Solar Cooker Mod Wiki

The Solar Cooker Mod provides a sustainable alternative to the standard furnace and smoker. By harnessing the power of the sun, players can cook items without consuming any fuel resources. While the base cooking speed is slower than a vanilla furnace, the system can be upgraded with reflectors to match or exceed standard cooking speeds.

The mod is designed with performance in mind, utilizing the optimized logic of the FastFurnace mod to reduce server lag and improve tick efficiency.

Solar Cooker

The central block of the mod. It functions similarly to a furnace but features a sun icon in the interface instead of a fuel slot.

• Function: Processes items when exposed to sunlight.
• Tool: Axe (Effective tool).
• Inventory: Contains one input slot and one output slot. In versions 1.21 and later, it also includes two dedicated slots for Reflectors.

Shining Block of Diamond

A specialized utility block that acts as an artificial sun. When placed above a Solar Cooker, it allows the cooker to function regardless of the time of day or weather conditions.

• Placement: Must be placed between 2 and 6 blocks directly above the Solar Cooker.
• Obstructions: Only translucent blocks (like glass) or air may exist between the Shining Block and the Cooker.
• Tool: Pickaxe (Effective tool).

Reflector

Reflectors are essential upgrades used to increase the efficiency of the Solar Cooker. By concentrating more light onto the cooking surface, they significantly reduce the time required to process items.

• Usage (Pre-1.21): Placed as physical blocks adjacent to the Solar Cooker (up to 4 can be placed on the sides).
• Usage (1.21+): Placed directly into the two upgrade slots within the Solar Cooker's GUI.
• Tool: Axe (Effective tool).

To operate a Solar Cooker, three primary conditions must be met (unless a Shining Block of Diamond is used):

1. Sky Access: There must be no solid blocks between the Solar Cooker and the sky.
2. Daytime: The sun must be above the horizon.
3. Clear Weather: The cooker will stop functioning during rain or thunderstorms.

Interface

The Solar Cooker GUI features a sun symbol.

• Active: The sun symbol is colored, indicating cooking progress is occurring.
• Inactive: The sun symbol is grayed out, indicating a lack of sunlight or a block obstruction.

Cooking Speed

By default, the Solar Cooker is 4 times slower than a vanilla Smoker. This can be adjusted in the configuration or mitigated by using Reflectors.

Crafting Recipes

Solar Cooker (Version 1.20.1 and earlier)

Solar Cooker (Version 1.21+)

Reflector (Version 1.20.1 and earlier)

Reflector (Version 1.21+)

Special Recipes

Shining Block of Diamond: Created by placing a Block of Diamond into the Solar Cooker. It requires 3000 ticks (150 seconds) of sunlight to complete.

The mod is highly customizable via the config file.

• vanillaRecipeType: Defines which vanilla recipes the cooker accepts. Options include "smoking" (default pre-1.21), "smelting" (default 1.21+), "blasting", or "campfire_cooking".
• vanillaRecipesEnabled: Set to false to disable all vanilla recipes and only allow custom datapack recipes.
• recipeBlacklist: A comma-separated list of recipe IDs to disable (e.g., "minecraft:baked_potato").
• cookTimeFactor: Multiplier for cooking time. 1.0 is vanilla speed; 4.0 is the default (4x slower).
• maxReflectorSpeedFactor: Determines the maximum speed boost from reflectors. Default is 0.5 (reducing time by half) in newer versions.

Tags

Modders and pack creators can use the following tags to modify behavior:

• solarcooker:solar_cooker_shining: Add blocks to this tag to allow them to act as sun substitutes like the Shining Block of Diamond.
• solarcooker:solar_cooker_reflector: Items in this tag can be used in the reflector slots.

Datapack Support

You can add custom recipes specifically for the Solar Cooker using the solarcooker:solarcooking type.

Example JSON:

{
 "type": "solarcooker:solarcooking",
 "ingredient": { "item": "minecraft:iron_ore" },
 "result": "minecraft:iron_nugget",
 "experience": 0.3,
 "cookingtime": 600
}