[SOLVED][1.8.x] Dynamic block textures without TESR

[Zarathul]

I'm trying to port my multi block fluid tank from 1.7.10. I got connected textures to work using the new model system and blockstates but I can't figure out how to go about rendering the fluid. The problem is the texture. I can't predefine any textures in the .jsons because I don't know what fluids other mods will add. So I looked at ISmartBlockModel in hope of finding a way to change the fluid texture programmatically but I can't figure out how to do it (I also read TheGreyGhosts examples for ISmartBlockModel but they deal only with swapping out entire models or composing them together, no texture changes). I'm aware that in this case going with TESR would probably much easier but I want to avoid the performance hit if at all possible.

 

If someone can point me in the right direction or even give a short example I would be grateful.

[Zaerudath]

You can render this with ISmartBlockModel, though of course you'll still need a tile entity to know what fluid is stored in the tank.

 

You'll need to construct a SmartBlockModel that returns a different model from handleBlockState (or from getQuads) depending on MinecraftForgeClient.getRenderLayer().  Presumably you would use SOLID or ALPHA for your inner fluid model and CUTOUT or ALPHA for the external tank.

 

I suppose you could render both the tank and fluid with alpha, but you'd have to merge the baked quads from both models and return them via getFaceQuads or getGeneralQuads.

 

I'm not exactly sure how you'll get the fluid texture because I haven't done that myself, but look at the new forge bucket - they had to do it somehow.

 

One you have the fluid texture, call retexture on your fluid model before baking it.  You could also dynamically bake a model or quads for each handleBlockState but there really aren't going to be so many fluids that you can't just pre-bake them and cache them all up front. You could cache them right in the SmartBlockModel and return the appropriate baked fluid model in handleBlockState.

 

[Zarathul]

Thanks ! (Sorry for the late reply.)

 

I almost got everything to work. Once I ironed out the kinks I'll probably make a post explaining what I ended up doing so others can learn from it or at least have a good laugh .

[Zarathul]

So as promised an (attempted) explanation for what I did.

 

I ended up making two separate models, one for the tank frame and one for the fluid. The tank model has a blockstate json that defines all the connected textures variants. The fluid model has none.

 

In onModelBakeEvent the fluid model is loaded using the ModelLoader and cast to IRetexturableModel. Then .retexture() is called on it for every fluid in the forge fluid registry. The resulting models get baked and cached. Finally all tank variant models in the ModelRegistry get replaced with an ISmartBlockModel that stores the tank variant model.

 

In ISmartBlockModel.handleBlockState() an IBakedModel is returned that gets the variant model from the ISmartBlockModel and the fluid name from the IExtendedBlockState. In getFaceQuads() and getGeneralQuads() the IBakedModel returns the quads of the tank variant model plus the quads of the previously cached fluid model determined by the stored fluid name.

 

There's some additional stuff happening and there is actually more than one fluid model for the different fill levels of the tank, but explaining that would make everything too complicated.

 

For those that prefer looking at code:

https://github.com/Zarathul/simplefluidtanks/blob/1.8/src/main/java/net/zarathul/simplefluidtanks/ClientEventHub.java

https://github.com/Zarathul/simplefluidtanks/blob/1.8/src/main/java/net/zarathul/simplefluidtanks/rendering/TankModelFactory.java

https://github.com/Zarathul/simplefluidtanks/blob/1.8/src/main/java/net/zarathul/simplefluidtanks/rendering/BakedTankModel.java