM.
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Antelux's Photo Antelux 25 Jan 2015

Almost done documenting these functions. Again, you can find them here.
What I need to do for the first release:

* Fix Crafting Menu
* Make lighting less laggy
* Finish up the start menu
* Make better entity scripts
* Fix a weird chest bug

Hopefully I can do this, and have the game released this month, or February.
Edited by Detective_Smith, 28 January 2015 - 07:10 PM.
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Agent Silence's Photo Agent Silence 25 Jan 2015

I wonder, if I was to make the Computers play miniature craft
hmmm
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Antelux's Photo Antelux 27 Jan 2015

Finally fixed the weird crafting bug. Time to make entities stop moving in only one direction, and fix up chests.
I might delay the lighting for the first release. It's kinda buggy.

Other than that, I've added a new API; Chat. It's pretty self explanatory.
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Upon first release, you'll be able to chat and do commands and stuff. Just gotta make the interface show what's been said so far. Commands do work though, however.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention. I've added doors as well. Oddly enough, I'm actually using the Menu API to make them open and close, simply because I can have a script run when they're interacted with.
Edited by Detective_Smith, 28 January 2015 - 12:06 AM.
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Phoenix323's Photo Phoenix323 28 Jan 2015

Where to download
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lare290's Photo lare290 29 Jan 2015

So when is first release coming?
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Agent Silence's Photo Agent Silence 29 Jan 2015

View PostPhoenix323, on 28 January 2015 - 01:54 AM, said:

Where to download
No download yet.

View Postlare290, on 29 January 2015 - 01:11 PM, said:

So when is first release coming?
Probably near the middle of February
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Antelux's Photo Antelux 14 Feb 2015

Hey! Just wanted to let you guys know the project isn't dead.

So, it turns out, the server script might be delayed more than expected. It turns out computercraft just isn't fast enough to run the server script in game. Though, it may be alot on my part. The server could use some optimizations, but it might be a bit. So, instead, I just focused on finishing the core parts of the game itself. I might release it sometime this week, after brushing and tweaking up some functions and alike. My only concerns right now are:

-- Fix a weird bug with the lighting where some parts of the screen are still seen
-- Save the storage table that some blocks (such as chests) have
-- New: Crafting bug where you can't craft even with the right amount of materials.
-- Newer: Crafting bug where the menu seems to act funny in displaying recipes.

As far as entities go, I'm not sure why, but they only seem to like to go in one direction after being spawned. They may be delayed as well to allow for quicker game release. Sorry it's been taking so long, but I'm really close to releasing the game. You may want to check back now and then on the progress.

EDIT: Finally added some pocket computer support. Some menus may still look clippy, but at least they can all be interacted with now.
Edited by Detective_Smith, 15 February 2015 - 07:08 PM.
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MKlegoman357's Photo MKlegoman357 14 Feb 2015

It's ok, don't rush too much! We can wait :). We not only want a 'game', we want a finished and a working good game. You're not getting payed for this (at least not that I know of :P) and you're doing it, I guess, just for fun, so take your time. As seen on this thread, you've done a lot of work, good luck with finishing it!
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Antelux's Photo Antelux 14 Feb 2015

View PostMKlegoman357, on 14 February 2015 - 08:07 PM, said:

It's ok, don't rush too much! We can wait :). We not only want a 'game', we want a finished and a working good game. You're not getting payed for this (at least not that I know of :P) and you're doing it, I guess, just for fun, so take your time. As seen on this thread, you've done a lot of work, good luck with finishing it!

Thanks! I just didn't want to get everyone hyped up, and have them wait a few more months. That would be rather annoying I'm guessing.
Also, I'm not being paid to do this. Just all for fun. But a release can be expected this week at the rate I'm going at currently. Hope you guys like the game.
Edited by Detective_Smith, 14 February 2015 - 08:29 PM.
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Geforce Fan's Photo Geforce Fan 15 Feb 2015

View PostDetective_Smith, on 14 February 2015 - 07:07 PM, said:

-snip-
Honestly, I wouldn't run a server on computercraft anyway. I'm fairly sure computercraft uses this API for http: http://w3.impa.br/~d...ware/luasocket/
so just load that up in plain old lua and run your code.


I has question.
How are you saving your files? Are you just saving them as a serialized table or something special? While developing a game-engine a while back(still haven't finished, very close & active though), I ran into problems trying to use serialized tables for a format because they where too big--taking up the screen was a whopping 40KB. I was able to reduce this by subbing out spaces & new lines, however, it was still a whopping 5KB to take up the screen.
Eventually I created a binary format for the pixels themselves, and a table for 3 or so other things, reducing file sizes by 85%.
Edited by Geforce Fan, 15 February 2015 - 07:41 AM.
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Lignum's Photo Lignum 15 Feb 2015

View PostGeforce Fan, on 15 February 2015 - 07:34 AM, said:

Honestly, I wouldn't run a server on computercraft anyway. I'm fairly sure computercraft uses this API for http: http://w3.impa.br/~d...ware/luasocket/
so just load that up in plain old lua and run your code.

It doesn't. The http API uses whatever Java provides. That library depends on a C library, which means you can't use it in your program anyway. Regardless, I think he means rednet servers, which would make a lot more sense.
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MKlegoman357's Photo MKlegoman357 15 Feb 2015

More about the server: what's so slow about it? The fastest response/update time can be one tick (about 1/20 seconds), that's not too bad, although not very good either.
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Antelux's Photo Antelux 15 Feb 2015

View PostGeforce Fan, on 15 February 2015 - 07:34 AM, said:

I has question.
How are you saving your files? Are you just saving them as a serialized table or something special? While developing a game-engine a while back(still haven't finished, very close & active though), I ran into problems trying to use serialized tables for a format because they where too big--taking up the screen was a whopping 40KB. I was able to reduce this by subbing out spaces & new lines, however, it was still a whopping 5KB to take up the screen.
Eventually I created a binary format for the pixels themselves, and a table for 3 or so other things, reducing file sizes by 85%.

Here's an example of what the overworld looks like after being saved:
Spoiler

Kinda looks ugly, but basically it works like this:
Each number represents a tile. So the number "50" is actually the ID for grass. However, if there is a ":", that means that there is a block on top of the tile. For example, 56:4 would mean that the asset id of 4 is on top of the asset id of 56. I'm not sure how I could get the saves to be any smaller. Other small things, such as the player data, is just saved as a serialized table, taking less than a kilobyte. However, even the smallest worlds (64x64) take up huge amounts of space. The one I just finished generating is around 7/10 the game's size itself (Which is around 112kb atm) and the largest worls (128x128) are nearly three times as large as the game itself. You mentioned something about a binary format. It would be interesting to know if this could help be a solution to making small saves. I'm just not exactly sure how it would work doing so.

Also, yes, I do mean rednet servers. Speaking of them:

View PostMKlegoman357, on 15 February 2015 - 12:59 PM, said:

More about the server: what's so slow about it? The fastest response/update time can be one tick (about 1/20 seconds), that's not too bad, although not very good either.

It's just the amount of data that needs to be sent over repeatedly. The world, the players, and the entities, all of which you can probably guess have plenty of data tied to them, need to be sent over to the client at a moments notice. Now, serializing the whole world works, but takes quite a few seconds, even on CClite. So, the way I plan to do it, is to copy parts of the world table (The ones necessary for the client) and then serialize it. I haven't tried it yet, but as you imagine, the server could get rather resource intensive pretty quickly. For now, I'm still steadily working on the game's release, but I'll return to the server afterward.
Edited by Detective_Smith, 15 February 2015 - 05:59 PM.
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