As I have children with cheap chinese tablets who want to play minetest and could not connect to my server due to memory limitation (512MB) I decided to rewrite the minetest client. Right now I'm in alpha stage, only very basic functionality works and only the "default game" and "minimal_test" is supported. I'm able to connect to existing minetest servers and walk around on them for now. My code loads the mapblocks it needs and removes them when not needed and so saves memory. As it is build on Xamarin and uses the Urhosharp game engine it runs on Windows, Mac, IOS and android. My goal is to be able to make it work with heavily modded servers and only use low ram to be able to spread the game to people with low-ram devices as people with iphones. For now I won't be releasing anything as I don't fully yet know about licences, the game is not yet functional and still contains many bugs.
Why I made this thread? I would like to know what everybody's thoughts are about it, what is allowed and what isn't, and if there is demand for a new client as one already exists.
Proof of concept video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX8gGS6w3n0
-> fov is only 32 blocks for now, just to make a quick video.
Not to repeat myself, but to keep this topic a little clean: Yes it still needs work and yes, there are many many bugs.
Update 31/03/2017
Working import of B3D & Wavefront models by code:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5e3NYf0M7g
Update 04/04/2017
Reworked kernel for handeling more nodes, models and media from server -> Now working on modded servers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDGA18Eh7qI
Update 07/04/2017
Translated nodeboxes to vertextriangles + facedir + completely reworked how mapblocks get drawn for performance :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWkMSwPKfRE
Update 24/04/2017
A lot of progress later...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkpAxVcTLRQ
Update 25/04/2017
Speaks for itself, no video needed...
Spoiler
Worked some more on the formspec's...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iytx6EaYyYQ
Update 27/04/2017
B3D Model glitch solved, moving object problem solved
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-h_8N9jr-g