How to Export Game Events and Control Hardware (Minetest + DUELink)

DUELink DUELink Projects
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We want to connect a game to the physical world.

Imagine your health dropping in-game, and a real LED bar on your desk reacts instantly. Or every punch, hit, or action triggering something you can see and feel outside the screen. That’s exactly what we’re building.

There are many games and many ways to achieve this, but in this example we’ll use Minetest—an open-source voxel game engine that can be easily extended using Lua.

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To access game data, we need to build a bridge—something that transfers information from the game to the real world. There are multiple ways to do this, such as using a localhost network connection. However, for simplicity and clarity, we’ll start with a very straightforward method: a local file.

Here’s the idea:

  • The Minetest Lua script collects game data (like player HP or actions).

  • It writes that data into a local file.

  • A PC application reads that file.

  • The application sends the data to DUELink hardware.

  • The hardware reacts in real time.

This creates a simple but powerful pipeline:

Game → File → PC Bridge → DUELink → Physical Output

This “bridge” is the key. Once it exists, you can connect almost anything—from games to sensors to real-world devices.

Setting up the bridge in Minetest

To build the bridge, we use three files:

  • init.lua (game logic)

  • mod.conf (mod definition)

  • minetest.conf (engine configuration)

The source files can be found here:
duelink-projects/source/game-pulse at main · ghi-electronics/duelink-projects

Installation

Assuming Minetest is installed at:

C:\Minetest

Follow these steps:

  1. Place minetest.conf into:

    C:\Minetest

  2. Create a new folder:

    C:\Minetest\mods\duelink

  3. Copy the following files into that folder:

    init.lua
mod.conf

Enable the mod

  1. Open Minetest

  2. Create a new world (or edit an existing one)

  3. Go to Mods

  4. Enable the duelink mod (as shown in the image below)

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Run the demo

Once everything is set up:

  1. Start the game

  2. Join your world

  3. Run the game-pulse project on your PC

The project will:

  • Read game data (HP and punch state) from gamepulse.txt

  • Send that data to the DUELink device

  • Control a 16×16 WS2811 LED matrix

What you will see

  • When you punch → the LED display turns red

  • When idle → the display shows your HP level

Of course, you can read weather, damage, day/night cycles, player status, or any other data the game platform supports—and bring it into the real world.

This is a simple but powerful example of connecting a game to real-world hardware in real time.

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