Noxesium — a mod for better play on large multiplayer servers in Minecraft

Noxesium — a mod for better play on large multiplayer servers in Minecraft

Noxesium is a client-side mod for Fabric that improves Minecraft's behavior on large public servers: it closes a number of long-standing vanilla bugs, adds several useful HUD options, and gives supporting servers better control over the client.

It was originally written as an internal tool for the MC Championship tournament and the MCC Island studio's own server, but it became a public release and is now included automatically in some Lunar Client builds. It runs client-side only, so there's no need to install anything extra on the server for basic use.

Vanilla bug fixes

This is the section that even players who have never visited Noxcrew projects install the mod for. Each fix corresponds to a specific ticket on Mojira and doesn't touch any other game mechanics.

• MC-263293 — after death, the sprint toggle is no longer reset. This is a separate accessibility setting, enabled by default. You no longer have to re-enable sprinting every time after respawning.

• MC-259812 — transparent entity models are correctly visible behind text panels. In vanilla they would become invisible, which spoiled the look of decorative menus and interface elements on servers.

• MC-256850 — the walls of moving pistons flicker less during movement. Noticeable in complex redstone mechanisms and the moving parts of server maps.

• MC-577 — the keys for closing the inventory and dropping an item work if they're bound to the side mouse buttons. The ticket has been sitting in the tracker since 2011.

• MC-301281 — mouse buttons in toggle mode correctly return to a working state after any menu is closed.

• Passenger entities that teleport no longer jerk in jolts — useful for server minigames involving travel on rideable mobs.

Accessing the settings menu

The separate Noxesium menu opens right in the game with the F3+W combination. It's placed in a separate window and doesn't mix with Minecraft's standard menu. Through it you configure the mod's client options: interface scaling, map behavior, debug overlays, accessibility options. All changes are saved between sessions without editing external files.

The mod's settings menu 

HUD and interface settings

The mod offers several options that aren't in the base game and that are usually sought in separate interface modifications.

• Scaling of HUD elements. Individual interface elements can be enlarged or shrunk independently of the overall GUI scale. Useful for ultrawide monitors or high resolutions where the vanilla HUD seems too small.

• An off-hand map as a HUD element. Instead of holding a physical map to the side (where it sways with the camera due to the bobbing effect while walking and creeps across the screen), it can be displayed as a fixed interface panel. More convenient for orienting yourself while moving. The server can force this option on for all players.

• Debug overlays. A separate set of indicators for server developers and shader authors: displaying entity culling hitboxes, a game timer for shaders, exceptions for scoreboard commands that cause protocol errors.

What servers with mod support get

A separate part of the functionality only works when the server also supports the mod via a special server plugin for Paper. For the player, this part simply looks like "on this server everything runs more smoothly and looks nicer." In practice, the server gains access to the following capabilities:

• Custom interactive blocks on the client side — speed pads, trampolines, areas with increased movement speed. They work without ping delay because the logic runs on the client.

• Moving control of the behavior of the trident with the Riptide effect, elytra, and dash spears to the client. The dash looks the same regardless of the player's ping — critical for PvP servers and competitive modes like MC Championship.

• A custom audio system with volume changes over time, playback from a given offset, and resumption after a pause. Used for server cutscenes and soundtracks.

• Player heads right in text chat messages or in boss bar titles, with positional offset and varying scale.

• Changing the hitbox sizes of entities, including non-standard shapes. Useful for server mobs that look different from the vanilla model.

• Changing the beam height of a beacon, blocking the moving of items in the GUI, locking the camera, hiding the HUD during cutscenes.

Conclusion

Noxesium solves two tasks at once. The first — it closes a number of long-standing vanilla bugs that get in the way in multiplayer, chiefly the sprint toggle resetting after death and invisible transparent models behind text panels. The second — it gives supporting servers tools for controlling the client that vanilla doesn't provide access to: custom interactive blocks, client-authoritative tridents, custom hitboxes, player heads in text. It suits those who play on MCC Island and other Noxcrew projects, use Lunar Client builds with the mod built in, or simply want bugs fixed without installing a separate patcher mod.