This is not an official changelog. Some of the content may be incorrect. If so, please inform me. All versions were precompiled and unedited by me. All screenshots were taken by me.
This is meant to be a document showing the evolution of Minetest from the earliest recorded alpha Minetest versions to right before the start of the 0.2 series and the earliest recorded activity on GitHub. This does not document other than what is evident from playing the game or looking at file names and textures. Throughout the development, README.txt and mapgen were changed too many times to count, so they are not documented. Minetest also crashes randomly when shut down sometimes in many different versions for no seeming reason, so that is not documented either.
I posted this here because I doubt many people look at the Minetest Wiki. I'll get an account and post this there eventually.
Download for these versions:
Windows 32 bit
Source Code
2010
October
October 10, 2010 marked the time that Minetest was started, and in the three months before 2011, it advanced an exceeding amount from an extremely limited, laggy game to a much more advanced game.
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This is the first existing version known. It consists of repeating terrain of grass and stone. Stone has arrows on it, likely for determining how the textures correspond to the sides of the nodes. Two sides of the nodes are upside down. There are small, repeated square holes in the ground and stone pyramids with a pathway through them. This version lags quite visibly every time a mapchunk is loaded. There is no main menu, and there are no buttons for disconnecting. Pressing the escape key closes Minetest. No smooth lighting exists at this point. There is no inventory, and right-clicking the ground places a block of stone. There is no running, flying, or different viewing ranges. When a player points at a block, it shows an outline only on the pointed side. Punching continuously would not dig more than one node. Likewise, nodes can only be placed one at a time. Each node can be dug with one punch. Minetest has no logo yet. There is no license whatsoever. The map is not saved. Only one Minetest can be open at a time.
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A screen resolution must be entered in the debug window for Minetest to start. This version has a font and lettering in game. Mapchunks no longer cause extreme lag. A mapgen with mostly square caves and varying terrain was developed, but the same seed is always used. Not much else was changed. This version showed a copyright by celeron55, but not under any public or private license. By pressing the F key, the node being placed down can be alternated between all nodes in the game. Cloud was added.
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No noticeable change.
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This version supports servers with a port and address. It also has only one screen resolution. This version has a plain blue texture for water, but water is not generated in this mapgen.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Other people on the server are represented by the troll face. Debug.txt is created on startup.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Players playing on a server are able to have names. These are entered after typing in the address and port. It is possible to make a dedicated server.
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Water generates in the world. It is opaque, solid, and diggable.
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There are 8 screen resolutions that can be chosen in the debug window. Four are normal, and four are fullscreen.
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A map is created in a map directory. The map is stored in files, which are stored in subdirectories of the map directory, likely according to mapchunks. The player’s position is not saved. Full viewing range was added.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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The four fullscreen resolutions were removed.
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No noticeable change.
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Large shadows appear over newly generated mapchunks, but are fixed nearly immediately.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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The large shadows were resolved.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Configuration of Minetest is possible with the newly added minetest.conf. This makes it possible to start Minetest without entering the parameters in the debug window first.
November
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Minetest does not start up because tree.png is missing.
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The first trees were added, along with bushes. Bushes are single leaf nodes on the ground. Running is possible by using the 2 button. Running tends to move the player along the grid, and not necessarily in the direction the player is facing.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Minetest became licensed under the GPL license.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Water became semi-transparent. Footsteps appear on grass where a player has stepped. Footsteps don’t disappear. A mesh is generated that accurately shows the shape of the terrain before it is generated. The mesh does not disappear when the terrain is generated, so it can be found if a player digs deep enough. The players are no longer represented by the troll face; instead, they have a green player texture on a plane, which is still currently used if no player model is found. Some mapgen parameters are configurable.
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The mesh was disabled due to glitches.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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An inventory was added. It can be scrolled through and carries 32 items. Cloud now emits light. The inventory initially starts out with 99 light blocks. Mese were added, but it does not generate in game. The contents of the inventory are not saved from game to game. There is no formspec for the inventory. The arrows on the stone texture were removed. Random seeds for mapgen are chosen every time on startup.
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No noticeable change.
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Textures for signs and rats were added. Minetest does not start up properly. An option for creative mode was added in minetest.conf.
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The inventory starts out with 999 light blocks, four signs, and four rats. Signs and rats have a stack max of one. Placing a rat does nothing but remove the rat from the inventory. Minetest frequently crashes, likely due to the development of rats. Signs are diagonal planes. Words can be written on the sign, and they are saved from game to game. Signs have “Example text” written on them before the player inputs their own input. Creative mode does nothing.
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Signs have a texture for the front and the back. The signs are placed according to the direction the player faces. The inventory does not initially start out with rats.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Mese generates in game. Rats work properly, but lighting has no effect on them. Cave generation was changed to 4 by 4 squares of air that connect to make caves. Ravines (deep caves that connect to the surface) were spawned. Mud, which generates at and below sea level instead of grass, was added. Creative mode works as well. Minetest.conf has more mapgen options.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
December
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Water is swimmable. It can’t be dug, and it has a new texture. It does not flow. Mud appeared below grass as well as below sea level. Torches were added and light blocks were removed. A skybox was added. “Minetest” was added to the debug window on startup.
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Grass blocks have textures for the top, bottom, and sides. All sides of the nodes are the proper side up. Tree trunks have textures for all the sides. The inventory squares are now opaque. There is a pause menu with “Continue” and “Quit” buttons. Above them is a dirt with grass texture. Minetest closes down properly.
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A new pause menu with the buttons “Continue” and “Exit” was created. When the player enters the game, the pause menu is shown. The inventory became transparent again, and an inventory formspec was added. Crafting is not supported. The skybox was removed and a day/night cycle was implemented. Coal ore was added, but no coal lump. Most nodes have cracks while being dug and are not diggable in one click. Holding left-click will continuously dig, not stop after the first node. Placing a node anywhere above a grass node will exchange it with a dirt node. Placing a grass node under another node will not do anything to the grass node placed down.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Minetest does not start up properly.
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Minetest starts up properly again. Crafting was implemented in this version. Wood planks and sticks were introduced along with wooden, stone, and mese pickaxes. Chat using the T button was implemented. Chat is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
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The chat box at the bottom of the screen is changed to be partially transparent gray.
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Caves were improved to be less square. They consisted of straight and diagonal walls, floors, and ceilings.
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Removing all nodes above a dirt node turns it into a grass node.
2011
January
At the beginning of this year, version 0.0.1 was released. Ironically, it didn’t work.
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Minetest does not start up.
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Minetest starts up properly again.
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Flowing water is implemented. Flowing water does not do anything to grass, so grass doesn’t turn into mud when flowing water is above it. Trees have more randomized leaves.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Minetest got a main menu in this version. There is a place for the player’s name, areas for the address and port, an option for creative mode, and a “Start Game” button. The background is gray. Minetest breaks down after attempting to enter a world.
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Minetest still doesn’t work, but there are new coal ore, grass footstep, and water textures, along with textures for iron ore, sand, an iron lump, and a coal lump.
February
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Mapgen is much improved, including the caves. Flow mud makes dirt and grass more smooth. Caves generate after the mapchunk has generated and can be much larger than older caves. The sky is a lighter blue. Leaves are no longer totally opaque. Trees have leaves that are randomly generated, making the trees much more dynamic. Iron ore and sand generate. Mese is much rarer. Tools show the wear on them. Digging iron ore or coal ore drops a lump. Footsteps were removed. Water flowing was improved, but caves create holes in the water. Textures for water and stone were improved. The crack texture was changed slightly to add partial transparency. Earlier versions of textures are stored in the data directory. Running with the 2 button was removed, and very glitchy sneaking with the shift key was added. The selection box encompasses the whole node, not just the face being pointed at. Multiple Minetests can be open at a time. The pause menu includes an “Exit to OS” button, and the “Exit” button was replaced with a “Disconnect” button. After a local map is created, the main menu has a “Delete Map” button to delete that map and make a new one, but it doesn’t work properly. Maps now save the player position and the contents of the player’s inventory. Minetest.conf has many more options. Rendering of nodes was changed dramatically.
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The chat output was moved to the top of the screen. The inventory was moved to the bottom, and it is only possible to scroll through the first eight items instead of all of them. Some items, like stone, have 3d inventory images instead of just flat pictures of the front of the textures. Signs have solid blue textures. When there is no item in the inventory slot that is selected, the whole slot is red. The sky color was changed again.
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The chat output is moved to the top of the screen. The inventory is moved to the bottom, and is is only possible to scroll through the first eight items instead of all of them. Some items, like stone, have 3d inventory images instead of just flat pictures of the front of the textures. Signs have solid blue textures. README.txt was totally updated. Server chat commands became supported.
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Coal and iron ore textures were changed again. All old textures were removed from the data directory.
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This version has a few Lua files that appear to deal with rat entities both server-side and client-side. The programming works in game, and the rats spawn. They rotate very jerkily in a circle and slowly sink downwards while in the air.
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Minetest doesn’t work at all, likely due to the Lua experiments.
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No noticeable change.
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Lua is not used in this version, but the files were not deleted.
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Lua has been removed, and the older coal and iron textures are in the data directory. Minetest does not work when attempting to enter a world.
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Many elements, such as the inventory, chat box, and sky color were reverted to an earlier version. The height of water was lowered from a full node to a slightly lower level. Chat commands became unsupported.
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Water height was reverted back to the old full node.
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No noticeable change.
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No noticeable change.
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Minetest does not work when attempting to enter a world.
March
There were no recorded versions made this month.
April
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Elements such as the inventory, chat bar, server chat commands, and sky color reverted back to minetest-0.0.1-110224001908. Chests and furnaces were added. Chest can store items, but furnaces don’t work. Neither have facedir. Signs were changed to wall signs. They have the words “Some sign” before the player writes anything on them, and they can be dug in one click. Water textures were changed to be lighter. The grass textures have been changed.
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No noticeable change.
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Furnaces have a formspec, but they still do not function.
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Furnaces have function, but Minetest crashes after an item is cooked.
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Cobblestone, steel ingots, and steel blocks were added. Wooden, stone, and steel shovels and axes were added, along with a steel pickaxe. Furnaces work, but the fuel is removed after it has run out, so it can be taken out and reused.
End
After the release of 0.0.2-110405183346, the 0.0 series was discontinued, 0.2 was started, and Minetest was placed on GitHub. If you would like more, go look at the commit list at https://github.com/minetest/minetest/commits/master.
