1.8.9 Porting

[lehjr]

1.7.10 has been mostly busy work for awhile now, for mods, for Forge, and for players stuck on the sidelines waiting for updates. Aside from the nightmare of the rendering, there are also several dependencies that may not be available. Maybe it's time to start working on the port and disable the modules that have dependencies that can't be met until they become available. I just hope the performance is better than 1.7.10.

[eyeonus]

Just curious here, what exactly is the nightmare with rendering?

[lehjr]

There are some long winded explanations around but basically it requires a complete rewrite of all the mod's rendering code. The player really won't notice other than the time it takes to get the mod ported, but the developer will pretty much look like this to get it done:

[lehjr]

Checked out how bad Numina will be with 1.8.8, so far got it down to 45 errors.

[MachineMuse]

Cool, let's prioritize that for now then. I'll have to fiddle with the build scripts to get a proper separation between 1.7.10 and 1.8.8 builds.

[lehjr]

It's the render code that will be the toughest to deal with. I looked at a short block tutorial for 1.8.8 and almost immediately lost my faith in humanity. Edit: http://bedrockminer.jimdo.com/modding-tutorials/basic-modding-1-8/model-files/

[MachineMuse]

Yes, I remember begging Grum not to do this.

[lehjr]

Just a thought, but how is the player going to charge the armor in 1.8.x? Edit, looks like there might be some work on Buildcraft for 1.8.x builds, so there must be some sort of power API.

On a side note, LOL!!

• What went wrong: Execution failed for task ':deobfMcSRG'.

  Your Access Transformers be broke!

I was expecting that, just not worded quite like that.

[MachineMuse]

I'm sure there is some kind of power API in 1.8+.

Regarding rendering, we will have to circumvent the new rendering system rather than using it directly, since it is limited to cubic shapes - pretty much just like before. Does the updated Forge have working wavefront obj support?

[Xen1290]

If i remember correctly, in Forge 1.8.9/1.8.8 there is a new rendering system, Made by @RainWarrior. For power api, the only that exist is the unofficial RF api ported by Progressive Automation devs.

[MachineMuse]

Might be a good opportunity to go power-free instead. Limit modules by power generation of a generator module, instead of batteries.

[lehjr]

Yes, it appear according to one of the issues on Forge's github. As far as power goes, an API is one thing, a way to generate it is another.

[MachineMuse]

Alternatively just keep it as-is and let people charge using MPSA generators.

[lehjr]

They are very slow to charge. Edit: maybe change their charge rate until there is stable way to charge them externally?

[MachineMuse]

ok. We could also finally implement a 'storage' module with a UI that contains several slots which are unlockable by different modules:

• solidfuel generator module unlocks a slot that can have fuel put in it and generates energy according to the energy value of the fuel (slider between efficiency and consumption rate)
• subspace energy gate unlocks a slot that can have ender pearls put in them and consumes them semi-randomly (say, 0.001% chance per tick will give the pearls a half-life of about 1hr)
• backpack module unlocks e.g. a 3x5 inventory in which extra items can be stored
• crafting table module unlocks slots in this UI instead of creating a separate UI

This was a planned feature from the start but I got frustrated with minecraft's UI system (obviously) and never got around to it.

[lehjr]

Sounds interesting. Looks like this is going to be quite an overhaul. By the looks of it, none of the modules with external dependencies will carry over for awhile.

[lehjr]

Progress so far, LOL!!! : https://gist.github.com/lehjr/1709dfde96643ee8ff2d

That's Numina and MPS in the same workspace.

[Xen1290]

Update directly to 1.8.9 if possible

[lehjr]

Actually, I'm currently considering falling back to 1.8 and starting from there.

1.8.9 isn't really an option at this time. With a new version every day, it's too unstable to target, I'm not even sure about 1.8.8 at the moment since several dependencies including NEI are missing.

[Xen1290]

I think you can use JEI, every 1.8.9 mod uses It as far as I know, like blood magic, tech reborn and others. I read that is a nei replacement with an easy-to-use API. Maybe @mezz can clarify.

[mezz]

1.8.9 should be the current target for mods doing updates. By the time you finish, 1.8 will be completely dead, especially now that Thaumcraft has updated to 1.8.9. Mods with JEI support in 1.8.9 include Chisels & Bits, Tinker's, Blood Magic, and ExU. You can get started with JEI here.

[lehjr]

Well, at least the MCP mappings for 1.8.9 haven't changed for a few days. Wait, "This set of MCP mappings was designed for MC 1.8.8. Use at your own peril." Um...

[MachineMuse]

Yes, a few other sources have confirmed that JEI+1.8.9 is the standard to shoot for if we can get this done in any reasonable amount of time. Though there is still much uncertainty about power systems.

[lehjr]

I don't think it's impossible. I wish my skill level and experience were a little more fitting for the task, but I'll learn as I go, as I always do. My biggest setback is a lack of working examples and documentation, making it hard to figure out how to go from "what was" to "what is". Some of it is cleaner with the use of pos instead of x, y, and z, but some things are quite intimidating. And ffs, it's like someone is getting a commission for every json file needed.

Right now, the only working example I have to work from is this: https://github.com/MightyPirates/TIS-3D

It does have a couple of things though, like OBJ rendering.

Edit: for power I'm using the RF API copied from buildcraft's experimental builds.

[lehjr]

This is a great read: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c8uipS3BOe0BQKH6-kVFCQh8BaXOdRn8SFaAa7HmgWU

[lehjr]

So it looks like Buildcraft has an Alpha build for 1.8.9. That should be a good start for getting power.

For 1.8.9 I think it would be best to add "optional recipes" so that the default recipes are overwritten on update. That will address the insanity of having to constantly address recipe issues have already been fixed.

[lehjr]

Sort of have something rendering, too bad it's stuck to the player:

[MachineMuse]

ahahaha adorable :>

[lehjr]

Sadly, I'm still looking at what to use for rendering the TinkerTable. Since IBSR's were removed in 1.8 I used a TESR just to see it working in the current workspace. I'm not entirely sure if I can avoid using one, but I'm looking at alternatives.

[lehjr]

The armor models will be the next challenge. I'm reasonably confident that will be easier. On a side note, the 1.8.9 mods seed to have more than doubled in the past week.

[lehjr]

Well, that took longer than it should have, but I did gain some knowledge from it.

[eyeonus]

I was going to say it looks a little blocky, but then I thought you might not get the joke.

[lehjr]

LOL

[lehjr]

@MachineMuse which side if the TinkerTable is the front or does it really matter?

[MachineMuse]

It doesn't matter. In fact in 1.7 and earlier it could not be rotated at all because it was the very first block I made and it was symmetrical on 4 axes before I replaced it with SebK's model. I never went back and made it properly rotation-sensitive.

[lehjr]

Making some progress, but still have issues to work around. There are lots of changes, some small, some large. Some stuff I have no idea what to do with, like this: https://github.com/MachineMuse/Numina/blob/experimental/src/main/scala/net/machinemuse/numina/render/MuseIconUtils.scala#L62-L65 because addVertexWithUV no longer exists I've yet to find a replacement. There are other fun things as well, like OBJ rendering (currently I'm using the old OBJ setup that's in Thaumcraft 5). I have about 50 or so errors to contend with just to get things to where they will build. Running might be another story :P

[RainWarrior]

Please don't do what TC5 did with OBJs. There's a loader in forge now, use it.

[lehjr]

No worries. I know the old rendering was removed for a reason and I'm only using the old setup just to clean up everything else to where it will build. After that I'll dig into the new setup and do things right.

[AlexIIL]

Instead of using the tessellator to add vertexes, you use

WorldRenderer wr = tess.getWorldRenderer();
// There are several to choose from, look at DefaultVertexFormats for more info
wr.begin(GL11.GL_QUADS, DefaultVertexFormats.POSITION_TEX);
// Imaginary class Point that contains the position and texture coordinates
for (Point p : points) {
  wr.pos(p.x, p.y, p.z);
  wr.tex(p.u, p.v);
  // This is very important
  wr.endVertex();
}
tess.draw();

One thing you need to make sure is that you call pos(), tex(), normal() and color() in the same order as they are defined in the vertex format you are using.

[lehjr]

Thanks!!!

[MachineMuse]

by the way, a TESR is fine. sorry, should have mentioned that earlier.it's not a block that will be in worldgen, and most people aren't making buildings out of them, so it's OK to have them as tile entities with no stored information (or they can be tile entities with information stored about orientation, nbd either way)

[lehjr]

about 40 errors to go for a successful build. Then I need to figure out the new rendering for OBJ.

[lehjr]

Took the day off yesterday to build a new Linux kernel (yes people still do that) and update my video drivers, so not much progress atm. However, I am quite certain I am going to reach a point where I will need help because some of this is quite hard to follow, some of it I just have no idea what to do with it. I'll be uploading what I have so far later today, but keep in mind that is an absolute mess.

[MachineMuse]

okay :> that's super cool anyway. No pressure.

[lehjr]

I still have a lot more to upload, but I'm holding off on that while I experiment a bit with the armor rendering in a lighter/less complex setup since the rendering itself will be a bit for me to figure out.

[lehjr]

I guess this could be a fallback option until I figure out the rendering:

[MachineMuse]

I'm sure a vocal minority of users will be very happy about that, lehjr :)

[MachineMuse]

We don't have to update the custom rendering if it's too much effort. It was entirely a cosmetic feature, deliberately divorced from the functionality of the mod.

[lehjr]

It's too early for me to say for sure if it's too much effort to get working. The only big issue I have is lack of examples, but I'm going to give it a week and see if I can figure it out. Everything that isn't model or texture related looks easy.

[Razorskills]

Sometimes I wish there was a config to switch it to this armor instead of the new one, just for nostalgia purposes.

[MachineMuse]

Yes, it has been requested in the past. I think I closed it once during a period of grumpiness, but it's a reasonable request.