Minecraft Forums

Odd...

Anyway, why not just use one of the 0-15 metadata values as both a state and an indicator of your state?

Unless there's something I don't know, you should be able to just set the metadata of the block to 1 when there's a powered block/entity next to it, then just use that metadata for your changing textures as well.

If you want to use a boatload of textures or states, just save the "extended metadata" using readtonbt and writetonbt.

---Of course this is assuming I know what you all are talking about.

I did that initially (except for the NBT bit, I need to do more research on that) however the metadata also controls the rotation of the block. For instance, when the block is facing east, the metadata is say 3. I always believed you can only use the metadata for one thing at a time such as defining a texture, sub-block, or a rotation. Correct me if I'm wrong about this I still have a lot to learn.

Cheers!

Sorry, can you please post your updated Block, TileEntity and Renderer classes?

It would be easier because you removed some errors.

Here are all three

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/4d71c1663d9cf4876e3e

Quote from TheBoeing767fan»

I did that initially (except for the NBT bit, I need to do more research on that) however the metadata also controls the rotation of the block. For instance, when the block is facing east, the metadata is say 3. I always believed you can only use the metadata for one thing at a time such as defining a texture, sub-block, or a rotation. Correct me if I'm wrong about this I still have a lot to learn.

Cheers!

Yes, each metadata value can only represent one state. And that state can represent any one combination of sub-states - including texture, rotation and whatever other state you can think of.

Essentially, each combination of data you store inside a tile entity has its own metadata value. It just depends on what you call it (or them). Also, it's not limited to 16 states. It's more like 32,768 states, so if you just want to go off an integer value, you can define your metadata for all your standard states (not powered), then define the same number of metadata for all the powered states. You can use getBlockPowerInput like Ferdz said to do this. Just make sure you save the metadata in your TE class correctly:

public void writeToNBT(NBTTagCompound NBTTC)
 {
 super.writeToNBT(NBTTC);
 NBTTC.setInteger("Data", this.blockMetadata);
 }

 public void readFromNBT(NBTTagCompound NBTTC)
 {
 super.readFromNBT(NBTTC);
 this.blockMetadata = NBTTC.getInteger("Data");
 }

.blockMetadata is build into Mincraft, so there's no variable declaration needed to save metadata. The reason why you need to save it is becuase Minecraft truncates block states down to 4 bits (aka 16 states / bit combinations) when you exit the game unless you save it using what we're all talking about.

Also, keep in mind that whenever you want to get the metadata of your block, don't use world.getBlockMetadata because that is truncated as well. Use the tile entity: world.getTileEntity(i, j, k).blockMetadata;

As far as setting the metadata is concerned, it's still safe to use the same method(s): world.setBlock(i, j, k, block, metadata, 3);

The reason why metadata isn't used like this by some modders is because it's not as elegant and it may require some extra lines of code.

Alright, after a ton of experimenting I finally got it to work by using metadata's.

Here are all the relevant classes for reference in case someone needs it in the future.

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/2eb440d9580144e5aed4

Thanks for everyone's help.

Cheers!!