API: Way to remove CustomBlocks faster

[tastybento]

Terms

• I'm using the very latest version of ItemsAdder and its dependencies.
• I already searched on this Github page to check if the same suggestion was already reported.
• I already searched on the plugin wiki to know if the feature is already implemented.
• I already searched on the Discord server to know if anyone already has a solution for this or if the feature was already suggested.

Discord tag (optional)

tastybento

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like a way to obtain a collection of CustomBlocks in a World, Chunk, or in a BoundingBox, so I can iterate through them and delete the ones that need to be deleted by Location.

Is your feature request related to a problem?

Yes. I maintain the BentoBox/BSkyBlock/AcidIsland/AOneBlock, etc. plugin. It needs to delete islands which it does on a chunk by chunk basis. We have a problem where IA custom blocks remain in the world even though Blocks have been deleted. If a new player used the old space, the IA blocks could be obtained by players placing a block and then breaking it where the old one was.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Currently, I use CustomBlock.remove(location) but when run on multiple locations, e.g., a cube of size 800 x 800 x world height, it will lag the server. I've had to remove the support for ItemsAdder because I currently cannot find a streamlined way to delete the CustomBlocks. There are rarely more than a few on any one island, but I currently have to remove every location in the whole island because I have no way to find out where they are. I'd like to be able to optimize somehow, by for example, checking if there is a block at that location first, or having a way to obtain all the CustomBlocks in a World, or Chunk, etc.

The only other option is to ask admins to change deletion settings in the BentoBox config to delete chunks a lot slower than normal, e.g., 1 chunk per tick. This is just a workaround.

Additional context

The code to the IA hook in BentoBox is here: https://github.com/BentoBoxWorld/BentoBox/blob/f81354fa3e5187f87efe48f6bc72bb9f127a9f22/src/main/java/world/bentobox/bentobox/hooks/ItemsAdderHook.java#L78

Currently, it's commented out because of the lag spikes.

I have asked on your Discord on itemsadder-chat but there were no replies.

[github-actions]

Hello,
your report will be looked into as soon as possible.
Please do not bump this thread and don't post it on multiple platforms.

Thanks a lot for your patience.

[LoneDev6]

Post a link of your implementation of where you remove blocks, so that I can know how to structure the new API to fast remove blocks.
Anyway without a spark report I can't check what is exactly slow in the underlying code, but I'd bet it's the fact that the remove method sends AIR packet to the surrounding players causing overhead, I will check that in the next weeks.

[tastybento]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Islands are deleted chunk by chunk. The start point is DeleteIslandChunks.java. but regeneration is done by obtaining a replacement chunk from the GameMode, which for games like BSkyBlock is just empty air chunks, and writing the blocks in a x,y,z nested loop. For other gamemodes, it may be chunks copied from a seed world. You can find the key method here that does the looping to paste the blocks and on line 203 and 204 you can find the calls I make to Slimeworld and your plugin to delete the custom blocks. Slimeworld has a similar issue, but it does have a very quick check available that enables me to query if there's a block at the location before attempting any removal. However, what would be better would be to get a collection of blocks in a chunk (or some other space), similar to how Entities/TileEntities can be obtained, and then deal with them outside of this loop. Note that island borders can be in the middle of a chunk, so I can't always just delete everything in a chunk (although I wish it was possible).

In terms of the actual block writer, it's usually done using NMS to paste the blocks, with a Bukkit fallback in the NMS version isn't available, e.g., this for 1.20.4.

[LoneDev6]

Would a method that deletes a all the custom blocks data for a chunk or a world be what you need?
Anyway I too use NMS internally, so probably the lag is caused by packets sending on each block change in my API implementation.

[tastybento]

Unfortunately it is possible for chunks to be in more than one island - admins can set islands to abut each other so that players can build right up to the edge and bridge, so deleting everything in a chunk could accidentally delete CustomBlocks in the Nextdoor island.

The ultimate would be to have a method that takes a World and a BoundingBox and delete all the CustomBlocks in that space. However, I suspect that's a bit too much wishful thinking!

If you can provide all the CustomBlocks in a Chunk or a World I could iterate over them checking their location and delete them. I don't expect there will be that many.

[tastybento]

Sorry to bump, but were you able to add anything at all? If getting the CustomBlocks in a chunk is possible, that could work.

[XLordalX]

I'm also looking for a way to iterate over all custom blocks in a chunk in order to tick them.

[LoneDev6]

I will add some methods under CustomBlock#Advanced class.

        public static void deleteAllCustomBlocksInChunk(Chunk chunk)

        @Nullable
        public List<Location> getAllBlocksLocationsList(Chunk chunk)

        @Nullable
        public Map<String, Location> getAllBlocksLocations(Chunk chunk)

        public void runActionOnBlocks(Chunk chunk, BiConsumer<String, Location> action)

[LoneDev6]

Some dumb code to test the new API. Tested and working fine on 1.20.4.

@EventHandler
    private void test(AsyncPlayerChatEvent e)
    {
        if(e.getMessage().contains("deleteAllCustomBlocksInChunk2"))
        {
            CustomBlock.Advanced.deleteAllCustomBlocksInChunk(e.getPlayer().getChunk(), true, true);
        }
        else if(e.getMessage().contains("deleteAllCustomBlocksInChunk"))
        {
            CustomBlock.Advanced.deleteAllCustomBlocksInChunk(e.getPlayer().getChunk());
        }
        else if(e.getMessage().contains("getAllBlocksLocationsList"))
        {
            List<Location> list = CustomBlock.Advanced.getAllBlocksLocationsList(e.getPlayer().getChunk());
            if(list == null)
                return;
            for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++)
            {
                Location location = list.get(i);
                System.out.println(location);
                if(i > 10)
                {
                    System.out.println("and more...");
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        else if(e.getMessage().contains("getAllBlocksLocations"))
        {
            @org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable Map<Location, String> list = CustomBlock.Advanced.getAllBlocksLocations(e.getPlayer().getChunk());
            if(list == null)
                return;

            AtomicInteger i = new AtomicInteger();
            for (Map.Entry<Location, String> entry : list.entrySet())
            {
                String s = entry.getValue();
                Location location = entry.getKey();
                System.out.println(s + " | " + location);
                if (i.get() > 10)
                {
                    System.out.println("and more...");
                    break;
                }
                i.getAndIncrement();
            }
        }
        else if(e.getMessage().contains("runActionOnBlocks"))
        {
            AtomicInteger i = new AtomicInteger();
            CustomBlock.Advanced.runActionOnBlocks(e.getPlayer().getChunk(), (s, location) -> {
                System.out.println(s + " | " + location);
                if (i.get() > 10)
                {
                    System.out.println("and more...");
                    return;
                }
                i.getAndIncrement();
            });
        }
    }

[tastybento]

Fantastic work! Thanks!