Blur+ — A mod that adds a background blur effect to menus and inventory in Minecraft

Blur+ — A mod that adds a background blur effect to menus and inventory in Minecraft

Blur+ replaces the basic background blur effect under open Minecraft menus with a broader, customizable version — featuring a color layer over the background, smooth fade-in and fade-out animations, and an optional rainbow mode. Vanilla blur, introduced in Java Edition 1.20, looks the same across all screens and is controlled by a single slider in the accessibility menu. This mod provides a different level of control — from intensity and colors to individual toggles for each screen type. It works client-side only and does not affect the server side.

What the effect looks like

When you open any in-game menu — inventory, chest, crafting table — the background smoothly blurs over a set time, and a semi-transparent color layer is applied on top. When closing the menu, the effect fades out just as smoothly. In the vanilla version, this transition is abrupt and simply looks like a change in transparent darkening; here it is a full animation with separate timings for fade in and fade out.

The blur and the color layer animate independently of each other. You can, for example, configure a fast blur fade-in and a slow background darkening — or vice versa. No shader pack is required for this, the effect is drawn using the game's standard renderer.

Opening the inventory; a one-second blur fade-in is visible

Which screens receive the effect

By default, the effect is applied to most in-game screens:

• containers: inventory, chests, barrels, furnaces, crafting table, brewing stand, and others

• book screens — viewing a finished book

• sign editing screen

• command block screen

• recipe screens of inventory viewer mods — picked up automatically from version 6.2.0

How to configure it

All Blur+ parameters are available for editing through the config/blur.json file — a text JSON created in the config folder upon the first launch of the game with the mod.

Below is a description of what exactly can be changed; the full list of file fields is in the table at the end of the article.

Intensity and animation

The blur strength is controlled in the config file — from a barely noticeable soft haze to a state where the background is almost unreadable. The fade-in and fade-out durations are set separately in milliseconds; a typical range is from instant to about a second. The interpolation curve type can also be changed — the default is flat (FLAT).

Color layer

A two-color gradient in HEX format with separate transparency on a 0–255 scale is drawn over the blurred background. The rotation angle is set in degrees: 0 — top to bottom, 90 — left to right, and so on. If both colors are identical, a solid single-tone fill is produced. The gradient itself can be completely disabled — then only the standard vanilla darkening will remain over the blur.

A separate rainbowMode enables automatic cyclic changing of both colors across the entire spectrum. The start and end points move independently, so the fill flows constantly even on a static screen.

Settings menu with a noticeable gradient mode

Exceptions for specific screens

For cases when you need to enable or disable the effect on a specific GUI, there are two exception lists:

• forceEnabledScreens — forcibly enables blur where it doesn't trigger automatically

• forceDisabledScreens — prevents the effect where it would otherwise turn on

Screen classes are added using their full path. You can peek at the required path via diagnostic mode — once enabled, the full GUI class currently open is displayed in the top left corner of the screen. Copy this string into the respective list, and the effect for that specific menu will change its behavior.

config/blur.json file parameters

Below is the full list of config fields.

Conclusion

Blur+ changes how the background under open menus looks in Minecraft. Vanilla darkening is limited to one slider; this mod provides individual control for each screen type, two gradient colors with transparency, two independent animation curves, and a rainbow fill mode. It is suitable for client builds for screenshots, videos, and streams where a uniform interface look is needed, as well as for players who find standard darkening too pale or too dark.