====== Rendering Blocks and Items Dynamically using a custom Model ======
It is possible to add models to the game using block model JSON files, but it is also possible to render them through Java code. In this tutorial, we will add a four-sided furnace model to the game.
Note that models are rendered when the chunks are rebuilt. If you need more dynamic rendering, you can use a ''BlockEntityRenderer'': [[tutorial:blockentityrenderers]].
===== Creating the model =====
When a model is first registered in Minecraft, its raw data is contained in an ''UnbakedModel''. This data can include shapes or texture names for example.
Later during the initialization, ''UnbakedModel::bake()'' creates a ''BakedModel'', ready for rendering. For rendering to be as fast as possible, as many operations as possible need to be done during baking. We will also implement ''FabricBakedModel'' to make use of the Fabric Renderer API.
Let's create a single ''FourSidedFurnace'' model that will implement all three interfaces.
@Environment(EnvType.CLIENT)
public class FourSidedFurnaceModel implements UnbakedModel, BakedModel, FabricBakedModel {
==== Sprites ====
A ''Sprite'' is necessary for rendering a texture. We must first create a ''SpriteIdentifier'' and then get the corresponding ''Sprite'' while baking the model. Here, we will use two furnace textures. They are block textures, so they must be loaded from the block atlas ''PlayerScreenHandler.BLOCK_ATLAS_TEXTURE''.
// for versions before 1.21, replace `Identifier.ofVanilla` with `new Identifier`.
private static final SpriteIdentifier[] SPRITE_IDS = new SpriteIdentifier[]{
new SpriteIdentifier(PlayerScreenHandler.BLOCK_ATLAS_TEXTURE, Identifier.ofVanilla("block/furnace_front_on")),
new SpriteIdentifier(PlayerScreenHandler.BLOCK_ATLAS_TEXTURE, Identifier.ofVanilla("block/furnace_top"))
};
private final Sprite[] sprites = new Sprite[SPRITE_IDS.length];
// Some constants to avoid magic numbers, these need to match the SPRITE_IDS
private static final int SPRITE_SIDE = 0;
private static final int SPRITE_TOP = 1;
==== Meshes ====
A ''Mesh'' is a game shape that is ready for rendering with the Fabric Rendering API. We will add one to our class, and we will build it during model baking.
private Mesh mesh;
==== UnbakedModel methods ====
@Override
public Collection getModelDependencies() {
return List.of(); // This model does not depend on other models.
}
@Override
public void setParents(Function modelLoader) {
// This is related to model parents, it's not required for our use case
}
@Override
public BakedModel bake(Baker baker, Function textureGetter, ModelBakeSettings rotationContainer) {
// Get the sprites
for(int i = 0; i < SPRITE_IDS.length; ++i) {
sprites[i] = textureGetter.apply(SPRITE_IDS[i]);
}
// Build the mesh using the Renderer API
Renderer renderer = RendererAccess.INSTANCE.getRenderer();
MeshBuilder builder = renderer.meshBuilder();
QuadEmitter emitter = builder.getEmitter();
for(Direction direction : Direction.values()) {
// UP and DOWN share the Y axis
int spriteIdx = direction == Direction.UP || direction == Direction.DOWN ? SPRITE_TOP : SPRITE_SIDE;
// Add a new face to the mesh
emitter.square(direction, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f);
// Set the sprite of the face, must be called after .square()
// We haven't specified any UV coordinates, so we want to use the whole texture. BAKE_LOCK_UV does exactly that.
emitter.spriteBake(sprites[spriteIdx], MutableQuadView.BAKE_LOCK_UV);
// Enable texture usage
emitter.color(-1, -1, -1, -1);
// Add the quad to the mesh
emitter.emit();
}
mesh = builder.build();
return this;
}
==== BakedModel methods ====
Not all the methods here are used by the Fabric Renderer, so we don't really care about the implementation.
@Override
public List getQuads(BlockState state, Direction face, Random random) {
// Don't need because we use FabricBakedModel instead. However, it's better to not return null in case some mod decides to call this function.
return List.of();
}
@Override
public boolean useAmbientOcclusion() {
return true; // we want the block to have a shadow depending on the adjacent blocks
}
@Override
public boolean isBuiltin() {
return false;
}
@Override
public boolean hasDepth() {
return false;
}
@Override
public boolean isSideLit() {
return false;
}
@Override
public Sprite getParticleSprite() {
return sprites[SPRITE_TOP]; // Block break particle, let's use furnace_top
}
@Override
public ModelTransformation getTransformation() {
return null;
}
@Override
public ModelOverrideList getOverrides() {
return null;
}
==== FabricBakedModel methods ====
@Override
public boolean isVanillaAdapter() {
return false; // False to trigger FabricBakedModel rendering
}
@Override
public void emitBlockQuads(BlockRenderView blockRenderView, BlockState blockState, BlockPos blockPos, Supplier supplier, RenderContext renderContext) {
// Render function
// We just render the mesh
mesh.outputTo(context.getEmitter());
}
@Override
public void emitItemQuads(ItemStack itemStack, Supplier supplier, RenderContext renderContext) {
}
}
Note: Make sure you override the ''FabricBakedModel'' methods, the interface has ''default'' implementations!
===== Registering the model =====
In order for the model to be rendered in game we need to register it. In order to register it you need to create a ''ModelLoadingPlugin'':
@Environment(EnvType.CLIENT)
public class TutorialModelLoadingPlugin implements ModelLoadingPlugin {
public static final ModelIdentifier FOUR_SIDED_FURNACE_MODEL = new ModelIdentifier(Identifier.of("tutorial", "four_sided_furnace"), "");
@Override
public void onInitializeModelLoader(Context pluginContext) {
// We want to add our model when the models are loaded
pluginContext.modifyModelOnLoad().register((original, context) -> {
// This is called for every model that is loaded, so make sure we only target ours
final ModelIdentifier id = context.topLevelId();
if(id != null && id.equals(FOUR_SIDED_FURNACE_MODEL)) {
return new FourSidedFurnaceModel();
} else {
// If we don't modify the model we just return the original as-is
return original;
}
});
}
}
Then you need to register the plugin we just created:
@Environment(EnvType.CLIENT)
public class ExampleModClient implements ClientModInitializer {
@Override
public void onInitializeClient() {
ModelLoadingPlugin.register(new TutorialModelLoadingPlugin());
/* Other client-specific initialization */
}
}
Don't forget to register this entrypoint in ''fabric.mod.json'' if you haven't done it yet:
{
[...]
"entrypoints": {
[...]
"client": [
"net.fabricmc.example.ExampleModClient"
]
},
[...]
}
===== Using the model =====
You can now [[blocks|register your block]] to use your new model. We assume this block is with id ''tutorial:four_sided_furnace''.
public final class TutorialBlocks {
[...]
public static final Block FOUR_SIDED_FURNACE = register("four_sided_furnace", new Block(AbstractBlock.Settings.copy(Blocks.FURNACE).luminance(x -> 15)));
[...]
}
{
"variants": {
"": { "model": "tutorial:block/four_sided_furnace" }
}
}
Of course, you can implement much more complex rendering. Have fun!
{{:tutorial:four_sided_furnace_render.png?nolink&600|}}
===== Rendering the item =====
As you can see in the picture, the item is not rendered correctly. Let's fix this.
==== Updating the model ====
We will re-use the same model class, with just a small change:
* We will need a ''ModelTransformation'' that rotates/translates/scales the model depending on its position (in right hand, in left hand, in gui, in item frame, etc...). As we are creating a model for a regular block, we can use the transform provided by fabric in ''ModelHelper.MODEL_TRANSFORM_BLOCK''.
We will update our ''FourSidedFurnaceModel'' class as follows:
// We need to implement getTransformation() and getOverrides()
@Override
public ModelTransformation getTransformation() {
return ModelHelper.MODEL_TRANSFORM_BLOCK;
}
@Override
public ModelOverrideList getOverrides() {
return ModelOverrideList.EMPTY;
}
// We will also implement this method to have the correct lighting in the item rendering. Try to set this to false and you will see the difference.
@Override
public boolean isSideLit() {
return true;
}
// Finally, we can implement the item render function
@Override
public void emitItemQuads(ItemStack itemStack, Supplier supplier, RenderContext renderContext) {
mesh.outputTo(context.getEmitter());
}
==== Loading the model ====
Let's update the ''TutorialModelLoadingPlugin'' we created earlier:
@Environment(EnvType.CLIENT)
public class TutorialModelLoadingPlugin implements ModelLoadingPlugin {
public static final ModelIdentifier FOUR_SIDED_FURNACE_MODEL = new ModelIdentifier(Identifier.of("tutorial", "four_sided_furnace"), "");
public static final ModelIdentifier FOUR_SIDED_FURNACE_MODEL_ITEM = new ModelIdentifier(Identifier.of("tutorial", "four_sided_furnace"), "inventory");
@Override
public void onInitializeModelLoader(Context pluginContext) {
// We want to add our model when the models are loaded
pluginContext.modifyModelOnLoad().register((original, context) -> {
// This is called for every model that is loaded, so make sure we only target ours
final ModelIdentifier id = context.topLevelId();
if (id != null && (id.equals(FOUR_SIDED_FURNACE_MODEL) || id.equals(FOUR_SIDED_FURNACE_MODEL_ITEM))) {
return new FourSidedFurnaceModel();
} else {
// If we don't modify the model we just return the original as-is
return original;
}
});
}
}
===== Final result =====
{{:tutorial:four_sided_furnace_render_final.png?nolink&600|}}
Et voilĂ ! Enjoy!
===== More dynamic rendering =====
The ''renderContext'' parameter in ''emitBlockQuads'' and ''emitItemQuads'' contains a ''QuadEmitter'' which you can use to build a model on the fly.
@Override
public void emitBlockQuads(BlockRenderView blockRenderView, BlockState blockState, BlockPos blockPos, Supplier supplier, RenderContext renderContext) {
QuadEmitter emitter = renderContext.getEmitter();
/* With this emitter, you can directly append the quads to the chunk model. */
}