Mods

Mods

An example of a mod (here: Mesecons).

Mods (short for modifications or modules) are user-created modifications to the game in such a way that adds to or alters the gameplay.

Some larger mods may add a lot of content to the game, while other smaller mods may add more settings/customization options, or optimize the speed, gameplay, or graphics of Minetest.

Server mods or plugins mainly give server admins more options and ease of use, and all mods for single-player can also be used in multiplayer.

While Minetest mods are generally safe to install, one should exercise caution with mods to prevent crashes, system instability, deletion of game/save data, or potential malware infections from a bad link or the mod itself.

A good way to protect your game from such problems is to back up your Minetest folder if you choose to use mods.

There are many mods or plugins available to complement the original Minetest game or give server admins more options and control over their servers.

Modpacks

A modpack (short: “MP”) is a collection of mods to group them together. Basically, a modpack is just special directory containing the actual mod directories.

It's purely a logical grouping and is done mostly for convenience and to group closely-related mods together. The main difference is that they will be displayed differently in the mod manager in Minetest.

Apart from that, there is nothing special about modpacks or mods inside a modpack. Individual mods in a modpack can still be enabled and disabled as if they were standalone mods.

Client-Side Mods

A Client-Side Mod (short: “CSM”) is a mod used to customize your Minetest client. Client-Side Mods can be used when connected to a Minetest server because they are loaded locally.

Client-Side mods require at least Minetest 0.4.15-dev from sources, compiled after April 1st, 2017.

Please note API is currently not stable and can change.

Installation

Startingt with Mintest version 5.0 you can use the ContentDB. Click on the “Content” tab in-game to find mods, games and texturepacks.

See also Installing Mods and Installing Client-Side Mods.

Finding mods

Official sources

• Preferred: ContentDB. Click on the “Content” tab in-game to find mods.
• “Mod Releases” subforum
• “WIP Mods” subforum (For mods that are not quite finished. Here be dragons!)
• “Client-side modding” subforum (Only for client-side mods)
• Mods listed on minetest.net (This list is not very up-to-date)

Unofficial sources

Unofficial resources for mods are:

• Minetest Mod Search
• Minetest Bower

Creating mods

Mods are created in Lua, a relativiely simple scripting/programming language. They can be created by anyone who is able to code in Lua and understands Minetest's Lua API.

The official Lua API documentation can be viewed in lua_api.txt.

Other important learning resources:

• Minetest Modding Online Tutorial Book (Highly recommended)
• Intro to modding (on the developer wiki)

Listing server mods

If you’re on a server, you can issue the server command /mods to query the server to tell you the list of its installed mods.