dimensions

[PolySaken]

would it be possible at all for minetest to support other "sub-worlds" or "dimensions"
that can be defined in mods?
that would be very useful.

[Krock]

1.5 year old issue about this idea: https://github.com/minetest/minetest/issues/4428
Possible: yes, but it requires much work to keep compatibility with existing mods if an additional axis should be used for alternative worlds.
Different realms already exist in the same world, as the 62km vertical space is never used entirely in a vanilla setup. If you are interested in some of these mods:
Nether viewtopic.php?t=10265
CaveRealms viewtopic.php?t=9522
CaveRealms lite viewtopic.php?t=18413
Moon realm viewtopic.php?t=6329

[PolySaken]

k thanks.
i just wanted to know if it could be done.

[Wuzzy]

Long story short, there are no “dimensions” like in Minecraft, but it's common to imitate dimensions by simply stacking vertical realms.

If you add unbreakable separators like bedrock between the realms, you can also make it impossible to just walk from one realm to another. This way you force the players to always use portals.
I also recommend to keep enough distance between the realms so that sounds and explosions from the bottom of one realm can't be heard in the top of another realm.

The downsides of this approach are the more realms you add, the thinner they have to be and they are not truly independent of each other, since they technically are all in the same world. Also, you have to handle the coordinates yourself and need to select the realm boundaries carefully. If you do realms, it's important to plan ahead early on and choose proper realm boundaries. Later on, it won't be possible to change the realm boundaries without breaking existing worlds. You also need to handle weather, sky, etc. in each realm seperately.

The upsides are that there's no long loading time for teleporting to another “dimension”, because it's just the same world, and, if done right, the player won't notice the difference from “real” “dimensions” like in Minecraft anyway.

The realms approach is exactly hat I did in MineClone 2, and many other games follow this approach as well.

[PolySaken]

Long story short, there are no “dimensions” like in Minecraft, but it's common to imitate dimensions by simply stacking vertical realms.

If you add unbreakable separators like bedrock between the realms, you can also make it impossible to just walk from one realm to another. This way you force the players to always use portals.
I also recommend to keep enough distance between the realms so that sounds and explosions from the bottom of one realm can't be heard in the top of another realm.

The downsides of this approach are the more realms you add, the thinner they have to be and they are not truly independent of each other, since they technically are all in the same world. Also, you have to handle the coordinates yourself and need to select the realm boundaries carefully. If you do realms, it's important to plan ahead early on and choose proper realm boundaries. Later on, it won't be possible to change the realm boundaries without breaking existing worlds. You also need to handle weather, sky, etc. in each realm seperately.

The upsides are that there's no long loading time for teleporting to another “dimension”, because it's just the same world, and, if done right, the player won't notice the difference from “real” “dimensions” like in Minecraft anyway.

The realms approach is exactly hat I did in MineClone 2, and many other games follow this approach as well.

Thanks

[Linuxdirk]

If you add unbreakable separators like bedrock between the realms, you can also make it impossible to just walk from one realm to another. This way you force the players to always use portals.

But isn’t it much cooler if you could simply walk between them?

Nether on the bottom, above the Nether are some deep caves, then some kind of a giant caves underworld, then the regular caves, then at water level the normal world with mountains 8km high then a cloud world with floating islands and stuff and above that the space …

That would be super awesome!

[lightseer]

would it be possible at all for minetest to support other "sub-worlds" or "dimensions"
that can be defined in mods?
that would be very useful.

Suppose you could walk between between and have all the mods change as you passed over. Ores not in one dimension would turn into other things. You could establish exchange rates, too. If you got it all working smoothly you might be able to also start connecting servers, though not in realtime. I mean you could potentially use it to allow players to cross over by logging off one server and logging into the other bringing their stuff with them. Is that too fanciful to consider?

[texmex]

For server-to-server interlinkage, someone is already doing it here by means of a reverse proxy: https://github.com/andrewvy/knot

[ThomasMonroe]

Woah, I would have never thought about doing it like that!
That's awesome!

[sorcerykid]

There was some discussion last year about dividing the y-axis into planes to simulate different dimensions.

There is a benefit to the seemingly useless vertical expanse -- multiple independent "worlds" within a single map each of which can have a common origin of 0,0. This is done on just test server, which has an underworld (or "cursed world") at -6000m iirc and the overworld at sea level. Other subgames even introduce what is known as a netherworld.

It's theoretically possible that one could place an unbreakable plane of bedrock between each strata to prevent people from digging through.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=18763&p=300759

[kay27]

...imitate dimensions by ... stacking vertical realms.

(1) ... add unbreakable separators ... between the realms
(2) ...keep enough distance between the realms so that sounds and explosions from the bottom of one realm can't be heard in the top of another realm.
(3) ...handle the coordinates yourself and need to select the realm boundaries carefully.
(4) ...plan ahead early on and choose proper realm boundaries. Later on, it won't be possible to change the realm boundaries without breaking existing worlds.
(5) ...handle weather, sky, etc. in each realm seperately.

Seems, that can't be done flawlessly for now. We put an effort - design flowcharts, build layers, calculate lights, then players hack the layers and keep holes, e.g. by growing trees (the more features we add, the less chance is there to keep layers unbroken), also it's extremely hard to calculate lights and skies properly on all the layers if they differ.

Doesn't it look as a task for the engine?

The upsides are that there's no long loading time for teleporting to another “dimension”, because it's just the same world

Please fix me if I wrong but inactive areas are mostly offloaded anyway, so it is only partially true. It might be faster than running transactions on an adjacent databases, or might have similar speed. If it is a blocker, can we discuss having multiple world-size cubes in a single storage?

[56independent_actual]

if an additional axis should be used for alternative worlds.

Does this mean that Minetest will become a 4-dimensional game?

Wow! This is such a cool idea! Imagine being stuck in-between the dimensions, like w=0.1 (where w is from x, y, z, w)! This would be amazing, like some blocks from w=1 existing but a lot from w=0.

[kay27]

Let me try to list possible implementations?

1. Introduce optional 4th 'w' coordinate :) Consider it when rendering, etc. There will be nothing for first time on layers except default 0. But objects and blocks those learned how support 'w' coordinate properly - will be able to appear and act there. (This way is the most abstract, promising and in a theory extendable up to Miegakure game.)

2. Introduce 'dimension' (or 'world') object/context, objects and map chunks are attached to. It might be identifiable by a unique name and probably might have different seed and other mapgen options. (This is the most conciliatory way maybe.)

3. Introduce server sets with shared player credentials and meta with possibility to entirely move player from one server to another and remembering last played server for proper reconnecting. It makes possible to implement several per-server dimensions for a single game. (The simplest way, but a bit complicated.)

Am I missing something? Please let me know and I update the post.