[1.15.2] A question about Tags

[Fluorescent Flamingo]

Hello everyone,

 

After browsing the code for the Block and Item Tags system, and successfully having implemented my own item tag, something has me confused.

 

Tags, and recipes, are defined in JSON files but there's a duplicate implementation of all of this in the actual code. In the BlockTagsProvider class, all those same vanilla tags which exist as JSONs are created dynamically, and the same for the Forge Tags in ForgeBlockTagsProvider. Ditto for items. And each of the hundreds of JSON crafting recipes are also duplicated in the code of RecipeProvider!

 

Why does the game have both a code-driven and data-driven implementation of these things, and will I need to do the same in my mod? Is it something to do with separate client/server shenanigans? I've only used JSONs for my mod's tags and recipes and clearly there are no problems - although I haven't tested it in a dedicated server environment yet. But I was under the impression that datapacks are loaded by servers too.

 

 

[Animefan8888]

14 minutes ago, Fluorescent Flamingo said:

Why does the game have both a code-driven and data-driven implementation of these things, and will I need to do the same in my mod?

Imagine having to write 100-200 json files by hand. Now imagine you had code that would do it for you once and never run again. That's why it's really just code that generates the data files to be loaded up by the data system. You do not need to use it. The code is not executed outside of development unless you manually call it or something.

[Fluorescent Flamingo]

Just now, Animefan8888 said:

Imagine having to write 100-200 json files by hand. Now imagine you had code that would do it for you once and never run again. That's why it's really just code that generates the data files to be loaded up by the data system. You do not need to use it. The code is not executed outside of development unless you manually call it or something.

Ohhh.... so the code is a development tool for Mojang and modders to use, to avoid having to manually write the JSONs? That's very good to know.

[Animefan8888]

11 minutes ago, Fluorescent Flamingo said:

That's very good to know.

It's really only good for the basic things which you have a lot of. Something like a basic Item or Block that has no special model functionality. However I can actually imagine the recipe one being incredibly useful. I remember the days when adding a recipe to the game was a single line of code. Now it's a whole file.