Redstone circuitry is one of Minecraft's coolest features, and it's amazing what players have constructed. Although my mechanisms are relatively simple, a frustrating aspect of the redstone system is the amount of space required. This is because redstone wires act very much like uninsulated electrical wire, "connecting" to other redstone elements in adjacent blocks.
The space problem can be somewhat reduced using repeaters, as they are only driven by one input and drive one output block. But repeaters have limited application in that they can only be placed horizontally and must be placed on an underlying block.
A single new block, the redstone conduit, would simplify many designs by providing a block that behaved like a redstone wire that only connected one side of the block to the opposite side -- sort of like pieces of insulated wire.
Basic block behavior:
Conducts redstone energy from adjacent blocks at only two opposite faces, and is not affected by or have an affect on, the redstone state of any other adjacent blocks.
Conducts in both directions between the conducting faces, like redstone wires, unlike a repeater.
Placeable to make horizontal or vertical connections, allowing single block, side-by-side transmission lines.
Other possible features:
Have unboosted transmission distances greater than (2x?) basic redstone, the idea being that less energy is lost.
Be impervious to water/lava (unlike redstone wires/repeaters),
allowing underwater transmission and more compact control of water/lava mechanisms.
Allow levers, switches, and redstone torches attach to a conducting face.
Recipe, use, and appearance:
Constructed with one glass block and one redstone.
Placement oriented depending on player position, similar to pistons.
Like glass panes, be recoverable when broken, as the recipe is somewhat expensive.
Appear as a glass block with a red bar through the center between the conducting faces. As with redstone traces, the red bar would light up when the block is powered.
The appearance would not only allow easier debugging of mechanisms, it would also look really cool and, if the contrast between off/on states was high enough, allow the construction of segmented LED like displays.
The basic implementation above would only add a single block type with fairly simple redstone connectivity rules but slightly complex placement rules to get the direction right (similar to stair or piston blocks.)
Variations might include a turn (elbow) block or even a T/multi-way junction, but these might make the placement rules unwieldy.
Similar proposals seem mostly to revolve around modified versions of redstone that would still be applied on top of other blocks. These appear to be rather complex to lay out and don't allow for single column vertical transmission.
The basic redstone conduit block described here would go a very long way toward compacting redstone designs and allow even more elaborate mechanisms in Minecraft.
The idea of a controllable light with a single block is a good one.
It would definitely need elbows to realize its full potential, and that could be placed relative to the player. A "right-turn" elbow and a vertical up elbow would make it reasonable to turn any direction. Adding a T or + would be a bit of a pain, because it would be difficult to orient yourself to place the T correctly. Maybe just use redstone wire for that.
You definitely want the elbow blocks or it would make segmented LED displays require huge spacers between the segments.
This solution would not require changes to redstone wire, yet would not replace it either.
Maybe have different recipes -- the more redstone you add the brighter it would glow when activated.
It would definitely need elbows to realize its full potential, and that could be placed relative to the player. A "right-turn" elbow and a vertical up elbow would make it reasonable to turn any direction. Adding a T or + would be a bit of a pain, because it would be difficult to orient yourself to place the T correctly. Maybe just use redstone wire for that.
The big advantage of the redstone conduit block would be the signal isolation from adjacent blocks, I was assuming it wouldn't be too painful to set up turns and junctions with existing redstone devices. I was trying to focus on just one new block, but the more I think about it the more appealing at least an elbow block becomes.
The space problem can be somewhat reduced using repeaters, as they are only driven by one input and drive one output block. But repeaters have limited application in that they can only be placed horizontally and must be placed on an underlying block.
A single new block, the redstone conduit, would simplify many designs by providing a block that behaved like a redstone wire that only connected one side of the block to the opposite side -- sort of like pieces of insulated wire.
Basic block behavior:
- Conducts redstone energy from adjacent blocks at only two opposite faces, and is not affected by or have an affect on, the redstone state of any other adjacent blocks.
- Conducts in both directions between the conducting faces, like redstone wires, unlike a repeater.
- Placeable to make horizontal or vertical connections, allowing single block, side-by-side transmission lines.
Other possible features:- Have unboosted transmission distances greater than (2x?) basic redstone, the idea being that less energy is lost.
- Be impervious to water/lava (unlike redstone wires/repeaters),
allowing underwater transmission and more compact control of water/lava mechanisms.
- Allow levers, switches, and redstone torches attach to a conducting face.
Recipe, use, and appearance:- Constructed with one glass block and one redstone.
- Placement oriented depending on player position, similar to pistons.
- Like glass panes, be recoverable when broken, as the recipe is somewhat expensive.
- Appear as a glass block with a red bar through the center between the conducting faces. As with redstone traces, the red bar would light up when the block is powered.
The appearance would not only allow easier debugging of mechanisms, it would also look really cool and, if the contrast between off/on states was high enough, allow the construction of segmented LED like displays.The basic implementation above would only add a single block type with fairly simple redstone connectivity rules but slightly complex placement rules to get the direction right (similar to stair or piston blocks.)
Variations might include a turn (elbow) block or even a T/multi-way junction, but these might make the placement rules unwieldy.
Similar proposals seem mostly to revolve around modified versions of redstone that would still be applied on top of other blocks. These appear to be rather complex to lay out and don't allow for single column vertical transmission.
The basic redstone conduit block described here would go a very long way toward compacting redstone designs and allow even more elaborate mechanisms in Minecraft.
It would definitely need elbows to realize its full potential, and that could be placed relative to the player. A "right-turn" elbow and a vertical up elbow would make it reasonable to turn any direction. Adding a T or + would be a bit of a pain, because it would be difficult to orient yourself to place the T correctly. Maybe just use redstone wire for that.
You definitely want the elbow blocks or it would make segmented LED displays require huge spacers between the segments.
This solution would not require changes to redstone wire, yet would not replace it either.
Maybe have different recipes -- the more redstone you add the brighter it would glow when activated.
The big advantage of the redstone conduit block would be the signal isolation from adjacent blocks, I was assuming it wouldn't be too painful to set up turns and junctions with existing redstone devices. I was trying to focus on just one new block, but the more I think about it the more appealing at least an elbow block becomes.
Right, not a redstone replacement, but a device to simplify designs, like the redstone repeater.
That's an interesting idea. Could even implement different colors. All those dyes could be used for something other than wool!
You could dye it black!