Place stairs upside down depending on click position

[MarkuBu]

To place stairs upside down you need to place a node above or a screwdriver. It would make things easier if stairs are rotated if you click in the top half of the node and not rotated if you click in the lower half.

I don't know if it is possible to get the click position on a node

[paramat]

Getting the click position might be quite complex to do, needing a new API.

[MarkuBu]

I know I saw this in a mod, but I don't remember

[sofar]

If you know the look yaw/pitch of the player, and you know their position, you can mathematically calculate where on the surface the cursor should be. This is what the painter mod does.

https://github.com/xyzz/painting/blob/master/init.lua#L91

However, wrt slab/stair placing, people have complained about the handling before and I fear that any change is just going to get more people complaining again. The code is already overly complex as is.

[paramat]

Yeah i would prefer simpler behaviour, impossible to satisfy most builders as building preferences vary so much.

[MarkuBu]

Simpler behaviour (for the user) normally means more code

It is not simple to rotate each slab or stair with the screwdriver just because of the code is simple.

And to be honest: was there a change in history that has satisfied EVERYBODY?

The behaviour should be logical. And it is not logical that a slab is placed vertical if I attach it to a horizontal slab, for example.

@sofar, thanks for the link. Maybe I try a PR some day if no one else will

[paramat]

Yes i mean simple codewise.

[Desour]

Btw, not only the painting mod does this. Some other examples:
@HybridDog made a fork of digipad where you can punch at the digipad to use it, his technic_extras mod changes the music player so that you can punch the numbers to change and stop the music and he made a fork of travelnet where you can use the elevator by punching it.
There might be more but I don't remember everything.

[HybridDog]

Getting the click position might be quite complex to do

It's very easy (it's taught at grammar school). The camera offset is 1.625 m above player:getpos() position + the bobbing offset. The offset caused by bobbing is not known serverside, but it's small, so it can be omitted.
https://github.com/HybridDog/technic_extras/blob/master/init.lua#L64

[paramat]

Yes, simple maths but it's a lot of code for something probably unnecessary. SImple code helps devs' heads.

[sofar]

If someone writes a PR, I'll review and help improve it (as I always do).

[MarkuBu]

I don't think it is unnecessary. I think, a game should be K.I.S.S for the players, not for the devs

Will try to make a PR. I'll start with #1568

[MarkuBu]

Well, then I'll fork the stairs mod

[C1ffisme]

Rather than simply adding code into the stairs mod to detect where on a node you have clicked, wouldn't it make sense to put this functionality into builtin?

[HybridDog]

Well, then I'll fork the stairs mod

You can't fork the stairs mod because it's not an repository.
But you can run $ git subtree push -P mods/stairs/ https://github.com/<you>/<stairsrepo> master to get one with history, e.g.:
https://github.com/HybridDog/stairs (from my minetest_game fork)

[HybridDog]

C1ffisme, that function detects where on the node you have clicked:
https://gist.github.com/HybridDog/76eee7890a439e6984aa4ca45c1e04e9

[MarkuBu]

@HybridDog cool, thx. What does pt stand for? Position of the pointed node?

[Desour]

I think, it means pointed_thing.

[MarkuBu]

perfect, thanks. It works

[MarkuBu]

that was easy

https://youtu.be/KQRGy8Hkzhw

[MarkuBu]

Is someone willing to add HybridDog's code to builtin? Might be useful for other mods

slabs are now a bit different. Also auto rotation works with different slab types

https://youtu.be/Qkb3acMjCig

[paramat]

Sorry for my comment, this looks good on both the videos, intuitive, i don't oppose.
I agree with slabs being horizontal whatever they are placed against, they are usually wanted horizontal.
I prefer this behaviour to the current.

[MarkuBu]

If someone can add HybridDog's code to builtin I can remove the code from stairs mod. I'll make a PR tomorrow

[paramat]

Perhaps adding that code to builtin should be a separate PR?

[MarkuBu]

I think about more rotations depending on click position. Vertical rotation if clicked on the left or right side of the surface and default rotation when click at the center. But I'm afraid that this is more complicated and I want to try first if it feels natural

[paramat]

Vertical rotation if clicked on the left or right side of the surface and default rotation when click at the center

Sorry i'm not keen on that.

[MarkuBu]

I'll make a mod for this. It can be used in older MTG versions too

[hkzorman]

The way this works as shown in the video is really good 👍 . I think this definitely should be part of MTG.

[paramat]

PR #1581

[paramat]

#1697 merged.