Block Interaction
There are many different ways players (and other things) can interact with blocks, such as right clicking, left clicking, colliding, walking on, and of course mining.
This page will cover the basics of the most common types of interaction with blocks.
Player Right Click
Since left clicking, or “punching”, a block does not generally result in any unique behavior, it is probably fair to say right clicking, or “activation”, is the most common method of interaction. And thankfully, it is also one of the simplest to handle.
onBlockActivated
This is the method that controls right click behavior, and it is a rather complicated one. Here is its full signature:
public boolean onBlockActivated(World worldIn,
BlockPos pos,
IBlockState state,
EntityPlayer playerIn,
EnumHand hand,
@Nullable ItemStack heldItem,
EnumFacing side,
float hitX,
float hitY,
float hitZ)
There’s quite a bit to discuss here.
Parameters
The first few parameters are obvious, they are the current world, position, and state of the block. Next is the player that is activating the block, and the hand with which they are activating.
The next parameter, heldItem
, is the ItemStack
which the player activated the block with. Note that this parameter is @Nullable
meaning it can be passed as null (i.e. no item was in the hand).
Important
The ItemStack passed to this method is the one you should use for checking what was in the player’s hand. Grabbing the currently held stack from the player is unreliable as it may have changed since activation.
The last four parameters are all related. side
is obviously the side which was activated, however hitX
, hitY
, and hitZ
are a bit less obvious. These are the coordinates of the activation on the block’s bounds. They are on the range 0 to 1, and represent where exactly “on” the block the player clicked.
Return Value
What is this magic boolean which must be returned? Simply put this, is whether or not the method “did” something. Return true if some action was performed, this will prevent further things from happening, such as item activation.
Important
Returning false
from this method on the client will prevent it being called on the server. It is common practice to just check worldIn.isRemote
and return true
, and otherwise go on to normal activation logic. Vanilla has many examples of this, such as the chest.
Uses
The uses for activation are literally endless. However, there are some common ones which deserve their own section.
GUIs
One of the most common things to do on block activation is opening a GUI. Many blocks in vanilla behave this way, such as chests, hoppers, furnaces, and many more. More about GUIs can be found on their page.
Activation
Another common use for activation is, well, activation. This can be something like “turning on” a block, or triggering it to perform some action. For instance, a block could light up when activated. A vanilla example would be buttons or levers.
Important
onBlockActivated
is called on both the client and the server, so be sure to keep the sidedness of your code in mind. Many things, like opening GUIs and modifying the world, should only be done on the server-side.
Player Break/Destroy
Coming Soon
Player Highlighting
Coming Soon
Entity Collision
Coming Soon
onBlockClicked
public void onBlockClicked(World worldIn, BlockPos pos, EntityPlayer playerIn)
Called on a block when it is clicked by a player.
Note
This method is for when the player left-clicks on a block.
Don’t get this confused with onBlockActivated
, which is called when the player right-clicks.
Parameters:
Type | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
World |
worldIn |
The world that the block was clicked in |
BlockPos |
pos |
The position of the block that was clicked |
EntityPlayer |
playerIn |
The player who did the clicking |
Usage example
This method is perfect for adding custom events when a player clicks on a block.
By default this method does nothing.
Two blocks that override this method are the Note Block and the RedstoneOre Block.
The Note block overrides this method so that when left-clicked, it plays a sound.
The RedstoneOre block overrides method so that when left-clicked, it gives off emits faint light for a few seconds.
onBlockDestroyedByPlayer
public void onBlockDestroyedByPlayer(World worldIn, BlockPos pos, IBlockState state)
Called on a block after it’s destroyed by a player
Parameters:
Type | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
World |
worldIn |
The world that the block was destroyed |
BlockPos |
pos |
The position of the block that was destroyed |
IBlockState |
state |
The state of the block that was destroyed |
Warning
The pos
parameter may not hold the state indicated
Usage example
This method is perfect for adding custom events as a result of a player destroying a block
By default this method does nothing.
The TNT Block overrides this method to cause it’s explosion when a player destroys it.
This method is used by extended pistons; since an extended piston is made up of two blocks (the extended head and the base),
the PistonMoving Block makes use of this method to destroy the base block when the PistonMoving block is destroyed.