Rendering Items In-world

[Draco18s]

Alright, so my problem is that I've created a custom dispenser to act as a fairly generic "trap block" that uses items in slightly different ways than the vanilla dispenser.

 

Essentially it doesn't pop out items that it doesn't know what they are (default behavior is do nothing).  It does not empty/fill buckets, drop boats/minecarts, arrows fire twice, etc.

 

One of the behaviors is that swords are used to attack the block directly in front of the dispenser--essentially becoming the spinning blade trap that we see in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade (the "kneel before God" trap).  While I've got the attack working properly I'd like to actually render this.

 

I'm coming up against two problems:

 

1) figuring out when it should render (even using a custom TE I can't get it to properly say "hey, the sword needs to render now...and stop"--the variable kept coming back false all the time)

2) how to render the damn thing.

 

On (2) I was able to mess around with using a custom renderer using code stolen from ItemRenderer but it rendered the sword in a funny spot attached to the main camera, rather than being in-world (and also crashed the game when exiting).

 

On (1) I'm just baffled.  My solution that I used above (that crashed, but did render *something*) was to create a custom entity (like EntityArrow, but not a projectile) that was created when the dispenser action fired off.

[ObsequiousNewt]

When you say "the variable kept coming back false all the time"... how were you determining that variable?

[Draco18s]

When you say "the variable kept coming back false all the time"... how were you determining that variable?

 

I had a public property in my tile entity (an integer, actually, which I'd set to 10 when the block was activated, then decrement in the TE's update function).  When the renderer polled this variable it was always 0.

[ObsequiousNewt]

Sounds to me like a derp on your part... TE code?

[Draco18s]

Sounds to me like a derp on your part... TE code?

 

I deleted it and went back to using the vanilla dispenser as my TE (because without that one variable that's what I have and explored a different direction).

 

All I did was copy that class an add: public renderFrame = 0, an onupdate function that decremented it if it was > 0 and in my "DispenserBehaviorSword" class I got a reference to the TE, cast it to a TileEntityTrap, and told the result to have renderFrame = 10.

[redria7]

Packets? I am having trouble with one of my tile entities where I cant update the rendering because no matter what I do to the tile entity, the renderer is accessing an old version of my TE. As in, my TE prints one value for one of my variables and my renderer will say the same variable has a different value. I'm working on learning packets so I can get my client updated. Your problem sounds similar to mine.

[Draco18s]

Packets? I am having trouble with one of my tile entities where I cant update the rendering because no matter what I do to the tile entity, the renderer is accessing an old version of my TE. As in, my TE prints one value for one of my variables and my renderer will say the same variable has a different value. I'm working on learning packets so I can get my client updated. Your problem sounds similar to mine.

 

Even so I still cannot render the god damn sword.  Bigger issue than getting it to render WHEN I want it to.

[redria7]

Instead of using the code from the item renderer, go to your block renderer, get the icon for a sword (you may have to put one in your block textures file? I'm not sure that you can access item textures for a block, but there should be a way), and use a tessellator to add 4 vertices using the sword to draw one image of the sword, then do the same facing the opposite direction. This gives you a sword that can be seen from the sides. There might be a good way to deal with viewing the sword edge-on, but I can only think of drawing in lots of squares to connect the 2 sides.

 

That may not be the best method, but I know you could make it work. Make sense?

[Draco18s]

I would like it to be rendered the same way as all other 3D items, with the "pixel thickness."  That code already exists somewhere.

[ObsequiousNewt]

Try putting your variable in the dataWatcher.

[Draco18s]

Try putting your variable in the dataWatcher.

 

And now....I need a tutorial on DataWatchers, which don't exist.  Last time I tried adding one it didn't work* (rather than going "Hey wolves, you are what I need, duplicate.  Also delete this garbage about taming and collar color.  Ooh, free data watcher!" (hell, even that didn't work 100% right**)).

 

*I was using it to change texture offsets for a TE.  Renderer would register the change in the variable, but the setTextureOffsets...didn't.

**I had three textures for the mob.  Effectively passive, hostile, and "stone skin" (hostile, but under a potion effect).  It would do the passive <--> hostile switch, but it would NEVER, and I mean NEVER, use the stone skin.  I had wanted the mob to have Resistance 1 up all the time, and then below 50% health gain Resistance 3 (and change skins).  Because the skin never changed I had to remove the Resistance 1 all the time effect, so the distinguishing factor was "oh hey, now it has a potion effect."

[ObsequiousNewt]

I'm not quite sure myself what is the proper time to use a data watcher. Copypasta is my best bet as well.

 

Um. That's odd. I feel over my head here. Maybe I should just slowly back away... At any rate I won't do any coding of entities until something is done about the NAABB situation.

[Draco18s]

the NAABB situation.

 

The wut?

 

As for ents:

As long as you're modifying the AI behavior of an existing entity, it's not too bad.

[ObsequiousNewt]

the NAABB situation.

 

The wut?

 

As for ents:

As long as you're modifying the AI behavior of an existing entity, it's not too bad.

Ents? Let's not be hasty.

 

...As I said, the NAABB situation.

[Draco18s]

...As I said, the NAABB situation.

 

Ah.

 

Try using more than one AABB instead.  One for the front of the tractor, one for the middle, one for the back.

[ObsequiousNewt]

...As I said, the NAABB situation.

 

Ah.

 

Try using more than one AABB instead.  One for the front of the tractor, one for the middle, one for the back.

The problem there is that many functions refer directly to the boundingBox field.

 

Then again, I suppose I could use three seperate entities for the tractor. Now there's an idea.

[Draco18s]

I have reimplemented the datawatcher to NO EFFECT.

 

In the render class:

TileEntityTrap te = (TileEntityTrap)world.getBlockTileEntity(x, y, z);
	if(te != null) {
		System.out.println("Rendering frame " + te.getRenderFrame());  //this runs once and only prints a 0.
	}

 

In the tile entity class:

public TileEntityTrap() {
    	this.dataWatcher = new DataWatcher();
        this.dataWatcher.addObject(0, Byte.valueOf((byte)0));
        this.dataWatcher.addObject(1, Byte.valueOf((byte)0));
    }
    
    public DataWatcher getDataWatcher()
    {
        return this.dataWatcher;
    }
    
    public void startSwordRender(int sword) {
    	System.out.println("Starting sword render");  //this prints on activation, as expected
    	this.dataWatcher.updateObject(0, Byte.valueOf((byte)10));
    	this.dataWatcher.updateObject(1, Byte.valueOf((byte)sword));
    	this.worldObj.markBlockForUpdate(xCoord, yCoord, zCoord);
    }
    
    public byte getSwordRender() {
    	return this.dataWatcher.getWatchableObjectByte(1);
    }
    
    public void setSwordRender(int s) {
    	this.dataWatcher.updateObject(1, Byte.valueOf((byte)s));
    }
    
    public byte getRenderFrame() {
    	return this.dataWatcher.getWatchableObjectByte(0);
    }

 

In the dispenser behavior (sword) class:

TileEntityTrap te = (TileEntityTrap) par1IBlockSource.getBlockTileEntity();
        if(te != null) {
		te.startSwordRender(1);
	}

[ObsequiousNewt]

I have reimplemented the datawatcher to NO EFFECT.

 

In the render class:

TileEntityTrap te = (TileEntityTrap)world.getBlockTileEntity(x, y, z);
	if(te != null) {
		System.out.println("Rendering frame " + te.getRenderFrame());  //this runs once and only prints a 0.
	}

How... is your TE getting set to null?

[Draco18s]

I have reimplemented the datawatcher to NO EFFECT.

 

In the render class:

TileEntityTrap te = (TileEntityTrap)world.getBlockTileEntity(x, y, z);
	if(te != null) {
		System.out.println("Rendering frame " + te.getRenderFrame());  //this runs once and only prints a 0.
	}

How... is your TE getting set to null?

 

It is not being set to null.  I had a debug statement for that as well (it never ran).  May have snipped it just before I posted the code, as I knew that was not the problem.

[ObsequiousNewt]

I have reimplemented the datawatcher to NO EFFECT.

 

In the render class:

TileEntityTrap te = (TileEntityTrap)world.getBlockTileEntity(x, y, z);
	if(te != null) {
		System.out.println("Rendering frame " + te.getRenderFrame());  //this runs once and only prints a 0.
	}

How... is your TE getting set to null?

 

It is not being set to null.  I had a debug statement for that as well (it never ran).  May have snipped it just before I posted the code, as I knew that was not the problem.

But you said, "this runs once and only prints a 0"...

 

Please excuse me if I'm being obtuse.

[Draco18s]

But you said, "this runs once and only prints a 0"...

 

Please excuse me if I'm being obtuse.

 

It runs once per block activation, as opposed to constantly.

It SHOULD print this:

Rendering frame 10
Rendering frame 9
Rendering frame 8
Rendering frame 7
Rendering frame 6
Rendering frame 5
Rendering frame 4
Rendering frame 3
Rendering frame 2
Rendering frame 1
Rendering frame 0

[ObsequiousNewt]

I thought that doRender() should be called every tick...

[Draco18s]

I thought that doRender() should be called every tick...

 

It is most definitely not.  Write a custom renderer and put a System.out.println("I am rendering") in it.

 

It gets called once when the block is placed and once again every time it updates.  The results the doRender() function are essentially saved and reused to cut down on overhead (imagine if every block in your view needed to be recalculated every tick!).

[redria7]

Thank goodness it works this way. I have a block that would be impossible if it worked otherwise. As it is I can't have more than 2 or 3 before it starts freezing the game when they update... partly because of my computer and partly because I still need to work on my optimizations...

[ObsequiousNewt]

I thought that doRender() should be called every tick...

 

It is most definitely not.  Write a custom renderer and put a System.out.println("I am rendering") in it.

 

It gets called once when the block is placed and once again every time it updates.  The results the doRender() function are essentially saved and reused to cut down on overhead (imagine if every block in your view needed to be recalculated every tick!).

Oh, silly me. I'm thinking of Entities of course.

 

So perhaps startSwordRender isn't getting run because the TE is null? (I'm just grasping at straws here...)