Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dr. Johbson]

I can't wait for DF-style HFS coming from that portal and making you regret opening it.

[HLBeta]

Use the card to transfer funds to pay pal, then pay just using your account. For what ever reason it would not let me pay directly with a card either.

Okay. It seems that my only options on the Pay Pal site are to transfer funds from a bank account (can't happen) or to use one of their special brand-name gift cards. Am I missing something or do I really have to waste another $5 on "processing fees" to switch the card backer to these greendot people?

I would like to apologize to the topic in general for interrupting you guys, but the PayPal site seems to have crashed without giving me a customer service number and the official Minecraft forums seem to be ignoring me.

[Myroc]

I think I remember someone saying that introducing moving light sources is currently unfeasable and would require ginormous amounts of work for Notch to work around. So not anytime soon, atleast.

Atleast, I THINK I saw that somewhere.

[Thexor]

I think I remember someone saying that introducing moving light sources is currently unfeasable and would require ginormous amounts of work for Notch to work around. So not anytime soon, atleast.

Atleast, I THINK I saw that somewhere.

...huh. You've got a good point there - you'd have to re-run the local lighting every time the player moved.

Assuming the light source to originate from the tile you're currently occupying (which tile your origin is over, that is), you'd only have to update lighting ever so often. Supposedly the lighting code is fairly fast now (it was horribly slow when Notch first released it, and its improved markedly since then), so it might be fast enough for moving. I don't really notice a delay when placing torches, and it doesn't matter if the lighting is slightly delayed - it'd still be centred close to your position, so it wouldn't be painful so long as the calculations don't slow down the game in general. Maybe it could just update every second or so - still reasonable in single-player. SMP would be worse, since you'd have more moving objects, but it really depends on how long it takes to recalculate one light source removed and one replaced. (For all I know, Notch's code might support 'moving' the light sphere instead of completely regenerating it, so it might be lightning-quick and there might be no issue whatsoever. I have no clue what his codebase looks like, though.)


And having moving sources would be really bad if you're moving more quickly than normal. If a normal player has some delay, imagine what it'd be like with a well-boosted minecart. 

[dragnar]

Nah, while turning the player into effectively a moving torch would take too much time to be feasible, that isn't the only way to implement moving torches. A simpler solution would be to simply render things near the player as being brighter, without actually changing the game world. The one flaw would be that it would lose the blocky nature of minecraft's light...

[PTTG??]

I imagine that it would be only marginally complex to cheat a little bit and make the game treat the tile your head is in as being a torch tile... indeed, I could see something like that being only a moderately difficult server-side mod to SMP by actually having the server place and remove torches as you move.

Yes, moving within a square wouldn't move the torch, but the blockiness would make such small moves invisible anyway.

[Thexor]

Good thinking! I was concerned about monster spawns (visually-rendered light wouldn't block spawning)... but I'm betting monsters have to spawn outside a fixed radius from players anyways, so this wouldn't be a problem. 

It would look a bit odd when contrasted with blocky static lighting, but that's not a huge issue. Heck, Notch might even de-block-ify the static lighting a bit - he made fluid flows look decently-smooth, so maybe he'll give lighting a similar gradient. (Assuming it doesn't too severely cripple the overall blocky aesthetic...)

I imagine that it would be only marginally complex to cheat a little bit and make the game treat the tile your head is in as being a torch tile... indeed, I could see something like that being only a moderately difficult server-side mod to SMP by actually having the server place and remove torches as you move.

Yes, moving within a square wouldn't move the torch, but the blockiness would make such small moves invisible anyway.

That's what I was originally considering. Problem is, if you're moving, you'd have to fairly frequently de-make and re-make the torch - and if you've got several guys on the same SMP server, there's a worry that the lighting code would start to lag from all the updating. Still, if the code is fast enough that lag isn't an issue, I'm all for the simple solution! 



Either way, I'm kind of just hoping that self-held lights will, in some form or another, come into play at or before when torches become temporary. Because I know damn well I'd end up building a torch a few steps ahead of me, advancing a few steps, destroying the torch, GOTO top. Which would be painful. 

[Mephisto]

That's what I was originally considering. Problem is, if you're moving, you'd have to fairly frequently de-make and re-make the torch - and if you've got several guys on the same SMP server, there's a worry that the lighting code would start to lag from all the updating. Still, if the code is fast enough that lag isn't an issue, I'm all for the simple solution! 

That's what I was thinking. Boats are markedly faster than running. What happens when you get fifteen or twenty people participate in a boat race for some reason or another while they hold torches?

[KrunkSplein]

I think you guys are significantly underestimating the length of time a torch will burn.   You make it sound like you've got 60 seconds per torch.  Don't get me wrong, that could very well be the case - I just think that it will be something more balanced than that.  They should last for an exploratory session in a cavern, but you shouldn't be able to leave the cavern for a few in-game days and have the torches stay lit.

Also, I am really interested in the mechanics of the otherworldly travel, especially considering its potential impact on the lucrative mine cart industry 

[Frumple]

Actually, on the otherworld thing, what happens if you go... down? Or up, I guess.

Curious minds want to know, especially if attempting to materialize inside rock leads to something akin to a matter-antimatter reaction

"Oh noes!" says Physics, "there's two things in the same place! EXPLOSION TIME!!" Then, light. And a multi-hundredthousand block diameter crater.

It would be glorious. _{and probably crash inducing, ahahahaha.}

[PTTG??]

I got the feeling that it's only linear direction that matters.

I imagine that building train tracks in Hellperspace will be interesting, as would be using it in combat to phase over, step two or three tiles, and phase back to zip around the enemy.

Unless, of course, you need a more static gate structure.

Also interesting would be building structures there to represent landmarks in the realish world.

I rather like the idea of bringing a flint and steel with me when exploring an abandoned mine and lighting torches as I go.

[dragnar]

Also, I am really interested in the mechanics of the otherworldly travel, especially considering its potential impact on the lucrative mine cart industry 

Which leads to the inevitable question: Could you route a minecart track through the portals?

[Jay]

this

[warhammer651]

I would totally play that

[Frumple]

I'm half considering turn difficulty back up solely to harvest gunpowder from creepers. Playing around with invedit has led to the understanding that infinite TNT blocks makes mining an entirely more interesting experience¹. My current favorite moment was when I made the initial insertion; dug straight down until I hit a cavern, then towered myself back to the surface via TNT. One left click later and there's this freaking huge hole² in the ground. Delightful.

¹

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

²

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Before:
After:
It goes all the way down