FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

Heya. I was discussing Minetest with a friend of mine, and I asked him what could be added to the game to make it more unique. He came up with a system of chunk loading that would essentially count up or down in a direction until it spawned you on the opposite side of the map. I added in the idea of a render mode that causes the horizon to appear bowed... this would allow for a SpaceTest mod to give the illusion of a round planet, moon, or asteroid, while still remaining flat.

So you'd have a new variable for world size in chunks, and a fake chunk loader for seamlessly wrapping you from one side of the world to another, with a screen rendering system that causes the horizon to appear slightly curved, maybe based on the world size. :3

Dunno if it's a good or bad idea per-se, but I thought it would be a good idea to suggest it anyway.


~Morris

this has been discussed before. you can refer to this thread for ideas on what to do.

In the meantime, you can create a truly spherical planet-realm using my flexrealm mod https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?id=7887 with the option:

Novacain wrote:this has been discussed before. you can refer to this thread for ideas on what to do.

That's only half of the same idea. The bowed rendering would complete the illusion. I'm not good with C# or LUA, so I'd need a lot of help to get this implemented. Also, I'd like to get the discussion going again, and personally don't like posting in topics that are a year or more old.

well, it would help you get closer.

We were thinking the wrapping could start at maybe 6,275,410 metres/blocks, and then starts loading chunks from the opposite side of the map, counting back to the start. :3

aFoxNamedMorris wrote:We were thinking the wrapping could start at maybe 6,275,410 metres/blocks, and then starts loading chunks from the opposite side of the map, counting back to the start. :3

hmm... except that a world is approx 64,000 x 64,000 nodes for x and z.

"Bowed" horizon would only make sense on a spherical world. Not a donut-shaped one like what you suggested.

Novacain wrote:

aFoxNamedMorris wrote:We were thinking the wrapping could start at maybe 6,275,410 metres/blocks, and then starts loading chunks from the opposite side of the map, counting back to the start. :3

hmm... except that a world is approx 64,000 x 64,000 nodes for x and z.

And y as well. ~64000*64000*64000.

thetoon wrote:"Bowed" horizon would only make sense on a spherical world. Not a donut-shaped one like what you suggested.

Um... I never said "donut"
shaped. I am referring to a spherical world.

@Enke: In regards to world size, it's whatever. All I care about is the principle.

aFoxNamedMorris wrote:
Um... I never said "donut"

And you didn't have to. What you describe (wrapping a plane around X, then Y ; or the other way around) doesn't make a sphere, it makes a donut. The technical word is "torus", though.

thetoon wrote:

aFoxNamedMorris wrote:
Um... I never said "donut"

And you didn't have to. What you describe (wrapping a plane around X, then Y ; or the other way around) doesn't make a sphere, it makes a donut. The technical word is "torus", though.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Torus_from_rectangle.gif

and the geometry is important why? it is a game. plus, judging from the diagram you showed, a bent horizon would still apply.

Enke wrote:And y as well. ~64000*64000*64000.

I thought there was only a limit on the lower y.

It is a game. It doesn't matter that it is a torus, it just gives the effect of being a spherical world.

For example, most games use ray casting instead of bullets for guns. It doesn't matter to the player, it still looks like a gun.

In this case, most players won't care, or notice.

Novacain wrote:

Enke wrote:And y as well. ~64000*64000*64000.

I thought there was only a limit on the lower y.

The game goes to 32,000 on each axis.

rubenwardy wrote:The game goes to 32,000 on each axis.

I thought I had heard that the upper limit was 64,000. maybe I misread something :P never been to the end of any world.

It is around 64,000, each axis of x, y and z goes from around -32,000 to 32,000.

thetoon wrote:

aFoxNamedMorris wrote:
Um... I never said "donut"

And you didn't have to. What you describe (wrapping a plane around X, then Y ; or the other way around) doesn't make a sphere, it makes a donut. The technical word is "torus", though.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Torus_from_rectangle.gif

I don't mean a literal 3D wrap. In 2D, it'd be like Pac-Man warping from left-screen to right, top to bottom, vice-versa-etc.

The only spherical shape I want at all is the screen perspective distortion. Everything else would actually still be flat.

LionsDen wrote:It is around 64,000, each axis of x, y and z goes from around -32,000 to 32,000.

Wrong.
Proof:

[spoiler=Previous Message]

Krock wrote:

LionsDen wrote:It is around 64,000, each axis of x, y and z goes from around -32,000 to 32,000.

Wrong.
Proof:
http://i.imgur.com/p6ywgIY.png

[/spoiler]

I don't see the proof you are looking for, the coordinates say 30927.2, -30912.5, -30912.5. All within the approximately 32000 limit in each direction. I don't remember the exact number but I did say it was around -32,000 to 32,000. I still think you are a little short of the limit but I don't remember the exact numbers. But I did go to the corner as well and they do seem to be the same numbers for me in a new game of minetest with no mods. So I was close but a lot of posts that I had been seeing lately have been throwing around the -32,000 to +32,000 for the limits so that is likely where it came from for me. So it seems to be almost 62,000 nodes in each direction. I will try to remember that.