Jo "jodogger" Dogger

[Jodogger]

Name: Jo Dogger
From: Georgia, Usa
Tools: Computer
Languages: English
Found via: Googling for an open source Minecraft clone to create a better world.
Interests: Googling for an open source Minecraft clone to create a better world.
Extra: I would love to help get the multiplayer server and\or client going. But will help in any other area (except 3d programming: I know nothing)

 

[begla]

Hey Jo! Nice to meet you. Well... We need any help we can get! Cervator has put together a lot of information on getting the development environment going on your local workstation (http://wiki.movingblocks.net) and how to contribute using Git.

Maybe you can start with working through the code to get an idea of the overall architecture. I'm here to answer all your questions! Before starting anything this has to be planned and discussed very thoroughly.

PS Do you already have an idea on designing the overall networking architecture? Any preferred frameworks? Experience in Java/C++? This bit will require a lot of knowledge how the chunks are structured and persisted (and maybe even some more optimizations).

 

[Jodogger]

Nice to meet you, as well.

Have been following the project for a few months, and it has progressed nicely. It looks really good.

Just a long-toothed software developer with enterprise exp in Java,C,C++,C#,etc. who loves old school video games. Have thrown together a few demo type games in my time.

I read the forum about using WorldProvider as a interface and looked at LocalWorldProvider. Just wondering if any more thought has been put into it. So, don't have any more thoughts yet.

I know there is some homework to get up to speed with the code, so any suggestions are kewl.

 

[begla]

I read the forum about using WorldProvider as a interface and looked at LocalWorldProvider. Just wondering if any more thought has been put into it. So, don't have any more thoughts yet.

Sadly that is all there is to it at the moment. I've been restructuring the architecture from time to time to actually support networking code later on but optimizing the game, making the terrain unique and finishing the overall framework were my top priorities.

Since all this stuff is slowly starting to work really well, working on networking support is becoming a real option now (in my humble opinion).

The current architecture should allow you to generate chunks without all the graphical overhead which makes a perfect fit for writing the initial server application.

Maybe starting out with having look at how chunks are stored, how they are generated and filled with content and how I've implemented the data structures (e.g. nibble arrays for storing light values, byte arrays for block values, ...) might be a good idea. Then comes the currently rather "simple" chunk serialization process. All those are elements that have to be reshaped to be actually useable for the networking part.

Other thoughts are: When do we need to transfer chunks? When can they actually be created locally just using the world seed value?

Time to move to another thread here!

 

[Jodogger]

Point to a new thread because I have a lot of ideas.

 

[begla]

Point to a new thread because I have a lot of ideas.

Just create a new thread related to the server architecture in the main development forum.

 

[Cervator]

Welcome, Jodogger!

Yeah we're still at the architecture phase for data storage, so need a nice multiplayer thread set up. In the meantime I'm also tinkering with how to best store / define data over in a prototype thread - feel free to take a look and comment!

Code: https://github.com/Nanoware/Blockmania/ ... oovyblocks
Related thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=77

I've looked at Red Dwarf Server some in the past, seems a very interesting framework, but still a bit awkward - not sure if it is because I just haven't spent enough time looking for frameworks or if there just aren't that many solid options out there