[Suggestion] Add Better Tooling for Density Functions / recursive generators

[TimberStalker]

It would be nice if any recursive generators like density functions could have a basic domain specific language that lets you edit them in a simpler way. Currently, using the node based editor is extremely annoying and you have to awkwardly edit the json to wrap arguments. Making it a single text editor that parses a chain of function calls would be significantly simpler to use.

for example
min(0.5, add(y_clamped_gradient(0, 64, 1, 0), noise(erosion, 1, 1)))
You could add some quality of life where things like add and multiply, and even invert and power support operators
min(0.5, y_clamped_gradient(0, 64, 1, 0) + noise(erosion, 1, 1))

I would implement it myself but i couldnt find a good place to hijack the editor displays. It seems to strip information about the actual type before it gets to the nodes. If anyone could give me a good way to determine the type of node in the renderer i could do it.

[TimberStalker]

I think i figured out a method to do it, but i thought about it and a DSL is the wrong solution. It is a solution, and it would work, but its not right in this case. The features that I really want to add are the ability to wrap a recursive argument, and the ability to copy and paste values.

[TimberStalker]

Heres what i managed to get:



Note, I also allowed it to be collapsible because it was annoying when it wasnt.

[TimberStalker]

Just wanted to say that whoever designed spyglass is insane and should never be trusted with designing anything ever again. This was already hell to implement and I haven't even added the functionality to the root node yet because of course it works differently because why not.

[MulverineX]

@TimberStalker keep in mind that Spyglass is a hobby project where the primary goal is as a language server. If you have constructive feedback on how we can keep performance, functionality, & maintainability while improving 3rd party DX, we'd love to hear it. But insulting us and our project just because you're unwilling to learn it fully is pretty rude.

[MulverineX]

I do like your concept here of operation wrapping non-destructively, it definitely could be pretty useful. I'd just prefer if you would be less inflammatory.

[TimberStalker]

If i was unwilling to learn it I wouldnt have spent hours trying to figure it out. Im just joking around. Plus this is basically the first time ive written in typescript so i have to deal with learning how stuff works in that thing too.

[MulverineX]

Just wanted to say that whoever designed spyglass is insane and should never be trusted with designing anything ever again

Surely you can understand this isn't productive? It is not at all clear that you're joking, and anyone can claim their words were a joke after the fact. Please try to think about how your communication may be received.

[MulverineX]

I understand and am happy to see another person getting to know our projects and building upon them. But there are much better ways to communicate "Dang that was a huge rabbit hole, I wish there was better contributor docs"

[MulverineX]

If you're willing to improve your communication moving forward, I would be happy to help teach you, and I'm sure others would be too.

[NeunEinser]

Have you seen the mcdoc runtime code some maniac wrote? That way lies madness! Can totally understand their comment.

(For reference, I was the one who wrote that sh*t, for the most part anyways).

[MulverineX]

I guess its debatable whether phrasing a shitpost like that is rude or not, but some folks (myself included) would prefer a more clear intention/target.

[misode]

Thanks for the suggestions @TimberStalker

I like your idea of a simple way to wrap density functions. And eventually I want to add copy-paste to all generator nodes as well. I thought I had a tracking issue for that already but I guess not.

As for Spyglass, it is definitely a complex codebase and don't expect yourself to immidiately understand its architecture. Spyglass is in the first place made for the language server so it has a lot of stuff that you normally wouldn't think of for a JSON file generator like this site. Representing the document as an AST allows some really advanced stuff, but of course it makes it more difficult to do modifications on it.