[Mod] 3D Wires (for mesecons) [wires3d]

[12Me21]

This mod adds mesecon wires that connect in all 6 directions, as well as tools for adding/removing insulation and changing the shape of insulated wires.
It also includes all of the 1 and 2-input logic gates, which can be rotated using the screwdriver.
There are 256 different insulated wire colors.



Wires connect automatically when placed
Right click with insulation to add insulation to a wire:

Or swap colors:

(Left click to remove insulation)
Use wire cutters to add/remove attachment points on insulated wires:

Left click = remove, right click = add

Spoiler

Insulation coloring machine:

Spoiler

- Wire
- Insulated Wire
- Diode
- Not Gate
- Or Gate
- And Gate
- Xor Gate
- Nor Gate
- Nand Gate
- Nxor Gate
- Comparator (A > B)
- Inverted Comparator (A <= B)
- LCD Pixel
- Insulation Coloring Machine

Version 0.3 Change Log:
- Gates now show input state
- Renamed mod to "wires3d"
Version 0.2 Change Log:
- Fixed rotated comparators
Version 0.1 Change Log:
- Added machine to color insulation item
- Added crafting recipes for all(?) items
- Now has optional dependencies on default and mesecons_materials
- Updated various textures
- Improved support for creative mode
- Renamed various items

Mod dependencies:
- mesecons
- place_rotated (https://github.com/12Me21/place_rotated ... master.zip)

Download
Requires Minetest version 0.5!
https://github.com/12Me21/3d_wires/archive/master.zip (https://github.com/12Me21/3d_wires/)

[Desour]

You might want to add better textures. Therefor you should look to the design information here.
It would be nice to have a direct link to the git repo and not only the download btw.

[12Me21]

You might want to add better textures. Therefor you should look to the design information here.
It would be nice to have a direct link to the git repo and not only t the download btw.

Ok I added the link

The current textures are just temporary, and hopefully I'll make some better ones soon...

[TheGreatCoffeeKing99]

Cool!

IMHO 3D wires look much better than flat ones, and look less confusing. Definitely cool.

(P.S. may give the mod a go soon.)

[Desour]

I've tested it now.
Btw. it would be convenient for installers if there were links on the forum page to the forum pages of the dependencies.

Great mod!

I like that you use param2 coloring.
You add 2⁸ (=256=2⁶*2*2 (6 sides to connect, insulated and not insulated, on and off)) nodes for the wires, this seems very ok, mesecons_wires makes more (2⁹ I think). The names have human unreadable numbers in them, in standard mesecons there are most times 0s and 1s added after the name, Idk what's better.

The design is nice, the output is always red, you can climb the wires and gates.
The placement of the wires works great.

The gates need more states to avoid this:


Do the comperator gates work correctly yet on all sides?

The left input is >= the right input.

All in all, I'd like to see this mod being used on servers in the future, players could have fun with it. It's a good, not too complex, stable mesecons addition.

[12Me21]

I've tested it now.
Btw. it would be convenient for installers if there were links on the forum page to the forum pages of the dependencies.

(added)

Great mod!

The design is nice, the output is always red, you can climb the wires and gates.
The placement of the wires works great.

All in all, I'd like to see this mod being used on servers in the future, players could have fun with it. It's a good, not too complex, stable mesecons addition.

Thanks!

I like that you use param2 coloring.
You add 2⁸ (=256=2⁶*2*2 (6 sides to connect, insulated and not insulated, on and off)) nodes for the wires, this seems very ok, mesecons_wires makes more (2⁹ I think). The names have human unreadable numbers in them, in standard mesecons there are most times 0s and 1s added after the name, Idk what's better.

Yeah standard mesecons has 2⁹ normal wires + 4*2 insulated + 3*2 vertical + 2 mese block = 528 conductor nodes.
As for the names, well, it depends. I keep track of wire connections using 6 bits stored in a number, while I think mesecons uses a boolean array.
Lua isn't really designed for doing bitwise operations (the version we use doesn't have any bit operators), while getting/setting a value in a boolean array is very easy.
However, it's much simpler to convert "3d_wires:wire_24_on" to 24 than it is to convert between "mesecons:wire_00101101_off" and {false, false, true, false, true, true, false, true}, for example.
Plus when registering the nodes, I can just use `for i = 0, 2^6-1 do ...`, which you can't do with a boolean array.

The gates need more states to avoid this:

I've been thinking about that. I'll probably add it soon.

Do the comperator gates work correctly yet on all sides?

The left input is >= the right input.

Ok, I checked my rule rotation function, and apparently I was doing rotation counter clockwise instead of clockwise (Which is only noticeable with gates that aren't symmetrical)
It should be fixed now.

[LegoLogger]

These are cool. Sort of like Technic cables? I'll have to try this on my local world soon.

~~BakerPrime

[Desour]

Sort of like Technic cables?

technic cables connect to all 6 sides always. Afaik the not insulated ones here are comparable but for the insulated ones you can decide to what sides they connect.

Btw. if not insulated cables really connect to all sides, you don't need to register so many nodes for them but just one for off and one for on and make them connected nodeboxes. This would decrease mod loading time and increase placement performance but mesecons signals were less efficient. It would be like mese block.

[rubenwardy]

Mod names shouldn't begin with a number, please rename. (This causes issues with Lua variable naming rules)

[12Me21]

Sort of like Technic cables?

technic cables connect to all 6 sides always. Afaik the not insulated ones here are comparable but for the insulated ones you can decide to what sides they connect.

Btw. if not insulated cables really connect to all sides, you don't need to register so many nodes for them but just one for off and one for on and make them connected nodeboxes. This would decrease mod loading time and increase placement performance but mesecons signals were less efficient. It would be like mese block.

I originally did this, but the problem is that it requires all the nodes they connect to to have connect_sides set to the correct value, which I don't have control over (and even if I did, some of them might already use connect_sides for something else, like technic nodes using it for cable connection). Plus, connect_sides doesn't support 6d facedir.

Mod names shouldn't begin with a number, please rename. (This causes issues with Lua variable naming rules)

Yeah that was a terrible idea... I'll rename it to wires_3d or something for the next update. Maybe just wires3d, because having underscores in the mod name breaks the texture naming system (I can't name my textures "wires_3d_..." because technically some other mod might be called "wires" and end up using the same texture names. I'm not sure why the modname_texturename pattern was chosen in the first place, since _ is a common character in both mod names and texture names...)

[12Me21]

Ok, I renamed the mod and fixed *part* of the problem with gates.

The input wires will change color to match the state of each input. However, I didn't do the same for the output, for a few reasons.
If I did this, then all the gates pointing IN to a circuit would have to update every time it changes state, just for a visual effect.
Also it would mean that there's no way to visually tell whether a gate is powered or not. (though this could be fixed by changing the textures to make the gate icon change color or something)

I'm not exactly sure what the best way to solve this would be.

[Miniontoby]

Please put it on content.minetest.net

[Visitor247]

I was pointed here after requesting something similar. This is absolutely great.
Finally we can, sort of, hide cables, have them look nice and build in new ways because of the insulation.

Could you please add the rest of the mesecon blocks that are not looking like blocks: especially the Delay (1 to 4 rings could indicate the state of the Delay)?

All the controllers could be on a block that is just as high as the upper side of the wire so it would look as if the wire is plucked into the controller.
The pressure plates and the solar panel are no problem, since they can be connected from below.

[PolySaken]

This is honestly exactly what I need. I was just thinking of making something similar myself - the ability to choose what connects with the insulated wires is my favorite part.

Edit: Can I make you some better textures for the wire cutters, painting machine, and insulation? Yours... kinda suck :/
Edit 2: there's a typo in all of the crafting recipes for gates. You left out the _0_ in the names.