(For this suggestion thread, I will be mostly using Pistons as an EXAMPLE. Please keep in mind that this will NOT only apply to Piston blocks but to ALL Redstone Blocks in general.)
Hello! I have been playing Minecraft for a few years now and I was watching YouTube, Mumbo Jumbo's channel, and saw him playing with a
Piston House build and an idea came to me.
The "Redstone Tick Pacer Block".
BASIC OPERATION:
The Tick Pacer Block would make any Redstone Device Block that it is connected to move at a different pace than it normally would.
Meaning that a Piston Block for example could be made to extend and retract faster or slower than it does normally, and it would do so
SMOOTHLY OR not smoothly, at the discretion of the person setting the pace.
HOW WOULD THIS BE IMPLEMENTED?:
PLEASE correct me if I am wrong on this but...
(1) If I am not mistaken, in Minecraft right now when a, Piston Block for example is activated, it retracts or extends dependent on
what state it is in, but it does not physically DO this transition itself, but the model of said Piston Block is simply rapidly replaced
with the other model of block. Meaning, in game there are at least 2 "entity models" for the Piston Block, one Retracted and one
Extended, and this is simply swapped from one to the other to make it SEEM like the piston extended or retracted, and any block in the
way of the piston platform is moved in relation to the piston platform. I honestly do NOT know if this is how it works, or if there is
an ACTUAL and PHYSICAL transition from extended to retracted and vice versa. I have never delved that deep into the code, because I
have no idea where to even BEGIN to find the information in the game code to figure that out or not.
If the above is the case, and I hope it is not, then that would mean that things like Chests, Trap Doors, and Doors need several entity
models that must be swapped between in rapid succession to make this LOOK like a smooth transition from open to closed and vice versa.
IF this IS the case, then my suggestion would mean that it would need several HUNDRED to several THOUSAND new entity models to be added
for EACH of the various Redstone Blocks/Devices so that a smooth transition could be achieved even at slower speeds, when enacted upon
by the "Redstone Tick Pacer Block".
OR...
(2) IF THE ABOVE IS NOT TRUE... (which I REALLY hope it is not) but that Redstone Blocks/Devices like Pistons, Doors, Chests, Trapdoors, etcetera execute a PHYSICAL real time change in their physical shape between opened and closed in the game, and do so at a specific speed/pace, then it may be possible to simply do a bit of light programming to allow the "Redstone Tick Pacer Block" or "Pacer Block" to cause the part of these
blocks that physically moves in real time within the game, to do so at a slower pace.
Meaning that... well let me explain what I visualized in my head as I was watching Mumbo play with one of his Redstone Hidden Wall
contraptions.
Basically I was watching him play with a wall that would retract into the floor to reveal a hidden storage and furnace room. Pretty
simple, and then I watched the way the pistons retracted, and it looks REALLY cool as is, but there was something that it reminded me
of. It reminded me of the robots in a car factory moving car parts. While this does look cool and for many things it gives a really
neat mechanical effect to things being opened and closed with pistons, like walls and hidden doorways and such. I thought it might
also be cool if those pistons could be made to move SLOWER, and do so smoothly, so that the entire wall slides down out of the way in a
slow and smooth transition. Then a vision of a Jungle Forest Temple popped into my head, and I thought, "hey, that Temple would look
REALLY cool if the "door" could slowly slide out of the way, instead of the blocks that make up the hidden "door" jumping out of the
way looking like a robotic car factory arm just yanked on them to move them."
WHAT COULD THIS DO AND WHAT COULD I DO WITH IT?
Essentially... I would like the ability in game, to slow down the pace at which a trap chest opens so I can add music to it or make
note blocks make a creaking noise to match the speed at which it opens. Or slow down the speed at which a door closes and add a creepy
haunting "creeeeeeak" to it for a haunted house. Or like the temple, where the stone block "door" sloooowly sliiiides out of the way and
I could make a bunch of note blocks and command blocks and such make a sound like stone grating as it opens. Or a Trapdoor slowly opens to push up an armor stand with a Zombie head on it to make a haunted house look like a Zombie just opened a trapdoor in the floor, and make a jukebox play one of the creepy sounding tracks for example.
Or on the other side of the spectrum I could make a piston open even FASTER perhaps, so that it flings you even HIGHER up in the air
for example. Or I could increase the speed at which a chest closes so that if you grab the wrong item it SNAPS shut like the closing
jaws of a monster and then I could make it snap opened and closed rapidly and add monster sounds to make it sound like a
monster chest is trying to eat you inside the dungeon you are in, and then it would spawn "minions" suddenly and you have to fight them
off.
Or for example, those folks who made Redstone COMPUTERS in game... this would allow them MORE control over how their in-game Computer
operated. Might even be able to create a working television that could live stream within the game for example and would not look all
blocky as the speed at which blocks were moved in and out of a "pixel" could be increased to make the picture on "screen" more fluid.
Such things could be possible. I am sure most of us are aware of the ACTUALLY WORKING CELL PHONE build for example. MANY, things that this could make possible that are simply not feasible or just look weird with right now.
All kinds of possibilities.
Please, if ANYONE knows how the Open and Close/Retract and Extend actions of Redstone Blocks/Devices ACTUALLY operates in game, PLEASE
correct my knowledge and enlighten me so I know which way this could go.
I think this would be fun to try and turn into a mod first and see how it could be implemented and test out all the problems and
possibilities it could open up... but I DEFINITELY want this as a new in-game Block at some point in the future! Please. :-)
Thank you ALL for being nice to each other and NOT sitting in this thread and being a bunch of whiny useless trolls for no good reason.
I am NOT a programmer so I do NOT know anything about the programming or how to find the answer to my questions about game code other
than asking questions.
This IS a suggestion thread, and yes I am asking a question in it, but it is part of this suggestion so that the suggestion can be
fully sussed out for the benefit of the entire community as a whole. I personally think this would be a neat addition to the game, as
it would open up many new and exciting possibilities for anyone who wants to play around with Redstone. I have come up with as much of
the idea as I can think of with the limited knowledge I have. I am not asking you the community to come up with the rest... I am
simply asking for correction of my own knowledge so that if anything about this idea needs to be tweaked, I can know which way it needs
to go.
Thank you.
-----------------------------------------
Ugh... please pardon the weird format that looks like I hit return after each line... I typed this up in the forum page,l then hit an F-Key by mistake and it erased everything, so I RE-typed it in NotePad and copy pasted and tweaked it. My apologies for the weird formatting. :-(
I could be mistaken, but the first scenario is true (there's only two piston models). While this is certainly interesting and useful, I don't thinks it worth adding thousands of models to each "moving" block. But if I'm wrong and the second scenario is true, I support this.
Sorry, but I'm having a bit of a problem trying to decipher what this block exactly does. You have some run-on sentences and poorly defined sections that make it difficult to process the information here.
For visual purposes like the opening of a chest accompanies by a creak, this could be useful, but it wouldn't be for anything else. Functionality wise, the redstone repeater accomplishes the same delay function, and without adding some sort of slow transition into the code for the moving blocks like pistons and doors, then it simply wouldn't work. While I would definitely not complain if this was added, I doubt it ever will be.
My understanding is that scenario #1 is true for most items (pistons, gates, doors, trapdoors, traphooks).
Chests appear (by visual inpsection) to have some minor degree of animation (maybe 2 or 3 'frames' between open and closed) — but this seems to be an exception..
Even if this were possible, my suspicion is that most of these events (the redstone components in particular) are already processed as quickly as practical which would remove the "speed things up options".
Granting that the slowly opening door could look good in some circumstances, the overhead of creating and implementing rules for all the intermediate cases [eg. what happens when one breaks the block that is 60% retracted?] would likely be cost prohibitive.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Why does everything have to be so stoopid?" Harvey Pekar (from American Splendor)
WARNING: I have an extemely "grindy" playstyle; YMMV — if this doesn't seem fun to you, mine what you can from it & bin the rest.
(For this suggestion thread, I will be mostly using Pistons as an EXAMPLE. Please keep in mind that this will NOT only apply to Piston blocks but to ALL Redstone Blocks in general.)
Hello! I have been playing Minecraft for a few years now and I was watching YouTube, Mumbo Jumbo's channel, and saw him playing with a
Piston House build and an idea came to me.
The "Redstone Tick Pacer Block".
BASIC OPERATION:
The Tick Pacer Block would make any Redstone Device Block that it is connected to move at a different pace than it normally would.
Meaning that a Piston Block for example could be made to extend and retract faster or slower than it does normally, and it would do so
SMOOTHLY OR not smoothly, at the discretion of the person setting the pace.
HOW WOULD THIS BE IMPLEMENTED?:
PLEASE correct me if I am wrong on this but...
(1) If I am not mistaken, in Minecraft right now when a, Piston Block for example is activated, it retracts or extends dependent on
what state it is in, but it does not physically DO this transition itself, but the model of said Piston Block is simply rapidly replaced
with the other model of block. Meaning, in game there are at least 2 "entity models" for the Piston Block, one Retracted and one
Extended, and this is simply swapped from one to the other to make it SEEM like the piston extended or retracted, and any block in the
way of the piston platform is moved in relation to the piston platform. I honestly do NOT know if this is how it works, or if there is
an ACTUAL and PHYSICAL transition from extended to retracted and vice versa. I have never delved that deep into the code, because I
have no idea where to even BEGIN to find the information in the game code to figure that out or not.
If the above is the case, and I hope it is not, then that would mean that things like Chests, Trap Doors, and Doors need several entity
models that must be swapped between in rapid succession to make this LOOK like a smooth transition from open to closed and vice versa.
IF this IS the case, then my suggestion would mean that it would need several HUNDRED to several THOUSAND new entity models to be added
for EACH of the various Redstone Blocks/Devices so that a smooth transition could be achieved even at slower speeds, when enacted upon
by the "Redstone Tick Pacer Block".
OR...
(2) IF THE ABOVE IS NOT TRUE... (which I REALLY hope it is not) but that Redstone Blocks/Devices like Pistons, Doors, Chests, Trapdoors, etcetera execute a PHYSICAL real time change in their physical shape between opened and closed in the game, and do so at a specific speed/pace, then it may be possible to simply do a bit of light programming to allow the "Redstone Tick Pacer Block" or "Pacer Block" to cause the part of these
blocks that physically moves in real time within the game, to do so at a slower pace.
Meaning that... well let me explain what I visualized in my head as I was watching Mumbo play with one of his Redstone Hidden Wall
contraptions.
Basically I was watching him play with a wall that would retract into the floor to reveal a hidden storage and furnace room. Pretty
simple, and then I watched the way the pistons retracted, and it looks REALLY cool as is, but there was something that it reminded me
of. It reminded me of the robots in a car factory moving car parts. While this does look cool and for many things it gives a really
neat mechanical effect to things being opened and closed with pistons, like walls and hidden doorways and such. I thought it might
also be cool if those pistons could be made to move SLOWER, and do so smoothly, so that the entire wall slides down out of the way in a
slow and smooth transition. Then a vision of a Jungle Forest Temple popped into my head, and I thought, "hey, that Temple would look
REALLY cool if the "door" could slowly slide out of the way, instead of the blocks that make up the hidden "door" jumping out of the
way looking like a robotic car factory arm just yanked on them to move them."
WHAT COULD THIS DO AND WHAT COULD I DO WITH IT?
Essentially... I would like the ability in game, to slow down the pace at which a trap chest opens so I can add music to it or make
note blocks make a creaking noise to match the speed at which it opens. Or slow down the speed at which a door closes and add a creepy
haunting "creeeeeeak" to it for a haunted house. Or like the temple, where the stone block "door" sloooowly sliiiides out of the way and
I could make a bunch of note blocks and command blocks and such make a sound like stone grating as it opens. Or a Trapdoor slowly opens to push up an armor stand with a Zombie head on it to make a haunted house look like a Zombie just opened a trapdoor in the floor, and make a jukebox play one of the creepy sounding tracks for example.
Or on the other side of the spectrum I could make a piston open even FASTER perhaps, so that it flings you even HIGHER up in the air
for example. Or I could increase the speed at which a chest closes so that if you grab the wrong item it SNAPS shut like the closing
jaws of a monster and then I could make it snap opened and closed rapidly and add monster sounds to make it sound like a
monster chest is trying to eat you inside the dungeon you are in, and then it would spawn "minions" suddenly and you have to fight them
off.
Or for example, those folks who made Redstone COMPUTERS in game... this would allow them MORE control over how their in-game Computer
operated. Might even be able to create a working television that could live stream within the game for example and would not look all
blocky as the speed at which blocks were moved in and out of a "pixel" could be increased to make the picture on "screen" more fluid.
Such things could be possible. I am sure most of us are aware of the ACTUALLY WORKING CELL PHONE build for example. MANY, things that this could make possible that are simply not feasible or just look weird with right now.
All kinds of possibilities.
Please, if ANYONE knows how the Open and Close/Retract and Extend actions of Redstone Blocks/Devices ACTUALLY operates in game, PLEASE
correct my knowledge and enlighten me so I know which way this could go.
I think this would be fun to try and turn into a mod first and see how it could be implemented and test out all the problems and
possibilities it could open up... but I DEFINITELY want this as a new in-game Block at some point in the future! Please. :-)
Thank you ALL for being nice to each other and NOT sitting in this thread and being a bunch of whiny useless trolls for no good reason.
I am NOT a programmer so I do NOT know anything about the programming or how to find the answer to my questions about game code other
than asking questions.
This IS a suggestion thread, and yes I am asking a question in it, but it is part of this suggestion so that the suggestion can be
fully sussed out for the benefit of the entire community as a whole. I personally think this would be a neat addition to the game, as
it would open up many new and exciting possibilities for anyone who wants to play around with Redstone. I have come up with as much of
the idea as I can think of with the limited knowledge I have. I am not asking you the community to come up with the rest... I am
simply asking for correction of my own knowledge so that if anything about this idea needs to be tweaked, I can know which way it needs
to go.
Thank you.
-----------------------------------------
Ugh... please pardon the weird format that looks like I hit return after each line... I typed this up in the forum page,l then hit an F-Key by mistake and it erased everything, so I RE-typed it in NotePad and copy pasted and tweaked it. My apologies for the weird formatting. :-(
No one is more professional that I. I am a Non-Commissioned Officer, a Leader of Soldiers.
Sorry, but I'm having a bit of a problem trying to decipher what this block exactly does. You have some run-on sentences and poorly defined sections that make it difficult to process the information here.
We're doing a mod project, check it out:
For visual purposes like the opening of a chest accompanies by a creak, this could be useful, but it wouldn't be for anything else. Functionality wise, the redstone repeater accomplishes the same delay function, and without adding some sort of slow transition into the code for the moving blocks like pistons and doors, then it simply wouldn't work. While I would definitely not complain if this was added, I doubt it ever will be.
My understanding is that scenario #1 is true for most items (pistons, gates, doors, trapdoors, traphooks).
Chests appear (by visual inpsection) to have some minor degree of animation (maybe 2 or 3 'frames' between open and closed) — but this seems to be an exception..
Even if this were possible, my suspicion is that most of these events (the redstone components in particular) are already processed as quickly as practical which would remove the "speed things up options".
Granting that the slowly opening door could look good in some circumstances, the overhead of creating and implementing rules for all the intermediate cases [eg. what happens when one breaks the block that is 60% retracted?] would likely be cost prohibitive.