Better Pralpha

A performance and gameplay overhaul for rd-132211 — the original Minecraft tech test. Same tiny voxel world, running dramatically faster, with a few new tools to play with.

Performance

The renderer was rebuilt from the ground up:

~5–6× faster — GPU picking (GL_SELECT) replaced with a CPU voxel raycast, chunk draw calls batched, frustum culling optimized, and chunk rebuilds combined into a single pass instead of two
Mipmapped terrain — distant blocks no longer shimmer and alias
Fixed aspect ratio — the original had a subtle stretch bug on non-square windows
Live FPS counter, top-left

New Blocks

Two new block types join the original grass and cobblestone:

Stone — now generates naturally beneath the grass layer
Wood
Blocks are no longer hardcoded by height — every block type renders from what’s actually placed in the world.

Hotbar

A proper block-selection hotbar along the bottom of the screen, Minecraft-style:

Keys 1–4 pick your block
Rotated 3D cube previews for each block in its slot
Selection indicator shows what’s active

Tactical Slide

Hold Left Ctrl while moving to slide — a fast, low-profile burst of momentum with a ducked camera and a crouched hitbox that’ll fit under a one-block gap. It carries a few blocks before friction catches up, can be canceled early with a jump, and won’t let you stand up if there’s no room overhead.

No sprint — just the slide.

Controls
Key Action

• W A S D / Arrows = Move
• Space = Jump
• Left Ctrl = Slide
• 1 – 4 = Select block
• Left Click = Break block
• Right Click = Place block
• Enter = Save world
• Esc = Quit

Video of the creation of the mod (and quick tutorial):