Logging out takes some time because it waits all mapchunks to be generated before closing the (local) server, and natural slopes can be expensive on that side. If you find the map generation taking too much time, you may try the Progressive generation method instead of VoxelManip in the mod settings. It will release raw chunks faster and generate the slopes in background while you play (and you can enjoy watching it happening in front of your eyes :) ). But it will be even longer when you logout because the progressive method is slower in absolute time.
Once you start playing in already generated areas, the logout issue won't happen anymore. There are other parameters to tweak for performances against the number of slopes, but the generation method is the most effective without affecting the results.
Sorry to read that, I had not that much problem here with a 10 years old 2-core desktop CPU running at 3,3GHz, I'm not sure map generation is spread across all cores. This mod indeed adds various amount of stress upon map generation, mostly with a lot of players exploring simultaneously, moving fast or when a new world is created. The default settings should work fine with rather few players and should stabilyze once exploration becomes less frequent.
Still, if you are experiencing performances issues, there are a some settings to reduce the effects of the mod to be able to run on various machine and world profiles and tweak the effect/lag ratio.
The progressive generation mode is the most noticeable and mandatory for single-core processors which doesn't benefit from the map generation dedicated thread. It is recommended if the default mapgen mode doesn't run fast enough and you don't mind the landscape being unprocessed during a few (or even tenths) seconds by automatically adjusting to the performance of the server to slow down. But it globally takes a lot more time.
Skipping nodes upon generation creates less slopes, but runs faster (by default all nodes are processed).
Increasing the map generation factor will have almost the same effect, but distributed more randomly (pick a value closer to 1.0 or even above). This controls the age of the landscape with more or less sharp edges.
I would recommend disabling shape update on generation completely only if the other settings are not enough. At that point it turns off almost all effects of this mod, because the landscape is almost not automatically updated. You'll have to basically do everything by yourself, turning off the "natural" feature of this mod. And because once a map block is generated, there is no way to to run the automatic update on it after that if you changed your mind.
You may activate the smooth rendering from naturalslopeslib settings to make slopes look like actual slopes instead of stairs. This is not enabled by default because it breaks the blockish look that most game uses and it comes with some issues about height estimations and passability. But it's still there.
Even if it could look great on ideal cases, I won't be including more shapes. Cutting only the upper part in 4 seemed to me a good compromise for ease-of-use, performance and consistency.
Edge detection works by checking only about direct neighboring node presence or absence. It would be painfull to check for the further neighboring node and handle a lot of more cases. And if not all the neighboring nodes are sloped right, it will most likely add roughness than smoothness. Also the division of node already includes some issues about not being able to put things on the half-height (like putting things over or under slabs), smoothing slopes even further will double the number of cases where this issue arises.
But I understand why you are suggesting it. I agree a really smooth terrain would be very eye-candy.
You are left alone in nature. Some say nature is generous, this game says nature is brutal. Everytime you try something you may ask yourself "what could possibly go wrong?", well, everything. One day things may seem okay, the next day things become critical.
The game mechanics are very hard to grasp and the walkthrough is somehow mandatory and pretty much insuffiscient (I had to look for the code for extracting water into puddles. This is a game-killer, but water is so scarce and necessary to live more than two days). You'll have to repeatedly die before having a bit of understanding about how things work, about watery, what is eadible and/or toxic, thermal regulation and such. And then you'll still be constantly balancing a discomfort to an other while trying to just have barely acceptable living conditions. Forget about your castle, a small dry and warm hut is already luxuous.
Very interesting, challenging and frustrating at the same time (at least if you are playing without respawning).
This mod covers the lack of a craft guide for games that doesn't provide one, but it's a bit more than that. If you don't like picking all the materials one by one and remembering each goes where, click on the craft button from the guide and all the materials are already placed. Either for just one or the maximum amount you can craft. An apreciable feature to smooth the crafting process of complex items.
I had a great time discovering Hades Revisited, even if it is only in early stages. The movements are both complex with a lot of lava and rough terrain but still not unbearable with the low gravity. Terraforming is long but satisfying and that precious water won't flow everywhere as you would like that soon.
The game is rather easy to grasp with it's craft guide and lot of tooltips, which will take you by the hand for the basic terraforming and let you go on an (underground) adventure to get the components for the new toy you have seen in the guide once you have established your campement on the surface.
A little plus I like: torches are not mandatory everywhere to keep the monsters at bay
When I first discovered Minetest, I haven't played any game of that genre before and was like "What am I supposed to do?", putting random things in the craft-grid without effects and running in circles.
The tutorial helped a lot to grab the basics and understant a bit more what can be done. Next is the craft guide to get the mandatory basic recipes.
Thanks for the review.
Logging out takes some time because it waits all mapchunks to be generated before closing the (local) server, and natural slopes can be expensive on that side. If you find the map generation taking too much time, you may try the Progressive generation method instead of VoxelManip in the mod settings. It will release raw chunks faster and generate the slopes in background while you play (and you can enjoy watching it happening in front of your eyes :) ). But it will be even longer when you logout because the progressive method is slower in absolute time.
Once you start playing in already generated areas, the logout issue won't happen anymore. There are other parameters to tweak for performances against the number of slopes, but the generation method is the most effective without affecting the results.
Sorry to read that, I had not that much problem here with a 10 years old 2-core desktop CPU running at 3,3GHz, I'm not sure map generation is spread across all cores. This mod indeed adds various amount of stress upon map generation, mostly with a lot of players exploring simultaneously, moving fast or when a new world is created. The default settings should work fine with rather few players and should stabilyze once exploration becomes less frequent.
Still, if you are experiencing performances issues, there are a some settings to reduce the effects of the mod to be able to run on various machine and world profiles and tweak the effect/lag ratio.
The progressive generation mode is the most noticeable and mandatory for single-core processors which doesn't benefit from the map generation dedicated thread. It is recommended if the default mapgen mode doesn't run fast enough and you don't mind the landscape being unprocessed during a few (or even tenths) seconds by automatically adjusting to the performance of the server to slow down. But it globally takes a lot more time.
Skipping nodes upon generation creates less slopes, but runs faster (by default all nodes are processed).
Increasing the map generation factor will have almost the same effect, but distributed more randomly (pick a value closer to 1.0 or even above). This controls the age of the landscape with more or less sharp edges.
I would recommend disabling shape update on generation completely only if the other settings are not enough. At that point it turns off almost all effects of this mod, because the landscape is almost not automatically updated. You'll have to basically do everything by yourself, turning off the "natural" feature of this mod. And because once a map block is generated, there is no way to to run the automatic update on it after that if you changed your mind.
Thanks for the feedback and contribution. Your rough models are now included in naturalslopeslib v1.5 and available for all games.
To use them, simply select the "Rough" rendering mode in the mod settings.
This is fixed with naturalslopes_minetest_game 0.4.
You may activate the smooth rendering from naturalslopeslib settings to make slopes look like actual slopes instead of stairs. This is not enabled by default because it breaks the blockish look that most game uses and it comes with some issues about height estimations and passability. But it's still there.
Even if it could look great on ideal cases, I won't be including more shapes. Cutting only the upper part in 4 seemed to me a good compromise for ease-of-use, performance and consistency.
Edge detection works by checking only about direct neighboring node presence or absence. It would be painfull to check for the further neighboring node and handle a lot of more cases. And if not all the neighboring nodes are sloped right, it will most likely add roughness than smoothness. Also the division of node already includes some issues about not being able to put things on the half-height (like putting things over or under slabs), smoothing slopes even further will double the number of cases where this issue arises.
But I understand why you are suggesting it. I agree a really smooth terrain would be very eye-candy.
You are left alone in nature. Some say nature is generous, this game says nature is brutal. Everytime you try something you may ask yourself "what could possibly go wrong?", well, everything. One day things may seem okay, the next day things become critical.
The game mechanics are very hard to grasp and the walkthrough is somehow mandatory and pretty much insuffiscient (I had to look for the code for extracting water into puddles. This is a game-killer, but water is so scarce and necessary to live more than two days). You'll have to repeatedly die before having a bit of understanding about how things work, about watery, what is eadible and/or toxic, thermal regulation and such. And then you'll still be constantly balancing a discomfort to an other while trying to just have barely acceptable living conditions. Forget about your castle, a small dry and warm hut is already luxuous.
Very interesting, challenging and frustrating at the same time (at least if you are playing without respawning).
This mod covers the lack of a craft guide for games that doesn't provide one, but it's a bit more than that. If you don't like picking all the materials one by one and remembering each goes where, click on the craft button from the guide and all the materials are already placed. Either for just one or the maximum amount you can craft. An apreciable feature to smooth the crafting process of complex items.
I had a great time discovering Hades Revisited, even if it is only in early stages. The movements are both complex with a lot of lava and rough terrain but still not unbearable with the low gravity. Terraforming is long but satisfying and that precious water won't flow everywhere as you would like that soon.
The game is rather easy to grasp with it's craft guide and lot of tooltips, which will take you by the hand for the basic terraforming and let you go on an (underground) adventure to get the components for the new toy you have seen in the guide once you have established your campement on the surface.
A little plus I like: torches are not mandatory everywhere to keep the monsters at bay
When I first discovered Minetest, I haven't played any game of that genre before and was like "What am I supposed to do?", putting random things in the craft-grid without effects and running in circles.
The tutorial helped a lot to grab the basics and understant a bit more what can be done. Next is the craft guide to get the mandatory basic recipes.