SimpleNoBeamBeacon

SimpleNoBeamBeacon is a lightweight server-side plugin built primarily for Paper 26.2. It allows real tinted glass to hide a beacon beam without disabling the beacon's effects.

Players do not need to install any mods or resource packs.

Documentation

Detailed documentation covering installation, configuration, commands, beacon behavior, compatibility, troubleshooting, and building from source is available at:

SimpleNoBeamBeacon Documentation

Features

• Uses real tinted glass to hide beacon beams
• Keeps beacon effects active while the beam is hidden
• Supports all four beacon pyramid levels
• Preserves vanilla effect ranges, durations, and amplifiers
• Supports primary effect level II, regeneration, and other valid secondary effects
• Respects custom beacon effect ranges on Paper
• Supports multiple tinted-glass blocks in the same beacon column
• Continues checking for real beam blockers above tinted glass
• Correctly allows barrier, bedrock, stained glass, panes, and other beam-compatible blocks
• Handles block placement and removal, pistons, explosions, chunks, and world lifecycle events
• Includes configuration and operator-only administrative commands
• Requires no client mods, resource packs, or dependencies
• Runs entirely on the server

How to use

1. Build and activate a beacon normally.
2. Select its primary and optional secondary effects.
3. Allow the beacon to activate before covering it, especially when using an additional compatibility server version.
4. Place tinted glass anywhere above the beacon in its vertical beam column.

The native beam will disappear while eligible players continue receiving the selected effects.

The plugin continues checking above the tinted glass. If a block that would normally obstruct a beacon is placed anywhere in the column, including above the tinted glass, the replacement effects stop.

Removing the final tinted-glass block restores normal vanilla beacon behaviour.

Configuration

The plugin creates plugins/SimpleNoBeamBeacon/config.yml automatically:

enabled: true

Set enabled to false to stop hidden-beacon handling while keeping the plugin and its administrative commands loaded.

Changes made directly to the file take effect after restarting the server or using the reload command.

Effects already applied before disabling the feature expire naturally. This prevents the plugin from accidentally removing matching effects provided by potions or other beacons.

Commands

/snbb is available as a short alias for all commands.

Running the command without valid arguments displays the current state and usage information.

All commands and tab completion are restricted to server operators and the server console. The administrative permission is simplenobeambeacon.admin and defaults to operators.

Invalid YAML or a non-boolean enabled value is rejected during reload without changing the current running state.

Compatibility

Paper 26.2 is the primary implementation and validation target. The Paper artifact name does not represent a hard Paper dependency.

The distributed JAR:

• uses Java 16-compatible bytecode;
• declares Bukkit API version 1.17;
• dynamically detects supported server internals;
• avoids linking directly to version-specific Paper classes.

Each Minecraft server still requires its normal Java runtime. Paper 26.2 requires Java 25.

Additional server versions use the same internal compatibility bridge when their layout is recognised. Otherwise, the plugin falls back to the public Bukkit API with explicit corrections for important blocks such as barrier, bedrock, slime blocks, and tinted glass.

Folia is not currently advertised as officially supported because complete beacon-column and pyramid scans cannot always be guaranteed to remain within a single Folia region.

The historical SpongeVanilla 26.2 build remains available in version 1.0.0 but is no longer maintained. Version 1.1.0 and newer only provide the Paper/Bukkit-compatible server plugin.

Installation

1. Download SimpleNoBeamBeacon-Paper-1.1.0.jar.
2. Place the JAR in the server's plugins directory.
3. Remove any older SimpleNoBeamBeacon JAR to avoid loading the plugin twice.
4. Restart the server.
5. Configure and activate the beacon before covering it with tinted glass.

No additional dependencies are required.

Technical details

Vanilla Minecraft already prevents an unmodified client from rendering a beacon beam when tinted glass is present. However, the server also treats tinted glass as an obstruction and disables the beacon's effects.

SimpleNoBeamBeacon tracks covered beacons and reapplies their effects using the calculated pyramid level, selected effects, range, duration, and amplifier.

On Paper 26.2, the plugin dynamically reads the server's real light-dampening, beacon-selection, and custom-range data. This reproduces the vanilla obstruction rule while deliberately treating tinted glass as transparent only for the invisible effect-producing scan.

This fixes cases where Bukkit's Material#isOccluding() result differs from the rule used by vanilla beacons. For example, barrier blocks no longer incorrectly disable hidden beacon effects.

A real vanilla beam blocker anywhere in the column, whether below or above tinted glass, still stops the replacement effects.

Visual limitation

A server-only plugin cannot keep the native beacon beam visible below tinted glass while hiding it above the glass on an unmodified client.

The Minecraft client scans the beacon column itself. When it encounters tinted glass, it removes every native beam section, including coloured sections below the glass. The server does not transmit those beam sections separately.

Implementing an exact partial beam would require a client mod that changes the client-side beacon scan and renderer. Particles or display entities would only imitate the native beam and would differ in texture, animation, glow, colouring, render distance, and graphics-setting behaviour.

SimpleNoBeamBeacon focuses on preserving the correct server-side beacon effects and obstruction behaviour without adding an inaccurate visual imitation.

Known limitations

• Reapplied effects are reported as originating from the plugin rather than directly from a beacon.
• Reapplied effects do not trigger Paper's BeaconEffectEvent.
• On a server version whose internal beacon-selection layout is not recognised, temporarily uncovering and reactivating a beacon may be necessary after a restart to recover regeneration or primary level II.
• Compatibility fallbacks may differ from vanilla for unusual technical block states on unrecognised server versions.
• Folia and Sponge are not supported by the current 1.1.0 release.

License

SimpleNoBeamBeacon is licensed under the MIT License.