Modding Tutorial Book (new: Privileges)

[Jordach]

If anyone asks why that Dropbox link leads to BiomeAPI.odf, that's my segment for this, as there isn't any decent Biome API documentation, so I'm writing it.

[rubenwardy]

Thank you Jordach. I'll edit that and convert it tomorrow - I'm away from my computer this evening, doing real life things D:

[leeminer]

I'm sure you all knew, but I see your tutorial on the wiki!!

http://dev.minetest.net/Intro

[Jordach]

Thank you Jordach. I'll edit that and convert it tomorrow - I'm away from my computer this evening, doing real life things D:

Still not finished. Don't even bother. :3

[Gael de Sailly]

Started to draft the mapgen/ores/LVM tuto. Not finished. Today is the lastest day of the holidays, so you will probably wait for the next weekend.

[rubenwardy]

Added a chapter on releasing a mod to the forum.


Read the 'Releasing a Mod' chapter - Download Book

[Gael de Sailly]

For the mapgen tuto : sorry, not finished yet ; I'm not lazy, but I have a lot of projects (Minetest and not only). Too many projects for me, I have not a lot of time because of school.
Maybe, one day, I will finish it.
If someone else is good in mapgen, and have more free time than me, he can make this tuto himself.

It's not so easy, there are a lot of complex features to explain. I was naive at first, I thought I could finish it in 1 or 2 hours !

[rubenwardy]

Try spitting it into smaller chapters.

• Mapgen - explain about the structure of map gen, flags
• Biomes. (Done by Jordach)
• Ores and Decoration.
• Mapgen and LVM -Create lua Mapgen in single node using noise. Basic stuff.

It takes me 2 hours on average to make a chapter. 'Releasing a Mod' has taken the longest so far, at 3 hours.

[Gael de Sailly]

It takes me 2 hours on average to make a chapter. 'Releasing a Mod' has taken the longest so far, at 3 hours.

Yes but I write it in French, and it will take me a lot of time to translatein English.

[rubenwardy]

Added Player Physics chapter

[Don]

Added Player Physics chapter

+1
I have been busy but I am going to get back into studying. Thank you so much for your hard work. It will help me a lot.

[Wuzzy]

Wow!
I am seriously impressed by the documents so far. It's not really useful for me, however, because I already know most of that stuff. :D It is still unfinished so far, but I already have a first good impression.

I am happy to see a section about drawtypes. It was about time these things got documented. IMO this stuff is so important it should go into the dev wiki as well. The allfaces and allfaces_optional drawtype is poorly documented and the image does not match the description.
The nodebox section needs serious expansion, maybe some screenshots might help. I think a newbie might not find that section particulary useful. Same for torchlike, I find the torchlike example a bit too overwhelming (it uses animated tiles, a concept which should be taught somewhere else).
And please mind the correct casing. It's “torchlike”, not “Torchlike” or “TorchLike”.

But on the other hand, this section is incomplete anyways, so no reason to complain (yet). :P
Minetest 0.4.11 also introduced a couple of new drawtypes, like firelike and mesh and probably more, please don't forget to include them.

I really hope you manage to finish this!
I am looking forward to see the chapter about LuaVoxelManipulator, because this is one thing I still have trouble understanding. I know it is already on your to-do list, this is just my personal view here.
It is not the functions which confuse me, it is how these functions interact, also I like to know the underlying concepts and how to use the LuaVoxelManipulator efficiently. With some realistic examples and a few hints and tips added, this chapter would already be very good.

[Evergreen]

Once this is finished, I hope to see it go in the minetest source under the docs folder. This should be included with the source once it is complete, and it should be updated like lua_api.txt whenever there are changes.

[ExeterDad]

It's been awhile so I decided to visit your book again. I am very impressed with everything about it! Programmers rarely write documentation that typical folks can understand. And it's usually so dry interest is lost very quickly.
I know little of lua. But here and there I've hit a few tutorials attempting to learn. I've found myself confused trying to apply what I learned to Minetest. A quick glance of your book turned into me reading all that you've written thus far. Things really started clicking when I read your examples and explanations. I also learned many details I never noticed while pouring over the api many, many times.
Thank you for your efforts. They will benefit many more people aside from myself.

[Fox]

It takes me 2 hours on average to make a chapter. 'Releasing a Mod' has taken the longest so far, at 3 hours.

Yes but I write it in French, and it will take me a lot of time to translatein English.

Gael de Sailly,

Feel free to share it in as little or big of chunks as you'd like. :) Doesn't have to be perfect. Some of what's up now seems to still be under construction.

Do whatever works for you though. I look forward to what comes of it. :) Thanks for your work on it so far.

Thanks to everyone for their work so far.

[rubenwardy]

A small announcement, the repo has been renamed to /minetest_modding_book/ (from /minetest_doc/). You should correct any links, however it doesn't matter, I've set up redirects. It is also being hosted on rubenwardy.com rather than rubenwardy.github.io, but that redirects too.

I have also fixed some typos and clarified things in node drawtypes. Not finished yet, though. I need nice renders of drawtypes. (see existing images)

[false_chicken]

This played an essential role in teaching me to mod Minetest. Thanks rubenwardy! Great stuff here.

[rubenwardy]

The folder structure chapter has been partially rewritten. All the examples in the book can downloaded or browsed in the GitHub branch. A feedback form is now on the homepage, to allow easier reporting of issues. I will be going through all the chapters and correcting mistakes tonight. Expect more chapters this week. I'm open to suggestions.

I'd love more contributors to this book.

[false_chicken]

It would be awesome if this could be exported to EPUB. Probably not worth the work but I would enjoy it xD.

[Amaz]

One epub conversion here! https://www.dropbox.com/s/qv730im2vidmy ... .epub?dl=0

I'm not really sure what this is like on an e-reader (I presume that is why you wanted it!), but it should work alright.
It wasn't that hard to make, and I'm sure that there are easier ways than what I did...

[Don]

This book is a great resource. Thanks again for your hard work.
Was wondering if you are planning on doing any chapters on methods and objects?

[Don]

Just noticed that you do not have a section on adding sound.
Any chance of you adding a chapter on it. The wiki has a bit but I know there is more to sound then what the wiki says.
I have come to rely on your book and appreciate it very much.
Thanks for everything you do.

[prestidigitator]

MediaWiki also uses a form of markdown. Have you considered publishing the book to the developer wiki? That's already the modders' go-to reference, allows easy linking to API elements you are describing in the text, etc. I love the effort, but it'd be nice to have all of this type of thing in one place.

[rubenwardy]

The rationale behind using a separate system:

• Dictatorship. I can get to control what goes in. Spelling mistakes don't matter as much as lack of clarity and poor grammar. People on wikis seem to add irrelevant details which the reader doesn't need to know at that stage in learning.
• Clean downloading as static HTML.

Typos do exist in the book, but nobody ever submits PRs to change this. It's probably because it's not worth git cloning, etc, just for a small change. A wiki would solve this. There has also been no help from others.

As for the argument about linking to dev wiki pages, I hadn't considered doing this. I'd like the book to link to more resources, and that's on the to do list.

[twoelk]

...
There has also been no help from others.
...

and yet we are lurking with interest ;-P

good job so far

[Don]

The dev wiki is a great resource but I find that it is written for programmers. People like myself need a tutorial that we can understand. This book does exactly that.
I have seen the spelling mistakes and I ignore them. Maybe I should help with that.

[prestidigitator]

The dev wiki is a great resource but I find that it is written for programmers. People like myself need a tutorial that we can understand. This book does exactly that.

Right. Well, that's why I think it would be good to add things to the wiki that aren't written just for programmers. To improve it, and make it more useful for all.

[wintermute]

You are encouraged use to my MinetestIDE in your book, its cross platform and makes the whole experience smoother.
Forum link: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=12923

[rubenwardy]

New Chapters:

• Creating Textures
• Node Metadata
• Chat and Commands
• ItemStacks
• Read More (list of resources)

Corrected multiple typos, grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Read Now | Download for offline use

[Don]

You are awesome!