[1.8] MinecraftByExample sample code project

TheGreyGhost · December 25, 2014

Hi All

I'd like to ask for some help from you experienced modders out there.

I'm putting together a sample code project to give simple working examples of the important concepts in Minecraft and Forge, to show new modders how the key parts are put together and give them a base to start experimenting from.

I have made a modest start (https://github.com/TheGreyGhost/MinecraftByExample) and I'd like to make it much more comprehensive, so I am hoping some of you will help out.

What I'm looking for:

- ideas for topics / samples

- pointers to good examples which already exist in other projects

- snippets of self-contained code to illustrate a key concept.

- feedback

The key features of the samples are that

* they must be self-contained, a handful of short classes at most

* must be well documented in the source code itself

* they must be simple and readable; clarity is much more than important than flexibility, extensibility, or "efficiency"

FYI currently I'm planning on adding the following topics over time. It's a long list and half of it I've got no idea about, so it's going to take forever without help...

Blocks -

simple block modelling

more-complicated block modelling

blocks with properties / metadata

block with display tick

block with scheduled update

animated texture

Items -

simple item

item with sub-types

item with NBT

how to control rendering in the different views (1st person, 3rd person, inventory, etc)

Recipes

variety of recipe types

TileEntity

simple tile entity with NBT, no renderer

simple TileEntitySpecialRenderer

Containers

furnace-like

chest-like

Entities

basic entity that can be spawned and disappears after a certain time

missile entity

entity rendering / techne -based / animation

entity with basic AI

EntityFX

simple effect generator

Events

show some events on different busses

GUI

customise the standard HUD render elements (crosshairs, etc)

create a custom GUI

Terrain generation

Generate a new dimension

Miscellaneous

best practice error logging (I could sure use some help on that one!)

Thoughts, feedback, suggestions very welcome...

-TGG

Nephroid · December 26, 2014

Hello TGG,

Here's a pretty useful snippet of code that lets you move elements in the overlay to arbitrary locations. I think it's a very clean way of modifying the overlay, and it demonstrates how events can be used in very few lines of code.

@SubscribeEvent(receiveCanceled=true)
public void onEvent(RenderGameOverlayEvent.Pre event) {
  if (event.type == ElementType.FOOD) {
    /* This call saves the current "state" of transformations. */
    GL11.glPushMatrix();
    
    /* Move the food bar to some location. */
    GL11.glTranslatef(0, -10, 0);
  }
  /* etc. */
}

@SubscribeEvent(receiveCanceled=true)
public void onEvent(RenderGameOverlayEvent.Post event) {
  if (event.type == ElementType.FOOD) {
  
    /* This call reverts to the previous "state" of transformations,
     * effectively undoing anything that you have done above. Do not
     * forget to pop the matrix.
     */
    GL11.glPopMatrix();
  }
  /* etc. */
}

In the client side init method, register the above class:

MinecraftForge.EVENT_BUS.register(new SomeEventHandler());

Here's an example of what the above code does to the food bar:

Reveal hidden contents

TheGreyGhost · December 27, 2014

Hi

Keen, thanks, that does look useful, I will incorporate it (when I get to overlays which might be a while )

-TGG

Asweez · December 30, 2014

Hi TGG,

This sounds like a great idea! My only concern is that noobs will just copy paste this into their mod and then tweak a minor thing then claim it as their own. I have some nifty tricks and I'll contribute and help ya . Im really glad someone has started something like this.

-Asweez

TheGreyGhost · December 30, 2014

Hi

On 12/30/2014 at 3:52 AM, Asweez said:

This sounds like a great idea! My only concern is that noobs will just copy paste this into their mod and then tweak a minor thing then claim it as their own.

-Asweez

Well to be honest I was noob once (and still am in plenty of areas) so that doesn't really bother me much Best way for a noob to ascend to coder god is to start by imitating the experts, I reckon...

Quote

I have some nifty tricks and I'll contribute and help ya . Im really glad someone has started something like this.

Awesome, thanks!

Any particular areas you're thinking of?

-TGG

kreezxil · February 8, 2015

On 12/30/2014 at 3:52 AM, Asweez said:

Hi TGG,

This sounds like a great idea! My only concern is that noobs will just copy paste this into their mod and then tweak a minor thing then claim it as their own. I have some nifty tricks and I'll contribute and help ya . Im really glad someone has started something like this.

-Asweez

So, what you are saying is that if you give me a blueberry muffin recipe made with regular all-purpose flour and I change the blueberries to cranberries, that the resulting new recipe isn't mine to claim?

RoseCotton · February 24, 2015

Seriously, copying and pasting code isn't that easy.

It never works for me. I always have to learn all the details of how the code was supposed to work, and change some tiny things, before it will work. But it's a darn good start!

-Noob

Abastro · February 25, 2015

How much level do you planning to introduce on "Generate a new dimension"?

Tutorial like 'Changing Sunlight Strength' can be included? If so, I'd do that using PR.

Jacky2611 · February 25, 2015

Dimensions? Count me in!

What exactly do you want?

Server only (multiworld)

Full dimension with custom biomes?

dynamically generated dimensions? (Thats a bit harder, I still haven't got it working 100%)

Should we also post little helper classes? (1.8 display title, easier Potions, auto-updater, donator particles (why did I create donator particles if I never publish any of m mods?),...)

I think there is nothing wrong with copying code. I taught myself java by reading the decompiled Minecraft source and changing parts of it. I didn't even realize that I could google some stuff... I was such an idiot.

EDIT: I can also post 5 to 6 different all-around Teleporter classes. They are always usefull.

Alphafox_13 · March 24, 2015

cool just one thing could u add the mc version to the tread title as i am somewhat confused about that

Asweez · March 24, 2015

I have a lot of expertise with items and nbt stuff. I have some with entities and GUIs and almost nothing with blocks. If you ever need anything with those areas mentioned then I will try to help.

jabelar · March 25, 2015

Thanks TGG for continuing to blaze ahead to help the rest of us.

In my tutorials I personally have taken the approach of not sharing fully working examples because I feel that a person only learns by struggling through the details of tying the concepts together, plus I expect you'll take on a lot of support requests as people copy and paste. But I'm also sure an example mod will be greatly appreciated.

As an aside, I encourage all modders to develop a default starting code base for their mods, with all their favorite hooks and organization. When I start a new mod I can just copy my codebase and with a couple quick edits am up and running with working packets, event handling, etc. What TGG is developing here might work well for a lot of you.

Anyway, my suggestions:

- it is probably implied in your other topics, but custom network messages is good topic.

- I personally like configurations. Not sure how many people use them though. I've even been getting into providing an in-game options GUI to control the configuration.

- You mentioned terrain generation and dimensions, but specifically biomes, structures, trees, oregen are all pretty popular topics.

- Villages would be interesting topic.

- Achievements and stats.

- Enchantments and potions.

- Entities that are mountable is a popular topic.

TheGreyGhost · March 25, 2015

On 3/24/2015 at 10:02 PM, Asweez said:

I have a lot of expertise with items and nbt stuff. I have some with entities and GUIs and almost nothing with blocks. If you ever need anything with those areas mentioned then I will try to help.

Hi Asweez

Keen, thanks. If you would be willing to code up an example or two (or more) on Entities, it would be very helpful because the example project currently has nothing on Entities at all.

The rough thought I had was for four examples:

Entities

basic entity that can be spawned and disappears after a certain time

missile entity (always people trying to code their own guns & bullets, bows & arrows, etc)

entity rendering / techne -based / animation

entity with basic AI

Perhaps a fifth for mountable entity like Jabelar suggested

Any contribution would be very helpful.

The existing project is at https://github.com/TheGreyGhost/MinecraftByExample

If you like, you could fork and PR; alternatively if you want to do a completely separate project that's fine too, I could integrate myself.

It would help a lot if you follow the package structure, class, notes, and commenting style used by the rest of the project because that will save me having to refactor it.

Cheers

TGG

PS @Jabelar thanks for the suggestions, I'll add them to the wish list. Will need to up my skills for some of those The project has a fair few examples, including network messages which are a minefield for the unwary.

jabelar · April 22, 2015

On 3/25/2015 at 2:01 PM, TheGreyGhost said:

PS @Jabelar thanks for the suggestions, I'll add them to the wish list. Will need to up my skills for some of those

One of the reasons I like answering questions and making tutorials is to get me into new topics. Sometimes the simplest question ("why isn't my custom slime entity transparent") can make you really go back and review what you know.

coolAlias · April 23, 2015

Don't know if you're looking for anything to do with armor, and it's for 1.7.10, but perhaps you can adapt this to your needs.

TheGreyGhost · April 23, 2015

On 4/23/2015 at 4:21 AM, coolAlias said:

Don't know if you're looking for anything to do with armor, and it's for 1.7.10, but perhaps you can adapt this to your needs.

Thanks dude, sounds interesting, I'll look at it sometime in the next month or so... currently working on ISmartBlockModel...

larsgerrits · May 5, 2015

Do you by any change have a tutorial on ISmartItemModel? Or are you going to do one in the future? I'm making an Item with about 130 different variants, and I would like not having to make 130 model files only to change the texture. Or do you have another solution to this?

TheGreyGhost · May 5, 2015

Hi

Funnily enough I'm working on this right now... it's very similar to MBE04 - uses ModelBakeEvent to inject itself into the model registry. I am just figuring out how to generate the BakedQuads algorithmically; based on this code

https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge/blob/master/src/test/java/net/minecraftforge/debug/ModelBakeEventDebug.java

(The test code is a pretty good example to learn from, too)

If your 130 variants are made up of a few simple components, ISmartItemModel is probably the best way I reckon. Alternatively, if you are just (say) changing colours like eggs or potions you could use the item layers instead.

-TGG

larsgerrits · May 5, 2015

If I go the route for the different model files, every model file looks like this:

{
    "parent":"dwarffortress:item/standard_item",
    "textures": {
        "layer0": "minecraft:blocks/stone"
    }
}

The only difference per-JSON is the layer0 line, so only the texture. So I guess the ISmartItemModel is the way go here, right?

vandench · May 6, 2015

Can you update the Camera transforms item, it doesn't actually move the item in your hand any more, I had to go get the code from the separate github page for it to work.

TheGreyGhost · May 6, 2015

On 5/6/2015 at 1:28 PM, vandench said:

Can you update the Camera transforms item, it doesn't actually move the item in your hand any more, I had to go get the code from the separate github page for it to work.

Ah that's annoying, a regression bug perhaps...

What version did you try that didn't work? (where did you get it from?)

vandench · May 6, 2015

I got the latest version yesterday, the current latest 11.14.1.1402, and I know that I used 11.14.1.1400 or higher. Also half the classes were declared deprecated. The other github repo did work though, but many classes were deprecated. Awsome item btw.

EDIT: I got it from the official files.minecraftforge.net

TheGreyGhost · May 6, 2015

On 5/5/2015 at 1:02 PM, larsgerrits said:
If I go the route for the different model files, every model file looks like this:
{
    "parent":"dwarffortress:item/standard_item",
    "textures": {
        "layer0": "minecraft:blocks/stone"
    }
}
The only difference per-JSON is the layer0 line, so only the texture. So I guess the ISmartItemModel is the way go here, right?

If your items are all identical except each one has a different texture, then yeah I would use the ISmartItemModel. Create one model file with 130 defined textures, then your ISmartItemModel tweaks its bakedquad list to choose the correct texture coordinates

-TGG

TheGreyGhost · May 6, 2015

On 5/6/2015 at 2:01 PM, vandench said:

I got the latest version yesterday, the current latest 11.14.1.1402, and I know that I used 11.14.1.1400 or higher. Also half the classes were declared deprecated. The other github repo did work though, but many classes were deprecated. Awsome item btw.

EDIT: I got it from the official files.minecraftforge.net

Oh, you mean- when you use the camera item after updating forge to 11.14.1.1402, it no longer works? But it did work before?

I updated it with a couple of bugfixes recently but perhaps I broke something. I will test again...

And you're talking about the camera item in MinecraftByExample, not the standalone GitHub ItemTransformHelper (or PlanetMinecraft d/load)?

-TGG

vandench · May 6, 2015

Ok so I just started modding 1.8 and I chose to grab the latest forge edition, i was going through your MinecraftByExample tutorial (random parts) and I saw the camera item and decided to try it because one of the biggest push factors for 1.8 modding for me was json models (as great as they are they are a pain) and it didn't actually modify the item translation/scale/rotation so I looked around and found the other repo and took all the code from there, it worked after that. Also as I said before a large number of the classes were deprecated.

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[1.8] MinecraftByExample sample code project

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