Finding closest Block and tileEntity

[DarkGuardsman]

For a mod i'm working on i have a function that scans from a start location out so many blocks. This works fine for getting the first instance of a block in from the corner of the scan area; However, it doesn't work for getting the closest block to a location. How would i program it so it will find the closest block too the location. Which the location is going to be an entity which moves.

 

 

Also another question how would i find the closest instanceof a tileEntity

Here is the code i'm using to find it but it doesn't seem to be working

 /**
  * used to find the closest controller
  * @param par1 - x
  * @param par3 - y
  * @param par5 - z
  * @param par7 - range in blocks
  * @return the nearest controller
  */
	 public TileEntityComp getClosestControler(double par1, double par3, double par5, double par7)
    {
	 double var9 = -1.0D;
	    TileEntityComp var11 = null;
	    List itemList = worldObj.getEntitiesWithinAABB(TileEntityComp.class, this.boundingBox.expand(par7, 4.0D, par7));
	    for (int var12 = 0; var12 < itemList.size(); ++var12)
	    {
	    	TileEntityComp var13 = (TileEntityComp)itemList.get(var12);
	        double var14 = var13.getDistanceFrom(par1, par3, par5);

	        if ((par7 < 0.0D || var14 < par7 * par7) && (var9 == -1.0D || var14 < var9))
	        {
	            var9 = var14;
	            var11 = var13;
	        }
	    }

	    return var11;
    }
 /**
  * used to find the closest controller with an empty slot mainly used to find and add a robot to the controller
  * @param par1 - x
  * @param par3 - y
  * @param par5 - z
  * @param par7 - range in blocks
  * @return the nearest controller block with an empty control slot
  */
 public TileEntityComp getEmptyControler(double par1, double par3, double par5, double par7)
    {
	 double var9 = -1.0D;
	    TileEntityComp var11 = null;
	    List itemList = worldObj.getEntitiesWithinAABB(TileEntityComp.class, this.boundingBox.expand(par7, 4.0D, par7));
	    for (int var12 = 0; var12 < itemList.size(); ++var12)
	    {
	    	TileEntityComp var13 = (TileEntityComp)itemList.get(var12);
	        double var14 = var13.getDistanceFrom(par1, par3, par5);

	        if ((par7 < 0.0D || var14 < par7 * par7) && (var9 == -1.0D || var14 < var9))
	        {
	        	for(int c = 0; c < 4; c++)
	        	{
	        	if(var13.BotList[c]==null)
	        	{
	        		 var11 = var13;
	        	}
	        	}
	            var9 = var14;		           
	        }
	    }

	    return var11;
    }

[OvermindDL1]

Time to do a search of one at a time. 

[DarkGuardsman]

Time to do a search of one at a time. 

already doing one by one search just from the corner of a search box that was expanded from the target location. Was hoping there might be a hidden easier way to get the closest block to a location. My method works just causes a ton of lag if searching anything over 20x20x20 area.

[OvermindDL1]

Spread it over multiple ticks?

[DarkGuardsman]

Spread it over multiple ticks?

hmm i have it setup to wait 2 ticks every y level it scans which has reduced the lag some. I'm trying to reduce it further so i can scan areas like 40x40x256 without lagging the player at all. though i might break the areas up into 10x10x10 then scan and move to the next area.