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I'm not sure what exactly the term for what I'm trying to do is, but I will refer to what I am trying to do as a "cascading light" effect (a light that looks like it's going "downwards" at a consistent speed).

Basically, I am trying to light up certain redstone lamps on a 2D panel of lamps at different times, with each light being lit up the exact same amount of time.

To be a bit more specific, I am dealing with a panel of lights that's comprised of mainly a 11x3 rectangle of redstone lamps, with 7 lamps sticking out around the bottom of the shape (see below image for more details. Also, sorry if the drawings aren't too high quality, they're only here as simple visuals)

The lights will appear to sort of "cascade" towards the bottom of the structure, by lighting up the redstone lamp directly below the already-lit lamp after an interval of time. There will be no delay after some of the lamps are lit; rather, the next set of lamps will light up directly after the initial set.

There are a total of 11 sets of lamps to be lit up, with the first set being only one lamp, the second to ninth sets being comprised of 3 lamps each, set #10 is 5 lamps, and the last set (#11) is 7 lamps. (image below detailing this)

I've found a "minecraft animation" that seems to have just what I'm looking for (but the problem is, this is an animation, and you can't see how the redstone contraption functions due to how it's 2D)

Video: (timestamp: 4:49)

I am playing on vanilla Minecraft, Java Edition, on 1.14.4, and I'd prefer if the redstone circuit did not stretch past the panel of lights, but I can take any design as long as it works. Also, you can change the shape of the panel too, as long as the cascading pattern is still present. Thanks!

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You can use observer chain to conduct the signal, and observers watching the chain to generate the pulses. You'll also need some sort of clock on the input to generate startup pulses. The chain can be branching and twisting, just remember the next observer must be watching (face side into) the previous in the chain. enter image description here

Note if you power a lamp directly from the observer, it will also activate two adjacent lamps. If you want only that singular lamp lit you must add a solid block on the observer to get powered so it only activates (doesn't inject power into) the lamp. enter image description here

You can also inject noteblocks into the chain to speed a branch up against another (or catch up after a bend).

enter image description here

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  • Thank you! This seems to be an easy solution to implement, and it looks to be rather compact.
    – pocketrice
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 13:43
  • Note that this always lights up three lamps at once, so for example in the image in the question e.g. 5, 6 and 7 at once. This seems to be a property of redstone lamps.
    – Fabian Röling
    Commented Sep 16, 2020 at 22:30
  • @FabianRöling: Redstone lamps count as solid blocks, so hard-powered they can activate (soft-power) adjacent blocks, e.g. lamps.
    – SF.
    Commented Sep 16, 2020 at 22:43
  • I know, I tested it with a block between them. If there's no block in between, 5 rows light up at once.
    – Fabian Röling
    Commented Sep 16, 2020 at 22:46
  • @FabianRöling Ah, that's a different property of redstone lamps: they activate immediately but switch off 2 gameticks after the signal vanishes. This for example allows to keep them lit when pulsed with a 4gt clock like the observer clock.
    – SF.
    Commented Sep 16, 2020 at 22:49

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