Minecraft Forums

Quote from oCrapaCreeper

Unless there's a documented list by Mojang, or official word, there were never "rules" to begin with.

Prior to the release of horses, everything kind of fit together. Horses deviate from previously established conventions. To say otherwise is akin to saying that horses have always been in Minecraft, which, well... you go on thinking that.

I already threw down my opinion on craftable saddles way back there, (and I'm sticking to it) but for the sake of productive discussion, strictly hypothetically, what if you had to acquire a saddle in a dungeon in order to be able to craft it?

Or what if you had to decraft XX saddles in order to be able to "learn" the crafting recipe?

Crazy, I know. I don't particularly feel it's an ideal solution, but there's something to chew on. The biggest problem with this idea, I feel, is that it's not in line with the mechanics that are already in place, and accommodating it would most likely require a fair bit of work. Too much for just one item, most likely. At the same time, laying down the infrastructure for this kind of thing could prove to be very useful for modders latter on down the line. (Adding hooks for recipe learning, and so on. You'll get me if you get me, or you'll feel violently opposed to anything I'm saying if you're under twelve.) This could make it a worthwhile investment, but as I expressed earlier, it's too much of a sore thumb with regards to the rest of Minecraft's mechanics.

Another odd solution. What if crafting them cost experience? Game mode could determine prices or something. Other items could be brought in line with this mechanic fairly quickly as well. Balance issues could be tweaked with increased experience rates or whatever.

The (saddle) recipe is an artifact of porting code from the Mo' Creatures mod. It was never an intended feature. If you're so set on crafting one early, just spawn in a village and reroll your village blacksmith until he sells them. Or find them in chests. You can find them in chests even with structures turned off if you go to the Nether and raid a Fortress for loot.

Quote from Kiviar

Just reroll your butcher until you get one with cooked porkchops or steak as the refresh. Its not like its hard to get stacks and stacks of emeralds with enough charcoal.

Heck with hoppers fully automating your charcoal maker its even easier.

Good, so the clever kids get their stacks of saddles, and the whiners cry about all the toys they aren't being given for free. I don't see what the problem is.

Quote from Debugman18

I'm curious about the nether chests mentioned by Jeb.

I hope they have a nether-skinned theme to them.

Can I antisign? Someone make an antipetition to counter this movement.

Here's hoping the new zombie horde spawning behavior will get it's own cool animation with new undead clawing themselves from nearby earth.

Oh hey, this has been suggested before, but maybe taking your pig out on a leash could ocasionally yield some mushrooms or something?

The ability to fatten pigs is morbid, but also hilarious. I hope the dev team considers this.

...To make pigs interesting perhaps it would be worth considering pig men.

I'm okay with this change, I guess. I think it would be cool if they dropped more spawners all over the world as well. So clearing an area of spawners would be the first step in building a community.

Quote from DragonHeroBlaze

You know, if you think about it, this realistically makes sense.
The enemy knows where you are; the weaker troops they have tried using against you didn't succeed.
You've presented them with a challenge, so they will now give everything they have got in order to kill you.

I don't see how that "realistically makes sense." The enemies aren't an organized militia or anything, and I don't think the undead can be emotionally stirred to try harder. If you'd have suggested that over time you're simply weeding out the weaklings, or that they're otherwise adapting in some way, that would have made sense.

Also, Dinnerbone has expressed that he doesn't want mobs to have different stats, so difficulty is probably going to be tied to the equipment they're sporting. In this scenario, it could be explained that in places where people reside for a long time there's a better chance for the undead mobs to find loose gear to wear.

Quote from TVflea

Difficulty<Gameplay>Realism.

I don't understand what you're trying to illustrate with this post.

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Table of Contents:

Overview
Changes in how things work
Frequently Asked Questions
[WIP] The Cubic Chunks Mod!
Gallery
Supporting this suggestion
Special thanks

[spoiler=Tl:dr]Q: Won't this increase lag?
A: Absolutely not. The title of this suggestion and big red letters at the top of this post aren't lying. If you want to know how, then I suggest you actually read this post.

Q: Will this change terrain? Will this break existing worlds?
A: No. Terrain change is not necessary. Existing worlds can be converted fairly easily with a process described later in this post.

Q: How can sunlight or rain work with infinite vertical space?
A: I suggest you read Coping with sunlight, because it's too complex for a tl;dr.

Q: I have a different question but still don't feel like reading this post. What do I do?
A: Too bad, read the FAQ. I put way too much work into this for the entirety of it to be ignored.[/spoiler]

---

Overview:

In Minecraft, the sky is the limit - literally. It doesn't matter how many thousands of blocks a player has traveled, or what dimension they're in, or even if they're playing in creative or survival, the highest they can ever build is up to a height of 256. Why is that? If Minecraft can have a world that's infinite in the north, in the south, in the east, and in the west, why can't that world be infinite up and down too?

In Minecraft's earliest days, in Classic and Indev, the world was not infinite in any direction. This was because the entire world needed to be generated at the same time, and the entire world needed to be simulated at the same time as well. This led to a conundrum - the bigger the world, the more it lagged.
Notch didn't like this. He knew his players liked to explore and build large creations, so he found a way to make the world truly infinite. When the Minecraft '' class='bbc'>Infdev came out, it brought with it truly infinite worlds. Suddenly, players could travel hundreds of thousands of blocks in any direction, and never encounter a barrier, or become too laggy.
The Infdev update brought about a very large change to Minecraft worlds to accomplish this feat. For the first time, instead every world being just a single huge piece, they were broken up into a two-dimensional grid of pieces, called chunks. Through breaking the world up into pieces, this 'chunk system' enabled infinite worlds by letting Minecraft create new pieces and simulate them only when it needs to.

Why does that not apply to the vertical axis? Because the type of 'chunk system' Minecraft uses right now is a linear one, which, by using only a two-dimensional grid to map out chunks, means that it is impossible for chunks to stack on top of one another, and by extension, meaning that a single chunk must cover the entire vertical space. This brings back the problem that the Infdev update was supposed to eradicate, now only with chunks, instead of an entire world; the bigger a chunk is, the more laggy it is. You can't just increase the height limit and make chunks taller, because it will become laggier, and laggier, and laggier to do it.
That's why, to fix this, Minecraft must change over to a cubic chunk system. Under this system, 16³ block chunks are aligned on a three-dimensional grid, completely eliminating maximum height as an aspect of lag.

The immediate benefits:
•Minecraft worlds become as virtually infinite vertically as they are horizontally: The absolute limit being Y = ±30,000,000.
•A large FPS increase: Alpha testers report an FPS increase of 100~200%.
•Increase in running capability: Computers running Minecraft on Tiny render distance will handle only 30% the blocks they do now.

The possible features:
•Spherical render/load distance: Reduce handled blocks by up to 30% by cutting corners made of unneeded chunks.
•Server chunk occlusion/exclusion: Reduce bandwidth usage and defeat hackers by only sending data for visible chunks.
•Three-dimensional biomes: Save biome data per chunk rather than per block column, create volcanoes with magma chambers, underground rivers, tropical skylands floating over icy taigas, and more.

The disadvantages:
•Unloaded gravity-pause: Falling non-player entities and fluids will be forced to pause their fall if they reach unloaded chunks, but will resume falling when those chunks are loaded.
•Slow falling-pause: Players with slower computers and smaller render distances will have falling occasionally paused as they fall into unloaded chunks, until new chunks can be loaded.

The problems:
•Current sunlight and rain calculation methods cannot work with infinite vertical space: The solution to this is described here.
•Current BiomeDecorator cannot work with multiple vertical chunks simultaneously: The BiomeDecorator code must be altered to function correctly with this, or removed.
•Current cave generation method is executed an extra time for each vertical chunk created simultaneously, leading to lag spikes on world generation: Cave generation's method must be altered to suit this system more.
•Current grass/dirt generation algorithm forces additional chunk requests when chunks are loaded, causing chunks to load slower than they should: This algorithm must be replaced with something else.

---

Changes in how things work:

Obviously, the implementation of this new chunk system will change quite a few things. These changes are mostly either necessary or in the interest of increased efficiency. Such changes are categorized and explained below.

How worlds will be stored:
[spoiler]How the current storage works, and what changes:
Interestingly enough, the current method of storage, the Anvil format, is derived from the storage method that the original Cubic Chunks mod used. The Anvil format stores individual chunk as a series of 16³ quasi-cubic chunks. These 'fake' cubic chunks allow for easier reference of specific data, but they still can't be separated from each other, meaning that it fails to reap the full benefits of this system. Even so, the change allowed Mojang to double the maximum height with no performance hit. Chunks are stored in groups of 32², inside 'MCRegion' files, for a total of 1024 chunks.
By nature, cubic chunks does away with the 'quasi-cubic' nonsense. In terms of chunk grouping, instead of using groups of 32³ chunks, new "3DRegion" files would contain groups of 16³. This means each 3DRegion file contains 4096 chunks, four times as many as MCRegion files. However, each 3DRegion contains only one fourth the amount of blocks. For per-chunk positional metadata, 3DRegion files would use the same number of bits as MCRegion files, after compression. Calculations show that the same area encompassed by a single MCRegion file would consume 64 kilobytes of extra space with 4 3DRegion files, which is nothing.

Converting existing worlds:
Most people are probably wondering something like "But won't this totally destroy all existing worlds?". Absolutely not; conversion could not be simpler. When a non-cubic world is loaded after the implementation of this system, a conversion process will begin and convert the entire world at once(To avoid making chunk loading take longer during play). First, all existing MCRegion files will be divided into quarters to create 3DRegion files. Then, all existing chunks are divided into sixteenths using the quasi-cubic properties to identify boundaries. After that, conversion is done.

The "isEmpty" flag optimization:
A 1-bit flag is added to each chunk, named "isEmpty". If the chunk consists of 100% air blocks, this bit is 1, any other case makes it 0. When the bit is 1, all data for the chunk besides the isEmpty flag is deleted and ignored, which reduces filesize. Empty chunks are never loaded, and locations where they occur are merely simulated as entities reside in them. The chunk will only load when something requires saving inside it.[/spoiler]

Changes to terrain, ores, etcetera:
[spoiler]Terrain:
By default, nothing will change. Small bits of terrain generation code need to be reconfigured to work properly with Cubic Chunks.

Biomes:
By default, nothing will change.

Ore generation:
By default, nothing will change.

Structures:
By default, nothing will change.

The Void:
After conversion to Cubic Chunks, the void and bedrock layer will still exist and generate as they always have. However, the void(Not the bedrock layer!) will not exist as a hard limit and is able to be moved, but not removed, by editing an associated NBT data tag inside a world's level.dat. This feature, that allows for increasing the maximum depth, is intentionally disabled without external programs, to prevent terrain change of any sort. It is intended to be used by experienced mapmakers and world generation mods only.

Superflat settings:
Existing superflat worlds will not change. However, new superflat worlds will gain a new decoration parameter, 'void'. Inclusion of this parameter will cause the void to form below the lowest defined layer. Exclusion of it will cause all layers below the lowest defined layer to copy the settings of that layer.[/spoiler]

Coping with sunlight:
[spoiler]There used to be a solution here, but it wasn't deemed good enough by Jeb. Suggest solutions in this thread.[/spoiler]

Changes to servers:
[spoiler]Settings:
There's a setting inside the Server.properties file called 'max-build-height'. The setting makes it impossible for any player to place or remove blocks above that height.
With the implementation of Cubic Chunks, a new setting named "maximum-generation-depth" would be added. The void, bedrock layers, and magma layers will generate normally at and above the Y level designated by the value of this setting.

Chunk occlusion/exclusion:
Using the raytracing methods already available in the code and used for explosion calculations, servers can identify which chunks are visible to a player, within safe assumptions, and only send the data for those chunks. This both reduces bandwidth usage, and cripples the usefulness of X-Ray cheats.[/spoiler]

Render/Load distance alterations:
[spoiler]After the implementation of Cubic Chunks, view distances' radii will apply to the vertical axis too. This reduces handled blocks in the cases of tiny and short render distances, and increases them in the cases of normal and far render distances. This can be optimized by utilizing a spherical render distance instead of a cubic one, which would reduce handled blocks in all distances except Far.[/spoiler]

---

Frequently Asked Questions:

[spoiler=FAQ]Q: This is impossible.
A: No it's not. See below.

Q: Is this available as a mod?
A: Not yet! But it will be!

Q: I like X-ray! What if I don't want it to be broken?
A: First of all, breaking X-ray hacks will only be possible to do in multiplayer. That said, the system that would break X-ray would be possible to disable by the server owner. If the owner doesn't disable the system, then they don't want you using X-ray, and you should not be doing what the server owner doesn't want in the first place.

Q: I play on a PvP/Anarchy/Raid/Faction server. Won't this system let people pillar up into the sky and create a base thousands of blocks in the air and never be found?
A: No.

Q: I like Minecraft's current height limits. What if I don't want to have an infinite sky or infinite underground?
A: If this system is added, all worlds will not automatically gain an infinite underground. As stated below, the Void will remain in all worlds, even after the conversion to Cubic Chunks. The ability to remove the Void will simply be there. As for infinite space in the sky, the current build limit is over one hundred blocks above any terrain that vanilla Minecraft can possibly generate. It is ENTIRELY your decision on whether or not you take advantage of this height. If you play on a server, like stated above, the server owner can set a maximum build height. If s/he doesn't, then don't play on their server - you don't play on servers where the server owners allow things you don't like. Why would you play on an anarchy server if you hate being stolen from and killed?

Q: Will this affect Redstone at all?
A: No. This system will simply make it possible to make larger redstone circuitry than before.

Q: Won't this break existing worlds?
A: No. Existing worlds can be easily converted by dividing each MCRegion file into 4 pieces, then slicing the existing 256 block-high chunks inside them into 16 individual chunks.

Q: Won't this affect mods? Won't mod authors have a hard time updating their mods?
A: The answer to this question depends solely on the answer to the following two questions: Do parts of the modification code rely on chunk data/metadata? Does the mod author want to take advantage of the features of the new chunk system? If the answers to the first and second question are both "No", then updating a mod to this system should be very easy and quick. If the answer to the first question is "Yes", then those parts of the code will need to be rewritten somewhat, but in most cases, the changes should be fairly quick and easy. The only time that it should be hard to update a mod to this system, is if the answer to the second question is "Yes".

Q: Won't this require a total rewrite of the mod API if that's released first?
A: No. Whether or not even a small part of the mod API needs to be rewritten depends on the way that it is implemented and whether or not there are API inclusions for chunk handling and other chunk-related behavior.

Q: Could a player fall into unloaded chunks if chunks aren't loaded fast enough?
A: No, they could not, and for several reasons. Minecraft has a terminal velocity, though it might not seem like it. This velocity is slower than it should take to load new chunks below the player. In cases with exceptionally slow computers, even if the player did manage to reach an unloaded chunk, their fall would be paused until that chunk can be loaded.

Q: What would happen when water, sand, or a mob falls into an unloaded chunk?
A: Nothing. The water/sand/mob would freeze in place until the chunk is loaded and it can continue moving. You can already see this same thing happening on the horizontal axis.

Q: What will happen to the Void?
A: It will still exist, along with all its effects. The only difference is that the Void is no longer a hard limit and it can be moved. After the conversion to Cubic Chunks, the Void's location will be stored in a world's ' class='bbc'>level.dat, and this location can be changed with NBT editing tools. When and where the Void exists, chunks will cease to generate.

Q: Will this affect terrain?
A: No. However, terrain generators will gain the ability to use infinite height.

Q: Will this affect ore generation?
A: No. Ore is a part of terrain generation. As stated above, terrain will not be changed.

Q: Won't all current terrain generators be incompatible with this system and need to be rewritten?
A: No. Terrain generators work independently of chunks. When a chunk is generated for the first time, it calls the terrain generator and receives a specific section of the resultant terrain to save inside itself. Because of this, some custom terrain generators can generate steep terrain all the way to Y256, where you can experience a large, flat cut-off. Since there are no chunks above Y256 to call the terrain generator for terrain, no terrain exists there.

Q: What would happen if there's a huge solid ceiling so far above you that it is unloaded? Wouldn't you just see the sky, just with everything being completely dark?
A: Yes. This already happens on the horizontal axis, and it is an issue with sky rendering, not this chunk system. As such, this has nothing to do with this suggestion. Please do not post about this.

Q: If you go deep underground, will your plants grow/ores smelt/animals grow?
A: No, because those chunks would be unloaded, just as if you had walked far away. This is a flaw with any chunk system, regardless of shape. It is a necessary evil that allows Minecraft to have infinite worlds. The only way to fix this would be to introduce a separate new system that works with chunks as they are loaded and unloaded. This suggestion deals with the chunk system itself, and not sister processes. Because of that, that is outside of the scope of this suggestion. Please do not post about this.[/spoiler]

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[WIP] The Cubic Chunks Mod! (Tall Worlds Mod):

Cuchaz has taken it upon himself to bring us the glorious Cubic Chunks, since Mojang refuses to do so.

Cuchaz is using a API of his own creation to help assist in the making of this mod, and he's quite far along, as seen in these two tech demo videos:
[spoiler=T-Demo 1: Vertical chunk loading][/spoiler]
[spoiler=T-Demo 2: Broken height cap and no lag!][/spoiler]
With the basic functionality in place - a complete overhaul of the basic chunk system, and height limit removed - this whole concept can already be considered proven. What remains is making sure everything else functions correctly under the new chunk system. In any case, stay tuned for future updates if it interests you(If it doesn't, then you are the weakest link - goodbye!).

You can follow the mod's development in much more depth in its very own topic!

---

Gallery:

[spoiler=A mountainside with an experimental engine using Cubic Chunks designed by Nocte. 960 block view radius, and 30 FPS.][/spoiler]
[spoiler=A different view of the mountainside with the same engine by Nocte. This time, with 1600 block view radius and 15 FPS.][/spoiler]
[spoiler="A video demonstrating Nocte's engine."]

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Support & Submission to Mojang:

If you support this, hit the rep button in the bottom-left corner of this post. It is the only good way of accurately measuring support here.

If you wish, you can put the following banner, courtesy of laz2727, into your signature. It helps to attract support from all parts of the forum!

 [url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1707097-cubic-chunks-infinite-height-elimination-of-x-ray-and-more-60-supporters/page__st__0][img]http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/443/hov.png[/img][/url]

Please help us get word out of this suggestion! Share this with your friends, with Minecraft celebrities if you're familiar with them, or even with Mojangsters like Jeb or Dinnerbone! (Do not share this with Notch. Notch doesn't work with Minecraft anymore.)

The purpose of this suggestion is to have Cubic Chunks implemented in Vanilla. Being available as a modification does not fulfill that purpose. The modification featured in this suggestion is to act as a proof-of-concept only(Note: Its being featured here is to act as a proof-of-concept. The modification itself is on its way to becoming a fully fledged modification).

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Special thanks:
Cuchaz, for taking Barteks' proof and running with it, to give us a truly functional Cubic Chunks mod.
Barteks2x, for updating the Cubic Chunks mod to 1.6.2, proving that it is possible.
Azraile, for posting the original suggestion and allowing me to take ownership of it.
Nocte, for helping resolve flaws and designing Hexahedra.
MineCrak, for a large amount of valuable insight and enthusiasm into the topic of Cubic Chunks.
aaronfranke, for helping resolve flaws.
PanJouda, for creating the original banner.
Flexico, for creating the predecessor to the current banner.
laz2727, for creating the current banner.
Robinton, for creating the original Cubic Chunks mod.
The_Watchman13, for answering all those stupid questions so I don't have to.

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Note: Many calculations and information can be found among the many posts of this topic. There are too many for me to cite here, but if you wish, you can search for them yourself.

Best with Forge 9.11.1.921?

Two years ago, a quaint little sword mod came into existence that proved popular with the masses. But it slowly faded out of existence and was eventually forgotten....

Now, today, that mod is making a return! Slowly. But definitely surely.

Welcome to SwordsPlus Book I:I, a revisit and in-progress face lift of an old family favorite!

Disclaimer
This mod is designated pre. This means it's slightly more fleshed out than an alpha but noticeably less fleshed out than a beta. Tl;dr: it's still in-progress, probably highly buggy, and generally best used in throwaway worlds.

You have been warned.

Mod Blocks
This mod includes several blocks. Here is a breakdown of them:

Planning Table
The Planning Table may very well be the core of your operation. It is from this block that you will accomplish many of the tasks required in creating your new weapons and equipment. Here's what you can do with it so far:

Create Work Plans - Right-click the top of the Table with a piece of equipment to place it down and then right click again with a writable book. If there are Work Plans for that type of equipment, the book will be consumed and replaced with all related Plans.
Currently Works With - Vanilla and VoB swords

Decide a Metalworking Project - Right-click the top of the Table with a Work Plan to place it down. Now, any cardinally adjacent Forging Anvil can be used to produce equipment components associated with that Plan.

Combine Components - Right-click the top of the Table with a component to place it down. Right click again with a compatible component to assemble the two into a full weapon/tool.

Lower Shelf Storage - Right-click any cardinal side of the Table with a Work Plan to place it on the lower shelf. You can store up to 5 Work Plans. It's a first-on-last-off stack, so don't expect it to be easy to find the right Plan!


Click Spoiler for In-World Image

Forging Anvil
From atop the Forging Anvil, you will shape metals into equipment components. Right-click the top of the Anvil with an ingot of Iron or Gold to place it down. You can place up to 4 ingots of the same metal on its surface.

If a valid Work Plan sits atop an adjacent Planning Table and the correct amount of ingots of a valid material lies atop the Anvil, you can start having at it with a hammer. You'll know you're on to something if you hear a resounding "THWACK!" noise and see the metal begin to deform a bit. It takes many swings with a hammer to shape out metals, but don't worry! You'll never have to spend too long doing so.

Forging Anvils currently employ Dwarven Magic to make metals malleable without a visible heat source. They also do not break with use and do not obey gravity. Yay, Dwarven Magic!

Click Spoiler for In-World Image

Fire Boxes
Fire Boxes are simple contraptions. Right click any cardinal side of a Fire Box with a valid fuel (Log, Plank, or Coal Block) to place it in. Right click again with a Flint & Steel or Fire Charge or other such fire starter to set it ablaze.

You cannot retrieve a fuel from a Fire Box if the Fire Box is lit. Fuels last longer in Fire Boxes than in Furnaces because Dwarven Magic. There is currently no mechanical difference between the two Fire Box types.


Click Spoiler for In-World Image

Grills
Grills are a great way to cook food! They require being placed atop a lit Fire Box to work, but they let you cook up to four different meat items at the same time!

Wood grills are slightly less efficient than Iron Grills, taking 15 seconds to cook a meat item as opposed to the standard 10.

Oh, and be careful! If you leave meat on the heat too long, it'll burn to a crisp! You can eat burnt meat still, but it'll do your stomach very little justice.


Click Spoiler for In-World Image

Mod Items
Naturally, there are a lot of items:

Work Plans
Each plan represents one's sum total of knowledge on how to craft a particular component of equipment.


Hammers
The Hammer is the primary tool of the metal smith. With it, you can shape raw metals into more useful forms.

In terms of durability: Stone < Gold < Iron
In terms of efficiency: Stone < Iron < Gold

Hammers can be used as weapons and deal two hearts of damage irrespective of their material. Abusing hammers as weapons or block breaking tools costs double durability.

Currently, only the Stone hammer is craftable:

(This is a temporary recipe. I intend to make VoB entirely GUI-free and not reliant on vanilla crafting by 1.0 final)

You can enchant hammers:
- Efficiency (I-V) - Slightly increases smithing efficiency with each level
- Impact (I) - Metal->butter. Max efficiency. (Incompatible with Efficiency enchant)
- Might (I-V) - Slightly increases attack damage with each level
- Sledge (I-III) - Increases likelihood of an armor-piercing attack
- Buff (I-III) - No implemented use yet, will be smithing related
- Unbreaking (I-III) - Same as other damageable tools

Note: Currently, all hammers have the same enchantability, which is quite low. It may be better to put enchants on them via Enchanted Books.

Components & Swords


Table shows what you can make and how they can combine. You cannot use components as weapons, even if they're blades.

Iron Blades are identical to vanilla Iron Swords. Gold Blades are as powerful as vanilla Stone Swords and almost as durable.

Light Blades deal +1 heart of damage (+2 damage) but have 33% less durability.
Heavy Blades deal -1 heart of damage (-2 damage) but have 33% more durability.

Help Pages
Basically, in-game instructions. Currently, only some of the Plan Table instructions exist and only through Creative.


Lore Pages
Hints and secrets and spoilers. Currently, one is available via Creative. Eventually, there will be many and they will be rare dungeon/structure loot. They are currently encrypted in SGA and future versions will provide a translation mechanic for making them legible.


Issues
+ Tile Entities are buggy sometimes
+ Sledge enchant doesn't do anything
+ Might needs to be tweaked, probably?
+ Everything needs to be cleaned up
+ Relying on Crafting Grid for blocks and hammers
+ Prerelease does not contain awesome SwordsPlus content yet
+ Blocks don't have actual inventory renders, appear as weird tiles

To Do
+ Fixing all above issues
+ Add more materials (silver, steel, etc)
+ Alkahestry
+ Actual SwordsPlus swords
+ Lots of things
+ Rewrite all the things because terrible code
+ Polish up and release VoB API 1.0

Changes Log
1.0pre1
+ released pre-release

Download & Install

> Download Here
> Download for Meanies
> If lacking Forge, download Forge installer and run
> Throw mod .zip into Forge profile directory's mods folder
> Run Minecraft
> Ignore FML/Forge blaring about item mismatches. That's not an error.

FAQ/NAQ/NYAQ

Why u no diamond tools?
No diamond hammers because diamond shatters. No diamond swords because not yet implemented because diamond is not a metal.

Why u no [insert other thing here]?
Because it's a pre edition. It lacks things.

You broke my world save! I loved that world!
Why would you download a pre (basically alpha) mod and expect it to NOT kill your world save? Not my responsibility.

Why are Tile Entities buggy?
Because I coded them poorly.

Why are you releasing this now?
To help find and squash bugs.

Is this AltriaCraft?
No.

Can you add [insert thing here]?
Ask me later. Also, yes Blazr, Zanbatos are still going to be a thing. Just not right now.

Why no GUIs?
Don't like coding GUIs. Ergo, not adding GUIs.

Debug Procedure
Here's what to do in the case of a bug:

1) Did the game crash?
YES: go to 2 | NO: go to 5

2) Does the crash log in [your profile's minecraft folder]/crash-reports mention anything about "ID already occupied by" or something to that extent?
YES: go to 3 | NO: go to 4

3) You have an ID conflict. Use the config files to fix the problem.

4) Post the crash log contents to this thread.

5) Does the bug involve only vanilla and/or Visions of Blades content?
YES: go to 6 | NO: go to 7

6) Describe the bug and how to replicate it in the thread

7) If it's not a bug with my mod, it's not my problem. If it's a bug with getting another mod's content to work with something in my mod, I'm not addressing that until 1.0 full release.

Licensing Stuffs and Things
This modification is closed source.

You may not redistribute this modification. Redistribution includes but is not limited to: mod packs (private or public), alternative downloads, and passing along to a friend.

However, if you are an official part of Feed The Beast, you may include this modification in any official FTB modpack. Hint hint.

You may not decompile this modification.

You may not modify this modification with the intent to create a derivative work.

You may use this modification's API (once released) to allow your own modification to make use of content from this modification.

you may not be a jerk butt who tries to find loopholes in this legal mumbo jumbo for personal gain.

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UPDATE 01/16/2014
Snapshot 14w3b introduces the ability to texture both arms and legs! It also gives every other body part an extra 3D layer similar to the hat layer in the original skin! Awesome! These new extra layers are covered up by Armor, just like the hat area. The new skin file uses a 64x64 layout with the old skin at the top and the optional overlays in the bottom half. Old 64x32 skins are still supported without modification.

However... this addition will not apply to similarly shaped mobs (zombies, zombie pigmen, etc) and it doesn't work on armor. Whether these things will change in the future is anyone's guess.

As happy as I am for the player improvements, I can't help but wonder if my suggested layout could still benefit the mobs and armors. If nothing else, it would still allow for asymmetrical mob skins and armor while staying within the small 64x32 file size. But then they would have a major discrepancy between formats...

I still like the idea of applying my format to the new skin layout - the bottom half of the 64x64 texture could contain the overlay regions. The only difference then is that the head and hat area on the bottom half would not be used. Perhaps those areas could then be left empty for modders and any other small additions that Mojang made add in the future....

What follows is the original post, while I decide if I should further modify it to try and push for the other mobs/armors to have asymmetrical textures. Either way, this is a huge victory!
Acknowledgement from Dinnerbone himself!

Quote from Dinnerbone

We've no plans to touch skins right now (except to fix them... the skin server is really unstable) but we're rewriting the whole rendering stuffs and maybe we can consider looking at this then, when it all becomes much easier.

Basically saying "maybe" in the future. The important part is that Mojang is aware of the suggestion and was moved enough to respond to the topic!

I am forever amazed with how much detail minecrafters have been able to squeeze out of the extremely limited space provided by the game's textures. Skins especially are quite a challenge due to being confined to a 64x32 pixel size. And yet there are many, many examples of beautiful and amazing skins out there that make the most of this limited space. And yet, it could be possible to grant everyone a little more... to be blunt, the current skin texture for the player character has a lot of unused and wasted space. For those counting, there are 480 unused pixels in the texture (out of a total of 2048).

With a little juggling, we could free up enough space to have independently textured left and right arms and legs! This is without changing the image size, it's still all contained within the same 64x32 png file. Of course, the player model would need to be updated to use this new mapping. Here is an enlarged view:
Pros:
+ independently textured arms and legs+ maintains the original 64x32 size = no additional skin server load/stress
+ keeps all sections grouped together in a fairly intuitive way.
+ sub sections follow a mapping very similar to the original (with only some parts slightly shifted)+ can also be applied to all armors
+ can also be applied to other humanoid mobs: zombie, pigmen, zombie_pigmen
+ can also be applied to skeletons - with slight modifications for the thinner arms/legs

Cons:
- one-time conversion needed for all texture packs for affected mobs and armors
- mods that make use of current skin's blank area may not be able to use the new format
- skin creation tools/viewers would need to update for the new format (difficult for discontinued tools)
- makes all current skins and skin repositories outdated (this is a big problem - see below)

Problem: Compatibility with Legacy Skins
There are hundreds of thousands of skins floating out there on the net. It is not reasonable to expect all of them to be updated or converted. Remember when they flipped the direction of the bottom-head/hat texture areas on the skins? There are still countless skins out there that haven't been fixed. This is a major change so it can't simply be done and let all the current content out there suddenly break. There will be backlash. On top of that, more recently the Minecraft Launcher has been augmented to allow easy access to older versions of the game - versions which absolutely expect the player skin to be using the old format. Finally, there is no reliable way to program the game to detect the different kind of skin formats based only on areas of the skin file that appear to be used. This is because the skins often have extra content in the "unused" areas. This content could be in the form of an author's name/logo, bleed off from the main image, or pixels used by specific mods on the skin.

Bottom line, we need to have a simple way for the game to know how to differentiate between the old and new player skin formats so both may be used at the same time by different players. Note that this problem only affects player skins. Mobs and armors are always controlled by the local texture pack, so there is no need to support the old format for those assets.

Below are several possible solutions to supporting the legacy skins. These are only suggestions, as I do not have intimate knowledge of how Minecraft and the skin system works under the covers. What I propose here may be incorrect or not applicable to the system, but I hope it might at least give Mojang ideas on how to implement this request.

Solution A: Increase new skin file to be 64x64
Increase the "new" player skin size to be 64x64 pixels. Place my new format in the top half and leave the rest blank. Let the old skins stay as using the 64x32 size. There are several reasons for this approach.

When the game client downloads the player skins, it can easily tell the difference in size. A 64x32 skin would use the traditional mapping we see today. Nothing changes and all the current skins out there are still ok to use. A 64x64 texture would signal the game to switch over to using the new format for that player. Since the game knows which player is using which skin, it can easily keep track of which format to use for who, and allow both types to co-exist at the same time.

The extra space in the bottom half of the "new" skin can be used for future player character enhancements by Mojang, in case they decide to add more. As an example... if we ever get custom capes, perhaps the texture could be saved to the player skin and use the extra space here.

The extra space in the bottom half of the "new" skin can also be used by mods! Any mods that had additions to the player model could use these areas. And there would be a lot more space now!

One major drawback to this approach is that the larger image file size could adversely affect the skin servers that Mojang use.

Solution B: stay 64x32 but use embedded metadata
If it proves undesirable to alter the skin file dimensions, another possible solution could be to have all new skins require metadata content added to them. Then, similar to solution A, the game would examine each skin file it downloads and search for the appropriate metadata flag. If it finds none, use the old formatting style on that skin's owning player. If it finds the appropriate metadata flag, use the new format for that player.

One problem with this approach is that png files don't have a standard way of encoding metadata. So I imagine Mojang would need to create a small utility to "stamp" skins with the metadata flag they would expect to use. This would require some extra care for making new skins on the part of the community. But on the up side, this could pave the way for an easy versioning system for additional future skin formats.

Another drawback would be the reduction in free space that some mods may have come to depend on. In this case, I believe the only solution would simply to have those mods not use the new style. They would have to require their users to say using the old skin format. So they wouldn't get the extra arm and leg, but the mods wouldn't break either. A fair trade off I think.

tldr Summary:
I propose a new skin layout for the humanoid mobs, player, and armor which would grant space for both arms and legs to be textured independently. It would be ideal to support both this new format and the old one at the same time for player skins - so as to not break all the current skins out there. There are two (possibly more) ways I can think of doing this:

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[url=http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/677984-r][img]http://i.imgur.com/Iuxwe.png[/img][/url]

Changelog

Hey everyone. I have seen all of these topics about making saddles craftable, and their bad reasons why. I want to make a good point, and tell them why they should remain the way they are. It's the other side's turn to make their point.

1. Everything was fine before the dreaded horse saddle was added and then removed. Nobody was complaining about saddles, until now. The horse saddle probably wasn't intended in the first place. It was a feature of Mo' Creatures, that was left in. Jeb realized his mistake, and fixed it. I am happy about it. We do not need an extra item or recipe, to clutter up Minecraft some more. Additionally, horse armor's recipe was removed, and no one complained about that. So why saddles?

2. Everyone is saying iron and leather are not so easy to get. Seriously, how much do you guys suck at Minecraft these days? All you want is Minecraft to be easier, so you don't have to go get one. Isn't it easy enough already? Cows and iron are everywhere, and if saddles are craftable, you can get quite a lot of saddles in no time. This will make horses probably one of the first things you get in the game, making it way too easy.

3. Villagers can give saddles to you. All you need is one villager, to get an infinite amount of saddles. Who cares if they are expensive? In my opinion, they should be. Jeb stated he wanted horses to be an end game feature. Getting saddles so early in the game makes it too easy. Also, if you have generated structures turned off, you can cure zombies and make your own village. Then, you have your precious saddles.

4. Saddles can be found in dungeons. This will encourage exploration of caves, which Jeb wants the players to do. If saddles are craftable, then no one would want to get some from a dungeon. The purpose of looting dungeons will decline even more. Same thing with horse armor. They removed the recipe, but added them to dungeon chests, encouraging more exploration. Minecraft shouldn't be a "sit in your shelter and craft until you win" game, it should have more exploration involved too.

5. Why need two separate saddled in the first place? Having two different types of saddles is just plain dumb. No one thinks one is enough? You should be able to put a saddle on a pig AND a horse. People keep saying "Why fit a pig saddle onto a horse?" Well how about this. Why carry hundreds of solid gold blocks all at once? Why break stone blocks with your hands? My point has been made.

6. Everyone is saying servers will get a huge blow from this. Well, they won't. The admins can make a plugin enabling a recipe, or a shop, if they wanted to. At least do a little thinking before posting an invalid argument. If it a vanilla server, with no plugins or stuff, the reasons above explain this, and how it can be fixed. Villagers can make shops in vanilla servers.

There's six reasons why they should have no recipe. Please tell me your thoughts.

[1.6.2]-[SP/SMP]- Better Ore Distribution:[v2.7] - fractal veins, and ID overrides!
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[1.7.3]Glowing Mushrooms


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