Redstone Lamp



A Redstone Lamp is a golden block visually resembling Glowstone (hence its crafting materials) that gives off light as long as it is powered. While powered, they have a luminance of 15, one level higher than a torch and the same light level as glowstone. They require constant input in order to emit light. Similarly to other light emitting blocks, they will melt snow and ice.

Behavior
A Redstone Lamp with a switch placed on it will behave just like a standard solid block, meaning that if a Redstone Lamp is powered, it will power the block adjacent to it. It will also power Redstone wire if it is placed on top of, underneath, or directly next to the lamp following the same principles as a standard solid block. Unlike Glowstone, when a Redstone Lamp is broken it will not break into Glowstone Dust or Redstone Dust. Instead it will yield one Redstone Lamp, just like a standard block. It should also be noted that the lamps have not yet been optimized so a large number of blinking lights can cause FPS drops or even crashes.

Uses
A player may be tempted to use a redstone lamp as a functional light source, however unless the player is in peaceful mode, mobs will likely spawn in an unlit room (unless your flooring is half steps, in which mobs can't spawn). The fact that glowstone and torches emit light constantly makes them a better lighting option.

Redstone lamps can instead be used to create a redstone display as an alternative for redstone torches, which do not emit much light, the player creating such a display however should be aware that each "pixel" is a small cross making straight lines impossible. This can be corrected by making the screen 2 blocks (of redstone lamps) thick. Then add levers or some other activator on one side of the display. On the opposite side, only one pixel will be displayed.

A system of redstone lamps wired to a half day clock can be used to illuminate a structure at night automatically as long as the clock is synchronized properly to spawning light levels of mobs.

Because mobs can spawn on unlit lamps it makes them a great way to make a mob killing system because you can control when you want the mobs to spawn by having the lights on or off. You can also hook up a bunch of lamps to a line of repeaters to make a timed light.

Redstone lamps may also be used for automated mushroom farming, since a mushroom will "pop" if the light level becomes too high.

History

 * The Redstone Lamp was introduced in Snapshot 12w07a on February 15th, 2012. Jeb passively announced the addition of Lamps in a tweet the day before its release in response to another tweet.
 * The texture for the off-state lamp was darkened in Minecraft 1.2 Preview.
 * The Redstone Lamp is included in Minecraft 1.2.

Bugs

 * Redstone Lamps placed outside and turned on can cause performance drops, which are especially noticeable on lower-end computers.(this is due to Jeb changing lighting to clientside)
 * Breaking a lit Redstone Lamp will yield a lit Redstone Lamp block which does not stack with normal, unlit Redstone Lamps in the inventory. Placing the lit version away from a Redstone power source will instantly unlight it, allowing it to drop normally and be stacked with other unlit Redstone Lamps. This is likely due to it being two separate blocks, to be compared with Redstone Ore and glowing Redstone Ore, or Redstone Torches. (Fixed as of 1.2.4)
 * Rarely, a flashing Redstone Lamp will light certain nearby blocks. However, if the player places a block directly under the lamp, the circuit will stop.

Trivia

 * If you set the redstone lamp on a timer so it turns on and off and you shoot an arrow at the top or side, the arrow will vibrate while making the sound of the arrow sticking to a block.
 * Although it makes the sound of Glass (like Glowstone and Glass Pane) when broken, it acts like a solid block.
 * Placing a redstone torch anywhere adjacent to the lamp, other than on the lamp itself, will power it.
 * Pressure plates, buttons, and levers can all be placed on top of it or next to it, giving it power.
 * Unlike redstone torches, rapidly turning lamps on and off will not burn them out.
 * Just like TNT, you can have a block above a redstone lamp, and a pressure plate on that, and the lamp will light if the plate is stepped on. This can be an effective warning method.
 * Placing one unlit redstone lamp anywhere beside a lit redstone lamp will cause the unlit redstone lamp to become lit. (This only happens because the redstone lamp transmits power to the second one.)
 * This happens only if the lit redstone lamp is powered by a torch underneath it, redstone wire next to it, a button on its side, or a lever on its side. Torches, pressure plates and levers next to a redstone lamp do not light up adjacent lamps. This is the behavior of most opaque blocks as described under Basic Mechanics of Redstone Circuits.