Minecraft Add-Ons: Custom Block Geometry is Here!

This is super exciting news, because it means that creators will be able to make any block their heart desires, giving them one more tool in their toolbox to devise even more alluring, dazzling, unique worlds than ever before!

This ability arrives in the form of the “geometry” and “material_instances” block components, which you must use to specify the geometry and textures to be used to render your custom block.

The “minecraft:geometry” Block Component

This component is what tells your pack what geometry model to use to render your block. All you need to do is create your block model, place it in your resource pack, and link it to its behavior pack json file by providing the component with your model’s geometry identifier.

Check out the documentation for the “geometry” component here to learn how to use it!

The “minecraft:material_instances” Block Component

This component is what tells your pack what texture(s) to render on your block geometry. You can specify different textures for different faces of the block, or you can simply specify one texture for the entire block. You can also specify which render method you’d like to be used – opaque, double_sided, alpha_test, or blend – based on the type of coloring used on the pixels of your block (transparent, translucent, opaque). Last, you can also decide what type of lighting you’d like applied to your block by specifying the ambient_occlusion or face_dimming fields. You can test out these rendering and lighting options to figure out which are the most suitable for your custom block!

Check out the documentation for the “material_instances” component here to learn how to use it!

Size Restrictions for Custom Block Geometry

With this new freedom to create custom blocks come some size restrictions and rules. The size limit, however, is significantly larger than just a single block, so the possibilities are endless for blocks with cool overhangs or simply just huge blocks!

1. A custom block geometry’s size may not exceed 1.875x1.875x1.875, or 30x30x30 pixels.
2. The absolute bounds that a custom block geometry must remain within are 1.875 (or 30 pixels) from the origin, on each axis.
   
3. At least one pixel on each axis must be contained within the base 1x1x1 (or 16x16x16 pixel) block.
   

Documentation and Tutorials

We are extremely excited about the release of custom block geometry, and we hope you are too! Here are some resources to help you get started with using the new features:

How to Add a Custom Block Tutorial

Block Documentation Home Page

Block Component List

Block Geometry Component Documentation

Block Material Instances Component Documentation