Smooth curve rails

[Weylin]

Does anyone with modding experience know if there is any conceivable way to make tracks that aren't limited by the current block by block basis?

One of my biggest gripes with rails is that every time it turns, it just jerks you around and flips the view around. Not very appealing.

Is there any practical way to create a system that allows for advanced rails that aren't restricted by the way they work now?

Look at something like roller coaster tycoon, that game is based on a grid, yet has coaster tracks that can be comprised of all sorts of shapes that flow very smoothly.

Players and carts are both entities, and I see no reason why some kind of smooth pathing system can't be done (zipline comes to mind on the curved bridges and such). I don't know how I'd do it myself, but maybe someone who actually knows the limits of minecraft could say for sure.

[jakj]

The player/cart part would be the easier half of this application, yes, though you'd have to rewrite a lot of the current minecart pathing code to account for your new kind of block. Mostly copy/paste work with alteration.

The difficult part would be the blocks on the ground. It wouldn't be practical (or useful) to have the rails also be entities, so what you'd have to do is create a track-like block that you place down anywhere that track -might- be. For example, if you had a track loop that's elliptical, you'd have to have maybe 3-4 times as many blocks down as you'd actually need, just so you'd have the ability to draw it all.

Technically, you could have a single block down that draws an entire track, but then you'd have all kinds of blocks (even grass or shrubs) popping up and clipping through it. Also, it would be excessively difficult to handle up/down, especially when you're dealing with anything other than parallel block edges.

My summary is: Excellent idea, technically possible, and more work than anyone would ever put in.

[Weylin]

I figure if it was easy, it would have been done already.

Well, if anyone desires the status of a god, you know what you must do, because this would become known to millions :P

[jakj]

I figure if it was easy, it would have been done already.

No, not in the slightest. I myself am at this moment working on an idea that is ridiculously simple, that nobody seems to have happened to do yet, for whatever reason. It's not simple for -me-, because obviously I'm still learning as I go, but for somebody like Azanor, who already knows this crap inside and out, it would probably be the work of three hours.

The thing to keep in mind is, everything is related to everything, but everybody has their own ideas. Modders who take the time to develop the skill to do really neat things tend to already have great ideas, so they work on making those ideas into reality, and then they don't have time (especially since they still have to work for a living) to also make everybody else's ideas.

Luckily, Java is a language that decompiles nicely, so those of us without the skill can just see how the people with the skill did it, and do it the same way. All I do is chop up the bits that are there and rearrange them in a new configuration.

Well, if anyone desires the status of a god, you know what you must do, because this would become known to millions

It would indeed. Anything that goes beyond the cubic limitations of Minecraft gets instantly labelled by some as anathema and others by glory.