About Light and Slabs

[ryttyr]

Yesterday when I logged in I was in the Paths of the Dead without fbt on (why isn't important) and what I saw then made me realise something. A lot of our builds are in great danger. You see, in 1.13 or 1.14 they changed lighting so that light is able to pass through the non-solid sides of slabs and stairs which means that places like PotD, the Glittering Caves, the Great Barrow and all the other places where we have used the lights-behind-slabs technique to get an eerie or mystical feeling will be eerie or mystical no more as they will be brightly illuminated by the lights that currently is blocked by slabs or stairs.

A lot of the atmosphere of these places relies heavily on that trick and they simply wouldn't be the same if they became properly lit up by these lights so I wouldlike to ask our dev-team if perhaps they have any idea how to solve this problem, preferably by coming up with a new way to achieve this effect as simply removing the light sources from these locations would greatly diminish the impact and atmosphere of these places.

PS. If this ought to go in a different thread please move it to the proper thread.

 

[Eriol_Eandur]

Sounds like a problem. Out of my head I don't see a quick solution. Could you maybe post some screenshots to show the difference in 1.13 and 1.12 (you can use the 1.13 testserver at build.mcmiddleearth.com:27550 for PotD screenshots)

 

[ryttyr]

Sounds like a problem. Out of my head I don't see a quick solution. Could you maybe post some screenshots to show the difference in 1.13 and 1.12 (you can use the 1.13 testserver at build.mcmiddleearth.com:27550 for PotD screenshots)

I'd gladly do that but how do I get to PotD on the devserver? There doesn't seem to be a warp for it and I don't have perms to go into gm3.

 

[ryttyr]

So after the Devserver didn't want to cooperate for unknown reasons I decided to re-create the light-behind-slabs and light-behind-stairs techniques in an 1.12.2 world and then updated it to a 1.13.2 world and then into a 1.14.4 world to show you guys how it would look. Here are the results:

1.12.2 AKA the current look on the server.

1.13.2 AKA the current look on the Devserver.

1.14.4 AKA how it is going to look once we update to 1.14 unless we do something about it.

No changes were made between taking the photos except updating the game versions.

EDIT: Interesting to note is that the stair completely blocking its light source (the one in the middle at the bottom) goes from letting some of the light through as well as illuminating itself to not letting any light through what so ever.

 

[Eriol_Eandur]

Maybe we could replace the ligh sources with lower level sources, like magma block.

 

[ryttyr]

Maybe we could replace the ligh sources with lower level sources, like magma block.

Maybe, but I'm not sure that would give quite the same affect as the trick does in 1.12. I'll try it out

 

[ryttyr]

Interesting. It does kinda look the same, at least if you're able to see the actual magma block through the holes. However in a lot of places in PotD and the Great Barrow (and possibly other places as well) we have the glowstone blocks placed much further back than I placed them in my quick test so I'm not sure it'd look the same on the server as whilst the magma block itself glows rather noticeably it doesn't illuminate much of the blocks surrounding it like glowstone does so unless you can actually see the magma block through the hole you wouldn't get this effect.

EDIT: to prove my point, here's a picture of the light holes from the side.

 

[NicTheFifth]

one possibility is using glass/deeper holes for the glowstone

 

[ryttyr]

one possibility is using glass/deeper holes for the glowstone

Still doesn't give that "bright glimmer in the dark" kind of feeling that it currently does but I'm afraid that it simply won't be possible to get that look anymore in 1.14.

 

[ryttyr]

Btw. I did discuss potential solutions with Eriol in DMs and he suggested sea pickles as theyhave a light level of 6-9 and whilst it would be more noticeable than the magma block's 3 it would still just appear like a light source and not a shimmer.

I also suggested making custom models for a solid opaque block in the shape of stairs or slabs which may give an effect similar to 1.12 but after thinking about it we would have the problem of Minecraft not rendering the sides of blocks touching any opaque block leading to the seeing-through-the-world problem we have with the Moria statues.

 

[ryttyr]

Looked up different light sources in the game to see if there was any light source with a light level of 0 as that would basically be a block that glows without giving off any light but alas there's no such block. Found that there is a block called the light block however which basically works like illuminated air and has a light level of 0-15 which can be set using the damage value but that's kinda the opposite of what we would want. What we preferably want is something that visibly glows without giving of light and the light block is something that gives off light without any visible source or glow.