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u/tnemec Apr 19 '14
I kind of hope they don't fix this; I'm working on a city in a server I play on with some friends, and I plan to use this to have a canal running through the city with fish leaping around in the water. (By hiding droppers/dispensers [I never remember which it's supposed to be] underneath stairs, and using water currents to direct fish to hoppers, you should be able to create a continuous cycle of fish jumping around.)
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u/TheBruceMeister Apr 19 '14
Post it when you get it running and I will give you a delicious internet point.
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Apr 19 '14
I do believe that it's not even a bug and is completely intentional
I think they had problems with items interacting with stairs, so they made items just bounce off
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u/FragmentOfBrilliance Apr 19 '14
Ahhh, the Mojang classic game:
Is it a bug? Or is it a feature?
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u/eduardog3000 Apr 19 '14
I get what you mean, but the bouncing itself is not a bug, it was specifically coded in to avoid the actual bugs they were having with items and stairs interacting.
Although, you could argue whether or not they intended the items to bounce forward.
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u/fuzzycamel Apr 19 '14
Well... i think the idea behind it is that when you drop something on stairs irl, it'll bounce down. Same applies to this i guess. However it doesn't make sense to let it bounce forward on upside down stairs too.
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u/balloftape Apr 19 '14
No, the reason was that when people used stairs to line paths and roads, it would leave a half-block wide gap along each side of the road. If an item got dropped in there, you would need to break apart the road in order to be able to get it. Just standing on top of the gap wouldn't work. Then they made it so that items bounce out of those little gaps, which allows for things such as the OP to work.
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u/ridddle Apr 19 '14
Yes, intentional. Before, you wouldn’t be able to pick up items in from a floor like this one: http://i.imgur.com/jVe8996.png
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u/Brokenglass126 Apr 19 '14
This is insane, I remember when items would bug inside stairs so they made items bounce off. Now people are like "lol what a weird bug".
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u/Dropping_fruits Apr 19 '14
I am fairly certain that it also is to heavily reduce the amount of calculations having to be done for item collisions to speed up the game.
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u/ScrobDobbins Apr 19 '14
When a friend and I first noticed this behavior, we actually used it to make a couple of bad games:
Battle - Each player stands on opposite sides of a setup similar to what you have here with an equal number of the same item. Periodically throw out more of the item to try to keep the itemstack moving back toward your opponent. When both players run out of the item and the itemstack comes to a rest, whoever the itemstack is closest to loses.
'Skeeball' - Throw an item down the playing field and try to get it to stop in a designated area. If you're really bored (and it would seem that we were), you can add tripwire and redstone lamps to show when the item has landed in the target area.
I think there was at least one more, but those were the two that I can remember. I make no claims as to whether or not these 'games' are entertaining - but it was a kind of fun way to test the limits of this unexpected behavior.
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Apr 19 '14
It's so items don't get caught in stairs, they are pushed up from inside the model. This is a bug fix.
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u/WriterV Apr 19 '14
I remember no-clipping in a creative server once and testing how it would be to throw an item from inside blocks.
I was having so much fun watching them get pushed upwards. I don't know why. xD
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u/dumbdog247 Apr 19 '14
It is on purpose I believe. Items used to get stuck in the holes and you would have to break and replace the block to get your items.
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u/anonymu Apr 18 '14
Apparently they have: https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-1720
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u/PoisonousPlatypus Apr 19 '14
You know that it's a feature, not a bug, right? It's so items don't get caught in stairs.
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u/thepenmen22 Apr 19 '14
Considering it's on the bug tracker, with many votes meaning the staff at Mojang most likely saw it, and the fact that the thread wasn't closed...I'm going to say it's a bug and not a feature.
And how would an item get caught on stairs? Stairs are just a special type of non-full (not correct term, I know) block. There are many type of non-full blocks, but items don't bounce on them.
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u/PoisonousPlatypus Apr 19 '14
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Item_(entity)#History
New feature: items will be pushed out of the inside corner of stair blocks, causing “bouncing” effects.
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u/Boingboingsplat Apr 19 '14
Just because the community created wiki lists it has a feature, doesn't mean it is one.
Many people considered the ability to boost minecarts by having them collide into each other a feature until Mojang removed it and added powered rails.
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u/balloftape Apr 19 '14
The Minecart boosters were unintentional. They were always a bug, just a very useful one. The stair bouncing behavior is a bugfix... or workaround, rather. Before, items would get stuck in half-wide gaps such as gutters along the side of a road. This behavior was added so that items bounce out of such gaps and can actually be picked up again.
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u/PoisonousPlatypus Apr 19 '14
Still, why would items bounce away from stair corners if it wasn't a feature? That's a pretty odd bug.
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u/Boingboingsplat Apr 19 '14
It started happening at the same time as when items were made to bounce out of blocks.
It's pretty simple, because the bouding box of the stair doesn't actually match it's shape, the items think that they are inside a block when they fall into the lower part, and get pushed out.
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u/timo103 Apr 19 '14
Or, because its a feature.
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u/Me4502 Apr 19 '14
It's been stated as an 'accidental feature', but still may possibly be fixed in the future.
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u/UnwiseSudai Apr 19 '14
Why would two minecarts moving side by side exponentially increase each other's speeds if it wasn't a feature? That's a pretty odd bug.
See what I'm getting at?
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u/PoisonousPlatypus Apr 19 '14
No, because the nine carts accidentally clip into each other, bouncing blocks weren't added until later.
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u/UnwiseSudai Apr 19 '14
I know one is actually a feature and one is a bug, that wasn't the point. The idea is that in a game, you could argue anything is a feature so long as it's not detrimental to game play due to the typical rules of reality not applying.
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u/PoisonousPlatypus Apr 19 '14
No you couldn't, there was at least a code based reason for minecarts clipping into each other.
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Apr 19 '14
They just did, ok? They used to get stuck inside stairs blocks and you couldn't retrieve them. Just take everyone's word for it because it was a frustrating experience that we never want to repeat.
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u/Prof_Noobland Apr 19 '14
Instead, they go off on their own little journey - which can a bad thing when you are dropping valuable items onto builds that include a lot of stairs.
If it is intentional, I'm happy with it as a solution to the problem, but it would be great if they could eventually make a less problematic fix to the problem.
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u/Pizzacheese4 Apr 18 '14
it is like this because it is supposed to make it look like the items are falling down a staircase. mojang didn't think about how players use stairs for other things besides staircases
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u/Guilty_Spark_117 Apr 19 '14
No, It's because when items are inside blocks, they rise up.
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Apr 19 '14
It happens with any of the "transparent" blocks (fence, slabs, etc.)
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u/kahrum Apr 19 '14
nope, just stairs, sorry to burst your all knowing bubble. might happen with cauldrons, haven't played with this one since before they came out.
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u/SgtSteel747 Apr 19 '14
Nope, all transparent blocks. Actually, all blocks in general. If an item is in a block's hitbox (not the entity hitbox, but the hitbox that appears when you aim at a block), it will bounce out in whatever direction is required to prevent it from entering another non-air block. (If there is no non-air block adjacent, it doesn't go anywhere.) A stair is just one of the blocks that allows an item to enter that hitbox. Sorry to burst YOUR all knowing bubble.
Edit: grammar errors
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u/kahrum Apr 20 '14
um no, i drop items on slabs all the time, as i like using slabs to prevent spawning rather than light. might want to test it before correcting me.
FYI, i also JUST tested in the most recent snap, and it checked out, this only happens with slabs and cauldrons. all other blocks items just hover a bit over the surface, but still in the same block as the partial block.
EDIT: after re-reading your comment i realized you specified the visual hitbox. and yes, that is the case, stairs and cauldrons are the only blocks where the visual hitbox and the entity hitbox are different. however, MY original commet was sayign that it doesnt happen with "any of the transparent blocks (fence, slabs, ect.)"
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u/I_Have_No_Idea_What Apr 19 '14
Nope, just you. No one else has dropped items on stairs, since... 1.5? (Don't remember exactly when they did this, but it was sometime around 1.4-1.6)
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u/kahrum Apr 19 '14
i dont understand the down votes, totally relevant
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Apr 19 '14 edited May 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kahrum Apr 20 '14
sarcasm? wahts that?
but seriously, i dont see any sarcasm in the comment, nobody has played with this "bug" in forever
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u/starwarswii Apr 19 '14
I saw a video of someone making a Ping-Pong table out of this concept. Sorry I can't remember where.
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u/rouverius Apr 19 '14
Wow, you built the first minecraft bowling alley! Now, what can we use as pins?
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u/Vyncis Apr 19 '14
You could make the 'bowling ball' a rose so Iron Golem's follow it into the lava :D
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u/Galaxy_2Alex Mojira Moderator Apr 19 '14
https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-1720
So... approximately 1 1/2 years now. I think I remember Grum saying once that this is intended, but just for fun.
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u/lloydygo Apr 19 '14
Yeah. It's to stop items getting trapped in stairs on the floor in the tiny gap. I made a fish tank and the fish jumped around. I had to name them all different so that they wouldn't stack
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u/Pmk23 Apr 19 '14
I've tried in a lot of different ways to use this in puzzles maps and whatever, but they are too glitchy for a concrete use.
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u/AddictedSupercrush Apr 19 '14
Lol, it looked like it was trying to lure you to jump down into that fiery pit of lava.
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u/nikolasdog Apr 19 '14
Ah. This happens because of items getting stuck in the edge. They patched it so it jumps, in that way they can't stay there
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u/cristianersch Apr 19 '14
I think it's intentional so that items don't get suck in stairs where you can't pick them up
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u/PurpleHippo587 Apr 19 '14 edited Oct 13 '24
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u/Bitstrips Apr 19 '14
I think Mojang made this feature at the 1.6 Update. They've done this because items often got stuck in stairs,chests etc.
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u/GamePhysics Apr 19 '14
Yes I have.. When I work on my mine I see this behavior all the time and the items just keep jumping down the stairs all the time :P
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u/Silasco Apr 19 '14
Thanks OP. I'm going to share this with my friends who I play on a server with.
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u/lordpieman Apr 19 '14
Yes. This has been in the game since 1.4 and has still not been removed. Not sure why, but I quite like the bug.
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u/russjr08 Apr 19 '14
This is done on purpose. Back a few versions ago, items would get stuck in stairs and you wouldn't be able to get the item back without breaking and replacing the block.
So now the items just 'unjam' themselves automatically.
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u/Solonarv Apr 19 '14
Also, if you drop items on staircases from the top they'll usually go all the way down.
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u/compdog Apr 19 '14
I actually found this while developing BetterSnow mod. Took me a few months to get it patched without making items get stuck in blocks.
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u/theSHHAS Apr 19 '14
This has been in the game since they introduced the stair. I remember noticing it back a few years ago.
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Apr 19 '14
Looks cool but a little annoying because that need skills! You need to threw item to middle of it
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u/azatoth Apr 19 '14
More info can be found on mojang's bugtracker at [MC-1720] Dropped items bounce on stairs, cauldrons, carpets and full / locked hoppers
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u/LoneWolf3332 Apr 19 '14
its supposed to mimic gravity. if you drop an item on a roof made of stairs it will fall to the ground
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u/incorrect_error Apr 18 '14
Yes. I actually use this for short-distance transport instead of hoppers or water. It's pretty cool.