TrueDark - Darkness Redefined v1.5

TrueDark Update - Minecraft 26.2 Support, Auto-Updating Configs & Darker Vanilla Lighting

This update focuses on long-term compatibility, safer customer upgrades, and stronger vanilla darkness support without removing support for older server versions.

Highlights

• Added full runtime support for the new Minecraft 26.x version line.
• Added support for Minecraft 26.1 and 26.2 while keeping previous supported versions working.
• Added a new ultra-safe auto-updating config system.
• Added automatic missing-value insertion for config updates.
• Preserves existing customer configuration values.
• Preserves and inserts comments for newly added config sections.
• Creates timestamped config backups before applying updates.
• Improved generated environment pack support for 1.21.11, 26.1, and 26.2.
• Added automatic pack-format detection for newer Minecraft versions.
• Improved vanilla darkness using optional generated dark texture overrides for bright vanilla light blocks.
• Added safer runtime checks and warnings for unsupported/unsafe setups.

Minecraft 26.2 Support

TrueDark now properly understands the new Minecraft version format used by 26.1 and 26.2.

Older plugin logic often assumes Minecraft versions always start with 1.x, but the new Minecraft 26.x line no longer follows that format. TrueDark now handles both old and new version formats safely.

Supported version handling now includes:

• Older supported 1.x versions
• Minecraft 1.21.11
• Minecraft 26.1
• Minecraft 26.2
• Future 26.x-style version checks where possible

This means server owners can update to newer Minecraft versions without losing support for previous versions.

Important 26.x Requirements

For Minecraft 26.1 and newer, make sure your server setup is updated correctly:

• Minecraft 26.x servers require Java 25.
• Paper 26.2 support should use current Paper 26.2 builds.
• ProtocolLib must be updated to a build that supports Minecraft 26.x.

If your ProtocolLib build is outdated, packet-based features may not work correctly on 26.x servers.

TrueDark now logs safer warnings when it detects suspicious runtime setups.

Safe Auto-Updating Config System

A major part of this update is the new production-ready config updater.

Before this update, when new options were added to config.yml, existing customer configs could stay outdated. The plugin would still use internal fallback values, but the customer would not see the new options in their file.

This update fixes that.

The new config updater:

• Adds only missing config keys.
• Does not overwrite existing customer values.
• Keeps existing customer formatting as safely as possible.
• Adds comments for new options.
• Creates automatic backups before modifying the file.
• Uses safe file writing to reduce risk of corrupted configs.
• Skips unsafe structural conflicts instead of forcing changes.

This allows new config options to be added in future updates without forcing customers to delete or manually rebuild their config.

No config reset is required.

Automatic Pack Format Handling

TrueDark now includes automatic pack-format selection for generated packs.

Environment datapack format handling:

• Minecraft 1.21.11: 94.1
• Minecraft 26.1: 101.1
• Minecraft 26.2: 107.1

Resource pack format handling:

• Minecraft 1.21.11: 75
• Minecraft 26.1: 84
• Minecraft 26.2: 88

Existing custom numeric values are still respected. If a configured value looks wrong for the detected server version, TrueDark now warns instead of silently changing it.

Environment Pack Fixes

The generated environment pack system has been improved and corrected.

Fixed timeline generation so generated environment timelines now use the correct ticks key instead of an invalid timeline key.

This improves compatibility with newer Minecraft environment definitions.

The environment pack is now version-gated:

• Older unsupported versions skip environment pack generation safely.
• Minecraft 1.21.11 uses supported environment timeline features.
• Minecraft 26.1+ uses newer lightmap/environment attributes where supported.

Darker Vanilla Lighting Improvements

This update adds optional generated dark texture overrides for bright vanilla light blocks.

This helps TrueDark feel darker even in vanilla clients, because the plugin can now reduce both:

• the actual light behavior through server-side systems, and
• the visual brightness of vanilla light-emitting blocks through the generated resource pack.

Optional dark texture generation currently targets common bright blocks such as:

• Glowstone
• Sea lanterns
• Shroomlights
• Lanterns
• Soul lanterns
• End rods
• Beacons
• Magma blocks
• Froglights
• Copper bulbs
• Redstone lamps

Dangerous readability-sensitive textures such as lava/fire are kept safer by default.

New config section:

YAML:

resource-pack-template:
dark-vanilla-light-textures:
enabled: true
size: 16
gray: 8
alpha: 255
include-danger-animated-textures: false

Runtime Safety Improvements

TrueDark now performs better runtime checks and logs clearer warnings for:

• Minecraft 26.x server versions
• Java version mismatch
• Suspicious/outdated ProtocolLib versions
• Pack-format mismatch
• Unsupported environment-pack generation scenarios

This should make customer troubleshooting much easier and reduce confusion when a server has an outdated dependency.

Compatibility

This update is designed to keep support for older supported versions while adding proper support for the new 26.x line.

Recommended setup for latest versions:

• Paper 26.2
• Java 25
• ProtocolLib build with Minecraft 26.x support

For older Minecraft versions, continue using the Java/server/dependency versions required by those versions.

Upgrade Notes

• Stop your server.
• Replace the TrueDark jar.
• Start the server.
• TrueDark will automatically add missing config options.
• A backup of the previous config will be created automatically if changes are needed.
• Review the console for any warnings about Java, ProtocolLib, or pack format.

You do not need to delete your config.

TrueDark v1.4 — Ultra Darkness Update

TrueDark v1.4 is a major upgrade focused on stronger darkness, better fullbright resistance, and much more consistent visuals when night falls, players move, chunks reload, or world conditions change.

New Features

• Added advanced block-light modes: VANILLA, MULTIPLY, CURVE, ZERO_ALL, TRUE_DARKNESS.
• Added configurable light curves for precise control over how visible block light should be.
• Added active light overlay system to reapply darkened light data to already-loaded chunks.
• Added darkness transition detection for nightfall, dawn, weather changes, reloads, and manual time changes.
• Added bounded chunk refresh support to fix stale bright chunks without spamming chunk reloads.
• Added Night Vision suppression to prevent client-side Night Vision from bypassing darkness.
• Added optional bright-block spoofing for lava, fire, torches, lanterns, glowstone, sea lanterns, and similar blocks.
• Added resource-pack support with ACCEPTED / LOADED / DECLINED / FAILED status tracking.
• Added screen overlay system using a custom resource-pack pumpkin blur for ultra-dark mode.
• Added ultra-dark resource pack generator:
  
  Code:

  /truedark generatepack

• Added optional environment datapack support for modern Minecraft visual environment attributes:
  
  Code:

  /truedark generateenv
  /truedark installenv

• Added optional bossbar atmosphere for sky darkening and fog.
• Added optional per-player visual time/weather without changing real server time.
• Added optional ambience particles and sounds for horror-style atmosphere.

Performance & Stability

• Added strict packet replay limits.
• Added global and per-player overlay budgets.
• Added stale packet cleanup.
• Added loaded-chunk safety checks.
• Improved async ProtocolLib safety.
• Improved join, teleport, respawn, world-change, and chunk-move handling.
• Improved consistency when night starts while chunks are already loaded.
• Hardened modern packet mutation against empty or partial light payloads.
• Made aggressive systems disabled by default for safe production use.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed chunks sometimes staying too bright after nightfall.
• Fixed possible stale light packet replay.
• Fixed unsafe async world/player access from packet listeners.
• Fixed overlay cache not clearing correctly on join/world change.
• Fixed fragile modern packet detection with empty light arrays.
• Fixed several command/source consistency issues from internal refactors.

New Commands

Code:

/truedark generatepack
/truedark generateenv
/truedark installenv
/truedark status [player]
/truedark info

Recommended Modes

Safe Survival:

Code:

block-light:
  mode: CURVE

light-overlay:
  enabled: true

consistency:
  enabled: true

Hard Darkness:

Code:

fog:
  darkness-packet:
    enabled: true

block-light:
  mode: ZERO_ALL

night-vision:
  suppress-outgoing-effect-packet: true

Ultra / Horror:

Code:

resource-pack:
  enabled: true
  mode: REQUIRED
  kick-on-decline: true

screen-overlay:
  enabled: true

fake-light-source-blocks:
  enabled: true

Notes

TrueDark now uses multiple darkness layers instead of relying on one simple effect: packet light mutation, active overlays, fog, Night Vision suppression, optional resource packs, optional screen overlays, and modern environment datapack support.

The plugin still supports Minecraft 1.19+ and keeps aggressive features optional, so existing servers can update safely.

New client side render distance emulator to improve the darkness effect

We implemented a new thing called Packet Darkness.
It emulates the darkness potion effect, but without UI elements and it's client side only. It is disabled by default in the config, but when enabled it changes how the game looks and makes it much scarier. Perfect fog for horror servers.

. Added smart block light reduction system which accompanies the plugin nicely when darkness is enabled.
To use it, reset your config to add this section in your config:

Code:

block-light:
  enabled: true
  require-darkness: true
  multiplier: 0.2
  rounding: FLOOR

There are 3 rounding options depending on your needs.

• CEIL
• ROUND
• FLOOR

Defaults to floor.

2. Implemented the new async packet listener where possible to improve the performance.
Add this to your config to use it:

Code:

protocol:
  # Uses ProtocolLib ListenerOptions.ASYNC for outbound light packets.
  # Enabled by default for lower main-thread pressure. Keep this on unless a specific runtime shows compatibility issues.
  async-packet-listener: true