Roadmap brainstorm (5.14+)

[Zughy]

It's been 2 years since #12746, same rules apply: list 3 things that you think should be prioritised in the medium-long term.

These are higher-level goals rather than individual features, e.g.

✅ Focus on shaders and graphics (general)

❌ Possibility to render text on nodes (specific)

The new roadmap will come into play with LT 5.13 5.14.

Current roadmap: https://github.com/luanti-org/luanti/blob/master/doc/direction.md

[MisterE123]

1) Target becoming a flexible game engine.

This includes introducing flexible, reasonable, well-documented and fully-featured apis to replace our cobbled-together finnicky, poorly documented, and hard to use apis across aspects such as UI, HUD, objects, mapgen, etc. It includes removing the last vestiges of assuming minetest game-likes. It includes adding features and optimizations that make Luanti a versatile engine whenever you want to make a game or app that involves blocks. Things like Sumi's Extra Ordinance should be easy to make and smooth to experience rather than pushing the engine to it's limits and only just being barely possible. Technical implementation features of this Roadmap goal can include Voxel Area Entites, SSCSMs, larger worlds, better physics, server-to-server player transfer, more dynamic media controls, etc.

2) Expanded platform support/game export options

Add first party support for web, ios, VR, XR, and Steam.

These platforms are already supported in various 3rd party forks; we should incorporate these projects into upstream and improve on them.

Add a packager that allows making a standalone app with a minimal custom main menu, custom icon, default client settings and a single bundled game.

3) Better shaders/graphics

I would love to see continued progress toward (fully customizable) shaders to make games look stunning in a variety of artistic styles.

[tenplus1]

4. Adding the ability to render text on a node and on screen using font/size/colour without the need for textures.

[cx384]

The things on the current roadmap are still important, but here are three things which are currently not on the roadmap.

• Dehardcoding / make old and new features more flexible, this is very universal e.g. something like Replace hotbar_itemcount by hotbar_source #15905, and not add new features that have a lot of hardcoded things, like it may be the case for the dual wielding feature. Both new games and existing ones like MTG would benefit from more flexible features. Also, dehardcoding involves internal code refactoring, which is on the current roadmap.

• Features involving SSCSM, due to Desour, it's not that far away anymore, and if we don't prioritize features involving it may end up in a situation like CSM

• Pave the way for Voxel Area Entites, it's still far away, but we have to start somewhere. At first, normal objects have to be improved (this is also already on the current roadmap.)

(sorry, miss clicked)

[MisterE123]

The things on the current roadmap are still important, but there are three things which are currently not on the roadmap.

• Dehardcoding / make old and new features more flexible, this is very universal e.g. something like Replace hotbar_itemcount by hotbar_source #15905, and not add new features that have a lot of hardcoded things, like it may be the case for the dual wielding feature. Both new games and existing ones like MTG would benefit from more flexible features. Also, dehardcoding involves internal code refactoring, which is on the current roadmap.

• Features involving SSCSM, due to Desour, is not that far away anymore, and if we don't prioritize features involving it we may end up in a situation like

• Pave the way for Voxel Area Entites, it's still far away, but we have to start somewhere. At first normal objects have to be

• at least Also a good specification of what we want would be beneficial.

your formatting got messed up and your messages cut off

[Kooostia16]

• Refine Core Entities/Player interactions: Improve the accuracy and responsiveness of entity physics interactions, addressing issues such as input lag or delayed reactions to player actions. I've noticed such issues when player speed is changed with a delay after interaction or when bone interpolation is lagged even though it's not supposed to

• Improve UI API: Make it more flexible, and lua oriented, maybe similar to Flow api

[kromka-chleba]

1. Features for artistic expression.

This is a quite vague category that includes anything that would allow modders to change their games visually, some examples:

• improvements of skeletal animation
• materials for 3D models
• more flexibility with entities, etc. (e.g. support for big entities with big collisionboxes)
• more flexibility with lighting, colored lights, skybox with support for layers, making fog more realistic
• perhaps modder-defined shaders or some non-game-specific presets (idk how that works, no experience with shaders)
• probably some UI/UX stuff like the formspec replacement
• allowing customization of the world creation screen, maybe support for in-game menus and settings (something that runs before map gets generated)

2. Performance

• better defaults and presets for different machines (e.g. potato, low, mid, high, ultra)
• LODs for map and entities (visually bigger, more immersive worlds)
• fixing the y-slice bug Mapgen: "Unfinished" y-slices with num_emerge_threads > 1 #9357 which is the only thing preventing people from using more than 1 emerge threads
• ABM spread issues, etc. etc.
• fixing obscure bugs that make the game jittery for some Server lag causes player position glitch for one frame (when attached?) #16019

3. Dehardcoding and generalization of features

• making fewer assumptions about games and handing over choices to modders
• giving more flexibility for mapgen, issues like Revival of Add minetest.generate_biomes and minetest.generate_biome_dust #15730 Allow on_generated to hook different stages of the mapgen process #14911
• different physics and camera movements, think games like subnautica or no man's sky where a spaceship can move and rotate under any axis in all directions (muh SSCSMs?)
• could also fall under the artistic expression category, but better support for changing player scale (any non-MTG/non-MC scale of a game, e.g. Backrooms Test or my WIP game where the player is 3.5 nodes tall)

[Sharpik]

Please :)

• custom keys and icon layout (for touchscreen) usable for mods (I really miss this feature.. this is probably the last thing where Minecraft has a big advantage)