WIP - Santa's Supply Outpost

~ WIP - Santa's Supply Outpost - Day ~
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Here are a few screenshots of one of my Minetest projects currently under development. A work tentatively titled, "Santa's Supply Outpost"; an island of snow floating in the sky.

I used a stick frame to rough-out the house and tower's shapes, general size of the rooms, and placement of windows and doors.

~ WIP - Santa's Supply Outpost - Night ~
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A night shot showing the preliminary lighting effects. This will be a build where, instead of flooding the area with light, the lighting will be reserved to give emphasis to specific parts.

~ Landing Strip and Jump Satellites ~
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Satellites with trampoline-like jump-pads on top will allow players to reach the floating snow-island in the sky.

Originally, no reindeer were planned for this project so neither was a runway. As it turns out, the runway is long enough that players without the fly priv can walk to the ends to better see the overall scene set on the island.

~ Rudolf and Team are Ready ~
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I still have to finish the interior of the house and add more detail to the landscape. I want to add a few snow trees and possibly a snowman near the stairway to the diamond platform to greet players as they enter the island.

Since this screenshot was taken, I've added presents, wrapped in ribbons and bows, under the Christmas tree. A horizontal crane has been fashioned on the inside of the loading bay to lift the fully-laden sack from the workshop into Santa's sleigh.

~ Santa's Sleigh Restocked ~
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Santa's sleigh is complete with a comfortable bench for him to sit on, a dashboard, runners and supports, and, of course, a giant sack filled to the brim with presents!

~ Christmas Glow at Sunset ~
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Throughout the build process I tried to remember to take lots of screenshots. Maybe I'll have enough good ones to sort and edit into a tutorial.

Of all the screenshots I have so far, this one stood out. It is serene yet gives a sense of anticipation of something special to come.



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Textures and Texture Packs

~ Minetest Textures ~

"Textures", in Minetest, refer to the small, png images that we see as blocks, tools, recipe items, what is held in the wield hand, and how we see the Minetest world itself.

Though the images themselves are flat, they are intended to represent the texture of the block. In the default texture pack, cobble is grey and lumpy while glass is smooth and clear with a few, white, highlights.

A "texture pack" is a collection of these texture images that you can use to change the overall look and feel of Minetest worlds that you play in.

Texture packs are "client side" meaning that what ever texture pack you are using to play with, you are the only one who sees it. The other players may be using other texture packs and they will see things differently than you.

So if you are using the "John Smith" texture pack, your view of the world will be very different from the view of the world as seen by another player who uses the "Simple Pixels" texture pack.



John Smith Texture Pack
Dark and rustic, the "John Smith" texture pack is well suited for medieval scenes.

~ An example of the "John Smith" texture pack ~
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Simple Pixels Texture Pack
A bright and cartoony looking, "Simple Pixels" may be ideal for the very young Minetest players.

~ An example of the "Simple Pixels" texture pack ~
 (click picture for larger version)

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LevelDB in Minetest is Just Not Worth it

~  Not. Amused. ~ 

08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,0,1249): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,1,1249): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,2,1249): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,0,1250): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,1,1250): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,2,1250): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,0,1251): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,1,1251): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1250,2,1251): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1251,0,1249): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1251,1,1249): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1251,2,1249): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1251,0,1250): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1251,1,1250): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1251,2,1250): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1251,0,1251): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)
08:15:31: ERROR[main]: WARNING: saveBlock: LevelDB error saving block (1251,1,1251): Invalid argument: not an sstable (bad magic number)

I've seen this a lot in a few of my test worlds that use LevelDB as the world database. I've also read several chats where server world databases are becoming corrupted after switching to LevelDB.

My own tests of switching backup copies of LinuxGaming2.com's Minetest server, "LinuxGaming" to LevelDB ended with a corrupted database each time.



Not Good for Mod Work

When the LevelDB database is corrupted things get weird in the Minetest world the database controls. That's bad enough when trying to play but it's even worse when developing, testing, and evaluating Minetest mods. You can't tell if the problems are with the mod or because of the corrupted LevelDB database.



Not Good for Players

Even celeron55, the creator of Minetest, has voiced concern about the stability of LevelDB and has stated that SQLite3 is made to be "nuclear bomb proof" with all of its redundancies. The SQLite3 databases are larger and slower but "nuclear bomb proof" in its stability and reliability. A corrupted LevelDB world means many, many hours of many players' efforts forever lost for the sake of a few shaved seconds at load time.

LevelDB is just not worth it.

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