Eureka!

[Heilkaiba]

I presume the beams won't travel through transparent blocks.

[Battosay]

So no man, that just really wouldn't be practical :)

Ick. I definitely see where you're going, yeah !
I kinda rushed that post, but man, that pic was so awesome :)

[AmishGoat]

Wow. Seriously wasn't expecting this! Very cool.

[FlowerChild]

I presume the beams won't travel through transparent blocks.

No, they won't. The beams work much the way water does: they can't occupy a block that's already occupied by something else.

Trade-offs like this are a necessary part of getting something this complex to work at a reasonable speed.

[Poppycocks]

This is great news.

I'm really looking forward to experimenting with it in a auto pottery design - amongst other things. Will be fun.

Thanks FC!

EDIT: You know, I really love using stuff in strange, new and unforeseeable ways, I'm getting my head in a bend trying to think of something like that for the lens from what I've seen.

Gawd, I'm goin' to have so much fun :D.

[whitechaos35]

Awesome job on this man!

Great implementation. I was wondering how you were going to tackle the performance issue. The beam blocks are brilliant.

[Sarudak]

No, they won't. The beams work much the way water does: they can't occupy a block that's already occupied by something else.

Trade-offs like this are a necessary part of getting something this complex to work at a reasonable speed.

Perfectly reasonable. After all someone of steve's technical level wouldn't be able to create glass of sufficient clarity and perfection that it wouldn't mess with a beam of light passing through it. Also explains why he needs magical diamonds to make them.

[Heilkaiba]

I presume the beams won't travel through transparent blocks.

No, they won't. The beams work much the way water does: they can't occupy a block that's already occupied by something else.

Trade-offs like this are a necessary part of getting something this complex to work at a reasonable speed.

Fair enough. I can work round it.

[whitechaos35]

Do all instances of an Entity turn off the state of beam blocks further down the beam or is it special cased?

[whynocheese]

Wouldn't pain be a prerequisite of tears?

Not necessarily, there are tears of joy, tears from yawning, fake crying, etc.

We aren't allowed to be happy and therefore no tears of joy, as for the others yawning is very painful so much so that your brain denys the pain signals from traveling. Fake crying is just painful to watch so ergo it is pain.

[johnt]

I presume the beams won't travel through transparent blocks.

No, they won't. The beams work much the way water does: they can't occupy a block that's already occupied by something else.

Trade-offs like this are a necessary part of getting something this complex to work at a reasonable speed.

Sorry if these have already been answered, I think i've read everything, though:

A) Is rain going to block the beams if they're outside?
B) I guess the 'beams' are created even when light is not actively passing through it? Would a rapidly pulsing light behind a lens (or a rapid piston moving a light block) be a huge performance hit?

[Miss_Kat]

Why is everyone grilled FC about how the new feature works? >.> I thought half the fun of getting something brand spanking new was figuring out what it can do and what its limitations are.

[Gormador]

B) I guess the 'beams' are created even when light is not actively passing through it? Would a rapidly pulsing light behind a lens (or a rapid piston moving a light block) be a huge performance hit?

If I understood correctly what FC said, each time a lens is activated it will generate the beam, meaning a 128 blocks long line.

[Ferrus.Manus]

B) I guess the 'beams' are created even when light is not actively passing through it? Would a rapidly pulsing light behind a lens (or a rapid piston moving a light block) be a huge performance hit?

If I understood correctly what FC said, each time a lens is activated it will generate the beam, meaning a 128 blocks long line.

No, the up to 128 block long beam will be generated once the lens is placed and activating it will only changes a state of those blocks (like, for example, fence gates being opened), so performance hit should be minimal. That's the whole reason why FC made the immovable my pistons/turntable.

[FlowerChild]

Why is everyone grilled FC about how the new feature works? >.> I thought half the fun of getting something brand spanking new was figuring out what it can do and what its limitations are.

Thanks Kat. I've already stopped answering the questions though, adopting a "you'll see when you get it" approach ;)

It started off ok, but the questions are getting sillier and sillier with recent ones either treading over ground already covered, or asking things that are obvious from the info I've already provided.

[Camerinthus]

Wow! Thanks for all the support guys! I had no idea the Lens would have this kind of reaction after all this time :)

Thank you for taking note of that, just please bear with me when I say I wasn't trying to flame anybody or start a "whose idea was it first" argument.

I first came up with it here:

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/236 ... an-wolves/

I originally conceived of it as a "Laser" and the DB as a photo-resistor.

-snip-

Wow, I just realized I'm an idiot back from April.

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/236 ... p__3524036

Poor me.

[morvelaira]

Why is everyone grilled FC about how the new feature works? >.> I thought half the fun of getting something brand spanking new was figuring out what it can do and what its limitations are.

Thanks Kat. I've already stopped answering the questions though, adopting a "you'll see when you get it" approach ;)

It started off ok, but the questions are getting sillier and sillier with recent ones either treading over ground already covered, or asking things that are obvious from the info I've already provided.

*nod* I very much appreciate the technical explainations of how it works, however. Even if some of it went over my head, just the technical back end of it being revealed at all was very neat of you to do. :)

[echo off]

is it wrong that i went out and built a giant white cross in my front yard in preparation for this update? something just isn't sitting right... i dunno XD

[DaveYanakov]

I presume the beams won't travel through transparent blocks.

A) Is rain going to block the beams if they're outside?

Nope. Rain isn't a block, it's more of a condition. I'm actually stumped on how FC got the detector to recognize it.

[darahalian]

Nope. Rain isn't a block, it's more of a condition. I'm actually stumped on how FC got the detector to recognize it.

Not so much physically detecting as special casing I would guess. When it's raining, there is a variable or something that tells if it's raining. This is why mods like CJBMoreInfo can show that it is raining and for how long. He may just have the DB check this variable periodically when it is facing upward, and if it is, just change the state of the DB to active.

[Catox]

Nope. Rain isn't a block, it's more of a condition. I'm actually stumped on how FC got the detector to recognize it.

Not so much physically detecting as special casing I would guess. When it's raining, there is a variable or something that tells if it's raining. This is why mods like CJBMoreInfo can show that it is raining and for how long. He may just have the DB check this variable periodically when it is facing upward, and if it is, just change the state of the DB to active.

More importantly, rain doesn't go trough blocs > there must be an event of some kind that triggers when this occlusion happens. In other words, it could vey well be that it's not the DB that detects the rain, but the rain that detects the DB ^__^;

[BinoAl]

Nope. Rain isn't a block, it's more of a condition. I'm actually stumped on how FC got the detector to recognize it.

Not so much physically detecting as special casing I would guess. When it's raining, there is a variable or something that tells if it's raining. This is why mods like CJBMoreInfo can show that it is raining and for how long. He may just have the DB check this variable periodically when it is facing upward, and if it is, just change the state of the DB to active.

Actually, the detector block seeing rain was a happy accident :) I don't know exactly how it works, but I'd think the fact the the rain is there would mean some sort of entity is there, but I know nothing about mc's code, so I can't know for sure

[FlowerChild]

Actually, the detector block seeing rain was a happy accident :) I don't know exactly how it works, but I'd think the fact the the rain is there would mean some sort of entity is there, but I know nothing about mc's code, so I can't know for sure

Huh? Not sure how you got that impression, but I can assure you that I intentionally coded it. It was quite a pain in the ass to get working right :)

[BinoAl]

Actually, the detector block seeing rain was a happy accident :) I don't know exactly how it works, but I'd think the fact the the rain is there would mean some sort of entity is there, but I know nothing about mc's code, so I can't know for sure

Huh? Not sure how you got that impression, but I can assure you that I intentionally coded it. It was quite a pain in the ass to get working right :)

Really? I seem to remember you being taken by surprise that the detector block saw rain

[Urian]

Really? I seem to remember you being taken by surprise that the detector block saw rain

Nah, I remember there being a bit of testing if it could detect snow as well (unless my memory fails, I was one of the few active posters back then who had his base in a snow biome so that was probably my first contribution to the thread :p ).