2d Sandbox Test 6a - Restarting...

This test build features a complete restart of the project! (yay?)

Why?

Over the last 5 test builds, I've been trying to build a sort of "sub-engine" within the godot engine to handle stuff like loading/unloading chunks, spawning mobs, declaring items, etc. The problem is this "sub-engine" was becoming increasingly difficult to expand. In short, things weren't being done in a proper, expandable way. Another fundamental issue is that the old engine was using godot tilemaps to render the terrain, and they have limitations which just wasn't going to work. Tiles can't be interacted with (ie a chest), you can't have tiles that are created via code. For example, with the old engine I would have had to manually add a stair/slab variant to every block that needed it. In the new engine, those can be created automatically.

Features of the new engine:

• Infinite terrain in ALL directions (the world has no bottom now!!)
• You can customize the terrain generator now
• Less stuttering while crossing chunk borders, due to the fact that chunks are generated as 16x16 areas, rather than stretching across the entire y axis in the old engine
• Tile "masks", which allow parts of tiles to be cut out automatically. Enable "Random Tile Masks" before generating to demo this.
• Actually FASTER than the old engine when not using any masks (masks currently slow it down a bit when there is alot)
• The main menu has a little preview of the world you are about to generate

The next few test builds will most likely focus on getting the new engine in parity with the old one. However I will be taking more care when implementing things like entities & crafting this time, so they may take time.

I've attached some images of some of the cool stuff you can find if you mess around with the generator settings :)