Minecraft mod that runs RISC-V Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Minecraft mod that runs RISC-V Linux

#31

Post by jefurii » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 7:42 PM UTC

tialaramex wrote: post #13

zorr wrote: post #11

As someone who has never played Minecraft except for creative mode without mods with a 6yo. Could someone explain to me what this mod does and what the concept of Robots is? Does this enable programmable computers and programmable robots that have their own "agency" to work for you? And on a related note: Are there other mods related to (learning) programming that can be used by kids (6-8yo)? I'm specifically looking…

OpenComputers has players build one or more machines (either "computers" which can't move, or "robots" which can) and then the conceit is those machines seem to run a primitive DOS^W [Edited: I think it's actually Linux?] with floppy disks (flying robots, but booted from floppy disks, hey it's only a game) and they can run Lua programs you write. This mod (OpenComputers II) is a "spiritual successor" to OpenComputers…

It'd be awesome if I could SSH in to the VMs and edit from Emacs on my desktop. I'd also like a pony.

Re: Minecraft mod that runs RISC-V Linux

#32

Post by jmrm » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 8:00 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #28

jmrm wrote: post #26

In the past, I found incredible to being able to program in Lua in ComputerCraft, controlling not only redstone and moving robots, but also being able to interface with the web and serial ports, but this, this is (or can be) a whole new world inside the Minecraft modding space. Amazing!

Out of curiosity, is this available in multiplayer, and if so, which physical machine is the "host"? Is it the Minecraft server or is VM execution somehow replicated on the clients (first player that enters an unloaded chunk?)?

AFAIK the host in ComputerCraft were the server.

I remember how some people done quarries in the 1.4-1.7 versions of Minecraft (I don't exactly remember which) by simply putting a chunk loader object from other mod and programming the robot to mine it. The robot had a diamond pickaxe and could drop and get items, so when the inventory were full, it could drop all of the objects in a chest or other place.

Re: Minecraft mod that runs RISC-V Linux

#33

Post by nybble41 » Tue, Jan 11, 2022, 11:14 PM UTC

laurowyn wrote: post #23

paavohtl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Redstone is absolutely miserable to use. Even the simple task of moving signal around is a chore. Even though it can be used to do anything with the magic of NOR gates and Turing completeness, it is an outright hostile environment for learning about programming, logic and electronics.

Somewhat agree, however I think it's because building redstone actually requires some materials science type knowledge. i.e. how different materials and physical structures affect the redstone signal. Redstone blocks vs redstone torches, and their relative strengths/purposes. Torches on sides of normal blocks with signals entering the side of the block. Using normal blocks to prevent redstone signals from connecting…

> This is why I'm surprised I've not yet seen a VHDL/Verilog compiler for minecraft redstone.

https://github.com/itsFrank/MinecraftHDL

https://devpost.com/software/mcverilog

Re: Minecraft mod that runs RISC-V Linux

#34

Post by tialaramex » Wed, Jan 12, 2022, 1:05 AM UTC

jefurii wrote: post #31

tialaramex wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OpenComputers has players build one or more machines (either "computers" which can't move, or "robots" which can) and then the conceit is those machines seem to run a primitive DOS^W [Edited: I think it's actually Linux?] with floppy disks (flying robots, but booted from floppy disks, hey it's only a game) and they can run Lua programs you write. This mod (OpenComputers II) is a "spiritual successor" to OpenComputers…

It'd be awesome if I could SSH in to the VMs and edit from Emacs on my desktop. I'd also like a pony.

I mean, all of that sounds pretty do-able if you put the work in. Ponies? Not a problem. However in my experience the more sophisticated the animal behaviour in my modded Minecraft the less I like it.

Vanilla Minecraft cows produce milk if you click them with a bucket to put the milk in. Convenient. Some packs though provide real cattle. You need a cow, and a bull, and they need to be together with plenty of good food, and then the cow becomes pregnant. So you wait until she gives birth, steal her calf and now you can get milk. Or, you can decide actually you don't need milk that badly and the cows should get on with their lives unmolested.

I don't entirely sympathise with the people who wrote Better Than Wolves, but, you know, their water powered machinery is probably better than wolves considering the effort that went into each feature...

Re: Minecraft mod that runs RISC-V Linux

#35

Post by IAmLiterallyAB » Wed, Jan 12, 2022, 2:56 AM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #7

IAmLiterallyAB wrote: post #6

I've been working on speeding up floating point calculations for the RISC-V emulator used by this mod. The trouble is Java doesn't have full IEEE 754 support, specifically features like rounding rules and exceptions. So to support these in the emulator, floating point calculations are done in software.

With OPenComputer on 1.7.10 we call out to a compiler .so library for the Lua interpreter which I assume could do floating poin correctly.

Ah yes that could work. Was a little weary about packaging native code, but if other mod developers are doing it it might be a good path.

I'm currently working on calling the C fenv API using the new Java Foreign Function & Memory API, all from pure Java.

To be clear, I'm not the dev behind OC2, just messing with it as a hobbie.