[CSM] Second Roadmap

[nerzhul]

Here is the main roadmap and discussion topic about CSM.

Please post your ideas here, or open a new issue linked back with it. It will permit developers to centralize requested features and priorize them.

Feature requests

Short term

Documentation is mandatory for each PR

• Localplayer reference ([CSM] Localplayer api lua #5480)
• Mod storage ([CSM] Add ModStorageAPI  #5396)
• Hud (more precisions needed, at least text hud with reference)
• Minimap API (modes + position) ([CSM] Add minimap API modifiers #5399)
• Enable/Disable mod from main menu
• Particles ([CSM] Add local particles and particlespawners. #5492)
• Add a function to generate minetest color codes ([CSM] Give CSM access to core.colorize #5113)
• on_place_node callback ([CSM] Add event on_place_node API lua #5548)
• on_item_use callback ([CSM] add on_item_use #5544)
• Camera API ([CSM] Add camera API #5609)
• core.get_timeofday and core.get_day_count ([CSM] Add core.get_timeofday & core.get_day_count env calls #5401)
• core.get_node_level, core.get_node_max_level, core.find_node_near ([CSM] Add core.get_timeofday & core.get_day_count env calls #5401)
• Minimap API: change size
• on_connected callback (when player is in world)
• NodeMeta refs ([CSM] Add local node meta reference. #5508)
• core.on_connect ([CSM] Add event on_connect player API lua #5540)
• Loading local mods medias (after server mod medias)

Longer Term

• Mod channels (CSM: messaging channels #5390)
• Mod loading from server side (Server-provided client-side scripting #5393)
• Keymap customization (maybe builtin instead of hardcoded keymap formspec)
• Input event listening
• core.disconnect
• Toggle many Game flags
• Mod meta informations (version, minimum MT version required, maximum, maintainer (nick, mail) using json

Reported bugs

• core.sound_play wrong interface (CSM: playing sounds connected to entities is unimplemented #5389)
• Minimap Show/hide doesn't work properly (Refactor Game class (part 2) #5422)

Other

• Client mod store

[octacian]

• HUDs (I assume this is a given, but)
• Ability to get node meta (or has this already been implemented?)

What I'd really love for CSM is the ability to define an API (e.g. for easier creation of HUDs, as I'm doing with my HUD Plus mod) on a server-side mod and then use that API on the client. This would allow (for example) registering an HUD using my custom API to display the description of the item in the hotbar. Another thing that could be important in relation to this is an extra API function on the server-side to check for a specific mod on the client. I'm not sure how realistic the first thing is, but just throwing it out there (that's what this issue is for, right? :P)

[nerzhul]

@octacian it's not easy for HUD, we could customize HUD in the near future but this should not depend on server side attributes.

[nerzhul]

@red-001 i picked some ideas from your comment to the main list

[sofar]

I don't think node timers are sent to the client. Node meta, yes, node timers, no.

[nerzhul]

@sofar yes, maybe we can have local node timers for something ? example: particles created every 1 sec on a node ?

[C1ffisme]

I'm not sure how difficult this would be to make, or even turn into a usable API, but what about being able to render certain objects for each player, such as fishing line or lightning?

[sofar]

minetest.register_on_joinplayer
minetest.register_on_leaveplayer
minetest.get_connected_players
minetest.player_exists

all reasonable CSM interfaces imho.

[nerzhul]

@sofar i think yes, but at this moment if i remember client doesn't know which player is connected, only server knows it. But client knows somewhere some CAO are client because it shows names everywhere

[sofar]

Timers on client nodes seems risky, the client's perspective of the world is very different and it keeps huge amounts of map in memory.

However, if the timers can be for arbitrary nodes, and we can implement some sort of "active range" to the localplayer, it could work very well to periodically loop sounds or add particles

[nerzhul]

@sofar sounds be more reasonable, like ABM range

[raymoo]

What about creating CAOs that are simulated on the client, and not tied to a SAO? They could he used for visual effect, e.g. put a colored box around a selected target.

[nerzhul]

@raymoo i don't think it's a CAO, maybe an attached entity

[raymoo]

It doesn't matter to me if it's technically a CAO, I just assumed something like this would be implemented as a CAO. I just want something similar to a LuaSAO that can be simulated on the client and can have its behavior specified in Lua.

I don't think it should be limited to being attached, for example if you wanted to interpolate the entity's position. You could imagine implementing this as a hard-coded flag, but you would have trouble covering every kind of similar feature someone might want to use.

[bigfoot547]

Here are some features I hope are added.

• minetest.colorize
• Client HUD
• Server time of day?
• Client particles
• Closing formspecs of local player?
• Get the name of local player and maybe list of players if possible?
• Get health and breath and player attributes of local player
• Pointed node / object ref and maybe liquid of local player
• Set fov of local player
• Something like core.registered_items / nodes / tools / craftitems

That is a list of intresting features that I think are worth working on and eventually adding.
Thanks!

[nerzhul]

@bigfoot547 i think we can have registered_items, it could be useful to have a pure client side craft guide

[nerzhul]

I renamed it to second roadmap, to have a second patchset as a changelog to core, when this patchset will be finished, we will close this issue and re-open another issue to follow the new changes

[octacian]

Kinda reiterating the same thing @bigfoot547 said, but figured I'd say it anyways.

IMO, minetest.colorize is very important when paired up with an API to get the name of the player. With those two things, one could make a mod (as I was hoping to do) which would notify the player whenever they received a message with their name in it.

The ability to get all the other players on the server would open the door for a custom overview formspec to be displayed with a list of all players and maybe even a search bar.

A client-side craft guide would also be so useful seeing as it'd be practically lag-free.

[nerzhul]

@octacian i understand what you need and i need to rewrite the chat protocol to be more intelligent to do more interesting things :)

[bigfoot547]

@octacian On servers, people refer to me as big foot, bigfoot and bf. Only when they feel like pressing tab do they call me bigfoot547.
EDIT: Fix spelling mistake

[bigfoot547]

@nerzhul Maybe instead of a global table, maybe minetest.get_def(itemname) function.
And maybe minetest.get_def_type(itemname) returning tool, node, craftitem, or none.

[Desour]

(Also good would be a nice documentation. client_lua_api.md (why here .md?) nearly consists out of wrong information.)

And minetest.get_modpath is needed, too.

[nerzhul]

We use .md for better reading especially on github.You are free to help us to fix the doc. Why do you need et mod path ? We don't port it because on client API os very restricted but maybe we forget something

[octacian]

• minetest.get_timeofday would allow me to improve my WIP ambiance mod ([CSM] Add core.get_timeofday & core.get_day_count env calls #5401)

[Desour]

I meant, minetest.get_modpath for clientmods. So, something like minetest.get_clientmodpath. This could be used for nice folder structures (with dofile).
I wondered about the .md because (sadly) other files, like lua_api.txt, have the .txt suffix.
I will try helping to fix the doc but I don't want to remove some things because it seems they are like it should be (a bit like a todo list) eg. minetest. instead of core.. Also I don't know everything and could "correct" to lies.

[red-001]

#5492

[raymoo]

Issues in the past that I've seen so far where someone has suggested waiting for client side scripting so mods can implement:
#4700

I can't think of a good way to find all of these, but I know there's at least a few more.

[raymoo]

This one (#4366) is related to CSM, specifically the part about custom physics models for entities.

[raymoo]

What about client side lua active objects? Things that are meant to be visual effects or UI elements.

Sample ideas (both require client<=>server communication to be useful):

• Display a heart above allies in some faction system
• Player uses magic activator. A magic circle expands around the player, with nodes around the rim representing options. The player can walk into an option, which sends a message to the server that the player chose a particular option (and the server can handle the choice at that point).

Both of these could be implemented alternatively with selective visibility of server objects, but since these are only displayed to one client and have minimal interaction with other elements of the server, they could be client-local to reduce display lag. An arguable benefit is that it offloads some processing to the client, but some might argue that that is bad for lower-end machines. But it's something that would have been simulated in singleplayer anyway, and my impression is that most people agree that mods targeting singleplayer and computers that can process it are fine, so I don't see why a mod can't target multiplayer clients that are good enough for this. Not to mention that the two particular examples I gave probably wouldn't be very expensive to run.

EDIT: I might have mentioned this suggestion in the original CSM pull or issue but I don't think I have since then.

[nerzhul]

display informations on CAO is a nice CSM behaviour we should have, for the other point it's more server responsiblity

[cdqwertz]

My ideas:

minetest.set_controls({<...>})

minetest.select_hotbar_slot(<n>)

minetest.take_screenshot(<file_name>)

I think that a graphics API would be really useful too. E.g.:

local my_line = minetest.draw_line(<from (x, y, z)>, <to (x, y, z)>, <color>)
...
my_line.remove()

minetest.draw_sprite(<name>, <pos (x, y, z)>, <scale (x, y)>)

[red-001]

#5532

[bigfoot547]

#5569

[sofar]

As noted in the particle PR, it seems that CSM assets are not loaded. This makes it impossible for CSM mods to ship their own textures.

This is a fundamental issue that will affect sounds as well.

@nerzhul @red-001

[nerzhul]

@sofar loadMedia is only done by server sent packet atm, we should add same feature at mod loading from client side

[sofar]

Yup, I figured - add it to the worklist above? it's pretty crucial.

[nerzhul]

we can add it, but i don't if i will have time myself to manage this, as i have many PR which are crucial outside CSM and should be merged

[bigfoot547]

#5609

[red-001]

if a way to send mods form the server is added we should also send back error messages to the server, so server admins can debug mod crashes.

[Desour]

What about a per-world store?

[HybridDog]

rendeko wrote something about allowing custom huds: https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?p=269253#p269253
How about adding a function register_on_formspec_show(function(spec)) which makes it possible to adjust a formspec (e.g. change background) before showing it to the player?

[CasimirKaPazi]

Would it be also possible to override item descriptions? That would be an easy way to get client side item translations.

[HybridDog]

You could change the "description" meta field of an item client-side.

[nerzhul]

This roadmap will be closed on feature freeze, on 21st may. A new will be opened after releasing MT

[nerzhul]

I'm closing this roadmap as the feature freeze occurs this evening. Thanks all for your participation