 | This articlemay be too technical for most readers to understand. Pleasehelp improve it tomake it understandable to non-experts, without removing the technical details.(June 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
 | |
| Original author(s) | Perttu Ahola |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | The Luanti Team |
| Initial release | 0.0.1 / November 2, 2010; 14 years ago (2010-11-02) |
| Stable release | 5.11.0[1]  / 14 February 2025 |
| Repository | github |
| Written in | C++,Lua |
| Engine | Irrlicht (Irrlicht-MT fork) |
| Platform | Microsoft Windows,MacOS,Linux,FreeBSD,Android |
| Type | Sandbox |
| License | 2013:LGPL-2.1-or-later[2][3] 2010:GPL-2.0-or-later[4][5] Original:Proprietary[6] |
| Website | www |
Luanti (formerly and colloquiallyMinetest) is afree and open-sourcevoxelgame creation system. It is written primarily inC++ and makes use of a modified version of theIrrlicht Engine.Luanti uses aprogramming language namedLua allowing users to write their own games andmods. It iscross-platform, being available forMicrosoft Windows,macOS,Linux, someBSD descendants, someGNU variants andAndroid.[7]
An in-game browser lets users download games and modifications from the ContentDB website.[8] The five most popular games by downloads areVoxeLibre,Minetest Game,Backrooms Test, NodeCore, andMineclonia.[9]
Over a decade of active developmentLuanti has garnered critical acclaim and gained in popularity; the games, mods and texturepacks on the ContentDB have over 14 million downloads combined,[10] and the Android version ofLuanti has over a million downloads on theGoogle Play store.[11]
In October 2024 the name was changed fromMinetest toLuanti. The new name is a word play using the name of theprogramming languageLua and theFinnish word "luonti" meaning "creation".[12]
The game world of allLuanti games is composed of voxels (blocks) which are mostly cubes aligned in a 3D grid, but the player and creatures can move around freely. InLuanti voxels are called nodes. Different nodes represent various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava.
VoxeLibre is a full game with animals, monsters, interesting biomes, which is similar toMinecraft, whereasMinetest Game is a lifeless sandbox with mostly landscape nodes.
While technically playable without,Minetest Game relies on modifications to add creatures, more biomes, gameplay mechanics, armours, weapons, tools, decorative nodes and other gameplay.
The gameplay ofVoxeLibre revolves around picking up and placing nodes, gathering materials, crafting items and nodes by placing them in a crafting grid in the inventory window, smelting ores in furances, farming crops, animal husbandry, eating food and defeating monsters to survive. Some nodes can only be picked up with certain held tools the player has to craft.
As players explore the world, new areas areprocedurally generated, using a mapseed optionally specified by the player. A new game puts the player in the center of a map 62 thousand nodes across, so the player can travel 31 thousand nodes in any direction (sideways, up, or down)[13] before reaching theinvisible wall at the end of the world.
The world is divided intobiomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields; the terrain includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and various lava/water bodies, or other biomes, depending on the game and mod installed. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, and one full cycle, by default, lasts 20 real-time minutes.
Luanti provides two play style options across games:Enable Damage andCreative Mode. Disabling damage prevents dying, thus losing items and the possible frustration it might cause and Creative Mode provides players with infinite resources to build whatever they want without having to gather them first.[14]
Luanti offers players to play together over the internet or the local network by joining a server or hosting their own.
Players can either connect by IP or select the server from the built-in server browser if the host chose to publish it there by selecting the checkbox.
Instead of centralized account systems proprietary games use for the whole software,Luanti allows registering and logging into accounts on each individual server.
Luanti provides an interface forgames andmods written inLua.Mods are server-side and work out of the box when playing on servers, with no installation required.
Luanti features a built-in content browser showing packages uploaded to ContentDB, allowing users to install games, mods and texture packs with a single click. Over 2500 packages are available there as of Oct 2024[10] and many more on the forums.
Mods can be used to add or modify nodes, gameplay mechanics, tools, weapons, armour, monsters,player skins and the user interface.
The full source code ofLuanti and most of its games and their artistic assets such astextures and sounds, are distributed underfree licenses, making it easier to publish modified versions andderivatives.
.png)
Luanti was originally released in November 2010 under a proprietary license.[6] Shortly afterwards the license was changed to theGPL-2.0-or-later license.[5] By agreement among major contributors, in June 2012 the project license was to be changed toLGPL-2.1-or-later, though at the time small parts still remained under theGPL-2.0-or-later license.[4] In September 2013, the transition was complete.[3] WhileLGPL-2.1-or-later remains the main license for theLuanti engine, otherfree andopen-source licenses are used for various other parts of the latest release.[2]
Perttu Ahola was the only developer working on the project for about six months, until Ciaran Gultnieks started making code contributions in May 2011.[15] The roster of contributors grew and changed over the years. As of July 2020, there are 9 active core developers and 15 active contributors. Project participants do not have set roles, but rather keep their activity within their respective areas of expertise. Perttu Ahola's role morphed over the years: whereas initially it was engine development, it is now mostly web-hosting and administration, assigning core developer, moderator, and other roles to people, as well as being the final word in cases where other developers are unable to render a decision.[15]
Since version 5.0.0 the in-game browser lets users download games and modifications as well as their dependencies from a website called ContentDB and theIrrlicht Engine wasforked.[16]
As of version 5.8.0 theLuanti Engine no longer ships with a default game.[17]
Luanti has been used in educational environments to teach subjects such as mathematics, programming, and earth sciences. Such examples are:
Opensource.com listedLuanti at #1 in its "Best open source games of 2015",[21] stating that it is maybe "the most complete alternative toMinecraft", and noted its expansibility, saying that it contains a user-friendly API for creating mods in Lua.[22]PC Magazine listedLuanti among "The best Sandbox Creation Games forMinecraft Fans".[23]
CDB has 2526 packages, with a total of 14871145 downloads.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| General | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Software packages | |||
| Community | |||
| Organisations | |||
| Licenses |
| ||
| Challenges | |||
| Related topics | |||
