VoxeLibre/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to VoxeLibre

So you want to contribute to VoxeLibre? Wow, thank you! :-)

VoxeLibre is maintained by AncientMariner and Herowl. If you have any problems or questions, contact us on Discord/Matrix (See Links section below).

You can help with VoxeLibre's development in many different ways, whether you're a programmer or not.

VoxeLibre's development target is to...

• Create a stable, peformant, moddable, free/libre game inspired by Minecraft using the Minetest engine, usable in both singleplayer and multiplayer.
• Currently, a lot of features are already implemented. Polishing existing features is always welcome.

Links

• Mesehub
• Discord
• YouTube
• Matrix
• Reddit
• Minetest forums
• ContentDB
• OpenCollective

Using git

VoxeLibre is developed using the version control system git. If you want to contribute code to the project, it is highly recommended that you learn the git basics. For non-programmers and people who do not plan to contribute code to VoxeLibre, git is not required. However, git is a tool that will be referenced frequently because of its usefulness. As such, it is valuable in learning how git works and its terminology. It can also help you keeping your game updated, and easily test pull requests.

Look at our wiki for some concrete guides: https://git.minetest.land/VoxeLibre/VoxeLibre/wiki/

How you can help as a non-programmer

As someone who does not know how to write programs in Lua or does not know how to use the Minetest API, you can still help us out a lot. For example, by opening an issue in the Issue tracker, you can report a bug or request a feature.

Rules about both bugs and feature requests

• Stay polite towards the developers and anyone else involved in the discussion.
• Choose a descriptive title (e.g. not just "crash", "bug" or "question" ).
• Always check the currently opened issues before creating a new one. Try not to report bugs that have already been reported or request features that already have been requested. This can often be ambiguous though. If in doubt open an issue!
• If you know about Minetest's inner workings, please think about whether the bug / the feature that you are reporting / requesting is actually an issue with Minetest itself, and if it is, head to the Minetest issue tracker instead.
• If you need any help regarding creating a Mesehub account or opening an issue, feel free to ask on the Discord or Matrix space.

The link to the mesehub registration page is: https://git.minetest.land/user/sign_up (It appears to sometimes get lost on the page itsself)

Reporting bugs

• A bug is an unintended behavior or, in the worst case, a crash. However, it is not a bug if you believe something is missing in the game. In this case, please read "Requesting features"
• If you report a crash, always include the error message. If you play in singleplayer, post a screenshot of the message that Minetest showed when the crash happened (or copy the message into your issue). If you are a server admin, you can find error messages in the log file of the server.
• Tell us which VoxeLibre and Minetest versions you are using (from Minetest 5.7 type /ver, for previous versions, check the game.conf or README.md file).
• Tell us how to reproduce the problem: What you were doing to trigger the bug, e.g. before the crash happened or what causes the faulty behavior.

Requesting features

• Ensure the requested feature fulfills our development targets and goals.
• Begging or excessive attention seeking does not help us in the slightest, and may very well disrupt VoxeLibre development. It's better to put that energy into helping or researching the feature in question. After all, we're just volunteers working on our spare time.
• Ensure the requested feature has not been implemented in VoxeLibre latest or development versions.

Testing code

If you want to help us with speeding up VoxeLibre development and making the game more stable, a great way to do that is by testing out new features from contributors. For most new things that get into the game, a pull request is created. A pull request is essentially a programmer saying "Look, I modified the game, please apply my changes to the upstream version of the game". However, every programmer makes mistakes sometimes, some of which are hard to spot. You can help by downloading this modified version of the game and trying it out - then tell us if the code works as expected without any issues. Ideally, you would report issues will pull requests similar to when you were reporting bugs that are the mainline (See Reporting bugs section). You can find currently open pull requests here: https://git.minetest.land/VoxeLibre/VoxeLibre/pulls. Note that pull requests that start with a WIP: are not done yet and therefore could still undergo substantial change. Testing these is still helpful however because that is the reason developers put them up as WIP so other people can have a look at the PR. The wiki has an article with instructions on how to test Pull Requests: https://git.minetest.land/VoxeLibre/VoxeLibre/wiki/Testing-Pull-Requests.

Contributing assets

Due to license problems, VoxeLibre cannot use Minecraft's assets, therefore we are always looking for asset contributions.

To contribute assets, it can be useful to learn git basics and read the section for Programmers of this document, however this is not required. It's also a good idea to join the Discord server and/or Matrix space.

Textures

For textures we prefer original art, but in the absence of that will accept Pixel Perfection texture pack contributions. Be warned many of the newer textures in it are copies or slight modifications of the original MC textures so great caution needs to be taken when using any textures coming from Minecraft texture packs. If you want to make such contributions, join our Discord server. Demands for textures will be communicated there.

Sounds

VoxeLibre currently does not have a consistent way to handle sounds. The sounds in the game come from different sources, like the SnowZone resource pack or minetest_game. Unfortunately, VoxeLibre does not play a sound in every situation you would get one in Minecraft. Any help with sounds is greatly appreciated, however if you add new sounds you should probably work together with a programmer, to write the code to actually play these sounds in game. All sounds should be released under an open source license with clear information on the source, licencing and any changes made by the contributor. Use the README files in the mod to communicate this information.

3D Models

Many of the 3D Models in VoxeLibre come from 22i's repository. Similar to the textures, we need people that can make 3D Models with Blender on demand. Many of the models have to be patched, some new animations have to be added etc.

Crediting

Asset contributions will be credited in their mods and their own respective sections in CREDITS.md. If you have commited the results yourself, you will also be credited in the Contributors section.

Contributing Translations

Workflow

To add/update support for your language to VoxeLibre, you should take the steps documented in the section for Programmers, add/update the translation files of the mods that you want to update. You can add support for all mods, just some of them or only one mod; you can update the translation file entirely or only partly; basically any effort is valued. If your changes are small, you can also send them to developers via E-Mail, Discord or Matrix - they will credit you appropriately.

Things to note

You can use the script at tools/check_translate_files.py to compare the translation files for the language you are working on with the template files, to see what is missing and what is out of date with the template file. However, template files are often incomplete and/or out of date, sometimes they don't match the code. You can update the translation files if that is required, you can also modify the code in your translation PR if it's related to translation. You can also work on multiple languages at the same time in one PR.

Crediting

Translation contributions will be credited in their own in CREDITS.md. If you have commited the results yourself, you will also be credited in the Contributors section.

Profiling

If you own a server, a great way to help us improve VoxeLibre's code is by giving us profiler results. Profiler results give us detailed information about the game's performance and let us know places to investigate optimization issues. This way we can make the game faster.

Using Minetest's profiler

We frequently will use profiling to optimise our code. We recommend use of the JIT profiler (RIP Jude) to fully understand performance impact:

https://content.minetest.net/packages/jwmhjwmh/jitprofiler/

Minetest also has a built in profiler. Simply set profiler.load = true in your configuration file and restart the server. After running the server for some time, just run /profiler save in chat - then you will find a file in the world directory containing the results. Open a new issue and upload the file. You can name the issue " profiler results".

Let us know your opinion

It is always encouraged to actively contribute to issue discussions on MeseHub, let us know what you think about a topic and help us make decisions. Also, note that a lot of discussion takes place on the Discord server, so it's definitely worth checking it out.

Funding

You can help pay for our infrastructure (Mesehub) and other unforeseen expenses (in the last few years, only payments for Mesehub have been done) by donating to our OpenCollective link (See Links section).

Crediting

If you opened or have contributed to an issue, you receive the Community role on our Discord (after asking for it). If you have been an author of a PR that got merged or contributed significantly to art that got merged into the game, you receive the Contributor role on our Discord (after asking for it). Please note that what counts as "significant" is decided by Maintainers. OpenCollective Funders are credited in their own section in CREDITS.md and receive a special role "Funder" on our discord (unless they have made their donation Incognito).

How you can help as a programmer

(Almost) all the VoxeLibre development is done using pull requests.

Recommended workflow

• Fork the repository (in case you have not already)
• Do your change in a new branch
• Create a pull request to get your changes merged into master
• It is important that conflicts are resolved prior to merging the pull request.
• We update our branches via rebasing. Please avoid merging master into your branch unless it's the only way you can resolve a conflict. We can rebase branches from the GUI if the user has not merged master into the branch.
• After the pull request got merged, you can delete the branch if the merger hasn't done this already.

Discuss first

If you feel like a problem needs to fixed or you want to make a new feature, you could start writing the code right away and notifying us when you're done, but it never hurts to discuss things first. If there is no issue on the topic, open one. If there is an issue, tell us that you'd like to take care of it, to avoid duplicate work.

Don't hesitate to ask for help

We appreciate any contributing effort to VoxeLibre. If you are a relatively new programmer, you can reach us on Discord or Matrix for questions about git, Lua, Minetest API, VoxeLibre codebase or anything related to VoxeLibre. We can help you avoid writing code that would be deemed inadequate, or help you become familiar with VoxeLibre better, or assist you use development tools.

Maintain your own code, even if already got merged

Sometimes, your code may cause crashes or bugs - we try to avoid such scenarios by testing every time before merging it, but if your merged work causes problems, we ask you fix the issues as soon as possible.

Changing Gameplay

Pull Requests that change gameplay are always subject to discussion. Opinions from the community on such PRs are valued, and Maintainer should approve the concept (which is usually granted) as well as the implementation (for which changes are often requested for either code quality or game design reasons).

Guidelines

Git Guidelines

• Pushing to master is disabled - don't even try it!
• Every change is tracked as a PR
• All changes require at least one approval from a Developer
• Maintainers may merge PRs without formal approval, but should also take others' opinions and testing into account
• To update branches we use rebase not merge (so we don't end up with excessive git bureaucracy commits in master)
• We use merge to add the commits from a PR/branch to master
• Smaller PRs may be squashed before merging (especially if the commit history on them isn't valuable), but when in doubt prefer merging
• Manual merging may be done by a Maintainer if there are technical problems with the branch, with Gitea, or the PR had been merged to from master and the author can't fix it for whatever reason
• PR from a fork (usually the author has no contributor/developer privileges) can be retargeted and merged first into a buffer (normal new) branch on the repo when adopted by a Developer, and only later into master
• Submodules should only be used if a) upstream is highly reliable and b) it is 100% certain that no VL specific changes to the code will be needed (this has never been the case before, hence VL is submodule free so far)
• Subtrees may be used for including outside mods that don't need changes in the foreseeable future
• Commit messages should be descriptive
• Try to group your submissions best as you can:
  • Try to keep your PRs small: In some cases things reasonably be can't split up but in general multiple small PRs are better than a big one
  • Similarly multiple small commits are better than a giant one. (use git commit -p)

Code Guidelines

• Each mod must provide mod.conf.
• Mod names are snake case, and newly added mods (or substantially changed mods that are included from the outside) start with vl_, e.g. vl_hollow_logs, . Keep in mind Minetest does not support capital letters in mod names.
• In the past mods were prefixed with mcl_, e.g. mcl_core, mcl_farming, mcl_monster_eggs. New mods should never use this prefix.
• Mods included from outside with no significant changes to the API (especially those using git-subtree or such) aren't prefixed.
• To export functions, store them inside a global table named like the mod, e.g.

mcl_example = {}

function mcl_example.do_something()
	-- ...
end

• Public functions should not use self references but rather just access the table directly, e.g.

-- bad
function mcl_example:do_something()
end

-- good
function mcl_example.do_something()
end

• Use modern Minetest API, e.g. no usage of minetest.env
• Tabs should be used for indent, spaces for alignment, e.g.

-- use tabs for indent

for i = 1, 10 do
	if i % 3 == 0 then
		print(i)
	end
end

-- use tabs for indent and spaces to align things

some_table = {
	{"a string",                   5},
	{"a very much longer string", 10},
}

• Use double quotes for strings, e.g. "asdf" rather than 'asdf'
• Use snake_case rather than CamelCase, e.g. my_function rather than MyFunction
• Don't declare functions as an assignment, e.g.

-- bad
local some_local_func = function()
	-- ...
end

my_mod.some_func = function()
	-- ...
end

-- good
local function some_local_func()
	-- ...
end

function my_mod.some_func()
	-- ...
end

Developer status

Active and trusted contributors are often granted write access to the VoxeLibre repository as a contributor. This means that they can push directly to the branches of our repo (except for master). Pushing to others' branches without asking is discouraged, open a PR targeting that branch instead (PRs can target any branch).

Those that have demonstrated the right technical skills and behaviour may be granted developer access. These are the most trusted contributors who will contribute to ensure coding standards and processes are followed.

Developer responsibilities

• If you have developer/contributor privileges you can just open a new branch in the VL repository (which is preferred). From that you create a pull request. This way other people can review your changes and make sure they work before they get merged.
• If you do not (yet) have contributor or developer privs you do your work on a branch on your private repository e.g. using the "fork" function on mesehub.
• Any developer is welcome to review, test and approve PRs. A maintainer may prefer to merge the PR especially if it is in a similar area to what has been worked on and could result in merge conflicts for a larger older branch, or needs art/licencing reviewing. A PR needs at least one approval (by someone else other than the author).
• The maintainers are usually relatively quick to react to new submissions.

Maintainer status

Maintainers carry the main responsibility for the project.

Maintainer responsibilities

• Making sure issues are addressed and pull requests are reviewed and merged.
• Making releases
• Making project decisions based on community feedback
• Granting/revoking developer access
• Enforcing the code of conduct (See CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
• Moderating official community spaces (See Links section)
• Resolving conflicts and problems within the community

Current maintainers

• AncientMariner - responsible for gameplay review, publishing releases
• Herowl - responsible for gameplay review, publishing releases, technical guidelines

Release process

• Run tools/generate_ingame_credits.lua to update the ingame credits from CREDITS.md and commit the result (if anything changed)
• Launch VoxeLibre to make sure it still runs
• Update the version number in README.md
• Use git tag <version number> to tag the latest commit with the version number
• Push to repository (don't forget --tags!)
• Update ContentDB (https://content.minetest.net/packages/Wuzzy/mineclone2/)
• Update first post in forum thread (https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=16407)
• Post release announcement and changelog in forums

Licensing

By asking us to include your changes in this game, you agree that they fall under the terms of the GPLv3, which basically means they will become part of a free/libre software.

Crediting

Contributors, Developers and Maintainers will be credited in CREDITS.md. There are also Discord roles for Contributors, Developers and Maintainers.