Hey everybody. Recently I found something very odd that has to do with redstone, or does it? I wanted to share it with you guys because I think you'll find it very interesting, well at least I did anyways. So a few days ago, I decided I would try to make a stone generator. Fancy isn't it? Things were going well, I had just put the finishing touches on it and it was ready to test. The result was it crashed and burned... I don't know why I thought it would help, but I put observer blocks on top of the lava thinking I could do something with it. It didn't help at all, but I did notice something odd.What I would normally expect is for there to be two block updates from the lava, one for cobble destruction, and one for cobble creation. However, there was a third block update shortly after the second update. There wasn't any block update next to the lava for this to happen, yet it happened anyways? I'll return to that thought later as another question popped into my head, just know that this was enough to get me tinkering. My other question was "can it carry a redstone signal?", So I used the following setup to test it.To test it, I simply just activate the piston closest to me. If the test succeeds, the piston on the other side will push the block. If the test fails, it will simply do nothing.Now much to my surprise, it ACTUALLY worked. Naturally, the next thing to do was to see if it did the same thing with water.Again, it worked. I also tried running normal redstone into both water & lava, it worked as long as an observer was picking up the signal on the other side. So my next thought was "Can it go long distances? If so, this could be a way to send signals in one tick". So I tried activating the stream seen on the image below.Sadly this didn't work. I also tried alternating between lava and water thinking that they might update each other, this didn't work either. I was very confused at this point, Nothing was adding up. Nevertheless, I found that after more studying it could only send signals up to 2 blocks away(Well, there went the idea of sending signals across the ocean. ). Now back to my other question which has even stranger results I was wondering how many block updates this setup gave, it was 3. I activated it again, and it was 4? It continually swaps between 3-4 block updates for activating/deactivating the piston. So I wondered what would happen if I extended my setup?I added another 2 blocks of water and an observer in between to lengthen it by 3 blocks, the result was it was 4 block updates the first time, but 5 the next? This is getting odd, now it's swapping between 4-5 block updates rather than 3-4. So I did the exact same thing and extended it another 3 blocks. It was 5 block updates the first time and 6 the second time. So my conclusion is that the longer you make this setup, the more block updates the piston on the other side will receive. I think I understand a little more after finding the reddit thread mentioned on top, although still not completely. Basically the third block update I was seeing is from the Water/Lava looking for a place to flow to. I still don't know why Mojang made the observer detect that, but it's still interesting. I also don't quite understand why my water setup from earlier was switching between 3-4 block updates. If anyone knows, feel free to point it out. What do you guys think? Do you know of any uses? Also did you find this at the very least interesting? I sure hope so. I also hope that this wasn't confusing, Water/Lava in minecraft is weird... Thanks for reading!!! ~SUPERI0N
Most likely a bug of some sort, and an interesting one too. It makes somewhat sense too: redstone and water never mixed, so who was going to try and send a redstone charge into water? No one, because it wouldn't work. And here ya go It makes somewhat sense: the signal of a strongly charged block can be picked up by surrounding redstone, and it seems to apply to the water here as well. However, water shouldn't be a conduit Thanks for showing!
Preety sure is not a bug. For example regular BUD don't detect mushroom growing/spreading, but Observers do. So Observers detect a lot! including changes in water (block in front air ---> placing bucket water --> BU-->pulse). These blocks update to: getting water from an infinit source change from flowing to still water change from still to flowing adding water in front
Sure, but here's the problem: water isn't a redstone conduit. It's a non-opaque block which should, by Minecraft definition, be an insulator above anything else. Comparable to glass and slabs which cannot hold a redstone charge. Yet despite that you'll notice the 2nd observer picking up the redstone signal from the first with only 2 water in between. Also important: we've been here before. Almost the same trick used to be possible with an air block in between and that also turned out to be a bug. Which is why I think we're dealing with one here.
Why do you want to bug a "bug" that is not a bug which is an amazing "bug"?! Also, redstone =/= electricity Observers are detectors. Daylight detectors detect light(or shadow), preassureplates detect player position(sort of), and Observers detect block activity in front of it. Let it do its job! =P Water sources/liquid are blocks (in the sense that they occupy their space).
While I agree that Observer blocks are meant to detect such, I still think that there is something buggy here. I get that it's causing a block update to the water, but why is it updating the other water block next to it? Also, since it is updating the water block next to itself, why doesn't that water block update a third one next to itself allowing for you to enable/disable the ocean for example? Maybe I'm missing something, but IMO that feels a little inconsistent and buggy. ~SUPERI0N
When the water 2 blocks in front is tampered with, the one exactly in front becomes flowing, therefore updating
True, but even though the flowing water received an update, it doesn't update any other water block next to it(at least from my experimentation). Thus, you can only send the signal up to 2 blocks away rather than 3+ which is exactly what I don't understand. If the source block updates the flowing water next to it, then why doesn't the flowing water update the third water block beside it? The reason I feel it's bugged is that I think it should either work that way or not at all. Again, maybe I'm missing something as I just learned about this. Either way, I plan to do some more research into it tomorrow to see if I can learn more.
It might have to do with how observer blocks themselves work. most people dont know that some blocks dont have to be right next to an observer block for the observer block to detect a block update from those blocks. some blocks can be placed 1 away as well which might be why it only works with flowing water up to 2 blocks away
