Redstone dust placed on and beside redstone block does not render the vertical redstone traces

Confirmed in 1.8.3. Could someone please add a proper description?

This is a block state issue. It makes the directional state(s) be turned into 'side' rather than 'up' as it does with normal blocks.

Confirmed for Hoppers as well. This is possibly related to the fact that the redstone block is treated as an output and hoppers are treated as an input..... and the system is thinking that the upper redstone is connected, even though it isn't. The redstone isn't connected, and thus will not receive power from the top piece of redstone, but can power the top piece by directly powering the block it's sitting on rather than powering it by being connected.

Also with hoppers, if you put a top half-slab (or upside-down stairs) 1 block above and to the side of the hopper and put redstone on both, the top will look as if it is connected to the wire on the hopper, but that wire does not look connected, although oddly it does get a signal from the hopper wire when it doesn't seem like it should.

The redstone behavior of hoppers, slabs, and stairs is the same as glowstone, and is intended. The fact that redstone wire doesn't render on the side of those blocks is also intended, since they aren't full blocks and the redstone would render in midair. The exception is the back face of upside down stairs, on which it should render. That should probably be added to this report or a new one made.

Hmm, you're right.

I wasn't aware of that because on glowstone, the redstone is fully connected even though power won't flow down. So I guess what I said with stairs is a non-issue (looking like it's not connected makes more sense sending in 1 direction) but with glowstone looking normal actually should be a separate issue. Although I think rendering it similarly to this issue (looks connected horizontally, but not vertically) isn't the best solution (especially with top half slabs), either, IMO.

So really, the wires connected at the bottom are connected to the redstone block, and the redstone on top shouldn't connect to them at all ('none' variant). The power can only be full-on, so a top piece of redstone is unneeded unless you're moving on the same level or higher.

With glowstone, the vertical wire shouldn't be removed, because it does serve a purpose. It allows power to go from a wire on the ground to the wire on top. For redstone blocks, it's true that it doesn't really matter since they provide power, but they should render correctly anyway, for aesthetic purposes.

IMO, not really. The way I see it, the only logical explanation for how glowstone acts with 'redstone stairs' is that the wire doesn't connect, but the wire connects directly to the glowstone block causing the block itself to be powered which powers the redstone atop it. Thus power travels only up because of how redstone propagates power from redstone to blocks.

That's why I think that, while the display for top half slabs actually seems more correct, the idea of the block getting 'powered' through redstone not even touching it doesn't make sense at all.

EDIT: On the subject of why redstone even has these issues and doesn't just connect the same way it does everywhere..... what's the point of 1-way power travel on glowstone that repeaters/comparators/redstone torch towers don't do?

Repeaters/comparators act as diodes, allowing 1-way power travel.

Torch towers send power upwards, act as a diode (power only goes up), take up less space than a glowstone/redstone ladder, AND they send a signal up as high as you need (glowstone /redstone ladder has the power distance of normal redstone wire).

So unless I'm missing some advantage or original need, why was the exception for transparent blocks and redstone ever added? I don't think I've really seen it used much by redstoners, either. Might be easier to wire in some specific cases, but seems really easy to forget and bad for future changes, probably causing issues like this one.

I guess in the long run it would be best just to make redstone blocks treat redstone like normal blocks do. However, it might be linked (possibly hardcoded) to this transparent block redstone behavior, so an exception of an exception on redstone connecting logic is only going to make things worse. So really I think they should look at that behavior and see if it's needed, maybe ask the community or do a poll (on how many users dislike the change, would have broken maps, etc.) or maybe even just a warning for a grace period to warn people of the change so they can switch over to torch towers.

Glowstone towers are 7 times faster.