Help with Tile Entity Basics

[intermediateuser]

There are bits and pieces of up-to-date information about Tile Entities here, on the wiki, on YouTube videos, and of course in Minecraft's source itself, but while I have been looking through all these things for hours I can't get a clear picture of how I'm supposed to make and use Tile Entities.

 

Can someone tell me the fundamentals of making and using them?

 

As an example, I'd like to make a block that, when right-clicked, will open up a trade window that's essentially identical to a villager's trade window.

[intermediateuser]

I think more information might help me get an answer while I'm AFK so hopefully when I come back I can progress.

 

I've already made a block, and I've got a tile entity class for it (but I don't know if the tile entity class is functional or even written properly).  I've read about "containers" but I don't think the word "container" means the same thing when making a tile entity that it does in game.  I think I have a container class, but I don't really know what it does.  And I don't know how to draw the gui.

 

The only reason I'm asking such broad questions here is because I can't find any good, up-to-date, and comprehensive information anywhere else.  I am not a total noob; I know how to do use Forge and I know intermediate Java.  I already have done some significant work on my mod, I just need to know the procedure for making and using tile entities to do what I mentioned in the original post.

 

Any help at all would be appreciated.  Thanks

[Draco18s]

Step 1:

 

class MyTileEntityBlock extends BlockContainer

 

Yes, it creates a container but that's because the original vanilla TE objects have inventories.  You don't need to utilize this fact, nor do you need to utilize the NBT data that can easily get saved via entities.

 

Step 2:

 

class MyTileEntityEntity extends TileEntity

 

This class is what's created when you place the block.  The parent class (BlockContainer) will throw an "add unimplemented methods" error, one of which will be function that returns a tile entity.  You'd add "return new MyTileEntityEntity()" there.  WARNING: do not pass parameters or change properties of the TE at this point, as you will want to read these values from the NBT data or they'll get reset on world load.

 

Step 3

 

public class MyTileEntityRenderer extends TileEntitySpecialRenderer

 

This will handle your TE rendering.  You may also have a model that you're using or you might use the tessalator directly.  I've done both.

 

Step 4

 

In your base mod class:

RenderingRegistry.registerBlockHandler(new MyTileEntityRenderer());

You should also use RenderingRegistry.getNextAvailableRenderId() to get a rendering ID and pass it to both your block and render class.

[ObsequiousNewt]

Eurgh. I think it's more readable if you name those ContainerMyBlock, TileEntityMyBlock, and RenderMyBlock respectively. In fact, I need to get my partner atrain99 to rename our classes like that

[Draco18s]

Eurgh. I think it's more readable if you name those ContainerMyBlock, TileEntityMyBlock, and RenderMyBlock respectively. In fact, I need to get my partner atrain99 to rename our classes like that

 

Whichever.  A lot of tutorials and such always do it as MyFoo and MyBar

[intermediateuser]

Step 1:

 

class MyTileEntityBlock extends BlockContainer

 

Yes, it creates a container but that's because the original vanilla TE objects have inventories.  You don't need to utilize this fact, nor do you need to utilize the NBT data that can easily get saved via entities.

 

Step 2:

 

class MyTileEntityEntity extends TileEntity

 

This class is what's created when you place the block.  The parent class (BlockContainer) will throw an "add unimplemented methods" error, one of which will be function that returns a tile entity.  You'd add "return new MyTileEntityEntity()" there.  WARNING: do not pass parameters or change properties of the TE at this point, as you will want to read these values from the NBT data or they'll get reset on world load.

 

Step 3

 

public class MyTileEntityRenderer extends TileEntitySpecialRenderer

 

This will handle your TE rendering.  You may also have a model that you're using or you might use the tessalator directly.  I've done both.

 

Step 4

 

In your base mod class:

RenderingRegistry.registerBlockHandler(new MyTileEntityRenderer());

You should also use RenderingRegistry.getNextAvailableRenderId() to get a rendering ID and pass it to both your block and render class.

 

Thanks so much.  Just understanding the basic structure of what I'm trying to do here will help a good deal.  In this example, should MyTileEntityRenderer also implement IMerchant and IInventory?  Rendering a gui is still a little confusing to me, but I know I need at least one of those two.

[Draco18s]

Thanks so much.  Just understanding the basic structure of what I'm trying to do here will help a good deal.  In this example, should MyTileEntityRenderer also implement IMerchant and IInventory?  Rendering a gui is still a little confusing to me, but I know I need at least one of those two.

 

Maybe?  I don't recognize those two classes at the moment.

[ObsequiousNewt]

Thanks so much.  Just understanding the basic structure of what I'm trying to do here will help a good deal.  In this example, should MyTileEntityRenderer also implement IMerchant and IInventory?  Rendering a gui is still a little confusing to me, but I know I need at least one of those two.

Your TileEntity, *not* your TESR, should extend IInventory. I don't know about IMerchant.

[intermediateuser]

Actually now that I have a chance to work on this some more, this whole bit just confuses me.  Why do I need a special renderer?  Can I just have a block, a tile entity, and have that tile entity called in onBlockActivated()?

 

The whole point is to draw a GUI when a block is right-clicked, and I'm not seeing much information about drawing a gui anywhere really.

[Moritz]

You do not need a special renderer. You need it only if you have a custom model