[Solved] [1.8] Allowing a function to run while not freezing up server ticking

[AnZaNaMa]

So, I have a tile entity I've been working on that can take any item and turn it into pure energy that gets stored in the block (or in the Tile Entity to be exact). If a player then steps on it with a redstone signal, the player will draw out all of the energy into themself. The only problem is that as long as the energy is transferring, the server does not tick. The client can still move and look around, but cannot interact with the world, because the tile entity transfers energy using a for loop. Do i somehow need to run this on another thread, and how might I go about that?

 

Tile entity update method:

    @Override
    public void update(){
        if(!this.worldObj.isRemote)
        this.repetitions++;
        if(this.repetitions >= 20){
            this.repetitions = 0;
            List entities = this.worldObj.getEntitiesWithinAABB(Entity.class, new AxisAlignedBB(new BlockPos(pos.getX(), pos.getY(), pos.getZ()), new BlockPos(pos.getX() + 1, pos.getY() + 2, pos.getZ() + 1)), IEntitySelector.selectAnything);
            for(int i=0; i < entities.size(); i++){
                if(entities.get(i) instanceof EntityItem){
                    ItemStack items = new ItemStack(((EntityItem) entities.get(i)).getEntityItem().getItem(), ((EntityItem) entities.get(i)).getEntityItem().stackSize, ((EntityItem) entities.get(i)).getEntityItem().getMetadata());
                    int energyToMachine = Energy.getItemEnergyValue(items.getItem());
                    ((EntityItem) entities.get(i)).setInfinitePickupDelay();
                    this.energyContained += (energyToMachine * ((EntityItem) entities.get(i)).getEntityItem().stackSize);
                    ((EntityItem) entities.get(i)).getEntityItem().stackSize = 0;
                }
                else if(entities.get(i) instanceof EntityPlayer){
                    while(this.energyContained > 0 && RedstoneHelper.isPoweredByRedstone(this.worldObj, this.getPos())){
                        Energy.tryMoveEnergy(this, (EntityPlayer) entities.get(i), 1);
                        try {
                            TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.sleep(1);
                        } catch(InterruptedException e){}
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

 

Energy.tryMoveEnergy():

public static void tryMoveEnergy(TileEntity tileEntity, EntityPlayer player, int amount){
        if(canMoveEnergy(tileEntity, player, amount)){
            ((TileEntityEnergizer)tileEntity).subtractEnergyContained(amount);
            PlayerTotalEnergy += amount;
        }
    }

 

Let me know if there's anything important I didn't provide.

[Ernio]

You should NEVER use threads and stuff like sleep if you don't know what you are doing (you don't).

 

Don't transfer energy once per loop, do it once per tick(or few ticks) or all at same time.

 

More explanation:

Minecraft runs on game loop - ticks, 20/sec. (Note: Not talking about rendering ticks - those are different (fps))

All update-like methods are called once per tick. If you want to transfer energy overtime you do it per tick.

[jabelar]

To spread out the loop over multiple ticks, just use a counter variable that you increment and test if it has reached the max.

 

I've only used other threads in one situation, where I was getting a response from a web site to create a version check. But for most in-game stuff you definitely want to stick within the threads already implemented. This does mean you need to be aware of how long your code is taking to execute. For example, I have a tile entity that generates a structure but it was a big, slow loop which could take up to 20 seconds -- I had to break that down over multiple ticks.

[Draco18s]

Long story short, take this section:

                    while(this.energyContained > 0 && RedstoneHelper.isPoweredByRedstone(this.worldObj, this.getPos())){ //this
                        Energy.tryMoveEnergy(this, (EntityPlayer) entities.get(i), 1);
                        try { //this
                            TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.sleep(1); //this
                        } catch(InterruptedException e){} //this
                    }

 

Remove both the sleep and the loop.  The "onUpdate" is already a loop and already causes a delay.  That's what "onUpdate" does, it runs once-every-timeunit.

[AnZaNaMa]

The problem is that 1.8 took away the onUpdate function, so I've been implementing the IUpdatePlayerListBox and using its update method that only runs once per second. Is there another class I could implement that updates every tick?.

[AnZaNaMa]

oh, yeah! I forgot I had that whole counter that only made it tick every 20 ticks. Thanks!