Minetest 5.8.0 is out now with improved settings, Minetest Game no longer default

Deprecations and compatibility notes

• Minetest Game is no longer the default game and will no longer be shipped by Minetest. If you want it back, install it by using the “Content” tab
• lua_api.txt has been converted to Markdown and renamed to lua_api.md
• Android now builds via CMake (sfan5)
• Compiling: C++17 support is now required
• Node definition field air_equivalent is now documented—as deprecated.

Client / Audiovisuals

• Main menu: Redesign and unify settings interface (rubenwardy, grorp, icon by Zughy)
• Main menu: better prompt to install a game when none is installed (ROllerozxa)
• Main menu: various fixes (grorp, ROllerozxa)
• ContentDB GUI: Load package list asynchronously (grorp)
• Option to invert direction or disable mouse wheel for hotbar item selection (srifqi)
• Inventory mouse shortcut improvements (OgelGames)
  • Holding down Sneak+click while moving the mouse over item slots now continously moves items to other inventory (if available)
  • Press Sneak+click on the crafting output slot to craft and move result to inventory
    • Left mouse button: Craft as many as possible
    • Mouse wheel: Craft 10 times
    • Right mouse button: Craft once
  • Drag an item stack on the crafting grid to split stacks evenly
  • Hold down Left mouse button while holding an item stack and move the cursor over the slots to pick up items of the same type
  • Scroll the mouse wheel on top of a slot to pick up or put down items
• Implement check_offset for decorations (nephele-gh)
• Touchscreen input improvements (srifqi)
• Rendering-related performance improvements and fixes (numberZero)
• Add antialiasing filters (FXAA, SSAA) (x2048)
• Reverse eye-offset Z-coordinate in 3rd person front view (lhofhansl)
• DPI-aware crosshair (grorp)
• Prevent early respawns caused by up/down button in the death screen (srifqi)
• Sounds and animations are now paused in pause menu in singleplayer (DS)
• Android: Place nodes with single tap (grorp)
• Android: Higher default graphics settings (grorp)
• Android: Auto-detect locale (grorp)
• Android: ignore broken language files (srifqi)
• X11 (Linux): Add primary selection (copy & paste via select & middleclick) support (DS)

World / Server / Environment

• Major speedup for crafting shapeless craft recipes (Hocroft-Karp algorithm) (DS)
• Fix crash on handling wallmounted nodes with invalid param2 (savilli)
• Fix biomes not repecting their Y limits (Radar6255)
  • Especially thin biomes will now be generated as intended.
• Saner (HTTP) timeout limits and log messages (sfan5)

Script API / Modding

• Add ability to override item images using ItemMetaData (rubenwardy)
• Add node pos to node damage HP change reason (Radar6255)
• Add vector.in_area() utility function (AFCMS)
• Add focused styling to buttons (rubenwardy)
• Add min/max protocol version to minetest.get_version() (BuckarooBanzay)
• Add additional texture modifiers (Treer)
• Add node group disable_descend to disable actively descending down climbable nodes and nodes with liquid move physics (Wuzzy)
• Add VoxelArea::intersect() (sfan5)
• Allow nodes to have their post_effect_color affected by lighting (grorp)
• Fix potential freeze in core.check_for_falling (savilli)
• Send everlasting particle spawners to all players (chmodsayshello)
• Allow place_param2 = 0 node placement predictions (SmallJoker)
• New player physics overrides for climb speed, sneak speed, acceleration, liquid fluidity and liquid sink speed (#11465) (Wuzzy)
• Allow to set custom third person front view camera offset (grorp)
• Add script to update/generate mod translations: util/mod_translation_updater.py (Wuzzy)
  • See util/README_mod_translation_updater.md for details
• Add start_time to sound parameter tables (part of #12764) (DS)

Misc / Maintenance

• Entity/Object fixes and unittests (numberZero)
• Lua environment cleanups and improvements (sfan5)
• Various documentation improvements (Zughy, Wuzzy)
• Inventory code fixes (SmallJoker, DS)
• Many various code fixes (sfan5, grorp, srifqi)
• Opt-out option for Doxygen generation on build (nerzhul)
• Sound code cleanups and improvements (#12764) (DS)
  • Long sounds in sound packs, or sent via dynamic media, no longer cause client freezes on load
  • Positional sounds can be faded now
  • Documentation
  • Other improvements listed elsewhere
• Faster client load times (#12764 and irr#233) (DS)

Minetest Game

• Minetest Game is no longer the default game and no longer installed by default
• New water textures (the old ones were non-free) (Lopano)
• Improve leaves textures in "Opaque Leaves" mode (Wuzzy)
• When a player dies in protected air, bones now spawn as a block instead of dropping as an item (OgelGames)
• Add API for sapling growth (aegroto)
• Hook callbacks for default.set_inventory_action_loggers (appgurueu)
• Fix logic error in bed rotation (fluxionary)
• Fix coral and kelp duplication glitch with sticky piston from Mesecons mod (zmv7)
• Fix players being able to skip many nights at once by spam-clicking bed (appgurueu)
• Fix not updating vessel shelf infotext (Niklp)
• Fix bookshelf infotext not updating when adding, removing or moving items inside (Montandalar, appgurueu)
• Update translations: German (Wuzzy), Spanish (David Leal), Ukrainian (Andriy), French (xin)