AnimatedFrames — v1.8

The biggest update so far. AnimatedFrames no longer needs WaterMedia, plays YouTube links, adds a Screen block to play videos inside the world, and now runs on Minecraft 1.20.1 up to 26.3.

Update the mod and the plugin together. Mod 1.8 works with plugin 1.6. Older versions use a different protocol; players with an old mod get a warning in chat.

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Requirements

• No dependencies. WaterMedia is no longer needed. The mod has its own video engine (ffmpeg), downloaded once the first time it is used and verified with SHA-256. The mod JAR is now only ~0.4 MB.
• Optional: AnimatedFrames Stream Add-on (client only) makes YouTube links load in about 1 second.

New Minecraft versions

Minecraft	Loaders
26.3	Fabric / NeoForge
26.2	Fabric / NeoForge
26.1.2	Fabric / NeoForge
1.21.11	Fabric
1.21.4	Fabric / NeoForge
1.21 – 1.21.1	Fabric / NeoForge
1.20.1	Fabric / Forge

New features

Formats

• WEBM videos, including videos with transparency (files ending in _alpha).
• Audio files: .mp3, .ogg, .oga, .wav, .flac, .m4a, .aac, .opus.

YouTube and links

• Play YouTube links without downloading them: normal videos, Shorts, live streams, mobile links and YouTube Music. Up to 1080p.
• Direct .mp4 links and other sites supported by yt-dlp also work.
• Links go in quotes: /medias show @a "https://youtu.be/XXXX" 0 fullscreen 80.

Command options

Add them at the end of any show, showlocal, queue or /mediac show, in any order:

Option	What it does
loop	Repeats the video or audio until the time runs out or until stop.
fade:0	Turns off the fade. Images and GIFs now fade in and out (0.5 s) by default; videos appear instantly and only fade out.
fade:2, fadein:1, fadeout:3	Custom fade, in seconds. Also fades the volume.
x:0 y:0	Position from the center of the screen, from -100 to 100 (x:100 = right edge, y:100 = top edge).
w:40 h:30	Width and height in % of the screen. With only one, the aspect ratio is kept.

New commands

Command	What it does
/medias queue <players> <file|"link"> ...	Same arguments as show. Plays after the current media ends, in order.
/medias skip <players>	Skips to the next item in the queue.
/medias preload <players> <file|all|"link">	Sends files or prepares links ahead of time, so the next show is instant.
/medias test "link"	Tests a link on every player with the mod and reports who can play it, who failed and why, and who has an old or missing mod.
/medias lang <auto|es|en>	Language of the server messages (auto = each player's own language).
/medias screen <x y z> show|stop|pause|resume|lock|unlock	Controls a Screen block.

Screen block

• New Screen block that plays images, GIFs, videos and YouTube inside the world.
• Place several next to each other and they join into one big screen (up to 32×32 blocks). The video always fills the whole screen.
• Right-click opens a window to choose a file or link, volume and loop, and to play, stop, pause or resume.
• 3D audio, synced for every player. With YouTube, the server waits until everyone nearby is ready and starts it at second 0 for all.
• Saved in the world, including pause.
• Any player can use a screen unless an OP locks it (button "Lock (OP only)" or /medias screen <x y z> lock).
• Crafting: iron ingots, glass panes and black dye (gives 4). Has its own "Animated Frames" creative tab.
• Needs an iron pickaxe or better to break and drop.
• If a block breaks, the video resizes to the best full rectangle left. If the screen splits in two, it keeps playing on the biggest piece; put the block back and it fills the whole screen again.
• Off by default. Turn it on with pantallas: true in config/animatedframes/config.yml. When it is on, every player needs the mod to join.

Singleplayer and LAN

• /medias and the Screen block now also work in your own world, not only on dedicated servers.

Server config file

New config/animatedframes/config.yml (the old server.properties is migrated automatically):

Key	Default	What it does
language	auto	auto, es or en.
preload-on-join	false	Sends every media file to players in the background when they join.
max-upload-mb-per-second	25	Total upload limit for sending files to all players.
pantallas	false	Enables the Screen block.

Improvements

• Much faster playback: videos start in about 0.1–0.3 s. Preloaded videos start instantly.
• Streaming from the server: videos start playing while they are still downloading. MP4 files are sent in the best order for this automatically.
• Audio and video always in sync: audio is used as the clock.
• While media is on screen, the hotbar and crosshair are hidden. Chat messages stay behind the media, but the chat can always be opened with T or / to type and run commands — what you type shows on top.
• Fullscreen blocks every other menu (inventory, chests, pause, advancements) and every interaction. Toasts are hidden too.
• Images and GIFs fit the screen like videos: scale 1 is as big as fits without cropping, the same for every player.
• F1 no longer hides the media.
• GIFs show from the first frame, and their time starts counting when they appear.
• Safer transfers: at most 1 MB waiting per player and 25 MB/s in total, so big files no longer cause "Timed out" or server lag. The same file is never sent twice at once. The received-files cache cleans itself at 2 GB.
• Version check: players with an old mod get a chat warning, and the console logs it.
• Clearer error messages for wrong positions or options.

Fixes

• NeoForge players can now join Paper and vanilla servers.
• Videos with transparency (_alpha) looked broken the second time they were shown.
• loop could freeze after the third repeat.
• YouTube links now retry once if the network times out, also on Screen blocks.
• Pausing and resuming a Screen no longer turns it black for a moment.
• GIFs and big images no longer get cut off at the sides on some players.
• NeoForge mixins were not being applied.
• Forge: local playback could fail on systems that prefer IPv6.
• 1.20.1: F1 hid the video.

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Key commands

Command	What it does
/medias show <players> <file|"link"> [time] [position] [scale] [volume] [options]	Sends and plays a file or link.
/medias showlocal <players> <file> [time] [position] [scale] [volume] [options]	Plays a file the player already has.
/medias queue <players> <file|"link"> ...	Adds to the queue.
/medias skip <players>	Skips to the next one.
/medias stop <players>	Stops everything and clears the queue.
/medias preload <players> <file|all|"link">	Prepares media ahead of time.
/medias test "link"	Tests a link on every player.
/medias screen <x y z> ...	Controls a Screen block.
/medias list · /medias lang · /medias help	Files, language and help.

When updating from 1.7: images and GIFs now fade in and out by default (add fade:0 for the old behavior), and scale 1 now means "fit the screen" — use a smaller scale or w: for small logos. Remove WaterMedia if you only installed it for AnimatedFrames.