I don't know about anybody else, but when I create a large home and feel really proud of it, every single time the torches that are just strewn across the place ruin it for me. Not so much that I throw them randomly on the floor, but how much I have in total in my home.
Now I've put some thought into this and without increasing the range of all light sources - I've began wondering - why not make blocks reflect light in a way?
Example: Say you make a house completely out of stone. Sealed off and everything. When you light up the inside with a single torch (the house of course only being a 9x9 or something) the whole thing is lit up, because the light is reflecting off all the stone. Now I suppose every block in itself would have to have a different reflecting level, as in, dirt wouldn't reflect nearly as much light as stone or cobble. And glass would possibly not reflect any light at all, because in real life it would "shoot" the light out in a different direction.
The only reason I think this would work really well is because;
1. It's pretty realistic when you look at it. In real life when you point a light at a material it usually bounces off. And I know plenty of people aren't into Minecraft for the realism, but they definitely don't want pink unicorns added anyways. Or maybe they do. Because pink unicorns are awesome.
2. It would make homes way more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion, instead of throwing torches all over the place we could finally build a single redstone light switch from the ceiling and leave it as that, simple and elegant.
I actually don't see any problems with this idea, so if you guys do please let me know. Thanks!
When you shine light at anything IRL, it bounces off.
Anyway, I see a few problems with this. What about light degradation? What if you replace 10 blocks at the same time? That's a lot of computations for your CPU to go through.
I'd imagine (but I don't really know) that it would be hellish to code.
It wouldn't change much, though. Instead of spamming torches, you spam reflective blocks.
Did you read it all the way through? I'm not sure if I made it understandable, sorry.
But I meant that any blocks in Minecraft reflect light, so (I usually make my houses out of stone brick or something) the stone would make your house light up. People wouldn't just surround their whole world with a big stone cover though, I would hope.
Also, yeah, that would probably be pretty difficult to code. But at the same time these guys are professionals. I think if they spent some time on it, it wouldn't really be that huge of a hassle.
First of all, you have to consider that different types of object have different reflective index. So this means some objects may reflect more light than others. What Minecraft has to now do is to calculate all of these object's reflective index whenever a new torch is placed, and factor it into your display. All of this calculation will be too much, and would probably crash Multiplayer Servers.
Secondly, Mojang has mentioned that Minecraft's current light rendering engine is pretty screwed up. Just fly around and you will notice certain 'dark' patches, and other bugs that constantly occur in-game. Unless this is fixed, rendering reflection into the game will be quite hard.
Thirdly, I think it might just ruin the game. Torches and light-emitting objects will now be more powerful, and I think this is definitely not required.
Mojang doing light refraction code? I can already see employees tearing their hair out. Having many torches isn't that big a deal, and you can just go for Glowstone Blocks or Redstone Lamps. Light bouncing off enough surfaces could give a nice share of lag.
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Now I've put some thought into this and without increasing the range of all light sources - I've began wondering - why not make blocks reflect light in a way?
Example: Say you make a house completely out of stone. Sealed off and everything. When you light up the inside with a single torch (the house of course only being a 9x9 or something) the whole thing is lit up, because the light is reflecting off all the stone. Now I suppose every block in itself would have to have a different reflecting level, as in, dirt wouldn't reflect nearly as much light as stone or cobble. And glass would possibly not reflect any light at all, because in real life it would "shoot" the light out in a different direction.
The only reason I think this would work really well is because;
1. It's pretty realistic when you look at it. In real life when you point a light at a material it usually bounces off. And I know plenty of people aren't into Minecraft for the realism, but they definitely don't want pink unicorns added anyways. Or maybe they do. Because pink unicorns are awesome.
2. It would make homes way more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion, instead of throwing torches all over the place we could finally build a single redstone light switch from the ceiling and leave it as that, simple and elegant.
I actually don't see any problems with this idea, so if you guys do please let me know. Thanks!
It wouldn't change much, though. Instead of spamming torches, you spam reflective blocks.
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Retired StaffAnyway, I see a few problems with this. What about light degradation? What if you replace 10 blocks at the same time? That's a lot of computations for your CPU to go through.
Did you read it all the way through? I'm not sure if I made it understandable, sorry.
But I meant that any blocks in Minecraft reflect light, so (I usually make my houses out of stone brick or something) the stone would make your house light up. People wouldn't just surround their whole world with a big stone cover though, I would hope.
Also, yeah, that would probably be pretty difficult to code. But at the same time these guys are professionals. I think if they spent some time on it, it wouldn't really be that huge of a hassle.
And I mean it, not in Minecraft. Here is why.
First of all, you have to consider that different types of object have different reflective index. So this means some objects may reflect more light than others. What Minecraft has to now do is to calculate all of these object's reflective index whenever a new torch is placed, and factor it into your display. All of this calculation will be too much, and would probably crash Multiplayer Servers.
Secondly, Mojang has mentioned that Minecraft's current light rendering engine is pretty screwed up. Just fly around and you will notice certain 'dark' patches, and other bugs that constantly occur in-game. Unless this is fixed, rendering reflection into the game will be quite hard.
Thirdly, I think it might just ruin the game. Torches and light-emitting objects will now be more powerful, and I think this is definitely not required.
I would love it if you checked out my "about me" page on my profile and looked at my threads
I'm always happy to see new posters.