Minecraft Forums

Edit: Found one!

In Minecraft (default resourcepack), you interact with gray, simple GUI boxes. Where is the fun in that? You should be interacting with blocks!

• Survival inventory should be a backbag (yes, a GUI as a block wouldn't make much sense since nobody else sees it) with a F5 view of you (and your background) where you can drag armor on/off yourself, small crafting table "icon".
• Creative inventory should be a backbag with many sections (layers), representing item should be on the zipper sladers of each section; one zipper slader should be bigger with a text box inside (search). Not yet sure whether I really want creative inventory to be a backbag too.
• Crafting Table is interactable from the top of the block, not yet sure where the resulting item will be.
• Anvil is interactable from the top and side - to top you put 2 items to combine and on the side you can edit item's name (right click to edit, using white font). Not yet sure where the resulting item will be.
• Hopper is interactable from the top inside where they are in a star-like pattern.
• Chests, including Ender Chest and Trapped Chest should be interacted from the black area (inside). Not sure about the grid size/shape yet.
• Furnace is interactable from the side and top - on the side you can put fuel (bottom hole) and smeltable item (top hole), finished item should be on the top center.
• Enchanting Table is interacted on the book.
Right click inserts the item to the left page, then you can use cursor to drag enchant from the right page to item, when player is moving, the enchanting is cancelled and item is dropped.
In 1.8 the Lapis Lazuli will be automatically consumed from inventory - if you don't have Lapis Lazuli or at least 1 level, you can't even interact with Enchanting Table.

• Dispenser and Dropper are interactable on the bottom (visually pick it up and put it back), where they should show Crafting Table-like grid pattern
• Beacon should change the inside thing's texture based on the item used. Not sure about the effect selection (GUI?) yet.
• Villagers are interacted the most naturally - hovering on them and pressing the drop item key (default is Q, stacks aka Ctrl+Q should work too) until the requirements are filled, then the villager visually drops the item to you.
Trades are seen on their hand sleeves - right hand shows requirements and left hand the result. You can switch trades by clicking on them with the right mouse button.

And other blocks/items:

• Hotbar is interacted from the original HUD location
• Destroy blocks layer by layer, based on the destroying angle
• Open a book like on the Enchanting Table (same texture)
• Literally insert (moving hand) discs to jukeboxes, flowers to flower pots, Eyes of Ender to portal frames
Jukeboxes should also show current song's name on hover

• Smooth moving of doors, gates, trapdoors, levers, buttons, pressure plates and placement of snow layers

Interacting:

• All items are flat, like they are in the original GUIs
• When moving out of unstorable block's range (crafting table, anvil etc.), items are dropped
• Place, drag one and replace (when different) items with right click on slot
• Get the output by right click on non-slot
• Get maximum output by shift+right click on non-slot
• Drag several items left click on slot
• Destroy block by left click on non-slot
• Remove items by shift+left click on slot
• Remove all items by shift+left click on non-slot

Pros:

• Nice visual effect
• Realism
• Can move while interacting blocks
• Can see what's around you (better)

Cons:

• Can't interact with the block and your inventory together (yet, until I think of a great way)
• Can't interact with blocks you cannot directly see
• Can't interact in the dark (items should be faded too)
• (Might be) resource-intensive

Related stuff:

• Crafting Pillars mod (that's basically what I want, but with built-in blocks)
• HoloInventory (shows the contents of inventories on hover, yet for editing you still must open the GUI)

Oh and I got the inspiration from this (1:03-1:13):

Quote from macadamia238

-So many games use an overlay GUI.
-Break blocks by layer? That breaks Minecraft.
-Chest being interacted in the black area? How are you supposed to open it in the first place?!

You might find some realism mods somewhere.

1. So?
2. Nope, I mean layers only as a replacement of the cracking animation (no layered blocks for real)
3. Simply don't interact in the dark area then. Just like you can open it right now.

Quote from jcm2606

For instance, having a user interact with the inside of the chest physically (please tell me if I got this idea wrong), honestly sounds quite cool to me, but it will limit the amount of items a player can store inside of a chest.

Quote from jcm2606

Destroying blocks layer-by-layer (and I AM taking your previous post into consideration) does sound like it will break the general feel of the game, but I know where you're coming from. The thing with that is rendering, it will take more processing power to render that animation rather than the current one, along with the angle of collision.

Quote from jcm2606

I have to admit the Enchanting Table idea sounds quite cool, and I might even possibly try to incorporate it into my own mod, with your credit to the idea, if you want the credit. The only thing is though, is that it can be quite finicky to interact and actually use that mechanic.

Quote from jcm2606

Really, on paper, it sounds feasible and cool, and I can say some features would actually be cool in the game, but in practical use, it does flesh out some of the flaws of these ideas.

• Nice visual effect
• Realism
• Can see what's around you (better)

• Can't interact with blocks you cannot directly see
• Can't interact in the dark
• Resource-intensive

Quote from jcm2606

Perhaps you could have say racks or something in the chest itself, might be a little difficult to interact with / get working, but still feasible.

Quote from jcm2606

I thought you meant say the game calculates where you hit it, and it makes a dent into the block of sorts.

Quote from jcm2606

If you meant physically dragging the "enchant" in the world, then it isn't quite like the crafting table. Remember, Minecraft operates on 3 dimensions, so you'll need to consider those.

1. Right click on the enchanting table shows enchants on it's book model
2. Instead of dragging the item to a slot, you drag enchant to an item in the inventory (1.8: Lapis Lazuli is automatically consumed)
3. Enchant is applied

Quote from jcm2606

This mechanic would actually be better suited to basically having an Item Stand of sorts, and the enchanting table would just provide the enchants. You can then use an item or something to select an enchantment, and "drag and drop" the enchanting onto the stand, where it will be applied to the item.

Quote from robotkoer

Enchanting Table is interacted on the book.
Right click inserts the item to the left page, then you can use cursor to drag enchant from the right page to item, when player is moving, the enchanting is cancelled and item is dropped.
In 1.8 the Lapis Lazuli will be automatically consumed from inventory - if you don't have Lapis Lazuli or at least 1 level, you can't even interact with Enchanting Table.

Quote from jcm2606

Now there's the other side of this idea, how to develop it. A lot of this would require base edits to get working without alternate blocks to use. Base edits aren't recommended as they ruin mod compatibility, require rewriting for updates, and generally is hard to use for the end user. This really should be put towards a separate mod, like a technology mod that has little to no GUIs.

Quote from jcm2606

In singleplayer base edits are practically dead. Multiplayer, on the other hand, you don't need Bukkit, you would need Forge to use this mod, and Forge is not compatible with Bukkit, sooo yeah.

Oh well.