Fast Leaf Decay for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition

I'm not an old timer when it comes to Minecraft, but I have been playing since 2020. I started on the Java edition but I prefer Bedrock edition. I have multiple devices, I like to play on the same worlds, and I use realms to make that happen.

One of the areas where the Bedrock edition is usually called out is in the world of mods (called add-ons for Bedrock). There just aren't as many, and they are much more limited. There are many reasons for this and it has been steadily improving over time. But there is a long way to go.

One of the main add-ons I've wanted as I play on Java servers is fast leaf decay. It's a quality of life add-on that doesn't take away from many players experience. Why isn't it on Bedrock? Well it is now, because I've made it. It is called Spoiled Leaves. Here is my story of development to finally making it public just this past week.

Demo video for the Spoiled Leaves add-on.

The making of

I didn't know what it would take to make a script based add-on. The only one I made before just replaced the audio for villagers so it didn't require any programming. Instead of making a full plan, I started with creating a proof of concept so that I could see if I could do it with the scripting API.

For my IDE, I wanted to use NeoVim (and did) but also used bridge. (the period is part of the name) to make some of the process smoother. Since I was just making a proof of concept for my own education I could poke around without any time constraints. It was so much fun. It had been a long time since I had that much fun programming.

After a while, my work showed that it was doable, now I decided to try to make an actual add-on. All the other examples I saw were using experimental APIs, so I decided to start with those on then see if and when it became possible to use stable APIs. The examples were also in Javascript, and I hadn't setup a typescript compiler so I also started with it in javascript with the idea that I would convert to typescript after I got it working.

Recursion

The solution that I saw for the leaf decay mechanic on Bedrock was going to involve recursion for all the connected blocks to broken logs and leaves. This, I believe, is different than the way it is handled on Java but this is what I saw I had access to and understood.

For recursion to work and be performant, one thing you need to do is make sure to limit the depth of recursion. Because of Bedrock's leaf decay radius of 4 I had an easy answer for that. Another thing that usually needs to happen, especially in graph like structures (which blocks have through the 6 directional reference methods), is to make sure to only recurse over an entry once.

Javascript and equality

Javascript is two things, a great language and a terrible language. It has some weirdness that you would not expect, especially coming from other languages that don't have its history. For me this was with Block object equality and even the Vector objects representing the locations of those blocks. The Microsoft APIs were giving me new Block objects each time I referenced it from another method. The same thing happened with Vectors, which in my mind were closer to primitive and should have had proper equality already coded. Nope. When I tested if a block or location had been processed before, it always looked like a new object so it would be processed again. For an exponential algorithm like I was using this was a performance hit that I calculated shouldn't matter if it was limited to only processing blocks once.

The solution (for now, I know I can probably do better) that I figured out was to create a special class called a VectorSet that acts like a Set but you put the 3 dimensional vector objects in it and get all the benefits of a set. It worked right away, well after I made my initial code less confusing and understood what I was doing, and all of the sudden performance was acceptable again. From there I was able to get it working enough to start testing and stabilizing.

More performance improvements

Scripting in Minecraft is still limited and I had to trigger some commands. These aren't perfectly performant and asynchronous command calls are limited to 128 per tick. Because of this and because instantaneous leaf breaking is a bit disconcerting, I decided to break this up into processing chunks of leaves at a time. That improved performance even more and gave me another config option I could tweak to improve performance and feel.

Speaking of performance and feel, leaf decay on Java still feels really organic and I do like that. To get closer to that feel I added some randomness to the time between processing of leaf blocks to decay. More configurations to use.

Javascript ready, how do I Typescript

Once I had it working in javascript I wanted to clean it up by using Typescript. I was already using lots of comments to annotate the type information and it was ugly. Type information makes the job of coding much simpler so I wasn't going to remove those. I just needed to code in Typescript.

Honestly, the most difficult thing was dealing with myself and how complicated I thought it was going to be. The compiler that bridge. uses for Javascript will turn Typescript into the proper javascript when it exports it without any extra settings. Because of this, no config or manifest options need to be changed. Ugh, I should have started in Typescript.

Stopping the experiment

As I said before, I was using the experimental APIs because that is what I saw other add-ons using. However, this sucks for most players who don't want to use the experimental APIs. Every update can break them and that makes them less useful on public servers and realms. So, I created a branch to use the stable APIs and got to work.

I had been using several parts of the API that were experimental. So, when I turned them off, I had lots of errors and nothing was working. I wasn't sure if the stable APIs were capable of doing what I needed yet, but I was planning on seeing how far I could get and when the stable APIs caught up with my needs I would release it using the stable APIs then.

It turns out I was able to accomplish this task with the stable APIs. I probably started coding at the right time as some of my solutions used parts of the API that had only recently been made stable. I am glad I started with the experimental APIs though, for two reasons. One, the experimental based solutions were simpler for me to wrap my mind around so that when I went to the stable branch I only had to solve the problem of how to replace what I was doing before. Two, I think the solutions with the experimental API were a little more performant. So, as those become stabilized I will likely move back to using those (or at least test my hypothesis).

Testing on my realm

It worked on my local worlds, but what would performance be like on a realm. I have a realm that I play with people I love called Derp & Chill. It is descriptive of how we play when we are there and especially when we play together. It isn't a super busy realm but I wanted to make sure it worked and no-one noticed any (new) performance issues.

I heard not a peep. This can either mean no-one played and cut down trees or no one noticed performance issues. Either way, it was time to make it public.

Making it public

I was using GitHub but had it as a private repo. The work I did was fun and I hope it can help others make even more exciting things by adding it to there worlds and add-on packs. So, I made it public and shared with a very expansive add-on pack I use called Better on Bedrock.

When the creator saw it, I was reminded that this was new. No one had really done this on Bedrock so there was some excitement. He checked it out and said that he didn't understand what I was doing. Ah, right. I should comment my code and explain myself. So, now it is up on GitHub, with comments explaining what I was trying to do. It is ready for you to download from the release page and give your feedback.

Saying Goodbye to Matt Smith as The Doctor

There is a part of me that wants to say, "Big deal! He's just an actor leaving a show." However, I decided to write a post about what I've appreciated most about Matt Smith as The Doctor because I've never been a fan of anything before. Not like I've become for Doctor Who. This is the first regeneration I'll get to see when it happens. I'm new to Who and have done a lot of binge watching over the last year and a half to be caught up (and then some). And most of all, sometimes it is good to appreciate the little things in life so that they are that much sweeter.

He's Physical

Some of you know that I'm an improviser. When I see photos or videos of myself I've often compared myself to a block of wood. But watching Matt Smith play The Doctor has inspired me. I've been inspired to study up (via books and video) on mime, stage movement, Charlie Chaplin and more. I often hear Matt Smith compared to Patrick Troughton for reasons associated with his physicality but it is a large reason why Sylvester McCoy is my favorite classic Doctor. Somehow Matt's physicality lives in a quantum state of being both over the top and subtle. I often find myself thinking I should practice one of his scenes just to get practice at the movement. One day (perhaps later tonight) I'll start doing just that.

I'm thankful he inspires me to better move while I'm on stage

He has a keen fashion sense (not)

The quote, joke, meme with Matt Smith is that "bow ties are cool." I hate to break it to you but they are not. Or at least they weren't until he started wearing them as The Doctor. They still aren't if you aren't a Whovian. Then there is the fez, another joke of fashion he has inserted into the show. From everything I've read he had a large part in choosing the look of his Doctor and I think he made a great choice. For such a young Doctor to choose articles of clothing that are often considered "your granddad's clothes" [INSERT MACKLEMORE REFERENCE HERE - OK MAYBE NOT] was a perfect fit. I honestly never wanted to cosplay his doctor. I've never done any cosplay but I had thought maybe the 10th and definitely Captain Jack Harkness. Then The Bells Of St. John and that purple frock coat happened. I love purple and that coat was not classic but classic made modern. The bow-tie finally looked, not goofy, but stylish.

I'm thankful he had such good fun with such dorky clothes. A fashion crime I've taken part in many times but never as successfully.

Conclusion

There are many more things to like about Matt Smith's time in the role of The Doctor. His emotionally charged scenes. His general joy and goofiness. His beautiful delivery of lines that will make you laugh the second time you watch an episode. I appreciate it but I am well prepared (thank you BBC) to move on now to the next Doctor. What will I love about your Doctor, Mr. Capaldi? I can't wait.

Social Network Conundrum

What does one do with all the social networks? I'm not sure but in an effort to organize my online social life I wanted to create rules for myself around what social networks and this blog will be used for. Consider this an experiment. What falls away will fall away, everything else can stay.

Below are the ways I think of each social network and what I plan to post there.

Facebook

Main online presence where I will share most things I want my friends and acquaintances to see.

• Videos
• My upcoming events - I am an active guy
• Thoughts

Twitter

Another major online presence but a great place for just random short thoughts

• Bad jokes
• Programmer thoughts - most of my friends on facebook don't really don't speak gobbledygook
• Events as they happen
• Psuedo-conversations with fellow twitter users.

YouTube

• Videos I take
• Hangouts - I have some ideas for themed ones.
• Videos saved from ustream

Google Plus

I like G+ still but it is so hard to post. I'm just going to turn it into the place to post stuff that is easy to post there. Turns out this is mostly Google related links.

Tumblr

I don't put much content here but if I do it will be.

• Stupid photos
• Longer random thoughts that only people who really opted in will want to see. By longer random thoughts I mean longer than the 140 character limit of twitter but not deserving of a full blog post.

UStream

• This is the place for behind the scenes video of my life.
• There is a possibility I could start JAMM live broadcasts again in the future.

Pinterest

I must admit, this one is dying quick. I haven't

• Silly pictures
• Memorable videos

What about this blog?

Articles that well thought out will go in this blog. I want to write better so I will do my best. However, I have been wanting to write a lot more and trying to be to clean and neat usually keeps me from writing so please bear with me as I get better at first and second drafts.

Conclusion

There are too many social networks but being an inhabitant and creator within the social space I feel it is necessary to check them out and see what works. What works for you? I know my list is small. Should I be trying something else? Is there something else a reader of my blog would like to see me use one of these services for? I'm open to ideas and comments. Thanks for reading.

The molehill that is a mountain: 3d flash APIs

Last year around this time I wrote about what 2010 would bring in the world of flash. Write now I want to talk about one specific change that seems to be coming in 2011 - project:Molehill ( 3d APIs for flash Player ). The following video ( if you are viewing this on a flash capable device ) is from the announcement at this year's Adobe Maxx event.

For me this is quite exciting. Back when I worked at Provis we talked a lot about using 3D for web interfaces. Because we we're a video heavy agency we even had a 3D person on staff and we experimented with different libraries from time to time. Unfortunately, not much came of it as it never seemed worth the time investment to change our pipeline that much.

Now I work in the social media game space and true 3D in flash with decent performance opens up a whole new realm of games for social media. It does this just in time. Social media gamers are becoming mature gamers fast and will demand a better experience sooner, rather than later.

My only concern is that, as stated in the video above, these are very low level APIs and I have no experience programming 3D ( though I am very excited to learn ). This problem should be reduced by the many 3D framework projects that will use these APIs under the hood. Those frameworks I do have some experience with and it is quite fun.

So what do you think we will see in the social media gamespace ( facebook, mySpace, vKontakte, orkut, vznet, google me, etc. )? First person shooters? Racing games?  MMORPGs? The first M in MMORPG means massive and this could really mean massive. World of Warcraft has something like 13 million users and Farmville still has around 55 million monthly ACTIVE users. That is a comparison that always makes my jaw drop.

Until then I'd love to hear what you think and even what you are working on.