Capes

Custom player capes for Paper. Players upload a cape image from their browser and wear it in game. Everything the client needs (models, textures and a small core shader) is delivered in resource packs that the plugin builds and serves itself. No client mods and no external resource pack are required.

Features

• Upload from the browser. /cape upload gives a one-time link to an upload page with a live preview. JPG and WebP are converted to PNG automatically.
• Vanilla behaviour. The cape is attached to the shoulders and uses vanilla cape physics: it sways while walking, lifts when running and falling, and sits over a chestplate. It turns smoothly with the body. Like vanilla, it is hidden from your own first-person view and visible in third person (F5).
• Elytra. Equipped elytra get wings textured from the same cape image.
• One small pack per cape. Uploading a new cape sends a pack only to the players who need it. Nobody else gets a resource reload.
• Cape menu. /cape opens a menu with your capes: equip, unequip, delete, upload.
• Coloured names. Cape names in chat and in the menu are tinted with the cape's own colours.
• Configurable. Limits, cape size and position, forced packs, and all messages (MiniMessage).

Requirements

• Paper 1.21.11, 26.1.x, 26.2 or 26.3
• Java 21 for 1.21.11, Java 25 for 26.x (whatever your Paper version already needs)
• One open TCP port for the built-in web server (default 8085)

Installation

1. Put Capes-<version>.jar into plugins/ and start the server.
2. In plugins/Capes/config.yml set public-url to an address players can reach, for example http://your.server.ip:8085.
3. Open that port in your firewall / hosting panel.
4. Restart the server (the web server port is only read on startup).

Commands

Command	Description	Permission
/cape	Open the cape menu	capes.use
/cape upload	Get a one-time upload link	capes.use
/cape set <name>	Equip one of your capes	capes.use
/cape remove	Unequip your cape	capes.use
/cape list	List your capes in chat	capes.use
/cape pack	Re-send the cape resource packs	capes.use
/cape reload	Reload config, messages and packs	capes.admin
/cape admin remove <player> <name>	Delete another player's cape	capes.admin

capes.use is granted to everyone by default, capes.admin to operators.

Cape images

Use the standard Mojang cape layout: 64×32 pixels, or a 2:1 multiple such as 128×64. The same image also provides the elytra wings, exactly like vanilla capes.

Resource packs and the shader

Each cape gets its own pack, served by the plugin at <public-url>/pack/<name>.zip. Packs are added on top of the server's own resource pack, never replacing it.

Packs work for clients from 1.21.11 to 26.3, including players who join through ViaVersion with a different client version than the server.

To hide your own cape in first person, the packs include a core shader: the vanilla item shader plus one small branch. The owner's copy of the cape is tinted rgb(1, 255, 3), and the shader drops that copy when the camera is right next to it (first person).

Each client version has its own item shader, so the pack carries one per version as a pack overlay, and every client loads only its own:

Client	Overlay	Shader
1.21.11	capes_1_21_11	rendertype_item_entity_translucent_cull.vsh / .fsh
26.1.x	capes_26_1	item.vsh / item.fsh
26.2	capes_26_2	item.vsh / item.fsh
26.3	capes_26_3	item.vsh / item.fsh

The shader sources ship inside the plugin jar under pack/overlays/. Other clients get no shader: the cape works, but its owner also sees it in first person.

Minecraft uses only one copy of each shader, the one from the last loaded pack. If your server already sends a resource pack with its own item shader, either:

• set generate-shader: false and copy the branches marked Capes plugin from the matching file above into your shader, or
• set hide-own-cape: false. The shader is then not needed, and you will also see your own cape in first person.

License

MIT.