I’m growing fond of this databyte idea
Ever since I started this project, I’ve had the idea of an extra byte of data per block. It’s not a very original idea, granted, but it gives me a lot of room to do cool stuff. It’d fully solve the water problem as I posted about previously as well.
The downside is that it doubles the size of the maps, and that level polling might get a bit slower, but the advantages are numerous.
Here’s an example of the bit layout in this byte:
0-2: Liquid type. (8 values)
..0 = air
..1 = water
..2 = lava
..3-7 = reserved (oil? goo?)
3:
isFlowing (needed by the liquid code)
4-7: Block shape (16 values)
..0 = full
..1 = half north
..2 =
half south
..3 = half west
..4 = half east
..5 = half up
..6 = half down
..7 = slope north
..8 =
slope south
..9 = slope west
..10 = slope east
..11 = pillar up/down
..12 = bar east/west
..13 = bar
north/south
..14-15 = reserved
Blocks that can only come in one shape (the bushes for example) can use the last four bits for custom data, like keeping track of the age.
