Getting front of block to face player when placed

The block is a jackolantern and I want the front to face the player when he places it like furnaces, pumpkins etc. As of now textures are working on the correct sides but I don't know what methods to use for directional stuff. I have looked through the vanilla pumpkin class code but its kinda confusing, specifically the onBlockAdded method, anyways any help would be appreciated. This is what i have now.

 

package lanterns.blocks;

import java.util.List;

import lanterns.Lanterns;
import net.minecraft.block.Block;
import net.minecraft.block.BlockDirectional;
import net.minecraft.block.material.Material;
import net.minecraft.client.renderer.texture.IconRegister;
import net.minecraft.creativetab.CreativeTabs;
import net.minecraft.entity.EntityLivingBase;
import net.minecraft.item.ItemStack;
import net.minecraft.util.Icon;
import net.minecraft.util.MathHelper;
import net.minecraft.world.World;
import cpw.mods.fml.relauncher.Side;
import cpw.mods.fml.relauncher.SideOnly;

public class BlockJackolantern extends BlockDirectional{

public BlockJackolantern(int id, Material material) {
	super(id, material);
	this.setCreativeTab(CreativeTabs.tabBlock);
	this.setLightValue(1F);

}


//icon junk
@SideOnly(Side.CLIENT)
    private Icon topIcon;
    @SideOnly(Side.CLIENT)
    private Icon botIcon;
    @SideOnly(Side.CLIENT)
    private Icon frontIcon;
    @SideOnly(Side.CLIENT)
    private Icon sideIcon;
    @SideOnly(Side.CLIENT)
    @Override
    public void registerIcons(IconRegister register){
    	 topIcon = register.registerIcon(BlockIds.TEXTURE_LOCATION + ":" + BlockIds.JACOLANTERNTOP);
         frontIcon = register.registerIcon(BlockIds.TEXTURE_LOCATION + ":" + BlockIds.JACKOLANTERNFRONT);
         sideIcon = register.registerIcon(BlockIds.TEXTURE_LOCATION + ":" + BlockIds.JACKOLANTERNSIDE);
    }
    
    @SideOnly(Side.CLIENT)
    @Override
    public Icon getIcon(int side, int meta){
	// as the front face
    		if (side == 0) {
    		return topIcon;
    		}
    		if (side == 1) {
    		return topIcon;
    		}
    		if (side == 2) {
    		return frontIcon;
    		}else{
    		return sideIcon;	
    		}
    	}
    
  
   
}

Hi

 

Some background reading that might help

http://greyminecraftcoder.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/blocks.html

http://greyminecraftcoder.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/rendering-standard-blocks-cubes.html

 

It might make it a bit easier to understand if you neaten up the BlockPumpkin.getIcon and onBlockPlacedBy code:

 

    /**
     * From the specified side and block metadata retrieves the blocks texture. Args: side, metadata
     */
    public Icon getIcon(int side, int metadata)
    {
      if (side == 1) return this.topAndBottomIcon;
      else if (side == 0) return this.topAndBottomIcon;
      else if (metadata == 2 && side == 2) return this.faceIcon;
      else if (metadata == 3 && side == 5) return this.faceIcon;
      else if (metadata == 0 && side == 3) return this.faceIcon;
      else if (metadata == 1 && side == 4) return this.faceIcon;
      else return this.blockIcon;
    }

 

    /**
     * Called when the block is placed in the world.
     */
    public void onBlockPlacedBy(World par1World, int x, int y, int z, EntityLivingBase par5EntityLivingBase, ItemStack par6ItemStack)
    {
        int whichDirectionFacing = MathHelper.floor_double((double)(par5EntityLivingBase.rotationYaw * 4.0F / 360.0F) + 2.5D) & 3;
        par1World.setBlockMetadataWithNotify(x, y, z, whichDirectionFacing, 2);
    }

 

-TGG

 

 

Thank you your links are exactly what I'm looking for. I will try these methods and post the outcome.

It worked like a charm. I was going crazy looking for information of the the block face direction map thing you made. I had no clue where 2, 3, 4, etc were and your diagram helped a lot. Everything helped really. Ok I need to know how did you know to use the onBlockPlacedBy method? Is it just experience or are there informative articles about this?

Hi

 

Glad it helped :-)

 

To be honest most of this I figure out as I go.  I found the onBlockPlacedBy method by looking through BlockPumpkin, realising that onBlockAdded was all about spawning Golems and not about placing the Pumpkin block, which really just left onBlockPlacedBy and the setBlockMetadataWithNotify (which I guessed from the name what it does).

 

It helped that I spent a while mucking around with Pistons while I was trying to figure out how the icon thing worked, so I knew pretty much what I was looking for.

 

There are lots of informative articles around but it's often hard to find the ones you need, and they're often very specific so it can be hard to get the overview. 

Mazetar's tutorial guide is a good start.  http://mazetar.com/mctuts/displayTutorials.php

 

I've also written a few other overview pages on things that I had to figure out myself.

http://greyminecraftcoder.blogspot.com.au/p/list-of-topics.html

 

But most of the time I tend to think of a vanilla item or block that does what I'm looking for, then follow the trail of crumbs through the code until I can narrow down the bit I'm interested in. 

 

-TGG