User:VectorV9260/Java Edition Classic 20090516-1/Development

Several unreleased development versions of the game were made prior to the release of Classic 20090516-1. These versions are often called "pre-Classic" due to being before the initial Classic release. On August 6th, 2013, several of these versions were compiled and made public.

Development versions of RubyDung are also shown here.

Terrain rendering test (Before February 9th, 2009)

 * Additions
 * Terrain
 * Each terrain coordinate is a vertex, unlike in Minecraft where terrain coordinates are blocks.
 * Very simple terrain generator.
 * Randomly picks high or low for each terrain coordinate.
 * Terrain texture
 * This texture is from an as-of-yet unidentified Warcraft III map (which resembles Dota in layout).
 * The texture is 512x512.
 * Shading
 * Some sides of the terrain are more lit than others based on their angle with a light source.

Trivia

 * RubyDung was originally going to be a more approachable Dwarf Fortress clone.

Terrain generation test (February 9th, 2009) (rd-092053)

 * Additions
 * Different materials added.
 * Grass Block JE1.png Grass block
 * Texture renders on flat and sloped ground.
 * Stone JE1.png Stone
 * Texture renders on vertical cliffs.
 * Terrain rendering now varies the color of tiles randomly.
 * Black fog that darkens areas further away from the camera.
 * This would later appear in early versions of Minecraft in darker areas.200902092053 terrain.png
 * Terrain.png originates from this version.
 * Changes
 * Terrain generator
 * Now generates flat areas with tall cliffs.

Trivia

 * This is the first version with the terrain.png file.

Trees (February 15th, 2009) (rd-151236)

 * Additions
 * Trees
 * Render as flat 2D sprites always facing the camera.
 * Have two options for normal and high density.
 * Spawn randomly on grass.
 * Dynamic lighting
 * Images of this version show different levels of light and presence or absence of the dark fog.
 * Either caves or interactivity existed in this version, but we don't know which. In a screenshot, we can see a mountain that has been cut into.

Trivia

 * This version was mentioned by Notch on IRC.

Cave game tech test (May 12th, 2009) (pc-131655)
Trivia
 * Additions
 * Blocks
 * The world is made up of 256x256x64 blocks.
 * The map takes 20 seconds to generate.
 * There are two block types, based on the materials from RubyDung: grass and stone.
 * Grass generates on fully lit tiles on the top few levels of the world.
 * Are rendered in chunks of 16x16 blocks.
 * Chunks are 16x16 instead of 8x8 because 8x8 chunks were slower to load.
 * Physics
 * The player can now walk and jump around the world.
 * The player's hitbox is 1.7 blocks tall.
 * The world is rendered in first person perspective.
 * This was going to be in RubyDung, but Notch scrapped it due to block textures looking pixelated and distorted that close up.
 * It is possible to fall out of the world.
 * Pressing R resets the player's position.
 * Changes
 * Game largely rewritten to be more like Infiniminer, a tile-based building and mining game Notch found.
 * Trees removed.
 * Lighting
 * Dynamic lighting removed
 * Light now only has two levels: bright (areas with access to the sky) and dark (areas which are covered).
 * Black fog is now only applied in dark areas (areas with no access to sky light).
 * Terrain generator
 * The terrain generator now creates large caves using a "cellular automaton" like algorithm.
 * This version had severe performance issues during its development throughout May 12th and May 13th, with each chunk taking up to 1/10 of a second to update.