Research Categories

The research categories system manages the top-level organization of all research entries in the Thaumonomicon. Each category is a tab displayed in the research GUI and contains a collection of ResearchItem entries.

Package

thaumcraft.api.research

Static Registry

public static LinkedHashMap<String, ResearchCategoryList> researchCategories

A map of category key to ResearchCategoryList, maintained in registration order.

Methods

`registerCategory`

public static void registerCategory(String key, ResourceLocation icon, ResourceLocation background)

Registers a new research category. Must be called during FMLPostInitializationEvent — calling it earlier may result in the category being overwritten by Thaumcraft’s defaults.

Parameter	Type	Description
`key`	`String`	Unique identifier for the category (e.g., `"BASICS"`, `"AUROMANCY"`)
`icon`	`ResourceLocation`	Icon displayed on the category tab
`background`	`ResourceLocation`	Background texture for the category’s research grid

Localization key: tc.research_category.<key> (e.g., tc.research_category.BASICS).

`getResearchList`

public static ResearchCategoryList getResearchList(String key)

Returns the ResearchCategoryList for the given key, or null if not registered.

`getCategoryName`

public static String getCategoryName(String key)

Returns the translated category name via StatCollector.translateToLocal("tc.research_category."+key).

`getResearch`

public static ResearchItem getResearch(String key)

Searches all registered categories for a ResearchItem with the given key. Returns null if not found.

`addResearch`

public static void addResearch(ResearchItem ri)

Adds a ResearchItem to its designated category. Validates position conflicts for non-virtual research and updates the category’s display bounds. Overlapping research at the same displayColumn and displayRow is rejected with a FMLLog fatal error.

ResearchCategoryList

public class ResearchCategoryList

Holds category metadata and the map of research items it contains.

Fields

Field	Type	Description
`minDisplayColumn`	`int`	Leftmost column used by any research in this category
`minDisplayRow`	`int`	Topmost row used by any research in this category
`maxDisplayColumn`	`int`	Rightmost column used by any research in this category
`maxDisplayRow`	`int`	Bottommost row used by any research in this category
`icon`	`ResourceLocation`	Tab icon texture
`background`	`ResourceLocation`	Grid background texture
`research`	`Map<String, ResearchItem>`	Map of research key → ResearchItem

Constructor

public ResearchCategoryList(ResourceLocation icon, ResourceLocation background)

Registration Example

// In FMLPostInitEvent
ThaumcraftApi.registerCategory(
    "MYMOD",
    new ResourceLocation("mymod", "textures/research/my_icon.png"),
    new ResourceLocation("mymod", "textures/research/my_background.png")
);

ResearchItem myResearch = new ResearchItem(
    "MYMOD_ResearchKey",
    "MYMOD",
    new AspectList().add(Aspect.FIRE, 1).add(Aspect.AIR, 1),
    3,  // column
    1,  // row
    1,  // complexity
    new ResourceLocation("mymod", "textures/research/my_research.png")
);
myResearch.setPages(
    new ResearchPage("This is my research page text.")
).registerResearchItem();

Localization

Category names use the translation key pattern tc.research_category.<key>. Add entries to your lang file:

tc.research_category.MYMOD=My Mod Research