[Mod] Modular tunnel boring/building machine [digtron][0.8]

[Diamond knight]

suggestion:
a digtron structure node variant that is non see through and non walkable and climbable, and a digtron glass, and some a list of blocks the digrton will move (by default have all non natural minetest_game blocks in there) as it would be cool to make a moving mining house with beds

also a digtron chair that will try to stop the annoying glitch where you move through blocks if the digtron moves too fast

[FaceDeer]

suggestion:
a digtron structure node variant that is non see through and non walkable and climbable, and a digtron glass, and some a list of blocks the digrton will move (by default have all non natural minetest_game blocks in there) as it would be cool to make a moving mining house with beds

also a digtron chair that will try to stop the annoying glitch where you move through blocks if the digtron moves too fast

I've noticed that movement glitch and I'm not too sure how to go about fixing it. I think the problem is that the node updates and player movement are not an atomic operation, even though the code is telling it all to happen simultaneously it's not all quite 100% synched up. Something I'll look into though, there might be some trick to it that I'm unaware of.

Adding new types of "structural" node that will be counted as part of the digtron and dragged along with it as it moves is quite easy, you just need to add nodes to digtron group 1. However, there are some important caveats.

Any node that you add as a Digtron component can't be built by a Digtron, otherwise it'll become part of the Digtron as soon as it's built and will block the builder node's output location. Similarly, the Digtron would "assimilate" such nodes if it bumped into them. This happens if you crash two Digtrons together, too.

If the node has any special metadata associated with it the movement code for the Digtron will probably wreck it. I initially investigated the possibility of adding a mobile furnace to the Digtron, for example, so that one could carry out crafting as one moves. But there's a ton of code in furnaces that assumes it's in a fixed location and moving it blows it all up.

So I think it'd generally be a bad idea to add existing nodes to the digtron group. I could add a bunch of other decorative "structural" nodes as an add-on to the mod, so you can build a basic moving house out of it. But something fancier than that might be a bit beyond the scope of this mod.

[FaceDeer]

Not a huge update tonight, but whittling my way through the to-do list:

• Fixed hajo's crash when setting non-numeric values for period and offset in the builder
• Added a water "alert" sound. Since water doesn't really cause much practical difficulty it's not a buzzer or klaxon, it's just a splashy-splooshy sound to let you know you're working next to water. Note that since Digtrons only look one node "ahead" the splashy-splooshy sound won't happen until you're actually moving into the water.
• Added a lava alert sound. This is a more alarming "woop woop woop!" sound, since lava hurts.
• Made lava impassible by default. This can be changed by editing a setting in init.lua (I really need to get around to making a proper config file). The lava alert is still very handy, though, since it'll let you know why your Digtron stopped and maybe be careful about opening the porthole to check what's on the other side.
• Added action logging for all node-affecting operations (digtron movement, building, and digging).
• New digger head texture by Hajo. I left the old texture in the textures folder, if anyone preferred it edit the node definitions in node_diggers.lua to bring it back.

[hajo]

it would be cool to make a moving mining house with beds

I think it'd generally be a bad idea to add existing nodes to the digtron group. ..
I could add a bunch of other decorative "structural" nodes as an add-on to the mod,

For building really compact machines, it would be useful
to have nodes that combine features.

E.g. a 'compact storage' as both fuel- and normal inventory
(and maybe also includes that lamp), but with only 8+8 slots.

Or a multi-controller, that can move the digtron in any direction,
but needs a remotecontrol to operate.

[Krock]

Just.. wow. I've only tried the mining part of it yet but I'm already impressed.
You've made a very nicely designed and well programmed mod - keep up the good work!

[hajo]

on my to-do list is adding a way to flag certain node types as undiggable, if desired.
That way lava could be made impenetrable to Digtrons.

Also: chests, and protected areas.

I made an entry for the digtron on the wiki.
Mostly just the first posting of this thread,
so no pictures of the modules and recipes yet.

[FaceDeer]

For building really compact machines, it would be useful
to have nodes that combine features. E.g. a 'compact storage' as both fuel- and normal inventory
(and maybe also includes that lamp), but with only 8+8 slots.

I'll add that to the todo list.

Or a multi-controller, that can move the digtron in any direction,
but needs a remotecontrol to operate.

This is already done, kind of - just use the screwdriver to change the direction the control node is facing and the Digtron will go in the new direction when it is triggered. Or did you mean something else?

Also: chests, and protected areas.

Already done, Digtron respects the can_dig result for all nodes and so won't dig out nodes with contents and stuff like that. Protection should work too, though I admit I haven't actually tested it yet (I've just been running on a basic game singleplayer server for most of my testing so far, Digtron hasn't really had a multiplayer workout yet).

I made an entry for the digtron on the wiki.
Mostly just the first posting of this thread,
so no pictures of the modules and recipes yet.

Neat, thanks. This is still a WIP mod so don't put too much effort into documenting it just yet, I've got "better documentation" as the last item on the todo list. :)

[FaceDeer]

I've added a combined inventory module that's 3/4 building material inventory and 1/4 fuel storage. I did it over lunch while remote-desktopping so I didn't test quite as much as I would have liked to. But this is the WIP mods forum, so hopefully you guys don't mind beta-testing and aren't using this on any "production" servers yet. :)

I updated the texture for the inventory module while I was at it. A black center square means it's building materials, a red center square means it's fuel, and a half-and-half center square means it's both.

Edit: Just threw in some "panel" pieces, for making a cockpit to ride in if you want to get fancy.

Also, fixed the soft digger recipe. Apparently it's been broken for days. Whoops.

Edit the final: Added Pipeworks compatibility. The three inventory modules now automatically connect to Pipeworks nodes when the Pipeworks mod is installed. Not sure how useful this will be in general, but I could imagine it being handy to hook a Digtron up after a long run to drain it of all the cobble and other crap it's accumulated. I mainly added it for the benefit of my tree-harvesting test Digtron.

[hajo]

added a combined inventory module ..
"panel" pieces, for making a cockpit ..
fixed the soft digger recipe. ..

Wow, that's a lot of detail-work and polishing.

Added Pipeworks compatibility. ..
to hook a Digtron up .. to drain it of all the cobble and other crap it's accumulated.

That would work for 'plantations' near home, that get harvested repeatedly,
so only a faily short pipe is needed
For getting stuff home from mining-runs that end far-off / deep-down,
bags or a teleporter-chest might be more useful.

In other news: I made a small lawn-mower, with an attached pusher-module:
* at ground-level 3 soft diggers in front,
* behind that a combined storage,
* a controler on top,
* plus a pusher on the side (for moving the machine around)
So, all nodes except the controller have contact to the ground.

Now, the pusher-tooltip complains about "only enough traction to move 3 of 5 nodes",
but moving the machine sideways etc. works fine.
Perhaps the calculation for that message is buggy ?

Also, handling of that lawnmower would be more convincent
with some way to rotate it...

And another idea for the auto-controler:
to its formspec, add a slot for putting in a "stop"-node,
like in the builder-formspec.
Treat that material in there just like protected, so the machine would stop.

That could be used to fence in a harvester, e.g. with torches/chests/fence-posts etc.

[FaceDeer]

Wow, that's a lot of detail-work and polishing.

I've been starting to feel ideas for a new mod nibbling at the edges of my attention so I'm going all-out to try to get everything I want done on this one by the end of this weekend. :) My to-do list is down to three remaining should-have items.

For getting stuff home from mining-runs that end far-off / deep-down,
bags or a teleporter-chest might be more useful.

Would you happen to know of any minecart mods that allow minecarts to be treated as chests? I've had some fun laying tracks in my test tunnels, it's kind of neat taking a nice relaxing ten-minute ride on a cart just taking in the subterranean scenery (I have found that placing one powered rail segment every 14 nodes maintains a cart's velocity almost indefinitely - one extra powered rail segment is needed every kilometer or so). If there's a minecart that acts like a chest I could perhaps see if I could ensure it also has Pipeworks compatibility, that'd be a neat way to move mining refuse back home even if not quite so convenient as teleportation.

In other news: I made a small lawn-mower, with an attached pusher-module:
* at ground-level 3 soft diggers in front,
* behind that a combined storage,
* a controler on top,
* plus a pusher on the side (for moving the machine around)
So, all nodes except the controller have contact to the ground.

Now, the pusher-tooltip complains about "only enough traction to move 3 of 5 nodes",
but moving the machine sideways etc. works fine.
Perhaps the calculation for that message is buggy ?

I was able to repro this with the following steps: Build the three diggers, storage, and pusher (five nodes total). Dig out the ground under them so that only one node is giving traction, and trigger the pusher. This gives the pusher the "only enough traction for 3 of 5" warning. Then add another controller node and place some dirt underneath to give the Digtron sufficient traction to move. Move it using the new controller node, and the mouseover text that was previously generated for the pusher node will remain reading "only enough traction for 3 of 5" until it is explicitly triggered to update that text.

The reason this happens is because a controller only updates its own mouseover text when it is triggered, but the mouseover text of other nodes is preserved by the move-digtron operation. This should be purely cosmetic, but I'll add a task on my to-do list to see if I can clean up those messages in situations like this. I don't want to just erase the other tooltip message outright since they may contain useful information (a controller with a lot of leftover heat, for example) but some kind of "update tooltip" method should be easily doable.

Four items on my to-do list now. :)

Also, handling of that lawnmower would be more convincent
with some way to rotate it...

I've done my best to put off implementing this because it's going to be a lot of tedious data-grinding, but it's the only major thing left on my list so that'll probably be today's big task. Whee. :)

And another idea for the auto-controler:
to its formspec, add a slot for putting in a "stop"-node,
like in the builder-formspec.
Treat that material in there just like protected, so the machine would stop.

That could be used to fence in a harvester, e.g. with torches/chests/fence-posts etc.

I'll add that too, sounds like a good idea. Though as a stop-gap measure you could use a Digtron structure node sitting in front of your fence as a "bumper"; when a Digtron encounters one it'll become part of the Digtron, and of course the structure node won't harm the fence so the Digtron will be immediately obstructed.

[FaceDeer]

Oho! I just tried it out, and it looks like carts are *almost* Pipeworks-friendly out-of-the-box! Though it doesn't seem like it was intentional. When you have a pipe feed an item into a cart the item pops out of the end of the pipe as if there wasn't something there to receive it, but then the minecart picks it up automatically. Fantastic, I can actually use this to transport bulk quantities of cobble conveniently.

The only missing feature is that Pipeworks can't extract items from a minecart. But this is really a Pipeworks issue, not a digtron issue, so I'll leave off at this point.

[paramat]

This is boring :]

[FaceDeer]

Okay, it was as brain-meltingly tedious as I expected it would be, but I've implemented a "rotation unit" that is able to rotate a Digtron array around itself. The rotation unit serves as the pivot and rotates the Digtron 90 degrees when you right-click on it, in the direction indicated by the arrows on the unit's sides. Use the screwdriver to change the orientation of the rotation unit to make it rotate the Digtron in other directions. The Digtron will only rotate if there's room for it to do so, so if your long, thin tunnel-borer is deep underground you're going to have to do some excavation to make it work (which seems like a reasonable expectation to me).

That's the only feature I added today. And it's the last really major one on my to-do list, the rest of the stuff here are minor tweaks and nice-to-haves. So I think a good estimate is that I expect I'll be able to stick a bow on this and request a move to the Releases forum in about a week, barring major bugs or unforeseeable epiphanies.

In other news the default minecarts turned out to be unreliable transporters of goods - I loaded one up with cobble, took it for a ride, and after a little while noticed that the cobble was gone. Aw. I guess they don't really have an "inventory" per se, so stuff they're transporting is left to the vagaries of entity expiry.

Edit: Hold on a sec, spotted a bug. Rotating digtrons breaks the stored facing data on builders, investigating...
Edit2: There, got it. Minor oversight.

[Chibi ghost]

Okay, it was as brain-meltingly tedious as I expected it would be, but I've implemented a "rotation unit" that is able to rotate a Digtron array around itself. The rotation unit serves as the pivot and rotates the Digtron 90 degrees when you right-click on it, in the direction indicated by the arrows on the unit's sides. Use the screwdriver to change the orientation of the rotation unit to make it rotate the Digtron in other directions. The Digtron will only rotate if there's room for it to do so, so if your long, thin tunnel-borer is deep underground you're going to have to do some excavation to make it work (which seems like a reasonable expectation to me).

That's the only feature I added today. And it's the last really major one on my to-do list, the rest of the stuff here are minor tweaks and nice-to-haves. So I think a good estimate is that I expect I'll be able to stick a bow on this and request a move to the Releases forum in about a week, barring major bugs or unforeseeable epiphanies.

In other news the default minecarts turned out to be unreliable transporters of goods - I loaded one up with cobble, took it for a ride, and after a little while noticed that the cobble was gone. Aw. I guess they don't really have an "inventory" per se, so stuff they're transporting is left to the vagaries of entity expiry.

Edit: Hold on a sec, spotted a bug. Rotating digtrons breaks the stored facing data on builders, investigating...
Edit2: There, got it. Minor oversight.

I think you may have over looked the pun boring has two meanings 1, to find tedious 2, to dig a hole/tunnel

[orwell]

Nice thing! As you said, great to build tunnels, bridges a.s.o.
Me and a friend once built a machine with mesecons sticky blocks, movestones and pipeworks node breakers that was able to build tunnels... when we built it in a larger scale the world file got corrupted for any reason.

Anyway, I have a problem. Your mod is great at building straight structures. But I want to build railway tunnels for my trains mod that go diagonal.

+ My current setup

To build this kind of tunnel:

Procedure for digging:
1. move 4 nodes forward and dig
2. move 2 nodes backward
3. move 1 node left
yay, we have proceeded 2 nodes forward.

You have this problem too if you need to build a tunnel up or down.
The solution would be IMO:
- Have a "bidirectional digger head". Every step, it digs in 2 directions. (maybe also 2 different period/offset settings)
- An advanced controller where you can specify a "movement pattern" depending on the controller's orientation.

I can try to implement it myself if you don't want to, and then pull-request.

[hajo]

I've implemented a "rotation unit" that is able to rotate a Digtron array

Nice!

+ lawnmover upgraded

Thanks !

BTW, the download is still missing a small screenshot.png, and a description.txt, e.g.

Your phone or window isn't wide enough to display the code box. If it's a phone, try rotating it to landscape mode.

Code: Select all

digtron - a modular tunnel boring/building machine for minetest, v0.7 - 2017-01-08

Forum : https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16295
github: https://github.com/FaceDeer/digtron/


[hajo]

Procedure for digging:
1. move 4 nodes forward and dig
2. move 2 nodes backward
3. move 1 node left
..
You have this problem too if you need to build a tunnel up or down.
The solution would be IMO:
- Have a "bidirectional digger head". Every step, it digs in 2 directions.
(maybe also 2 different period/offset settings)
- An advanced controller where you can specify a "movement pattern"
depending on the controller's orientation.

Maybe go for a string-based program instead of all those periods, offsets etc.
Eg. the above procedure would become "FFFFdBBL".

And/or assign diggers & builders a name or number, to form 'activation groups',
so "FFFF1BB2L". would trigger group 1 after "FFFF", and trigger group 2 before"L".

Or let "group 0" dig/build on every move, so no need to include it in the program.

[orwell]

I was trying to implement the pattern control node but gave it up for the moment because that "offset" stuff made problems.
hajo, not a bad idea, but would heavily change internal mod mechanics and machines won't function anymore.
FaceDeer, if you want, I can implement my and hajo's idea and PR.
Or do you permit me to run my fork as separately announced mod, while of course stating everywhere that it was you who created it and referencing the original?

[FaceDeer]

I'd love to include a "programmable controller" more sophisticated than the auto-controller, sure. One of the things remaining on my to-do list is a "clean up the code for the benefit of future modders" pass now that the main stuff is done, so you might want to wait for that, but if you're gung-ho to start right away then go for it I suppose and we'll see what happens. :)

BTW, the download is still missing a small screenshot.png, and a description.txt, e.g.

Yeah, that's polish still remaining to do. I wasn't declaring the mod to be completely done right this instant, just that I had completed all the main features I could think of and all that was left was minor tinkering (such as your idea to give auto-controllers a "stop when digging this node type" setting from an earlier comment). This "programmable controller" idea might be a new major feature though, which will put off the release.

I want there to be a gap between the last major feature and release to allow for lots of testing. There's always weird little bugs to find.

[mr_dean]

This is so cool FaceDeer,I like using it to build tunnels, and not having to supply it with roof material. it works as a tower builder too, (not really but sorta...) I made it build a ten-story tower, with two walls missing, but it wasn't supposed to build towers. keep it up! Can't wait to see where you take this project.

[FaceDeer]

This is so cool FaceDeer,I like using it to build tunnels, and not having to supply it with roof material. it works as a tower builder too, (not really but sorta...) I made it build a ten-story tower, with two walls missing, but it wasn't supposed to build towers. keep it up! Can't wait to see where you take this project.

It's supposed to be able to build towers, despite the "dig" in the name. :) It's not a fancy fully-programmable 3D printer, but most simple periodic structures should be doable.

I started working today on adding the ability to set an auto-controller on a diagonal path, which is a much simpler subset of the fully programmable stuff that was talked about above but that I think will likely satisfy many of the programmable controller's use-cases (for example, building sloping tunnels). But in the process I got started on a much-needed code refactoring and that's going to take a little while with no externally-visible changes while doing so (aside from any new bugs I might introduce). Plus back to work again tomorrow, so expect a slow week.

[hajo]

a multi-controller, that can move the digtron in any direction,
but needs a remotecontrol to operate.

just use the screwdriver to change the direction the control node is facing ..
Or did you mean something else?

I meant a controller that can move the machine in different directions
without re-configuration, just by pressing different buttons on a remote.
(Just like operating a machine with 3-4 controlers/pusher by hand, but
they might be in inconvincent locations, or make the machine too bulky.
So, a multicontroller to make such a machine more compact,
and a remote to put all the buttons)

If operating some machine required using the screwdriver every few turns,
it would wear out rather quickly (perhaps its user's patience too:)

BTW, is there a way to store/load/rebuild a finished machine ("toolbox"),
like worldedit / handle_schematics / townchest for buildings ?

[FaceDeer]

I meant a controller that can move the machine in different directions
without re-configuration, just by pressing different buttons on a remote.

Ah, I see. I don't have any plans for something like that, but you can attach multiple different controllers to a Digtron that are oriented in different directions and choose which direction the Digtron goes by clicking on the corresponding controller. So it's a bit like adding different buttons to the Digtron itself.

BTW, is there a way to store/load/rebuild a finished machine,
like worldedit / handle_schematics / townchest for buildings ?

I've actually already put that on my to-do list as something to investigate, it turns out that the code I wrote for handling Digtron rotation might well allow for this capability without a lot of extra work. In order to rotate a Digtron I had to create a complete "image" of the structure in memory that could be rotated and written back into the world again and I don't see why that image couldn't be saved and reused somewhere else.

I'll need to look into how Minetest handles that kind of data storage, though, I don't know that part of the API very well.

[Chibi ghost]

the more I read about this mod the more I'm reminded of the cleaners
from the labyrinth

[FaceDeer]

the more I read about this mod the more I'm reminded of the cleaners
from the labyrinth

I added damage-dealing to the dig heads a little while back, try standing in front of a Digtron in a world with damage enabled and see if it matches your expectations. :)

[hajo]

The textures that come with digtron are quite dark,
making them hard to see when assembling a machine underground.

So, I tried to repaint, starting with the common plate.

But it looks like the textures are put together at runtime,
from many small bits, so changing colors for all the parts
is quite difficult...

[FaceDeer]

The textures that come with digtron are quite dark,
making them hard to see when assembling a machine underground.

So, I tried to repaint, starting with the common plate.

But it looks like the textures are put together at runtime,
from many small bits, so changing colors for all the parts
is quite difficult...

I'll have a go at making it more easily re-skinnable with the next update, it should be possible to make it so you just need to change the base plate texture to change the whole look and feel of the device. It'll be a nice break from the code refactoring I'm currently working on - I'm in the process of rewriting most of the core code, and the end result of all the work should be that there's no noticeable change in how the device works for the end user. It'll just be a lot nicer going forward adding *new* features. :)

Edit: There, just made all the textures into transparent overlays on top of digtron_plate.png. If you change digtron_plate all the other textures should change accordingly.

[Cage]

I down loaded your new version and ran into a bug. I was boring a tunnel and when the machine came to the end of the cycle I was short of my goal. Went to restart the machine and the game crashed. Unless the machine is completely clear of anything it will crash the game on restart. Seems like the code gets lost and cannot determine where it's at. Any ways here is the debug info.

ERROR[Main]: ServerError: Lua: Runtime error from mod 'digtron' in callback node_on_receive_fields(): util.lua:22: attempt to index local 'pos' (a nil value)
ERROR[Main]: stack traceback:
ERROR[Main]:util.lua:22: in function 'find_new_pos'
ERROR[Main]:util_execute_cycle.lua:250: in function 'execute_dig_cycle'
ERROR[Main]:node_controllers.lua:93: in function 'auto_cycle'
ERROR[Main]:node_controllers.lua:171: in function node_controllers.lua:155>

The old version worked great and I put it to good use. Just something in the new version has a problem. When this mod works it's the best mod I have seen for MT. Really make the game fun and interesting.

[hajo]

There, just made all the textures into transparent overlays on top of digtron_plate.png.
If you change digtron_plate all the other textures should change accordingly.

This looks much better.
But now the green of the pusher is so weak,
there is very little difference to the color of the controllers.

[DS-minetest]

The textures shouldn't be changed, they are very nice.