📦 RELEASE 3.0.0

IMPORTANT: FULL REWRITE! MODS MADE FOR 2.x WON'T WORK UNTIL THEY RELEASE A COMPATIBILITY UPDATE

VLC is gone and no longer required: we now use FFmpeg (included in the companion mod WATERMeDIA: Binaries) as the engine, plus our own Java decoders for pictures.

API

• ⚙️ The VLC players (BasePlayer, VideoPlayer, MusicPlayer) are replaced by MRL and MediaPlayer from the new PlayerAPI
  • PlayerAPI.mrl(uri) resolves a link in the background into sources, qualities and metadata
  • PlayerAPI.player(mrl, video, audio) plays pictures, animations, videos, music and live streams with the same controls
  • MediaPlayer.onStatus stacks StatusListeners that get the player plus its previous and current status; they're dropped once playback stops, ends or fails
  • MediaPlayer.Status.allows tells whether one status can move straight to another
• ⚙️ Players draw and play through engines picked by the mod: GLEngine (OpenGL), VKEngine (Vulkan), ALEngine (OpenAL), JSEngine (Java Sound), plus AWTEngine and JFXEngine for desktop apps without OpenGL
  • MediaPlayer#texture() returns a long: an OpenGL texture or a Vulkan image view
  • preRender is gone: GLEngine uploads frames through the mod's render thread executor
  • PlayerAPI.jfxEngine throws an IllegalStateException when JavaFX 13+ is missing; PixelFormat.GBRA is gone, nothing ever produced it
  • PixelFormat sizes each frame plane with planeWidth, planeHeight, texelBytes and frameBytes
  • VKContext.deviceInfo() describes the lent device (features, extensions and queues) so FFmpeg decodes video on it; when it only enables the video and external memory extensions, a twin device on the same GPU decodes and the engine imports its frames
  • CodecsAPI.vulkanDecode() tells whether the natives support Vulkan decoding
  • libplacebo converts the decoded frames when the lent device also enables hostQueryReset, runtimeDescriptorArray, shaderStorageImageArrayNonUniformIndexing and maintenance4 and has a second queue in its render family; the twin device enables them on its own
• ⚙️ Engines and players are created only through PlayerAPI (player, serverPlayer, glEngine, vkEngine, alEngine, jsEngine, awtEngine, jfxEngine, headlessEngine); constructors are internal
  • Dedicated servers can only create ServerMediaPlayer
  • Players drive their engines' frame uploads and controls; engines only expose state
• ⚙️ ImageAPI, ImageCache, ImageFetch and ImageRenderer are gone: pictures play through MediaPlayer
  • The built-in loading, black and VLC failure pictures are gone
• ⚙️ Added CodecsAPI to decode pictures and encode media. It's experimental: it may change or break in any update, so don't use it in your mods yet
  • CodecsAPI.decode takes a byte[], a ByteBuffer or an InputStream, and sniff a ByteBuffer or an InputStream
  • CodecsAPI.encoder writes video frames and sound samples into a Container; Container, VideoCodec and AudioCodec list what each format carries
  • ImageReader.addFilter applies ReaderFilters such as DownscaleFilter to every decoded frame
  • Readers honour a requested BGRA, RGBA or GRAY layout, reported by ImageData.format(); repeat counts total plays (0 loops forever)
  • next() past the last frame throws NoSuchElementException and a closed reader throws IllegalStateException; delay() gives the latest frame's delay and metadata() returns frozen snapshots
  • Valid but unsupported features (lossless or CMYK JPEG, unknown PNG critical chunks, unknown PAM tuples) throw UnsupportedFormatException instead of passing as broken files
  • Picture metadata uses shared keys (METAKEY_ICC_PROFILE, METAKEY_EXIF, METAKEY_XMP, METAKEY_ORIENTATION, METAKEY_LOOP_COUNT) with plain Java values
• ⚙️ NetworkAPI.UploadStatus (moved out of NetworkServer) gains cancel() and uri(), the water://remote/<id> address of the upload
• ⚙️ Platforms replace URL patches (AbstractPatch, NetworkAPI.patch): implement Platform and add it with PlatformAPI.register
• ⚙️ RenderAPI and CacheAPI are gone; MathAPI is now MathUtil, and easings moved to MathEases with more curves
• ⚙️ WaterMedia.logger(id) replaces LogTool
• ⚙️ Added ServerMediaPlayer, a server clock that keeps client players in step: send its snapshot() with your own packets and feed it to MediaPlayer.sync()
• ⚙️ Added PlatformAPI.search for keyword searches across platforms; it returns a live result list and searching(query) tells when every platform answered
  • A newer query cancels the one in flight, typing is debounced, and search(query, true) skips the cache
  • platforms.searchLimit caps the results per platform, and each platform gets 5 seconds so a slow one never stalls the rest
  • PlatformAPI.searchHistory() keeps recent queries, newest first
• ⚙️ Added SFXEngine.SpatialAudio for positional audio, with an adapter for Sound Physics Remastered effects
  • Spatial ALEngines play through sinks: addSink(Mix) adds another positional source playing the LEFT, RIGHT or MONO mix of the same decode, in step with the rest; MediaPlayer.sinks() and addSink reach them from the player
• ⚙️ MediaPlayer.audioTracks() lists every audio a player can play, audioTrack(track) switches to one while playing, and audioLanguage("es-MX") sets the language to prefer
• ⚙️ Added NetRequest and HttpHeaders for web requests
  • NetRequest keeps the mod's User-Agent and Referer, returns error response bodies instead of failing, accepts any JSON content type and gives up on bodies that trickle in too slowly
  • query(URI), httpsOnly(), maxBytes, deadline and download(Path, sha256) cover query strings, HTTPS-only requests, size and time limits and checksum-verified downloads
• ⚙️ Apps embedding WATERMeDIA start it once with WaterMedia.start(...); loading(), step() and steps() feed a loading screen and loaded() tells when it's ready
  • It loads once per process and never unloads; a failing module stops the start, but a failing FFmpeg or file server only turns that feature off
  • Platforms can be registered and used anytime, even before WATERMeDIA starts
• ⚙️ Public methods use record-style names (no get prefix); engines are sealed and built-in classes are final
• ⚙️ Only org.watermedia and the codecs, network, platform, player and util packages of org.watermedia.api are public API
  • Engines, players and MediaPlayer.PlayerState live in org.watermedia.api.player; codecs, picture filters and FFmpeg state in org.watermedia.api.codecs
  • Codec readers and writers, player internals, built-in platforms, org.watermedia.bootstrap and org.watermedia.tools are internal
• ⚙️ Added developer guides in English and Mexican Spanish

FEATURES

• ✨ Videos and music play with FFmpeg 9.0.2, bundled in WATERMeDIA: Binaries for Windows (x64), Linux (x64, ARM64) and macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon)
  • Odd-sized videos get clean edges and straight rows, and webcam captures no longer turn black on OpenGL
• ✨ Hardware video decoding on NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and macOS, falling back to software when the GPU struggles
  • Videos still stutter? Turn it off in the settings
• ✨ On Vulkan, H.264, H.265 and AV1 videos decode and draw right on the GPU, never touching RAM (requires mod support)
  • Mods only need to enable a few Vulkan extensions, no GPU queues required
  • libplacebo converts the frames on the GPU too, mapping HDR to regular screens and unlocking 4:2:2, 4:4:4 and 12-bit videos on cards that support them
• ✨ 10, 12 and 16-bit videos are converted on the GPU
• ✨ HDR videos look natural on regular screens with OpenGL and Vulkan, and every video keeps its real colors, from old SD clips to wide-color videos and phone or webcam recordings
• ✨ Vulkan rendering next to OpenGL, ready for Minecraft 26.x (requires mod support)
• ✨ Live streams (HLS and DASH) and IPTV playlists, which open as a channel list
• ✨ Videos with a separate audio track play in sync, unlocking higher qualities on platforms like YouTube
  • Dubbed videos play their original language, or the one your mod prefers, and you can switch languages while watching (requires mod support)
• ✨ Pick the quality, change the speed, seek precisely, loop, and lower the resolution of distant screens to save VRAM (requires mod support)
  • Seeking or pressing play on a finished video restarts it from that spot, and still pictures can get a display time
• ✨ Positional audio that fades with distance, with Sound Physics Remastered effects (requires mod support)
  • Stereo screens can play each side from its own edge, and extra speakers can play a screen's sound anywhere without loading it twice
• ✨ Synchronized playback: everyone on a server watches the same moment, following one server clock (requires mod support)
• ✨ WATERMeDIA now loads on dedicated servers, where WATERMeDIA: Binaries is optional
  • An optional file server shares uploaded media with players through water://remote/ links
  • It's off by default and only accepts local connections; remote access needs an address and a custom password
  • Long downloads on slow connections finish; only stalled requests get cut
  • It handles back-to-back requests and crowds of players, and answers "busy" instead of dropping the connection when it's full
• ✨ New platforms: Imgur, Medal, Bluesky, BiliBili, TikTok, Odysee (videos, music and livestreams), Newgrounds (movies, music and art), Sendvid, VidLii and D.Tube
  • YouTube is back, along with SoundCloud, Facebook and Instagram, through yt-dlp (requires WATERMeDIA: Binaries)
  • BiliBili plays up to 1080p (8K with VIP) when you add your session cookie in the settings; without it, up to 480p
  • Rewrote Twitch and Kick (live, VODs and clips), Streamable, Twitter (X), Lightshot, PornHub, Google Drive, Dropbox and MediaFire
  • Media shows its title, author, duration and thumbnail when the platform has them
  • Profile, folder and other unplayable links say so instead of failing with a confusing error
  • With mature content off, age-restricted videos and adult posts are blocked cleanly instead of failing
  • One broken picture no longer breaks a whole album
  • b23.tv and TikTok short links, and regular TikTok links, open again
• ✨ Search videos by keyword on YouTube, Twitch, Kick and Imgur (requires mod support)
  • Twitch and Kick only show channels that are live right now
• ✨ Our own pure-Java picture decoders: PNG, APNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP (animated too), SVG and Netpbm
  • Animations use far less CPU and VRAM, and many can play at once without stuttering the game
  • Animations shown smaller are shrunk while decoding, so big pictures no longer spike memory
  • Broken or malicious pictures fail safely instead of crashing the game or eating its memory
  • Phone photos (JPEG and WebP) follow their EXIF orientation instead of showing sideways
  • Quirky files decode fine: APNGs with a preview frame, GIFs with stray bytes, WebPs with trailing bytes, lossy WebPs with filtered transparency, SVGs with alternative versions and pictures with broken metadata
  • GIFs with zero or tiny frame delays play at browser speed
• ✨ Record videos with sound to MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM and Ogg, and save pictures and animations as PNG, APNG and GIF without FFmpeg (experimental, requires mod support)
• ✨ Small videos are cached on disk like pictures, so they load faster next time
• ✨ Opening the jar launches a full media player with search, IPTV channels and settings, rendering with Vulkan (OpenGL as fallback) and OpenAL sound
  • Its engine, UI scale (Auto or x1.0 to x3.0), CRT effect and click sound are saved in config/app.properties; an OpenGL fallback never overwrites the saved engine
  • Launching it from a terminal no longer spams Java and FFmpeg warnings

CHANGES

• 🛠️ Requires Java 17 to 25 and supports Minecraft 1.18.2, 1.19.2, 1.20.1, 1.21.1, 1.21.11, 26.1.2 and 26.2 on Forge, NeoForge and Fabric
  • Dropped Minecraft 1.16.5 and 1.21.5; unsupported game or loader versions show a version mismatch instead of loading
• 🛠️ Minecraft clients require WATERMeDIA: Binaries, and both mods must be on 3.0
• 🛠️ Settings moved to config/watermedia.toml; custom_vlc_path.txt and custom loading GIFs are no longer used
  • FFmpeg can be turned off or swapped for your own compatible build
• 🛠️ Mature content is blocked by default; you can allow it in the settings
• 🛠️ Relicensed under the Defensive Public Source (Non-Commercial) License v1.0.1
  • FFmpeg ships under the LGPLv3
• 🛠️ Cleaner, safer logs: a repeating problem such as a broken frame is logged once instead of flooding the log, and tokens, passwords and login data are hidden while links stay readable
• 🛠️ TLauncher stays unsupported: the game stops at startup when it's detected, now also through its skin mod, files, Java options and launcher process
  • Leftovers from an old TLauncher install only leave a warning in the log
• 🛠️ HTTPS media checks certificates on every playlist and segment, and login data never follows redirects to other sites
  • Web links can only redirect to web links, and online playlists can't point to local files
  • Private HTTPS servers need a certificate Java trusts
• 🛠️ Dropped BMP and TIFF pictures and OneDrive links
• 🛠️ Source code and issue reports moved to github.com/SrRapero720/watermedia
• 🛠️ Video and app shaders ship as plain GLSL files in assets/watermedia/shaders, alongside the app's other assets

BUG FIXES

• 🐛 No more missing videos, crashes or "VLC not found" errors from absent, broken, sandboxed or incompatible VLC installs
• 🐛 Fixed rendering glitches with Sodium and similar mods while videos or pictures play
• 🐛 Twitter (X) links ending in /video/1 or /photo/1, Streamable embeds, www.kick.com and mediafire.com links work again