FAQ

This is a collection of some frequently asked questions about Minetest. For technical problems, refer to Troubleshooting.

General

Where can I ask questions?

In IRC and the Forum. It is recommended to search the archives, most questions were probably answered before.

How to install games, mods, maps, and texture packs?

See Installing Games, Installing Mods, Installing Maps, and Texture Packs.

What are the different game modes and how do I install them?

On a new installation you should have “Minetest [minetest_game]” (that is the main game), if you don't have it, download it from GitHub. “Minimal development test” is just for developers and is not intended to be playable. You can find several other game modes in the forum. To install, them extract the pack and rename the folder to the name of the game (e.g. “minetest_game-master” becomes “minetest_game”), then copy the folder to the “games” folder.

How do I update Minetest?

The easiest way is just to download the newest version and move your worlds and mods to the new version. Depending on your operating system, there may exist other ways to update the game. If you are using the Git version, you can clone the repository and pull and compile every time you want to update.

How do I get the multiplayer account?

There is no globally valid multiplayer account in Minetest. For each server, you can use a different name and password. The “account” is created at first login. This way, only you can access your player and inventory on that particular server. You can always play singleplayer with no need for any username and password.

Terminology

What is a mod?

See Mods.

What is a subgame?

See Subgames.

What is a texture pack?

See Texture Packs.

What is a mob?

See Mobs.

Servers

How do I set up a server?

See Setting up a server and Server.

How do I use command XYZ?

See Server commands.

Gameplay

General

What are the game controls?

See Controls.

How big is the map?

It is not infinite. As of 0.4.10, the map is a cube with a side length of 61840 node lengths. The map has thus a volume equal to the volume of 61840³ nodes = 236,487,637,504,000 nodes. The coordinates range from −30912 to 30927 in all dimensions.

See also Coordinates.

How do I find my house again?

Minetest automatically generates a file called “debug.txt” in minetest/bin where you can see lots of text. Scroll down to its end and look for something like

singleplayer digs node * […]

Try to teleport to the positions you see in these lines until you find your home:

/teleport x,y,z

See Server commands#Player actions.

How do I increase the brightness?

See Troubleshooting#The_screen_is_too_dark.

Why is there only stone in my world?

You probably have chosen the map generator v7 which is currently in development. It has the feature to allow mods and subgames to add their own biomes. Without any mods that take advantage of that feature it is just stone. You can use map generator v6 instead.

How do I fly?

To fly you first need the “fly” privilege. In singleplayer mode you can give it to yourself using the command:

/grant singleplayer fly

Then enable fly mode by pressing K, press K again to disable it. You ascent with the jump key (default: space bar) and descent with the sneak key (default: shift).

What is Minetest Game?

Minetest is an engine and allows different subgames to run on it. Minetest Game is the default one and will appear just as "Minetest" in your main menu. (In future versions this will be changed to “Minetest Game”, along with the text logo.)

What is minetest_game?

“minetest_game” is the old/internal name of Minetest Game which is still often used in forum posts and chat.

Why can’t I find default or wool or fire?

Some mods might depend on those mods. As Minetest Game already includes them you don't need to install those.

Why am I suddenly teleported far outside the map?

Currently some hidden bug causes players to sometimes become teleported far outside the map (screenshot[1]). A simple way to fix it is installing a mod which teleports the player back if it's so far away, e.g. the "stay_inside" mod.

Vanilla Minetest Game

How to craft XYZ?

Refer to Blocks or Items and follow the link to the block or item you want to craft; the corresponding pages contain crafting instructions.

You can also install a crafting guide to view crafting recipes in Minetest.

Note that not everything can be crafted, however.

Are there any mobs?

No and it is unlikely that they get added in the near future. But there are mods to add mobs.

Why don’t I find any dungeons/jungles?

This is probably because they have been disabled in your configuration. You can enable them by adding “v6_jungles, dungeons” to mg_flags in your minetest.conf file. That will enable them for worlds created after the variable has been changed. Try digging down or looking for large holes in the ground.

How do I open or close doors?

You have to use them by pressing the use key, which is normally the right mouse button. See also: Using.

For Minecraft players

Is there a crafting bench?

In the vanilla Minetest game: No. You don’t need one. You already have a 3 × 3 crafting grid in your inventory menu (→ Crafting#Crafting_grid_and_output_slot).

How can I make Minetest be like Minecraft?

You can use the Minitest game.

Modding

See Modding FAQ on the Minetest Developmenr Wiki.

Technical problems

I have a technical problem, how to fix this?

See Troubleshooting.

I get an error or warning message, what does it mean?

See Troubleshooting#Error messages without crashes.