Crazy crafting recipe request - two outputs, 4 billion combinations

[Reika]

I have two items (not blocks) that I want to be able to be crafted together and swap their metadata values (damage values). The problem is, this relies on two abilities I am not sure exist within the recipe system:

 

One, it must have two output items - neither can be consumed (I am fine with destroying one and recreating it, but I do not want to have to do things like edit the player's inventory directly, as that will lead to bugs).

 

Two, and more ominously, it must be simultaneously metadata-independent (works for every combination of values), yet still determine the outputs from said metadata values. This may seem like a simple problem, solvable with a two-layer for loop, but seeing as each item can have metadata up to the limit - 65535 - I do not want to add 4 billion recipes to the game.

 

How would I accomplish this, or is it impossible?

[Reika]

Implement a custom IRecipe instance?

I would need someone to teach me how to do that.

[Reika]

I would need someone to teach me how to do that.

I assume you're using eclipse. In your project explorer right-click, select new->Class. Under Interfaces add IRecipe. That will create a class for you. Then you  can register it with GameRegistry.addRecipe(new YourRecipe()); The method names in IRecipe are pretty self-explanatory.

Every other time I have seen someone mention implementing IRecipe, they actually meant writing my own version. That is why I thought this was harder than it is.

Also, how to modify the metadata of (and not consume) the other item?

[RANKSHANK]

I'm betting you're after Item.getContainerItemForItemStack(ItemStack). not sure if that's the exact name but you just return the corresponding itemstack

[Reika]

I'm betting you're after Item.getContainerItemForItemStack(ItemStack). not sure if that's the exact name but you just return the corresponding itemstack

...How does that help me here?