Swivel - Better 3rd Person / Third Person Camera, Free Look & Orbit Camera (Controller Support)

Swivel is a small client-side mod for Minecraft on Fabric, NeoForge and Forge, compatible with Mod Menu on Fabric. It works with controllers through Controlify on Fabric and NeoForge.

Supported versions: 1.20 to 26.3 on Fabric, 1.21 to 26.3 on NeoForge, 1.20.1 on Forge.

Features

Third person

• Orbit camera - in the back third-person view (F5), the mouse or right stick swings the camera around your character instead of turning it.
• Walk where you look - W walks the way the camera faces, and your character turns smoothly toward where it walks. Turn Speed sets how quickly.
• Swivel while running (optional) - once you start moving, the mouse only swings the camera and your character keeps running the same way, so you can look behind you or at your character's face mid-run. Press a different movement key to head where the camera looks.
• Aims where you point - attacking, mining, placing blocks and drawing a bow, crossbow or trident turn your character to whatever the crosshair covers, and the server sees the same aim, so arrows fly where you pointed.
• Crosshair in third person (optional) - shows what you will hit, mine or use.
• Raised camera (optional) - lifts the camera a little above your character's eyes so your head doesn't cover the crosshair. It stops short of ceilings.
• Camera distance from 2 to 12 blocks, with smooth wall collisions: walls pull the camera in at once and it glides back out once clear. Optional keys move the camera closer or further while you play.
• First-person spyglass (optional) - looking through a spyglass switches to first person, and back to third person when you stop.
• Strafe mode (optional) - your character keeps facing the camera direction and sidesteps, like in a shooter.
• Vehicles, flying and swimming - elytra flight steers toward the camera, horses and pigs follow it, boats and minecarts keep their own controls while the camera stays free, and swimming follows the camera up and down.
• Keep view in first person - switching back to first person looks where the camera was looking.

Free look

• Hold Left Alt in first person to look anywhere without turning your character. You keep walking the way you were going, and letting go glides the view back.
• In third person, holding the same key keeps your running direction fixed while you swing the camera, then swings the camera back when you let go.
• The crosshair hides while you free look, since it no longer shows what you would hit. You can keep it if you prefer.
• Works in Minecraft's own third-person views too when the orbit camera is off.

Controller support

• Works with Controlify on Fabric and NeoForge: the right stick swings the camera and the left stick walks where the camera looks.
• Swivel's keys on controller buttons - free look, recenter, toggle and the camera distance keys appear in Controlify's controller settings under Swivel, ready to put on any button.
• Controller buttons need Controlify 2.1 or newer, so they aren't available on 1.20.2. Controlify isn't available for Forge.

Swivel is client-side only: there is nothing to install on a server.

Controls

Change them in Options > Controls > Key Binds, or with the Key Binds… button in Swivel's settings. On a controller, set them in Controlify's controller settings under Swivel.

Install

Fabric

1. Install Fabric Loader for your version of Minecraft.
2. Put Fabric API and the Fabric Swivel jar for your version in your mods folder.
3. Start the game.

Optional: add Mod Menu to get a settings screen (Mods > Swivel > Configure).

NeoForge

1. Install NeoForge for your version of Minecraft.
2. Put the NeoForge Swivel jar for your version in your mods folder.
3. Start the game. The settings screen is in Mods > Swivel > Config.

Forge

1. Install Forge for Minecraft 1.20.1.
2. Put the Forge Swivel jar in your mods folder.
3. Start the game. The settings screen is in Mods > Swivel > Config.

Controller (optional)

Add Controlify for your version (Fabric or NeoForge) to play with a controller.

Settings

With the settings screen (Mod Menu on Fabric, the Mods list on NeoForge and Forge), changes apply straight away and are saved when you close the screen. The screen also has a Reset to Defaults button.

Without Mod Menu you can edit config/swivel.json in your game folder and restart the game:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "turnSpeed": 6,
  "distance": 4.0,
  "raiseCamera": true,
  "height": 0.5,
  "strafe": false,
  "swivelWhileRunning": false,
  "smoothCollisions": true,
  "crosshair": true,
  "alignOnExit": true,
  "hideCrosshairInFreeLook": true,
  "spyglassFirstPerson": true
}

Values that are out of range are corrected automatically. If the file is broken, the game still starts with the defaults and your old file is kept as swivel.json.broken.

License

MIT