Some aspects were already covered by the main announcement, but here you'll get a rough overview of some of the features which are already available in the demo:
- Terraforming
- Creative-Mode (F5 terrain tools) → can be activated with gm 1
- Ability to place objects (like furniture) → find more information about the building tools below
- Ability to paint objects → the "paint roller" item allows you to change the color of objects. Currently there are only a few hard-coded colors available (which can be changed by pressing RMB), but there will be various dyes in the future and the creative mode will enable you to set arbitrary color values
- Firearm / Repeater → there is already proper behaviour for projectiles. Items and objects can be destroyed if you fire at them, and there is also a chance for ricochets
- Tree cutting
- Lights and shadows
- Day-Night-Cycle → by typing tod <h> <m> you can change the time of day, just like in the Java Version
- Weather effects → change the weather by typing weather <name> into console, optionally append a "1" to change the weather instantly
- Snowfall → the weather effects snow and heavysnow cover the world with snow over time. This feature isn't fully ready yet, but will serve as foundation for future seasons
- Gamepad support → at least basic operations like player movement can be controlled via gamepad already
Unfortunately construction elements are not available yet, but you can already place a few objects (doors, furniture). Internally this uses the same building system under the hood - even though it works a bit different. Here you find an overview of some of the building features:
- By pressing Return you can enable the "modular snapping" tool. Depending on the object, various pivots become visible. By pressing , and . you can change the currently active pivot. One effect is that your object will always rotate around that pivot. In addition to that, some existing objects in the world also have various pivots which become visible when looking at the object. If you look at one of the pivots, your object automatically snaps to it
- With G you can enable a grid - just like in the Java version
- Most objects can be resized. There are a few restrictions in survival mode though - depending on the object (these restrictions do not apply to the creative mode)
- By pressing End you can flip certain objects - like doors
- Commands setp, setr and setl work just like in the Java version
- Manual placement is available via Ctrl
- There are different rotation modes, like in the Java version (can be changed by typing "rotation" into console)
One thing that's still missing is a radial menu, which enables you to change certain settings (like position precision) without having to use console commands.