v2.0.0: Minecraft 1.21-1.21.5, a settings screen, and a built-in server plugin

CrowBar v2.0.0

CrowBar now runs on every Minecraft release from 1.21 to 26.3. On 1.21-1.21.5, which have no locator bar, it draws its markers over the experience bar. A new settings screen adds appearance options and hold-or-toggle keys, and every jar now doubles as an optional server plugin that sends CrowBar players' positions and GriefPrevention claim markers.

Added

Minecraft 1.21-1.21.5

• New Fabric builds for Minecraft 1.21-1.21.1 and 1.21.2-1.21.5, and NeoForge builds for 1.21-1.21.1 and 1.21.3-1.21.5. NeoForge never had a stable 1.21.2 release.
• Markers sit on the experience bar with the same names, faces, distances, colors, claim bowties and settings as on the locator bar. In creative, where there is no experience bar, a thin track is drawn for them.
• Players come from Allium or the CrowBar server plugin when the server runs one, from the integrated server in singleplayer and on LAN hosts, and otherwise from the players the client already has loaded. Nobody else on the server needs CrowBar.
• Players hide from the bar the same way they do from vanilla's locator bar on 1.21.6 and later: by sneaking, being invisible, wearing a carved pumpkin or mob head, or spectating.

Settings Screen

• Opens with the new \ key, from Mod Menu on Fabric, or from the mod list's Config button on NeoForge, in three tabs: General, Appearance and Controls.
• Settings now persist across restarts in config/crowbar.json. Before this release, toggles reset every launch.
• Appearance options are off by default, except Dim other labels, which keeps its existing default of on.

Appearance Options

• Label background: a dark plate behind each label so it stays readable over bright terrain.
• Raise HUD: hearts, hunger, armor, the experience level, the held item name, the action bar and chat smoothly lift above the labels while any label is showing.
• Dim other labels: on by default, as before; turning it off draws every label at full opacity.
• Hide overlapping labels: skips labels that would overlap one nearer the crosshair.
• Skin frame: draws faces inside a frame in the player's dot color, so team colors stay visible with skins on.
• Fade distant markers: fades markers between 100 and 1000 blocks; the range is set in the config file.
• Dot colors: team colors (as before), a color per player ignoring teams, or one single color for everyone. On servers without Allium, CrowBar repaints vanilla's dots to match. Hex colors can be set in config/crowbar.json.
• Your dot color: your own marker's color in view-self mode, with automatic or custom hex color.
• Height arrows can now be turned off.

Hold or Toggle Keys

• Each feature key (name tags, skins, distance, view self) can be set to Toggle or Hold on the Controls tab. Hold shows the feature only while the key is down.

Server Plugin

• Every CrowBar jar is also a Paper, Spigot, Purpur and Folia plugin. CrowBar-plugin-2.0.0.jar on the GitHub release is the plugin on its own.
• Player locator: sends CrowBar players the positions of everyone in their world, far beyond the server's tracking range, using the same payload as Allium. Hidden players are left out of the data entirely. It brings over Player Locator Plus's server settings: update interval, maximum distance, hiding rules for sneaking, invisible, spectating, vanished and disguised players, direction and distance precision, and team, unique, constant or player-chosen colors with /crowbar color.
• Claim waypoints: with GriefPrevention or GriefPrevention3D installed, claims appear as bowtie markers to their owner and trusted players, the same markers GPExpansion publishes. On Paper 1.21.6 and newer, players without CrowBar see them on their vanilla locator bar too. /crowbar claims picks which claims show there.
• crowbar.locator.see-hidden (op by default) shows sneaking, invisible, disguised and spectating players, like Allium's allium.crowbar.
• Optional client-appearance server settings can set appearance options for CrowBar clients.
• Each part steps aside when Allium or GPExpansion already provides it.

Fixed

• The 1.21.9-1.21.11 Fabric jar required Fabric API 0.141.4, which only exists for 1.21.11, so it refused to load on 1.21.9 and 1.21.10. It now requires 0.134.0.
• The 26.1.x Fabric jar required Fabric API 0.150.0, which only exists for 26.1.2, so it refused to load on 26.1 and 26.1.1. It now requires 0.145.1.
• In the 1.21.6-1.21.11 jars and the 26.x NeoForge jars, on servers without Allium, marker entities and datapack waypoints no longer get a raw UUID as their label, and labels over vanilla's dots are centered on the dot instead of four pixels to its left.

Technical Changes

• Settings, key handling, the HUD lift animation, label overlap rules, colors and fading live in the shared common module, with unit tests. A test also keeps every jar's language file identical and complete.
• Added the version21_0 and version21_2 subprojects and the bukkit server plugin subproject. Each loader jar bundles the plugin through gradle/universal-jar.gradle and tells Paper not to remap it.
• NeoForge dev runs (runClient) work again; they could not load the common module's classes.
• Release automation now builds, attaches and publishes fifteen client jars plus the standalone plugin. The Fabric listings on Modrinth also list the Bukkit-family loaders.

Testing

• The full Gradle build succeeds for all fifteen client jars, the standalone plugin, and the shared modules, including the common and plugin test tasks.
• Verified in-game on Fabric 1.21.1, 1.21.5, 1.21.8 and 26.3, in singleplayer and on dedicated servers. NeoForge 1.21.1, 1.21.5 and 1.21.8 settings and view-self behavior were also checked.
• Verified the plugin on Paper 1.21.5 and 1.21.8 with GriefPrevention3D and CrowBar and vanilla clients connected, including far-player updates, hiding rules, colors, bearing-only precision, and claim markers.

Downloads

• CrowBar-1.21-1.21.1-2.0.0.jar / CrowBar-1.21-1.21.1-neoforge-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 1.21-1.21.1
• CrowBar-1.21.2-1.21.5-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 1.21.2-1.21.5 (Fabric)
• CrowBar-1.21.3-1.21.5-neoforge-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 1.21.3-1.21.5 (NeoForge)
• CrowBar-1.21.6-1.21.8-2.0.0.jar / CrowBar-1.21.6-1.21.8-neoforge-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 1.21.6-1.21.8
• CrowBar-1.21.x-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 1.21.9-1.21.11 (Fabric)
• CrowBar-1.21.9-1.21.10-neoforge-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 1.21.9-1.21.10 (NeoForge)
• CrowBar-1.21.x-neoforge-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 1.21.11 (NeoForge)
• CrowBar-26.1.x-2.0.0.jar / CrowBar-26.1.x-neoforge-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 26.1.x
• CrowBar-26.x-2.0.0.jar / CrowBar-26.2.x-neoforge-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 26.2
• CrowBar-26.3.x-2.0.0.jar / CrowBar-26.3.x-neoforge-2.0.0.jar for Minecraft 26.3
• CrowBar-plugin-2.0.0.jar: the server plugin on its own, for Minecraft 1.21-26.3
• Every client jar also works as the server plugin on any of those servers.