BetterGlow

Let every player glow their own way — no permissions, no commands to memorize, just click and glow.

BetterGlow is a lightweight, GUI-driven glow & particle cosmetics plugin for Paper servers. Players pick their own glowing outline color (including a full rainbow/RGB-cycling mode) and/or a particle aura, entirely independent of each other, entirely from a simple inventory menu. All choices persist across logouts and restarts — no database required.

✨ Features

/glow GUI menu — pick everything by clicking, no need to memorize commands.
16 static glow colors for the classic glowing outline (Scoreboard-Team based, fully vanilla-compatible).
Rainbow mode — the glow outline continuously cycles through 10 colors for an RGB-style effect. Cycle speed is configurable.
8 particle auras, completely independent from the glow outline — mix and match freely:
- Enchant sparkles
- Flame
- Heart
- Portal
- Snowflake
- Witch
- End Rod shimmer
- Electric Spark
Glow and particles are independent toggles — enable both, just one, or neither.
No permissions required by default — every player can use it out of the box (easy to restrict with a permission plugin if you want it VIP-only).
Persistent player data — colors and effects are saved per player and restored automatically on join.
Configurable performance — particle spawn rate/count and rainbow cycle speed are adjustable in config.yml to fit servers of any size.
TAB compatibility built in — optional PlaceholderAPI integration (%xglow_glowcolor%) so glow colors keep working even when TAB manages your scoreboard teams. See setup below.

📋 Commands

Command	Description
`/glow`	Opens the GUI menu
`/glow menu`	Same as above
`/glow toggle` \| `/glow on` \| `/glow off`	Toggle the glow outline
`/glow color <colorName>`	Set a specific static glow color
`/glow rainbow` \| `/glow rainbow on` \| `/glow rainbow off`	Toggle rainbow/RGB glow mode
`/glow effect <effectName>`	Enable a particle aura
`/glow effect off`	Disable the particle aura
`/glow help`	Show the in-game help message

Aliases: /xglow

No permission nodes are required — the plugin is designed so every player on the server can use it immediately.

⚙️ Configuration (`config.yml`)

particle:
  interval-ticks: 4   # how often particles spawn (lower = smoother, more performance cost)
  count: 6             # particles spawned per tick

rainbow:
  interval-ticks: 3   # how often the rainbow color changes (lower = faster/smoother cycling)

🔧 Compatibility with TAB / nametag plugins

TAB (and similar plugins that manage scoreboard teams for tablist/nametag coloring) will, by design, block other plugins from assigning their own scoreboard teams — this affects any glow plugin, not just this one. If you use TAB, BetterGlow's colors won't show up out of the box.

Fix: Install PlaceholderAPI. BetterGlow will automatically register the placeholder %xglow_glowcolor%, which returns the player's current glow color code (empty if glow is off). Add it to the end of your tagprefix in TAB's groups.yml:

_DEFAULT_:
  tagprefix: '%luckperms-prefix%%xglow_glowcolor%'

Then run /tab reload. Full details: TAB's official glow-plugin compatibility guide.

📦 Requirements

Server software: Paper (or forks) 1.21 – 1.21.11
Java: 21+
Dependencies: None required. PlaceholderAPI is optional (only needed for TAB compatibility).

📥 Installation

Drop BetterGlow.jar into your plugins/ folder.
Restart (or /reload) the server.
Players run /glow to open the menu.

❓ FAQ

Does this need a permission to use? No — anyone can use /glow by default. Add your own permission check via a permissions plugin if you want to restrict it (e.g. behind a rank).

Can I run glow and particles at the same time? Yes, they're fully independent — enable both, either one, or neither.

Will player data survive a restart? Yes, everything is saved to plugins/BetterGlow/playerdata.yml automatically.

Does rainbow mode support true RGB colors? Vanilla Minecraft's glow outline color is tied to the scoreboard team color field, which only supports 16 legacy colors — true arbitrary RGB isn't possible through this system. Rainbow mode simulates it by rapidly cycling through those colors.

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on the project's source repository.