Pre-alpha release 55 and other news

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
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This is a more meaty release paired with a new major launcher release too.

Game pre-alpha release v55 (changes in Jenkins; download from GitHub):

Going to start referring to these as pre-alpha releases rather than stable builds. Eventually we'll be on alpha releases, then beta, and so on. This will keep developing as we sort out how to do release management including modules and "distros". The numbers will change too, not being tied to the engine version any longer. For instance that's actually v0.53.1 for this release.
  • Official first build requiring Java 8
  • Bunches of new modules!
    • AnotherWorldPlants: Extracted from other modules including everything from Crops, which has been retired. Should allow better customization and use of plants in world gen
    • CheatsForAll: Utility module for servers. Can enable and all joining players will get "cheat" command permissions without having to activate server admin manually first
    • ComputerMonitors: In-game monitors! Can span multiple blocks and be drawn on at a quite high level of detail, including simulated animation
    • MobileBlocks: Allows entity-bearing blocks to move from position to position while maintaining their state (such as a computer in a vehicle of sorts)
    • ModularComputers: Base library module for everything computers. Probably similar to ComputerCraft, with some added benefits, though not nearly as complete yet. Allows for other mods to add modules that are physical objects in-game you can then slot into computers to enhance their capabilities. See its thread for lots of videos
    • SimpleFarming: Basic growth simulator for crops and similar plants
    • SimpleLiquids: Basic propagating liquid - water can move again! If you enable this, anyway
  • Easier block placement close to your own position (with a slight chance to leave you inside a block - can just move out)
  • Assorted bug fixes like no more weird duplication in multiplayer (as a client you could possibly place stuff from your toolbar without it ever disappearing)
  • Game client disposes better in multiplayer, previously you could end up with an orphan process. Please keep an eye out for similar situations and let us know!
  • Custom spawning logic for the player is now supported per world
  • Lots of refactoring in rendering land
  • Inventory improvements, including more automation potential through machines/computers
  • The railgun drills entire tunnels into terrain again, huzzah! Use it carefully, will naturally lag the game silly if overused, especially on weaker systems
  • New integer range supported as a serializable data type for prefabs
  • Enhancements for heightmap-based worlds including options for how to repeat the map (so support for only generating a limited area for gameplay like Light & Shadow)
  • Tabbed layout support for UI widgets
Launcher release v2 (changes in Jenkins - 1, 2, 3; download from GitHub):

Major new release. Requires Java 8, as does the game now.Not backwards compatible - the launcher won't find any old games. If you have old data/config you may need to delete it.
  • New UI based on JavaFX - shiny!
  • Launcher now delivers the Omega zip (with extra modules) when available
  • Support for the legacy game has been dropped (the version with the 'q' based crafting and such) - still available in Jenkins. Structured very differently so a pain to keep it available in the launcher.
  • New options for game launch parameters
  • "Nightly" is now referred to as "Develop" and "Stable" is "Release"
  • More languages available for the launcher UI
  • Supports use of a system proxy
Work has started on launcher v3, main features there are expected to include a newer version of JavaFX depending on Java8 upgrade 40, but hopefully we can get JRE bundling working in this release as well so the user doesn't have to worry about Java at all. Until said JRE bundling works this newer version of the launcher (in the develop branch)requires Java8u40 to compile and work.

Other news:
  • Our WorldViewer tool has made a lot of progress and can simulate worlds to show you how they'd look very nicely. This is also being used in the world preview in-game.
  • We've adopted Destination Sol, a small and spiffy space arcade shooter that made a splash on Steam - even if it is somewhat niche 200k downloads and positive reviews isn't bad! More on this later but in short it needed new maintainers and uses some of the tech we want to move Terasology towards (such as LibGDX, allowing Android support, and the Steam support itself). It is also a small project we can apply our Gestalt library to for improving Destination Sol itself.
  • A Chilean group of university students is using Terasology as a semester project to visualize code/project metrics using in-game worlds - neat! Somewhat similar to our TWOVANA concept just for code projects in general
  • Our translation site has been updated to Weblate 2.1, although it hasn't taken over the official URL at translate.terasology.org just yet - should be any day now
  • PolyWorld is still skulking along the edges of the Omega lineup, waiting to pounce and bring us neato island worlds :)
  • New particle system is getting close as well
Probably I'm missing more, but this post is already a week overdue after a particularly long release cycle - so signing off for now with one direct video embed from ModularComputers :)

 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
Contributor
Design
Logistics
SpecOps

war-sloop

New Member
Its my first post here and let me say that you are doing an AWESOME job on this game ! I played minecraft for long times and stopped since 1 year ago... I firstly went to discover minetest but unlike this gamein my opinion they didn't make the project going well... and then I see terasology, I was curious about yet another mc clone, but when I tested it I said Wow! the project is really well developed and has a really interesting component system way better than any other Mc clone I've ever seen...
You really should have more community to make this game famous because it has all the tools needed !
Once again great job !! :)
 

Cervator

Org Co-Founder & Project Lead
Contributor
Design
Logistics
SpecOps
Hi @war-sloop and welcome! I saw you had passed by IRC yesterday but didn't get back from afk-land myself in time to say hello.

Thank you for your kind words :)

I'd like to think we have most the pieces in place already. We just need more good active people to help put them together and make something really cool!

(And the time to. Time is helpful. Not something I have a lot of for a few weeks due to crunch time at work, wee)
 
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