Rhotator Screwdriver (rhotator) v1.4

A different twist at Minetest screwdriving.

Tested on Minetest 0.4.16, 0.4.17 and 5.0.0 (latest dev snapshot)

If you like my contributions you may consider reading http://entuland.com/en/support-entuland

WIP MOD forum thread: https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20321

A silly, incomplete and unscripted video presentation of this mod: https://youtu.be/ESTJ9FYGHh4 (about half an hour)

An update/recap video for version 1.4 https://youtu.be/Z2a1iWJNqgs (five minutes approx)

Dependencies

A thin wrapper around a very useful library to deal with Matrices:

[matrix] https://github.com/entuland/lua-matrix

Important

From version 1.3 recipes for all crafts can be customized in custom.recipes.lua - anytime you're upgrading this mod verify default/recipes.lua for new crafts or a different file format and update custom.recipes.lua accordingly.

Main features

• for facedir and colorfacedir nodes:

  • rotate any node in a predictable manner regardless its current rotation
  • rotation memory: optionally, place any new node with the same rotation as the last rotated node or copying the rotation of pointed-to nodes (see the rotation memory modes section)

• for wallmounted and colorwallmounted nodes:

  • cycle through valid rotations in the same way as the built-in screwdriver would

Why yet another screwdriver?

The default screwdriver included in minetest_game, as well as any other screwdriver mod I have found, operate differently depending on the node's direction and rotation. This means that any given click on a node may produce different results which you cannot predict at a glance, unless you're perfectly aware of where the node's main axis is pointing to.

The Rhotator Screwdriver uses a different approach: the direction and orientation of the node make absolutely no difference.

These are the factors that affect the results of a click:

• the face you point at
• where on that face you point
• what button you click
• whether or not you hold down the sneak key

You will always be able to predict exactly the effect of the Rhotator Screwdriver.

Four consecutive clicks of the same button on the same position will always bring the node back to its original direction / orientation - or even less clicks, if you use the sneak key to invert the rotation direction.

Why is it called "Rhotator" and not "Rotator"?

In mathematics the greek letter Rho is used to indicate some stuff associated to certain types of matrices. Since I'm using matrices to compute the various rotations in the game I thought about including it in the mod's name to reduce the chance of naming conflicts.

Appearance

Here you can see the Rhotator Screwdriver along with the Testing Cube.

The testing cube is just an addition to help practicing with this screwdriver.

The Rhotator Screwdriver will rotate ANY node where paramtype2 has any of these values: facedir, colorfacedir, wallmounted, colorwallmounted.

The latter two types are handled exactly as the built-in screwdriver of minetest_game handles them.

Usage

Main rhotator screwdrivers

This is the behavior of the default rhotator:screwdriver tool:

• a right click will rotate the face you're pointing in clockwise direction

  • the arrow in the Testing Cube shows how the face will rotate when right-clicked
  • RT in the tool stands for rotate
  • hold the sneak key down while clicking to rotate counter-clockwise

• a left click will rotate the node as if you "pushed" the closest edge you're pointing at

  • the colored edges in the Testing Cube indicate the color of the face you'll see when left-clicking near that edge
  • PS in the tool stands for push
  • hold the sneak key down while clicking to "pull" instead of "pushing"

(an alternative rhotator:screwdriver_alt tool is available with a sligthly different recipe, the buttons swapped and a corresponding texture with RT and PS swapped as well)

The push interaction area is not limited to the edges you can see in the Testing Cube. In reality you can click anywhere in a triangle like this (highlighted here just for convenience, you won't see anything like this in the game):

Memory tool

The Rhotator Memory Tool rhotator:memory allows cycling through the three memory modes with a left click (mnemonic TG for toggle, in the memory tool) and copying the rotation of an already placed node with the right click (mnemonic CP in the memory tool). The sneak key has no effect on the memory tool.

See also the rotation memory modes section.

Multi tool

The Rhotator Multi Tool rhotator:screwdriver_multi combines four main features in a single tool: rotating faces clockwise, pushing edges, cycling throuh the memory modes and copying the rotation from a node. The multi tool can be configured to swap buttons around and to invert the effect of the sneak key. You cannot rotate faces counter-clockwise or pull edges with the multi tool.

See the commands section for details about to configure the multi tool.

Non-full nodes

Nodes that don't occupy a full cube (such as slabs and stairs) can still be rotated properly, it's enough that you pay attention to the direction of the part you're pointing at - the "stomp" parts of the stairs, for example, will behave as the "top" face, the "rise" parts will behave as the "front" face. With the Rhotator Screwdriver there never really is a "top" or a "front" or whatever: the only thing that matters is the face you're pointing at.

Some nodes have a limited freedom of rotation (wallmounted ones, for instance), some others can't be rotated at all (doors and many default nodes such as sand)

Rotation memory modes

Anytime you rotate a node with the Rhotator Screwdriver the resulting rotation gets stored, and any subsequent nodes you'll place will be rotated according to that rotation (assuming you have rotation memory set to on). As exposed above, you can also copy the rotation of an already placed node with the memory tool or the multi tool.

If instead you set the memory on auto the rotation of newly placed nodes will be copied from the node you're aiming to when you place them - this allows for easy continuation of staircases and roofs regardless of their orientation.

If the memory mode is set to off the node will be placed in its default orientation (which may also involve different rotations depending on how that node has been implemented).

Crafting

Rhotator Screwdriver

a stick and a copper ingot

Rhotator Screwdriver Alt

two sticks and a copper ingot

Rhotator Multi Tool

four sticks and a copper ingot in a 'plus' pattern

Rhotator Memory Tool

again two sticks and a copper ingot, in a different pattern

Rhotator Testing Cube

any of the screwdriver tools and any wool block

Recipes can be customized by editing the custom.recipes.lua file that gets created in the mods' root folder upon first run.

Chat commands

/rhotator: displays this description

/rhotator memory [on|off|auto]: displays or sets rotation memory for newly placed blocks

/rhotator multi: lists the configuration of the multitool

/rhotator multi invert_buttons [on|off]: displays or sets mouse button inversion in the multitool

/rhotator multi invert_sneak [on|off]: displays or sets sneak effect inversion in the multitool

Rotation memory starts off by default, it gets stored and recalled for each player between different sessions and between server restarts.

Usage feedback

An HUD message will show usage feedback, in particular it will inform about nodes that aren't currently supported.

Here are possible messages you can receive:

• Rotated pointed face clockwise
• Rotated pointed face counter-clockwise
• Pushed closest edge
• Pulled closest edge
• Cannot rotate node with paramtype2 == glasslikeliquidlevel
• Unsupported node type: modname:nodename
• Wallmounted node rotated with default screwdriver behavior

plus some more messages warning about protected areas or rotations performed or prevented by custom on_rotate() handlers.