How do I tint blocks and items?

[haykam821]

Some blocks, like leaves and other foliage, and some items, such as leather armor, have dynamic colors assigned to them. How can I implement this in my own Fabric mod?

[haykam821]

This functionality is enabled by a system called color providers. Although Minecraft does not easily allow new color providers to be added, Fabric API provides a set of hooks in the form of ColorProviderRegistry to allow mods to register their own color providers. Color providers are completely client-side, and thus this should be registered in the client-only mod initializer only.

Both block and item color providers require a tint index to be specified. This is useful for two reasons:

• Certain parts of the model can be left untinted.
• Multiple tints can be present on the model.

Blocks

For block models, each face of a cube can have its own tint index, specified as an integer using the tintindex property.

Block model with tint indices

{
	"parent": "block/block",
	"textures": {
		"all": "block/white_wool",
		"particle": "#all"
	},
	"elements": [{
		"from": [
			0,
			0,
			0
		],
		"to": [
			16,
			16,
			16
		],
		"faces": {
			"down": {
				"uv": [
					0,
					0,
					16,
					16
				],
				"texture": "#all",
				"cullface": "down",
				"tintindex": 0
			},
			"up": {
				"uv": [
					0,
					0,
					16,
					16
				],
				"texture": "#all",
				"cullface": "up",
				"tintindex": 0
			},
			"north": {
				"uv": [
					0,
					0,
					16,
					16
				],
				"texture": "#all",
				"cullface": "north",
				"tintindex": 0
			},
			"south": {
				"uv": [
					0,
					0,
					16,
					16
				],
				"texture": "#all",
				"cullface": "south",
				"tintindex": 0
			},
			"west": {
				"uv": [
					0,
					0,
					16,
					16
				],
				"texture": "#all",
				"cullface": "west",
				"tintindex": 0
			},
			"east": {
				"uv": [
					0,
					0,
					16,
					16
				],
				"texture": "#all",
				"cullface": "east",
				"tintindex": 0
			}
		}
	}]
}

The color provider must then be registered to compute the tint when a tint index is specified:

ColorProviderRegistry.BLOCK.register((state, world, pos, tintIndex) -> {
	return 0xFF0000;
}, TINTED_BLOCK);

Returning -1 from a color provider results in no tint.

Items

Because item models are the same as block models, the tintindex in item models can be used in the same way. However, the item/generated model exposes tint indices, and can be used in a way such as:

{
	"parent": "item/generated",
	"textures": {
		"layer0": "fabricexample:item/base_texture",
		"layer1": "fabricexample:item/tinted_overlay"
	}
}

The color provider is registered with the item stack as context.

ColorProviderRegistry.ITEM.register((stack, tintIndex) -> {
	return 0xFF0000;
}, TINTED_ITEM);

[Daomephsta]

@haykam821

Color providers are completely client-side, and thus this should <-- Missing Something

Both block and item color providers require a tint index to be specified. This is useful for two reasons:

You've missed something.

[haykam821]

Fixed, thanks.