Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The Concept
In a nutshell, Redstone is a system that uses power signals to cause something to happen in
the game of Minecraft. This “something” could be as simple as opening a Door or turning
on a light, or it could be something a bit more complex like causing a mechanism such as a
Piston to activate and interact with the world, or it could be as complex as causing a mini-
game to begin. A simple Redstone power signal can even cause something as intricate and
massive as a player-built Redstone simulation of a computer to turn on and function!
Redstone power is somewhat like real-life electricity, and thinking of it like this is very use-
ful, especially when first starting out with the stuff. Here are the ways in which Redstone
and real-world electricity are similar:
•
Redstone has an ON state and an OFF state.
•
Redstone signals can have various levels of power, in the case of Redstone it
goes from 0-15.
•
Redstone signals can be carried through a Minecraft world through items
called Redstone Dust (as well as others) that are very similar to real-life wires.
•
A powered Redstone signal that is “wired” up so that it runs into certain items
in the game called “mechanisms” will give those mechanisms power and cause
them to activate.
•
Redstone can be used to build “circuits” that function in much the same way
as real-life circuits function in computers and other electronics.
There are, however, quite a few ways in which Redstone and normal electricity differ, and
they are equally important:
The power that Redstone builds
use is not always held in a storage unit like a battery, or
piped through from the outside, but is instead almost always created by the items that toggle
the power ON and OFF. To further explain the difference, a real-world light switch controls
electric power, but it does not create the power. In Minecraft, Levers, which are very sim-
ilar in look to light-switches, can control Redstone power, but they also create that power
themselves. Redstone items that create power are called “power components,” and there are
many types of these, including two that do act somewhat like a battery and/or permanent
power source (Redstone Torches and Blocks of Redstone).
Redstone power signals only go 15 blocks
in one direction before their power signal fades
away. To get it to go farther, it must be boosted. This is actually similar to real electricity,
except that the rules that govern the distance of real electric signals are far more complex.
