Minetest Team collaboration w/ MSoft on Modding API standard

[Neuromancer]

Here's a crazy thought. MC needs a Modding API. Microsoft decides it wants to be/look cool, so it works with the Minetest devs to create an open standard for Voxel Modding API's so that all the Minetest Mods work in MC and vice versa. Gamers everywhere rejoice. :)

[aldobr]

And then my mother screamed "time to go to school" and i waked up scared. No mom, today is not day for school !

[JPRuehmann]

lol

[Inocudom]

Never make deals with Microsoft. Commercialism isn't life; it is death.

[Minetestforfun]

My god... give me a loaded gun if you collaborate with Micr****t ...

[kaeza]

Never make deals with Microsoft. Commercialism isn't life; it is death.

Your argument is true, but for the wrong reason. See Words to Avoid - Commercial.

[prestidigitator]

For a while Microsoft was a top contributor to the Linux kernel. However, it was definitely not out of some philanthropic notion, or (like they tried to spin it for PR) because they believe in open source; it was because they wanted desperately to make profits selling their hypervisor. The web (and most network infrastructure like routers—oh heck! just about everything but PCs for that matter) basically runs on Linux, and if a hypervisor won't effectively run Linux VMs then it isn't going to make much headway in the cloud.

The same notion almost certainly applies to any kind of standard blockworld API you'd want to sell Microsoft on. You'd need to:

1. Produce some kind of unbelievably amazing mod with a huge code base.
2. Convince Microsoft that the mod needs to run in Minecraft (i.e. it'd dramatically increase Minecraft sales, or sales of devices that run Minecraft, or...).
3. Successfully show that developing a standard API is more worth it than porting the mod logic itself to their own platform.

In short: maybe when hell freezes over.

[Neuromancer]

The same notion almost certainly applies to any kind of standard blockworld API you'd want to sell Microsoft on. You'd need to:

1. Produce some kind of unbelievably amazing mod with a huge code base.
2. Convince Microsoft that the mod needs to run in Minecraft (i.e. it'd dramatically increase Minecraft sales, or sales of devices that run Minecraft, or...).
3. Successfully show that developing a standard API is more worth it than porting the mod logic itself to their own platform.

In short: maybe when hell freezes over.

I know this was just a complete fantasy dream of mine, but I don't think you need to create one uber mod that Microsoft absolutely wants. It is the sum total of *all* the mods that Minetest offers (both those that are around now, and those that are to come) that would be be the best case argument to MS wanting to have access to. The funny thing is that Minetest and Minecraft don't have to be viewed as competitors. What they could (and I believe should) have is more of a symbiotic relationship where when one makes a leap forward both benefit. Then when you throw all the other Voxel games in there (Blockscape, Terasology, Mythruna and the list goes on forever) it seems like it would be great to have some sort of open standard Modding API. Maybe that makes the most sense. We sell the other voxel games (especially Terasology because it is Open Source) to embrace Minetest's Modding API as an open standard, because really this is where Minetest shines over all the rest of the voxel games, even the behemoth Minecraft. If we could start getting the other Voxel games on board and tons of multi game compatible mods were created, this would start to put some pressure on Minecraft to join the party.

[Wuzzy]

I have tried to ignore this thread for a while, but now it’s annoying me because all of the bullshit.

to embrace Minetest's Modding API as an open standard

Stop right there.

Search the web for “EEE”. Search for “OOXML” and “ISO” and “OpenDocument”. And that’s just one example.

This is the reason #1 why the entire thread is bullshit. Whenever Microsoft embraces an open standard, it does so so it can extend it … with proprietary features. The final goal is to make the open standards obsolete and making the Microsoft-modified standard the de-facto standard, in other words, to extinguish the open standards. That’s why there can not be a symbiotic relationship with Microsoft. It would be more like a parasitic relationship, actually.

Don’t work out standards together with Microsoft. You are about to get screwed. Educate yourself on the history of Microsoft first before you make such crazy suggestions.

Besides, the Minetest modding API is not a standard. It is not even a standard within the Minetest family. OK, there’s Freeminer, but they made no promise to keep compability, so they can break it at any time. Minetest and Minecraft, however, are techincally completely different. For starters, Minetest has 16×16×16 chunks, Minecraft has 16×256×16 chunks (or something like that). And the fun doesn’t stop there. Creating a standard uniting Minecraft and Minetest would be a crazy shitton of work. That’s reason #2 why this thread is bullshit.

Reason #3 why this thread is bullshit would be that Minetest folks would indirectly embrace Minecraft, which would be still a proprietary software. This has huge ethical implications.

[MaxPower]

@wuzzy

thank you

[twoelk]

Here's a crazy thought.

It's good you made that clear as first statement :-D

Indeed I would agree not to attempt to get a project running together with MS. Why should they do so?
I am though a huge fan of established standards and common exchange formats. I wouldn't mind if this would also work with products MS owns but I wouldn't make that a goal. That could easily be a showstopper, it would only block development and progress. Rather try and come up with some exchange formats for sharing content with other opensource blocky games.

We allready can share player textures, so we should keep up on having that being compatible as that standard changes with new releases. Textures and sounds can also be adapted up to a certain degree. Maybe we need to design an exchange format for that in the future if player models change, so that skins may be adjusted to different models. They might not stay neckless forever.

Having a good common exchange format for skins, textures, sounds, mob-models and schematics might be possible but would probably have to exclude some functions specific to some games. The used formats have less in common than one might guess at first sight of the similar results achieved ingame.

Such an exchange format would have to be able to describe all data for that part of game content of all games it is intended for. The games would have their own import filters to extract the information they can use in their specific game, which may be a subset of the possible information. Such an exchange format need not be fast as it is used only for import and export of information and is not intended to be used as native format of any game. Very much like DXF in the CAD world.

[prestidigitator]

I know this was just a complete fantasy dream of mine, but I don't think you need to create one uber mod that Microsoft absolutely wants. It is the sum total of *all* the mods that Minetest offers....

Hey, I understand where you are coming from. I just don't think it is realistic to expect that M$ would. To make a strong business case you'd need a really, really clear example that you could put in front of an exec. to make his mouth water. That's not going to come from some fuzzy conglomeration of mods without a clear direction (other than—in many cases—to make Minetest look like Minecraft). It would instead come in the form of some shining gem of a "sexy" mod that under the right light screams, "MONEY!" to some key decision maker.

[Baggypants]

Is this more, or less, crazy than my idea that Microsoft will open source Minecraft with the GPL2 licence.