FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

Most people wonder why there is no Minetest on iPhones and other iDevices ... If any1 has a question, they could ask it here :-)

there is a build for iphones of minetest: https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?t=9190
ive got an iphone 4 but linux on pc and dont know how to put minetest into .applications, like it says. once the connection via usb to pc worked, but only the one time

Isn't that for OS X, not iOS

i have just got an ios device. i might be able to port the android code (once i fix the screen as it has the wrong type of screen installed in it (my aunt got the wrong screen on accident))

DS-minetest: There is no official version of MineTest on the Apple App Store.
Your link, (viewtopic.php?t=9190), is for OS X, Apple's computer operating system.

Anyways, still keep your eyes pealed. One day it *might* come out..!

cody-golding wrote:Most people wonder why there is no Minetest on iPhones and other iDevices ... If any1 has a question, they could ask it here :-)

Short answer: Apple forbids GPL software on the store.

Long answer: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-gpl-enforcement

You do not have to use the appstore to have apps...

I've downloaded couple apps without the store, and these apps are NOT in the appstore too...

iDevMe wrote:You do not have to use the appstore to have apps...

I've downloaded couple apps without the store, and these apps are NOT in the appstore too...

Right -- of course. Sideloading's a thing. But because of the GPL issue, installing an official + legal MT app via the store will require some more work besides 'tap install'.

Right. I don't have an IDevice anymore, I now use an Android phone that can use Minetest. Thanks anyway, and sorry for the late reply.

-longerstaff13

There are certainly unofficial builds of MT for iOS devices. Two that come to mind are WorldCraft and BuildCraft. both based on the core Minetest engine. But, from what I understand they don't adhere to the terms of the GPL license since the source code is unreleased.

http://wiki.minetest.net/Licensing

It's possible that FreeMiner is also available for the iPad and iPhone. However, I have very little knowledge of that app, other than through hearsay. It might be worth checking out this topic on their forum. The last two replies are particularly telling.

http://forum.freeminer.org/threads/buildcraft.55/

or, you know, the problem could be that they're using mobile devices on which Minetest/Freeminer aren't available, and the only option is using Buildcraft.

Minetest is an Open-Source-Project. Everyone can port it to any device.

That really does raise the question, why in the world has nobody yet successfully ported MT to the iOS in a fully legal capacity?

There is also Exploration which lead a few people on our server. iOS, Android and bada support. License violation possible. (Not mentioned on the website (not a requirement), but i have not tested the apps)

http://www.explorationbase.com

sorcerykid wrote:That really does raise the question, why in the world has nobody yet successfully ported MT to the iOS in a fully legal capacity?

because appple does not allow projects released under LGPL to be on the app store because of legal issues(that is how it was the last time i checked)

lightonflux wrote:There is also Exploration which lead a few people on our server. iOS, Android and bada support. License violation very possible. (Not mentioned on the website (not a requirement), and i have not tested the apps)

http://www.explorationbase.com

The link you posted is wrong. The "Exploration" Minetest-based clone does not have a website and only appears on the Play Store.

What do you mean with wrong?

The game is called Exploration and there is a link to the app store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/exploration/id472963415

That game is not a Minetest clone, I checked. There is a different game also called "Exploration" on the Play Store.

stormchaser3000 wrote:

sorcerykid wrote:That really does raise the question, why in the world has nobody yet successfully ported MT to the iOS in a fully legal capacity?

because appple does not allow projects released under LGPL to be on the app store because of legal issues(that is how it was the last time i checked)

But users don't need the App Store to install software. Almost half the apps on my iPad were obtained through Cydia repositories. And honestly, I would prefer installing Minetest via jailbreak anyway because it affords more control over the installation, and it also ensures compliance with the end-user license agreement.

sfan5 wrote:That game is not a Minetest clone, I checked. There is a different game also called "Exploration" on the Play Store.

Oh sorry did not know. Is it compatible? We had some iPad players that said they connected via the app to our 0.4.14 server.

The are probably thinking of this https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/explora ... 42020?mt=8

Yes, a cydia version would definitely be a good idea. The only problem is, actually Jailbreaking their devices would turn most people off...

For those who have OSX/macOS, I wonder if they could use Xcode and compile it themselves. I haven't used Xcode much, but it has an iOS emulator. I wonder if you could find the .ipa package and copy it to the iPhone via something like https://www.macblurayplayer.com/iphone-explorer.htm. I'm not sure if that company is legit, I just Googled "iPhone explorer". An alternative might include: https://www.ibrowseapp.com/. Additionally, here is an open source one that requires jailbreaking: https://code.google.com/archive/p/iphonebrowser/.

It may even be possible to build and then send to an iPhone with Xcode only. I've never developed for OSX/macOS, so I am not sure if that's possible.

So we could in theory pull this off by distributing an Xcode project (which might allow us to not jailbreak, but only works for Mac users). Further, we could make it available to all users by just distributing the binary package. Of course, this will definitely require jailbreaking.

Practically, though, the hardest part will be writing the iOS version. If you look at the source, a considerable amount of Java had to be written to create the NDK environment and launch the C++ runtime for Android. In the C++, even, there are #ifdefs that check if Android is the target and do special things...

So that means that developing for iOS is bound to be similar. If we insist on jailbreaking, more APIs will be available, and we can probably use C's system() as a easy (but very insecure) way to manage the filesystem and resource location.

If we don't develop for jailbroken only, then we will have to add some Objective-C++ to the engine (rather than a "launcher", as in Android), which is a hassle, especially because Objective-C isn't even a language for the project. It might be possible to use Objective-C++ to create, say, a class IPhoneUtil that would wrap the Obj-C and keep it in one implementation file...

tl;dr:
Supporting iPhone requires engine changes, which isn't easy, but it is possible!! Anyway, it will likely need jailbreak to work.

I would suggest first making a Cydia version, as a proof of concept. At least we know it is feasible, and and there would be significantly less barriers porting it to iOS via jailbreak than trying to work around the AppStore restrictions.

Also a significant proportion of the Minetest community are people that like to tinker with technology :) Let's face it, while while jailbreaking would certainly be a turn off to kids that are simply wanting a distraction after school or in the car, for the rest of us die-hard players, it would be a welcome addition by in large.

Totally agree. An example of that sort of thing is the open source media cebter: Kodi. They have easy-to-install mehods for open platforms like windows, mac, linux, android and so on. But they also have a version for jailbroken ios.

Yep yep!