Camera Obscura

!Animated Render

Camera Obscura is a server‑side software rasterizer that renders the world as seen by any entity (player, mob, etc.) directly on the server, producing Photos or Videos as Minecraft maps. It has deep integrations for custom items (Nexo, ItemsAdder) and a custom preset system.

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Features

• Take photos: Generate a map item showing what the target entity sees.
• Record videos: Capture your world on video and play it back on item frames.
• Fully configurable: Resolution, color mode, dithering, render distance, and more.
• Custom item support: Create cameras/camcorders with any appearance via Nexo or ItemsAdder.
• Asynchronous rendering: Never blocks the main server thread.
• No client mods required: Everything is server‑side; maps/recordings work on vanilla clients.

!PNG Render

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Installation

Fabric Server

1. Install Fabric API and Polymer (for virtual items).
2. Place camera-obscura-fabric.jar into your mods/ folder.
3. The configuration file will be created on start.

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Configuration

The configuration file is config/cameraobscura/config.json.

{
  "renderDistance": 32,
  "showSystemMessages": false,
  "renderEntities": true,
  "fullbright": false,
  "fov": 70,
  "biomeBlend": 1,
  "ssaa": 2,
  "maxChunkRebuildsPerTick": 5,
  "debug": false,
  "cameraConsumesItem": true,
  "cameraConsumeItem": "map",
  "commandPermissionLevel": 2
}

Option	Description
renderDistance	View distance in blocks (higher = longer render time).
showSystemMessages	Show “Taking photo…” / “Done!” messages in chat.
renderEntities	Whether to render entities (players, mobs, item frames) in the picture.
fullbright	Ignore lighting (everything appears at full brightness).
fov	Field of view in degrees (default is 70).
biomeBlend	Radius for blending block colors (biome tint). 0 = no blending.
ssaa	Supersampling anti‑aliasing factor (1 = off, 2 = 2x supersampling, 3 = 3x).
maxChunkRebuildsPerTick	Maximum chunks rebuilt per frame per video recording and live-map (to limit CPU spikes).
debug	Print frame timings and show FPS overlay on the output image.
cameraConsumesItem	Whether taking a photo consumes an item (e.g. a map).
cameraConsumeItem	Required item material (e.g. map, paper).
commandPermissionLevel	Base permission level for commands.

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Commands & Permissions

Base permission cameraobscura.command.

All commands use the root /camera-obscura

1. Take a map from your perspective

/camera-obscura [scale]

• scale: multiply the map resolution (1 = 128×128, 2 = 256×256, up to 3).
• Gives you a filled map showing what you see.

2. Take a map of another entities perspective

/camera-obscura <entity> <player> [scale]

• <entity>: any living entity (player, mob, etc.)
• <player>: who receives the map item.

3. Save as PNG image

/camera-obscura save [entity] [scale]

• Saves the rendered image as a .png in config/cameraobscura/renders/.

4. Reload configuration

/camera-obscura reload

Reloads the config file.

5. Clear resource/model cache

/camera-obscura clear-cache

6. Give a camera item

/camera-obscura give <preset> [player]

• <preset>: The name of a preset defined in presets.json (e.g. camera, camcorder, instant, polaroid, pro_camera, handycam, cctv).
• [player]: Optional player name; if omitted, gives the item to the command sender.

Examples:

• /camera-obscura give camera -> gives yourself the default camera.
• /camera-obscura give camcorder Pinnit -> gives the player Pinnit a camcorder.
• /camera-obscura give my-preset -> gives yourself an item from a preset.

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📷 Using the Camera Item

Basic Camera

• Hold the camera in your main hand.
• Right‑click -> after a countdown, the photo map item appears in your inventory (or drops on the ground if full).
• The map shows the world from your viewpoint at that moment.

Camcorder

• Same controls, but starts recording instead of taking a single photo.
• The action-bar text indicates recording.
• Release to stop recording, the video will be saved as a map item that can be played back on item-frames.
• While recording, particles appear around the camera (frame effect).
• Videos are stored as APNG in config/cameraobscura/camera_videos/<id>.apng

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Components

The mod uses data components to store camera settings on the item stack.

This allows you to create cameras with different resolutions, color modes, and video parameters using standard commands, recipes, or loot tables.

Available Components

Component ID	Type	Description
camera-obscura:color	string (ColorMode)	"COLOR", "MONOCHROME", "GRAYSCALE", "SEPIA"
camera-obscura:resolution	{width:int, height:int}	Resolution in pixels (e.g. {width:256, height:256})
camera-obscura:dither	string (DitherMode)	"NONE", "BAYER_2X2", "FLOYD_STEINBERG", etc. (see full list below)
camera-obscura:video	{frame_rate:int, max_frames:int, loop_playback:bool}	Video recording parameters
camera-obscura:map	unit	Marks the item as a live map (internal)
camera-obscura:camera_entity	entity_reference	Stores the entity that took the photo (internal)
camera-obscura:data	{id:uuid, video_params:...}	Internal video data

DitherMode values: NONE, BAYER_2X2, BAYER_4X4, BAYER_8X8, FLOYD_STEINBERG, ATKINSON, JARVIS_JUDICE_NINKE, STUCKI, SIERRA, BURKES

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Using Components in Commands

/give

/give @p camera-obscura:camera[camera-obscura:color="SEPIA",camera-obscura:resolution={width:512,height:512},camera-obscura:dither="FLOYD_STEINBERG"]

/item modify

Create a data pack with an item modifier:

{
  "function": "set_components",
  "components": {
    "camera-obscura:color": "GRAYSCALE",
    "camera-obscura:resolution": { "width": 192, "height": 192 },
    "camera-obscura:dither": "BAYER_8X8"
  }
}

Then run: /item modify entity @s weapon.mainhand my_pack:camera_settings

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Using Components in Recipes

In a crafting recipes:

{
  "type": "minecraft:crafting_shaped",
  "pattern": ["###", "#P#", "###"],
  "key": {
    "#": "minecraft:iron_ingot",
    "P": "minecraft:ender_pearl"
  },
  "result": {
    "id": "camera-obscura:camera",
    "components": {
      "camera-obscura:color": "SEPIA",
      "camera-obscura:resolution": { "width": 128, "height": 128 },
      "camera-obscura:dither": "NONE"
    }
  }
}

For a camcorder (video mode), include video:

"components": {
  "camera-obscura:color": "COLOR",
  "camera-obscura:resolution": { "width": 256, "height": 256 },
  "camera-obscura:video": { "frame_rate": 15, "max_frames": 300 }
}

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Giving a Camcorder with Default Video Settings

The basic camcorder item (without components) uses global config defaults. To explicitly set video parameters:

/give @s camera-obscura:camcorder[camera-obscura:video={frame_rate:10,max_frames:200,loop_playback:true}]

Built-in Items

On Fabric, Camera Obscura adds a few built‑in camera and camcorder items with pre‑configured settings (color mode, resolution, video parameters).

Camera Items (Photo Mode)

Item ID	color Mode	Resolution	Dithering
camera-obscura:camera	COLOR	128×128	NONE
camera-obscura:grayscale_camera	GRAYSCALE	128×128	NONE
camera-obscura:primitive_camera	MONOCHROME	128×128	NONE
camera-obscura:retro_camera	SEPIA	128×128	NONE

Camcorder Items (Video Mode)

Record videos with pre‑set framerate and max frame count.

Item ID	color Mode	Resolution	Dithering	Video (FPS / Max Frames)
camera-obscura:camcorder	COLOR	128×128	NONE	10 FPS / 400 frames
camera-obscura:grayscale_camcorder	GRAYSCALE	128×128	NONE	20 FPS / 400 frames
camera-obscura:primitive_camcorder	MONOCHROME	128×128	NONE	20 FPS / 400 frames
camera-obscura:retro_camcorder	SEPIA	128×128	NONE	20 FPS / 400 frames

Usage example:

/give @s camera-obscura:grayscale_camera

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Video Playback

To play back a video maps:

• Place the map in an item frame.
• Right‑click the item frame and the video will start playing on the map.
• Right‑click again to stop playback.

Presets

You can add your own presets, pre‑configured camera items with custom materials, display names, and camera settings (resolution, color mode, dither mode, video parameters).

Presets are stored in presets.json and can be given to players using the /camera-obscura give <preset> <player> command.

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Preset Configuration Format

The presets.json file contains a JSON object where each key is a preset name and the value is an object with the following fields:

Field	Description
material	Item ID (e.g. "paper", "clock")
camera	Camera‑specific options (see below)
components	Optional vanilla data components to apply to the item stack (1.20.5+)

Camera Options

All fields are optional

Field	Type	Description
resolution	{ width, height }	Output resolution in pixels (e.g. { "width": 256, "height": 256 })
color_mode	string	"COLOR", "MONOCHROME", "GRAYSCALE", "SEPIA"
dither_mode	string	"NONE", "BAYER_2X2", "FLOYD_STEINBERG", etc.
video_params	{ frame_rate, max_frames }	Video recording parameters

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Default Presets

The mod ships with several ready‑to‑use presets. You can modify or delete them as you like.

{
  "camera": {
    "material": "paper",
    "camera": {
      "resolution": { "width": 128, "height": 128 },
      "color_mode": "COLOR",
      "dither_mode": "NONE",
      "video": { "frame_rate": 0, "max_frames": 1 }
    },
    "components": {
      "minecraft:item_name": { "text": "Camera", "color": "gold" },
      "minecraft:max_stack_size": 1
    }
  },
  "camcorder": {
    "material": "paper",
    "camera": {
      "resolution": { "width": 128, "height": 128 },
      "color_mode": "COLOR",
      "dither_mode": "NONE",
      "video": { "frame_rate": 20, "max_frames": 200 }
    }
  },
  "instant": {
    "material": "paper",
    "camera": {
      "resolution": { "width": 256, "height": 256 },
      "color_mode": "SEPIA",
      "dither_mode": "BAYER_4X4"
    },
    "components": {
      "minecraft:item_name": { "text": "Instant Camera", "italic": false }
    }
  },
  "polaroid": {
    "material": "paper",
    "camera": {
      "resolution": { "width": 512, "height": 512 },
      "color_mode": "GRAYSCALE",
      "dither_mode": "FLOYD_STEINBERG"
    },
    "components": {
      "minecraft:item_name": { "text": "Polaroid", "color": "white" },
      "minecraft:custom_model_data": 1
    }
  },
  "pro_camera": {
    "material": "ender_eye",
    "camera": {
      "resolution": { "width": 128, "height": 128 },
      "color_mode": "COLOR",
      "dither_mode": "NONE",
      "video": { "frame_rate": 30, "max_frames": 600 }
    },
    "components": {
      "minecraft:item_name": { "text": "Pro Camera", "color": "light_purple", "bold": true },
      "minecraft:max_stack_size": 1,
      "minecraft:custom_model_data": 2
    }
  },
  "handycam": {
    "material": "clock",
    "camera": {
      "resolution": { "width": 256, "height": 256 },
      "color_mode": "COLOR",
      "dither_mode": "BAYER_2X2",
      "video": { "frame_rate": 15, "max_frames": 450 }
    },
    "components": {
      "minecraft:item_name": { "text": "Handycam", "color": "aqua" },
      "minecraft:max_stack_size": 1
    }
  },
  "cctv": {
    "material": "observer",
    "camera": {
      "resolution": { "width": 192, "height": 192 },
      "color_mode": "MONOCHROME",
      "dither_mode": "SIERRA",
      "video": { "frame_rate": 5, "max_frames": 30000 }
    },
    "components": {
      "minecraft:item_name": { "text": "CCTV Camera", "color": "dark_gray" },
      "minecraft:max_stack_size": 1
    }
  }
}

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Using Presets in Commands

/camera-obscura give camera
/camera-obscura give camcorder
/camera-obscura give instant
/camera-obscura give handycam Notch

Tab completion suggests available preset names.

Reloading Presets

After editing presets.json while the server is running, run:

/camera-obscura reload

This reloads both the main configuration and all presets without restarting the server.

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How It Works (Technical Overview)

Camera Obscura runs completely on the server and uses a software rasterizer to draw the scene pixel by pixel.

• The renderer requests chunks and entities around the target.
• Block models are converted into triangles and stored in a cache (per chunk).
• Lighting, ambient occlusion, and fog are computed from the actual world state.
• Rendering happens asynchronously on a separate thread pool, no lag for the main game.
• After rendering, the image is converted to (a) Minecraft map(s) (or saved as PNG).
• Video recording captures frames at the configured framerate.

Performance considerations

• Higher resolution & SSAA increase CPU usage drastically.
• Render distances above 128 may cause issues if chunks are not loaded.
• Video recording is CPU‑intensive. For high‑quality recordings, consider lowering the framerate!

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Troubleshooting

Problem	Check
Photo doesn't appear in inventory	Check that cameraConsumesItem is false or you have the required item (e.g. a map).
“Missing required item” message	You need the configured cameraConsumeItem material in your inventory.
Very long render times (> 5 seconds)	Reduce renderDistance, ssaa, or resolution. Enable debug to see per‑frame timings.
Server crashes with OOM error	Increase server memory (-Xmx2G or more). Lower renderDistance and ssaa.
Custom Nexo/ItemsAdder item ignored	Ensure the camera section is correctly indented and the mechanic is spelled exactly camera.

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