Hi and welcome to the Blackvoxel Forum.

I would like to ask a few questions before purchasing BlackVoxel's paid content (adventure mode):
What the limitations to the school mode are, what extra
functionality is added in the paid Adventure version that makes
it worth buying?

To make it simple, in adventure mode, you have access to the whole world : http://www.blackvoxel.com/view.php?node=1641
You are intended to play, extract resources, process it, use machines to build stuff, machines and make airplanes.
You have access to all materials, so you can access the complete tech tree.

In school mode, you are limited to the flat blue central zone. The other zones doesn't exists in this mode.
The school mode is mainly intended to teach and learn programming with the 3 actual programmable robots.
In this mode, you can get stuff like programmable robots and automation directly with the "J" key.
The school mode in not really intended for playing. Even if we did not disabled the regular game mechanics,
 you can not access other zones in the world, so some materials will be missing to really play the game.

is the Voxel Fire engine modifiable
to include octree /light rendering systems or would it be an
impractical modification for the underlying code? If not, what is the
extent of the engine's capability, would it be easier to start from
scratch to make a sandboxed game like TROVE or Un-turned (with
physics) or could the engine manage it?

To answer in few words, the VoxelFire engine is a specialized game engine, not a general purpose game creation tool like (as example) Unity, the Unreal Engine or the Godot Game engine (to speak about a free software tool) that would allow easy game creation. I know that many of the game like you mentionned are often made with the Unity game engine.

The VoxelFire engine was thinked in first place to make possible what the Blackvoxel game needed to do. This game have very specific needs that would not have been possible without a custom engine. Programming an engine like the VoxelFire takes a long time.

With the definition you gave, you are far enough from the Blackvoxel paradigm. And modifiying a game engine (or more, creating a new one) is not something I would recommand unless you know very well what you are doing. It requires a very good level in programming and can take a very long time.

In addition if you want to create a game, you have take also into account the terms of the licence of the game engine. The GPL V3+ licence of the VoxelFire code means you have to comply with it. https://www.blackvoxel.com/view.php?node=1571

keep improving, and it will become what most hope for... A software that
can be used for almost anything voxelized, best of all, Open Source.

Such a tool would be a dream. But I'm affraid it won't exist.
First because the word "voxel" can mean a lot of very different things. I mean, really different. And there is not best choice. What is good depend on the game.
Then because game engines are like cars. You can't have an "all in one" vehicle that can be best than specialized vehicle in their specific area. What you can call "the best car" depends on what you want to do.
VoxelFire can be good in Blackvoxel because it is specialized for what this specific game have to do.
Unforunately, specializing means making choices. Some choice you have to make in a game engine to make it better for some uses means... that you have a price to pay : it will be worst or not suitable for some other uses.

Best regards,
The Blackvoxel Team

Hi D3x0r,

Thanks for your comment and tought!

The good new is that you don't have to dig. In school mode, a special key "j" give you access to programmable robots and other automations automation stuff directly without following the habitual proces (digging, collecting resources, making metals).

Open the inventory and press "j" key. Pressing again give access to another page. Look at this page http://www.blackvoxel.com/view.php?node=1560

Your post suggest us some improvements to the school mode to let user know minimal information on how to get started. We will think about it.

Best regards,
The Blackvoxel Team

Hello Animar,

I see what is the problem. The functions you mentioned are executed... but in your case,  they are doing nothing. That's because in some cases, your program is running out of "action ticket".

To make the things simple, you have the right to do only one Move() per Voxel_Step() call. Then, your Voxel_Step() function must terminate before you have the right to do another Move(). That's for limiting the power of the programmable robot to avoid being faster than extraction robots. If you call the Move() function another time, it will do nothing but return "false" to say the move action was refused. In the documentation, the functions consuming the "action ticket" are documented with the sentence like "You can move the robot only once per cycle (per Voxel_Step() call)" http://www.blackvoxel.com/view.php?node=1303

To understand more deeply, an important precision : The Squirell Robot is not running a continuously running program, but a function called cyclically. The function Voxel_Step() is called each time the voxels of the world are moving (Approx 5 time by seconds). It's working synchronously with the Molecular Voxel Interaction Engine. So it's synchronous with other machines. If you want to use a program behaving a more continuous way, see the trick below.

So, there is what you can do :

• Rethink your program using some "state machine" like the example here : https://www.blackvoxel.com/view.php?node=1306 so you'll make only one action per voxel_step.
• Always call any PickVoxel() before moving the robot.
• Use the newest "Remote Programmable Robot" along with the Scratch programming language. It have a much simpler behavior and use a continuously running program (http://www.blackvoxel.com/view.php?node=1705). But Squirrel robot remains more powerful and faster.
• If you want to use some loops with Move() and make it like it's running continuously, you can use a trick : the squirrel generators with the yield() function after each Move() . The yield() will return execution to the Voxel_Step and resume at the same point on the next call. Here is an example.

// Continous program called by a function.

// The generator

Rep<-0;

// My continuously running program

function MyStuff()
{
  local x,y;
 
  for (y=0;y<8;y++)
  {
    for (x=0;x<8;x++)
    {
      PickVoxel(5);
      if (y & 1) Move(1);
      else       Move(3);
      yield(true);
    }
    PickVoxel(5);
    Move(2); yield(true);
  }
 
  return(null);
}

// Calling the continuous program using a generator.

function Voxel_Step()
{
  // Creating the generator.
  if (Rep==0) Rep = MyStuff();
 
  // Calling the generator... or resuming where it was stopped.
  if (Rep==1) return(0);
  if (!resume Rep) {Rep=1;}
}


In the hope we have answered your questions, we wish you a good play.

The Blackvoxel Team

Hi There,

I have some expirience in C and Lua but this Squirrel language keeps me confused.
So this bit of code troubles me.

if(GetX() == (Start_X - DimX + 1) && NextRow){
  PickVoxel(2);
  Move(2);
  NextRow = false;
  Display( "I Should have moved", 5000, 2);
}
how can it be that the specific display text "I Should have moved" is shown but the Pick(2) and Move(2) is NOT executed.


This is the whole thig so far. The whole digging and movement will be replaced with loops. But first, i need to figure this problem out. As far as this code goes. It should check for a Storage device then go one down, two to the left and finaly one back. But i does not execute the last part ?

// Test

BotInit <- true; //        X  Y  Z
Workmode <- false; // 0 =  { 0, 0, 1 } = Front of the robot.
Start_X <- 0; // 1 =  { 1, 0, 0 } = Right of the robot.
Start_Y <- 0; // 2 =  { 0, 0, -1} = Back of the robot.
Start_Z <- 0; // 3 =  {-1, 0, 0 } = Left of the robot.
MaxDepth <- -64; // 4 =  { 0, 1, 0 } = Above the robot.
DimX <- 3; // 5 =  { 0,-1, 0 } = Under the robot.
DimZ <- 3;
NextRow <- false;

function Voxel_Step(){
  local VoxType;
if (BotInit == true){
VoxType = Look(0);
Start_X = GetX();
Start_Y = GetY();
Start_Z = GetZ();
if(VoxType == 49){
BotInit = false
Workmode = true;
PickVoxel(5);
Move(5);
}
else{
Display( "Error, no Storage Found at X = " + Start_X + " - Y " + Start_Y + " - Z " + Start_Z, 5000, 2);
}
}
if(Workmode == true){
if(GetX() > (Start_X - DimX + 1)){
PickVoxel(3);
Move(3);
NextRow = true;
}
if(GetX() == (Start_X - DimX + 1) && NextRow){
PickVoxel(2);
Move(2);
NextRow = false;
Display( "I Should have moved ", 5000, 2);
}
}
}
Thanks for your help.

Hi Animar,

Thanks for exposing your problem and thoughts. We understand better why you want a better tool.

A faster tool dedicated to machines and automations sounds like a good idea. We will think about it.

About something to make vertical travel easier, be sure we have a lot of ideas. A lot of things were already discussed in the forums like lifts, cars, trains, space ships, etc...

But we have some good news for you, lifts are already possible with the current game. The programmable robot can do it. You can also do multiblock animation and some vehicles with it.

I have posted some example scripts here : https://www.blackvoxel.com/view.php?node=1614. One simple proof of concept. And one complete lift with a command panel.

About collecting ores, don't forget that there is some world area with much more ores than in the blue flat central zone. The best is the Flat White http://www.blackvoxel.com/view.php?node=1637

The ground scanner will be useful for exploration. Update 2.41 was released with the fix for it.

Thanks for loving our game. Support from users is very important for us.

Have a good play

The Blackvoxel Team