Unknown Node

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Revision as of 16:32, 7 September 2017 by Wuzzy (talk | contribs) (→‎Behaviour: warning about breaking.)
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Unknown Node
Unknown Node.png
A node in Minetest
Node Type Internally-used block
Drops Nothing
Physics No
Luminance No
Flammable No
Generated Hopefully not!
Renewable No
Stackable N/A
Itemstring N/A

An unknown node (other name: CONTENT_UNKNOWN) is a block which is internally used by Minetest to represent an undefined block. Players should never see this block in the game, it's always an error.

Internal data

Internally, an unknown node always “knows” the real block it represents and stll contains all the internal data accociated with it (like an inventory) as long you don't destroy the block. So don't worry if a large portion of your world suddenly turns into unknown nodes, you might still fix this.

Unknown nodes are not items, can not be stored in inventories and have no itemstring.

Behaviour

Unknown node is a solid opaque block. When punched, an error message is shown with the itemstring of the block it actually represents. It can be mined by hand in 0.5 seconds, even if the actual block it represents would be unbreakable. But it can't be collected. Think carefully before destroying an unknown node as all information associated with the block will be gone for good. Try to do some troubleshooting first.

Troubleshooting

A common reason for this block to appear is when you have previously activated a mod which added some new blocks (e.g. a blue stone), then later deactivated said mod. Now all blocks from this mod will appear as an unknown node. In this case, you can solve this simply by enabling the missing mod again. Punch the block once to see the itemstring. The part before the column is the mod name.

Another source of this block is a bug in mods or subgames or just general developer clumsiness. Developers of a subgame may have made a mistake or removed blocks intentionally without any replacement. Complain to the subgame authors if this happens, as this is generally considered poor development practice. If unknown nodes occour without you using any mods, you can be certain it is a bug.

See also