Does anyone know how to render a model from a texture like Buildcraft does? I looked at their code to try to figure out how to do it but I can't get my head around it.

Anyone?

could you specify what in buildcraft?

Do you want a model in players hand or a block or....

maybe even a picture...

He is right, in order to help you we need to know what you are trying to achieve. The only thing I can think of that renders the way you are talking about would be a buildcraft tank. (The way it holds the different liquids you put in it.) Otherwise, I've got no clue what you are talking about.

You know how the pipes are rendered there is no model or anything it is just a texture.

You know how the pipes are rendered there is no model or anything it is just a texture.

 

Actually there is a model.  It might not be something that extends ModelBase, but there are still polygons there.

 

It's called "using the tessellator" and it's a huge pain in the ass.

ohhh ok thanks, that seems a hard way to do it, considering how tessellators work, they're hard for 2D things in my opinion, forgetting about using them for 3D effects. 

ohhh ok thanks, that seems a hard way to do it, considering how tessellators work, they're hard for 2D things in my opinion, forgetting about using them for 3D effects.

 

Buildcraft might use a 3D cube and a transparent texture, I wouldn't know.  The ModelBase class is just a more user-friendly way of doing stuff.  The guts of it still use the tessellator, but it does the math for you.

Ok thanks for explaining it to me.

Its worth doing a tessellator renderer for a 3D block once, just for the challenge.  I did (made a rail block that is self-supporting, so I was rendering trusses underneath).  I'd avoid doing it again if at all possible, but knowing how the tessellator works will help you if you ever run into code that uses it.