FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

Dear All

I've just installed Minetest. I'm very impressed with it, and I'm looking forward to learning lua and writing mods. However, there are a couple of teething troubles with my installation. Please can anyone offer advice?

OS: Debian squeeze
Minetest version: don't know. How would I find out? I installed it recently from the Debian sid repository.

1. small problem

The print in the minetest client gui is /very/ small, and it stays the same size if I maximise the gui. Is there a way to configure this print size?

2. big problem

When I first login and connect to a world (leaving the address blank and using a local server), everything works well. When I login again to this world, the client display is completely black (apart from the 'dashboard' at the bottom with hearts and inventory). The only way I can get a disply is to 'delete map' and create a new world.

I've run minetest with debug_log_level=4 and checked the logs, but there are no errors or warnings.

Any clues about the second problem in particular?

With thanks and best wishes

Ivan

1. Do you mean the font size? If yes, then set font_size in minetest.conf (default 13). This requires a Minetest build with TTF, though.

2. The complete black screen might be caused by you spawning in the ground.
Type "/grant singleplayer fly, noclip" into the chat console, and press k and h to fly out of the ground.

Thanks for your help. Alas, I tried both of your suggestions, but no change. I saw in the client gui I have version 0.3.1.

Would it be worth downloading the source and building that, rather than using the package in sid? At least I'd know what I had & what I was missing. What are the reasons against building from source? (I'm familiar with the configure/make incantations).

Best wishes

Ivan

Note that Minetest in Debian and Ubuntu repositories is outdated, it is only 0.3.1 while the latest version is 0.4.6.

Hah, I knew that you use 0.3.1, that spawning in ground bug is only present there.

Its definetly worth to use the latest stable release.

Thanks all. That's settled then: I'll build from the source. Wlil report back on succes or and problems.

Best wishes

Ivan

You won't regret it. Minetest has developed rapidly in the last months. If you're new to the game, don't forget to add some mods according to your preferences. They improve the game even more.