News

Release 7

written 18 Oct 2016

Release 7

While release 5 & 6 were focused on balancing and improving existing features, release 7 is all about new features.

Block damage and view distance

To further improve the adventure theme of the game we have add health values to blocks. This means that blocks are no longer immediately destroyed, but needs to be repeatedly damaged. Damage is persistent so a block that has been damaged stays damaged. We have also updated the block description to allow blocks to be destroyed into other blocks. One example is dirt with grass on top which is now destroyed into a dirt block.

We also added a dynamic view distance that scales back the view distance if your computer needs it to reduce lag. I should point out that the video below is not recorded on a gaming computer, it has a few years old Intel graphics.


Tools

As destroying blocks using a non specialized block can be a lot of work, we have also introduced some basic stone tools that can be used to speed up the process.


Block rotation

To allow for new more interesting plugins as well as make building more fun, we have introduced the ability to rotate block in any direction. This is activated on a per block basis so not all blocks can be rotated. One example of a block that can be rotated is wood, this means that one can now build horizontal beams.


Two new plugins

We have also created two new plugins showcasing some parts of the new APIs as well as making the underground of konstructs a lot more interesting. There is now a plugin for generating caves as well as one for generating ores.


New features

The Client

  • Reworked the rendering loop and the chunk requesting code
  • View distance is now dynamic
  • Render damaged blocks
  • The is now also distributed as a snap (snap install konstructs-client).

The Server:

  • Protocol update due to block rotation and block damage
  • Improved block query code
  • Added support for tools
  • Lots of updates to plugin API, latest docs available here

Plugins

Written by Stefan & Petter