So, I was mucking around my server the other day and i was thinking... These walls are so thick and gaudy on the inside. It would be cool if we could have say... vertical slabs! and what more, say we could... combine them! then we could have things like say, a sandstone outside, and a wooden inside!.
Just an idea i'v tossed into the idea bin. which i wouldn't be surprised if it was noted already.
Basic idea is to have Slabs (Half blocks) that are capable of being put on a vertical vector, having the first one being placed away from you, and the next combining the 2 into a full block. I'm aware this would be awkward since there would need to be 8 different states of the single block, but It would benefit us all by making walls and housing easier and more robust in design options.
Also, cloth half blocks would be nice too, to tie into my other idea (making a half block of the color used)
On the other note, The idea of being able to combine these blocks and horizontal slabs would be nice as well. So for example, For a house I would use.... A cobble stone outside and then a wooden plank inside. Thus we have a single block used for the wall itself, and a nice inside looking inside, and a nice outside looking outside to the building itself. Or say, for a 2 story building, I want carpeting so... instead of being forced of 2 things, a 2 block thick floor: wood for roof of previous floor, then cloth for carpet; or just living with a carpeted roof for the previous floor. we could say, do the same thing on a horizontal level, A wood bottom, then a red cloth top providing us with a proper roof, and floor in a single block.
I'm not sure how hard this would be to implement (that is if it is even discussed and/or noted) but it would be most wonderful for us people who love to build to have the many more options this would provide!
Combining half-blocks would be a difficult task, to be honest. It would require a rewrite of the engine.
The major reason I see a problem is that the game would have to store two ID's in the same square in a chunk. This would double the size of the chunks and increase game lag. A similar idea to yours may be the eighth blocks thread which can help with at least half of the process, allowing you the ability to make vertical slabs; though I don't know about the ability to combine them.
I don't know about combining two different types of vertical slabs. Oh, if it can be easily done, it would be okay, but if it requires a major rewrite of the code or substantially increases lag, then I can just as easily live without that feature.
But another good use for vertical slabs would be to create offset corridors and such. What I mean is, on either side of a 1-block-wide pathway, you could have vertical half slabs on the outside edges of the two bordering rows of blocks, enabling a 2-block-wide pathway down the center of a three-block-wide strip of blocks, yet have walls on either side of the pathway. This could be useful for boat docks/canals, ornamental gateways in walls, bridges, and I'm sure many other uses.
This could also be usefully combined with top-half horizontal slabs which could be stuck onto a ceiling, keeping a solid barrier over your head but enabling a bit more headroom. For example, you could have a bottom-half slab pathway above a water or lava conduit, one full block of space, then a top-half block above that for a ceiling, giving you a two-block-high passageway with both floor and ceiling in a three-block-high space. Or a right-angled version of what you could do with vertical half-slabs.
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I don't know about combining two different types of vertical slabs. Oh, if it can be easily done, it would be okay, but if it requires a major rewrite of the code or substantially increases lag, then I can just as easily live without that feature.
I think for this we could perhaps assume the combination of vertical slabs just as we do the colored cloth. there would have to be a whole array of texture images to make up every possible combination of half blocks available. Given the 4 we have now, + possible Iron, diamond, gold half blocks(3) + colors of cloth (16), we would be looking at 23^2 (529) possible combinations (1058 if we include both vertical and horizontal)? (I think, i'm no math wiz). As for data structure and amount of data required, each block already has a metadata value stored in each block, as we see in cloth. Overall it would be a lot of work to at least make the sprite images (hell on map makers, easy to auto-generate with some good scripts in photoshop)
Quote from yoshi9048 »
Combining half-blocks would be a difficult task, to be honest. It would require a rewrite of the engine.
The major reason I see a problem is that the game would have to store two ID's in the same square in a chunk. This would double the size of the chunks and increase game lag.
as the above stated, yah, it would take the use block meta-data to manage the block itself, I mean look at stairs, current slabs and even colored cloth. This would just be another use of that as a whole. as for setting the metadata up right to receive such a value would be... unique. I could see them extending the value within the metadata itself for higher damage values (as like how tools break after so many broken blocks) and simply having a math table to simple identify each block. (EG. bottom = 1*E(15), top = 2*5(5) so 15x10 = 150 would be the damage value for red on top of green, or such, I know this is simplistic and it would never work as other values may equal the same, but with math it should be possible to make 2 values sum up to a unique value, perhaps prime numbers? :biggrin.gif:)
Either way, this is how I think it could work... but I'm not entirely sure, I'm just the idea man. please let us discuss this more.
Just an idea i'v tossed into the idea bin. which i wouldn't be surprised if it was noted already.
Basic idea is to have Slabs (Half blocks) that are capable of being put on a vertical vector, having the first one being placed away from you, and the next combining the 2 into a full block. I'm aware this would be awkward since there would need to be 8 different states of the single block, but It would benefit us all by making walls and housing easier and more robust in design options.
Also, cloth half blocks would be nice too, to tie into my other idea (making a half block of the color used)
On the other note, The idea of being able to combine these blocks and horizontal slabs would be nice as well. So for example, For a house I would use.... A cobble stone outside and then a wooden plank inside. Thus we have a single block used for the wall itself, and a nice inside looking inside, and a nice outside looking outside to the building itself. Or say, for a 2 story building, I want carpeting so... instead of being forced of 2 things, a 2 block thick floor: wood for roof of previous floor, then cloth for carpet; or just living with a carpeted roof for the previous floor. we could say, do the same thing on a horizontal level, A wood bottom, then a red cloth top providing us with a proper roof, and floor in a single block.
I'm not sure how hard this would be to implement (that is if it is even discussed and/or noted) but it would be most wonderful for us people who love to build to have the many more options this would provide!
Hope people like the idea.
all for it.
...one post at a time.
The major reason I see a problem is that the game would have to store two ID's in the same square in a chunk. This would double the size of the chunks and increase game lag. A similar idea to yours may be the eighth blocks thread which can help with at least half of the process, allowing you the ability to make vertical slabs; though I don't know about the ability to combine them.
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But another good use for vertical slabs would be to create offset corridors and such. What I mean is, on either side of a 1-block-wide pathway, you could have vertical half slabs on the outside edges of the two bordering rows of blocks, enabling a 2-block-wide pathway down the center of a three-block-wide strip of blocks, yet have walls on either side of the pathway. This could be useful for boat docks/canals, ornamental gateways in walls, bridges, and I'm sure many other uses.
This could also be usefully combined with top-half horizontal slabs which could be stuck onto a ceiling, keeping a solid barrier over your head but enabling a bit more headroom. For example, you could have a bottom-half slab pathway above a water or lava conduit, one full block of space, then a top-half block above that for a ceiling, giving you a two-block-high passageway with both floor and ceiling in a three-block-high space. Or a right-angled version of what you could do with vertical half-slabs.
I think for this we could perhaps assume the combination of vertical slabs just as we do the colored cloth. there would have to be a whole array of texture images to make up every possible combination of half blocks available. Given the 4 we have now, + possible Iron, diamond, gold half blocks(3) + colors of cloth (16), we would be looking at 23^2 (529) possible combinations (1058 if we include both vertical and horizontal)? (I think, i'm no math wiz). As for data structure and amount of data required, each block already has a metadata value stored in each block, as we see in cloth. Overall it would be a lot of work to at least make the sprite images (hell on map makers, easy to auto-generate with some good scripts in photoshop)
as the above stated, yah, it would take the use block meta-data to manage the block itself, I mean look at stairs, current slabs and even colored cloth. This would just be another use of that as a whole. as for setting the metadata up right to receive such a value would be... unique. I could see them extending the value within the metadata itself for higher damage values (as like how tools break after so many broken blocks) and simply having a math table to simple identify each block. (EG.
Either way, this is how I think it could work... but I'm not entirely sure, I'm just the idea man. please let us discuss this more.
You just want op position huh :tongue.gif: get back to work on that city! *cracks whip*
But really I think this idea should be considered! *Sagenod*