Light that moves with your build.
Put a lantern, glowstone, a froglight, or any glowing block on a Create contraption or a Sable sub-level, and Contraption Lights makes the light travel with it as it drives, flies, rotates, tilts, or sails. No more pitch-black cabins and tunnels.
It does more than that, though. It connects moving builds and the world so light passes between them in every direction: your build lights the world, the world lights your build, and builds light each other, including a build mounted on top of another moving build.
Light-emitting blocks hidden inside Create copycats, and glowing blocks or items framed in Create placards, count too: they cast the light of whatever they hold.
Contraption Lights handles four directions. The first is on by default; the rest are opt-in so you only pay for what you use.
A moving contraption or sub-level throws the light from its own glowing blocks onto the terrain around it, following every turn of a bearing and every roll of a ship.
Real world light sources shine back onto a passing build: held torches, glowing mobs, and dropped glowing items, plus placed blocks like torches, glowstone, and lava. Works on contraptions, sub-levels, and stationary kinetics. Turn on the "light onto structures" options.
Two builds near each other trade light: a lit Sable sub-level lights a nearby contraption or kinetic, and a lit contraption lights nearby kinetics. This is not a separate setting. It falls out of the two directions above: turn on a "light onto structures" option so a build can receive light, and since a build already emits its own light by default, a nearby build counts as a source just like the world does. So the same toggle that lets the world light a contraption also lets a passing ship light it.
Mount a Create contraption or kinetic on a Sable ship, say a bearing-driven propeller with a lantern fixed to it, spinning on a moving vessel. That lantern lights the ship's own deck, the surrounding world, and other structures, and the propeller is lit by all of them in return, all tracked smoothly to where it is actually drawn on the moving ship.
Client lighting has a single mode setting with three choices. Pick the one that matches your setup. There is also a separate server-side option that needs no client mod at all.
Client dynamic light through LambDynamicLights. It rides the vanilla lightmap, so the light is roughly vanilla-colored and casts no shadows, but it is smooth per frame, cheap, works with shaders, and needs no server setup. This backend carries every direction above, including builds lighting each other and builds that ride other builds.
Client dynamic light through Veil deferred point lights. It renders colored light per source (a froglight glows green, a soul lantern cyan, glowstone warm, instead of one flat white) and crisp angled shadows from a tilted sub-level's own blocks, neither of which LAMB can do.
Experimental, not meant for normal play. VEIL has not kept pace with the rest of the mod. It only does the first direction, your build lighting the world, plus a rougher, even more experimental take on the world lighting your build. None of the newer directions reach it: builds do not light each other, a build riding another build is not handled, and Flywheel kinetics are not lit. Use LAMB for normal play, and reach for VEIL only if you specifically want colored light or shadows and can live with the rough edges.
Separate from the client modes, the server can place real, invisible light blocks in the world as a build moves and clean them up behind it. Because the light is real, every player sees it with no client mod, and it works with shaders and anything that reads world light. It is heavier, so it is off by default and meant for server admins. Configured in the server config.
Every dependency is optional. Install a lighting backend, something to light, and whichever integrations you want.
| Mod | Needed for |
|---|---|
| LambDynamicLights | LAMB mode (client). |
| Veil | VEIL mode (client). |
| Create (0.6+) | Lighting contraptions and kinetics (and copycat/placard light). |
| Sable | Lighting Sable sub-levels (any mode). |
Some common setups:
Everything has sensible defaults. Client options appear in the in-game config screen (from the Mods list), the config file, and Sodium's Video Settings if you run Sodium 0.8.12+.
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
mode |
LAMB |
Rendering backend. LAMB is lightmap-based and shader-friendly; VEIL is colored with sub-level shadows; OFF disables client lighting. A mode whose mod is absent falls back to OFF. |
luminanceMultiplier |
1.0 | Overall brightness. 1.0 is normal; lower dims, higher brightens (up to 2.0). |
updateInterval |
0 | Minimum milliseconds between light updates for a moving structure. 0 updates every tick (smoothest); higher reduces cost. |
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
enableContraptionDynamicLight |
on | Cast light from the blocks a moving Create contraption carries. |
enableSubLevelDynamicLight |
on | Cast light from the blocks a moving Sable sub-level carries. Needs Sable. |
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
enableWorldToContraptionLambLight |
off | Light Create contraptions from nearby dynamic world sources (held torches, glowing mobs, dropped glowing items). Needs Create's Flywheel backend. |
enableWorldToSubLevelLambLight |
off | Light Sable sub-levels from nearby world light, both dynamic sources and static blocks (torches, glowstone, lava). Needs Sable. |
enableWorldToKineticLambLight |
off | Light stationary Create kinetics (shafts, cogs) from nearby dynamic world sources. Needs Create's Flywheel backend. |
enableWorldToStructureVeilLight |
off | Light contraptions and sub-levels from nearby world light sources. |
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
enableContraptionLightBlock |
off | Place real light blocks as a Create contraption moves, so every player sees the light. |
enableSubLevelLightBlock |
off | Place real light blocks as a Sable sub-level moves, so every player sees the light. Needs Sable. |
minLightBlockEmission |
1 | Only place a light block for sources at least this bright, to place fewer blocks. |
Which mode should I use? LAMB for normal play: it is simple, smooth, and supports every direction. VEIL is experimental and limited (colored light and sub-level shadows, for your build lighting the world only); reach for it just if you want those specifics and do not run shaders.
Do other players need the mod? For the client modes (LAMB and VEIL), yes, each player installs it. For the server light-block option, only the server needs it and everyone sees the light.
Does it work with shaders? LAMB does. VEIL does not: Iris turns off Veil's lighting, so use LAMB when running shaders. The server light-block option works with shaders too.
Froglights and lanterns look white in LAMB but colored in VEIL. Why? LAMB uses the vanilla lightmap, which has no per-source color. VEIL renders real colored lights, so each source keeps its own tint.
Nothing lights up. What now? Check that the backend's mod is installed (LambDynamicLights for LAMB, Veil for VEIL, Sable for sub-levels), that the build actually carries a glowing block, and that the matching option is on. The "light onto structures" and server options are off by default. On Iris shaders, use LAMB.
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