FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

Hi folks,

I'm a computer person but new to Minetest, looks great. I'd like to take an existing load of XML that 'could' define nodes and build a rough world with it.

From my limited understanding, I think I probably need to build a schem.mts file from my XML to get my starter world. I could also add API access to WorldEdit and drive that using the XML. One problem is that I can't see a specification for the schem file, if that is what I need?

Does all this sound ridiculous, is there a simpler way, has anyone else tried something like this with an external format (json would be OK too!)?

Thanks in advance Hugh

The .mts format is documented in the source code of Minetest, specificly mg_schematics.h. My handle_schematics mod reads and writes .mts files, specificly in analyze_mts_file.lua. Using voxelmanip directly might also be a solution for you. The mapgen version requires that you can reproduce your landscape exactly for a given mapchunk. The non-mapgen version depends a bit on available memory. Voxelmanip basicly allows you to manipulate a more or less 3d array of mapdata directly.

Thanks very much for this. I'll take all the advice! If I make any progress with this, I'll make the code/process available.

Not sure if this will be of much help, but my imageloader mod (repo link) loads 2D maps from image files. The algorithms are not particularly... *ahem* efficient, but can give you another example of how to create a schematic "table" (i.e. no need for intermediate files).