Addon Development: Aspects

Aspects in Integrated Dynamics are responsible for reading values to a variable or writing to an external process based on a variable's value. Aspects are mainly used in reader and writer parts.

Creation

All aspects implement the IAspect interface, with IAspectRead and IAspectWrite corresponding to respectively read and write aspects.

Aspect types are like blocks in Minecraft. They are only created once, and do not keep state by themselves.

Builder

The easiest way to create a new aspect is by using the AspectBuilder. If you want to use this builder, your main mod class MUST extend from ModBase.

This builder also takes care of aspect registration.

It is recommended to build your aspects during Forge's RegistryEvent.NewRegistry event.

The following shows an example of the builder usage:

@Mod(Reference.MOD_ID)
public class MyMod {
    public MyMod() {
        FMLJavaModLoadingContext.get().getModEventBus().addListener(this::onRegistriesCreate);
    }

    public void onRegistriesCreate(RegistryEvent.NewRegistry event) {
      AspectBuilder
        .forReadType(ValueTypes.BOOLEAN)
        .byMod(IntegratedDynamics._instance)
        .handle(dimPos -> dimPos.getWorld(true).getBlockState(dimPos.getBlockPos()).getBlock() != Blocks.AIR)
        .handle(ValueTypeBoolean.ValueBoolean::of, "block")
        .buildRead();
    }
}

The builder itself is immutable, which means that you can save and reuse intermediary builder results, in case you want to create multiple similar aspects.

More extensive examples can be found in Aspects. Reusable intermediary builders can be found in AspectReadBuilders and AspectWriteBuilders.

Class extension

Alternatively, if you want to create a new aspect without the builder, you can reuse the AspectReadBase and AspectWriteBase from Integrated Dynamics. In this case, your main mod class MUST extend from ModBase and you must override getMod in your aspect type to refer to your mod instance.

Models and Localization

When using the AspectBuilder, your assets must be structured as follows:

Model

Each aspect must have a variable item overlay model defined at the path assets/<mod-id>/models/assets/<read-or-write>/<value-name>/<aspect-name>.json.

In the case of the aspect we built in the example above, the file assets/integrateddynamics/models/assets/read/boolean/block.json could contain the following:

{
  "parent": "item/generated",
  "textures": {
    "layer0": "integrateddynamics:aspect/read/boolean/block/block"
  }
}

Localization

Your language file must contain your part name as aspect.<mod-id>.<read-or-write>.<value-name>.<aspect-name>.

For example:

"aspect.integrateddynamics.read.boolean.block": "Has Block",