Free ForgeHUD and separate equipment packs

Separate equipment products: the US$5.99 ForgeHUD Starter bundle does not include these armour or weapon collections. Their earlier version-specific instructions are retained below as historical documentation. ForgeHUD 1.3.0 is the free runtime. Collections are separate downloads: 40 individual six-piece sets, or four ten-set class bundles. Every collection download includes the same free runtime ZIP. The seller delivery contains all products and editable source assets; it is not the free download to publish.

Each player needs Minecraft Java 1.21.4, Fabric Loader, Fabric API, and ForgeHUD-Controls-1.3.0.jar. The server needs Paper 1.21.4, Java 21, ForgeHUD, and the relevant existing Forge class plugin. Class plugins are separate dependencies, not included or relicensed by these packages.

The free client contains a general armor renderer, not the collection models. Purchased resource packs provide the original articulated armor geometry, textures, weapons, shields or lanterns. Geometry follows head, torso, arm and leg animation. Bright inlays are rendered at full brightness; they do not illuminate nearby blocks. Vanilla clients retain a texture-based fallback, but the client mod is required for the advertised 3D armor appearance.

Server installation

1. Back up plugins/ForgeHUD/ and the resource pack you currently serve. Stop the server and replace the older ForgeHUD JAR with the free runtime's server/ForgeHUD-1.3.0.jar. Keep the class plugins. Do not install two ForgeHUD JARs.

2. Start the server once. The free edition creates an empty equipment catalog. Its HUD, skill controls and party features remain available.

3. Install a purchased collection's equipment-packs/*.yml in plugins/ForgeHUD/equipment-packs/. Each file describes one set, its six items, bonuses, visual intensity and color. Use /hud reload to load it.

4. Merge the free resource pack with the collections you installed using the supplied Python 3 tool:

   python assemble_collections.py --base ForgeHUD-Free-resourcepack.zip --output merged-resourcepack.zip --collections nightblade_umbral_ascendant-1.3.0.zip warbringer_ragnarok_crown-1.3.0.zip
   

   The same tool accepts the ten-set class bundles. It writes the combined pack and an equipment-packs folder beside it. Identical assets deduplicate; conflicting assets or existing differing config files stop the operation. Choose a new output filename each time.

5. Serve the merged pack using the existing ForgeHUD pack hosting settings or your resource-pack host. For the built-in host, stop the server, replace plugins/ForgeHUD/ForgeHUD-resourcepack.zip with the merged pack, and restart. Remote players must be able to reach the configured pack address and port. Players must accept the resource pack.

6. Browse /armory. Grant items using /armory give <player> <set-id> all, or enable/configure the existing hostile-monster drops.

Updating an existing 1.2 catalog

The old equipment.yml contains all forty definitions. Do not also install duplicate collection YAMLs. Either keep the old definitions and use the merged new models, or move customized set entries to individual equipment-packs/<id>.yml files and set the root sets: {}. Do not discard custom stats. A duplicate ID rejects the reload and retains the last working catalog. Existing items retain their IDs and automatically use the replacement models after clients accept the new pack. Base attributes on already-issued items remain snapshots; grant replacements to update their base stats.

Progression and appearance

Each class has ten collections at levels 1, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 50 and 60. Collection stats and cumulative 2/4/6-piece bonuses increase through that progression. Higher tiers have larger crests, additional shoulder construction, luminous ornaments and stronger default effects. This is a fixed tier curve, not automatic item leveling.

• Nightblade: peaked cowls, layered leather, feather-like shoulder blades, daggers and parrying knives.
• Warbringer: horned helms, heavy plate, broad axes and framed shields.
• Lightwarden: winged headpieces, segmented light crowns, reliquary hammers and sun shields.
• Gravecaller: skull masks, raised ribs, branching bone details, reaper scythes and caged soul lanterns.

Base item attributes work for any wearer. Class and level checks gate the set bonuses and matching-set aura. Weapon trails are cosmetic and work on an equipped collection weapon. None of the effects add damage, healing, knockback or lights to the world. The parrying knife has no new timed-parry mechanic.

Visual settings

Global settings live in equipment.yml; missing keys use these defaults:

visuals:
  enabled: true
  auras: true
  weapon-trails: true
  view-distance: 24
  interval-ticks: 6
  aura-min-pieces: 4
  max-particles-per-tick: 320

Per-set visuals.enabled, visuals.intensity (0–2) and visuals.color (six hex digits) override its appearance. A zero particle budget disables emissions. The global budget counts particles sent to viewers, so crowds cannot multiply it without limit. Invisible, spectator and class-stealthed wearers do not emit equipment effects. Viewers must be nearby, in the same world and allowed to see the wearer.

Players use F8 → Equipment visuals to switch detailed armor locally or enable/disable equipment particles. /armory effects on|off persists on the server. Off suppresses both the player's own emitted effects and equipment effects sent to that viewer.

Item stats, requirements, labels, rarity, drops and bonus thresholds remain editable. Geometry and textures are separate resource-pack assets. Editing the art generator palette does not recolor existing assets at runtime; regenerate the pack using the included source tools.

Distribution

Publish ForgeHUD-Free-1.3.0.zip as the free prerequisite. List individual files under individual-sets/ separately, or list the four class bundles. Every set contains six pieces; every class bundle contains sixty items. Do not charge for or describe the included free runtime as an exclusive item.

These files support delivery of downloadable equipment packs. They do not implement a checkout, payment verification, DRM or player purchase entitlements, and no store listing has been published. Resource-pack files are necessarily delivered to players' clients. Decide your pricing and distribution license before publishing. If you sell perks directly to players on a server, check the Minecraft Usage Guidelines for that separate business model.

Other boss, pet, dragon, NPC and build products are outside this equipment release. Long-term class balance and performance on a busy public server still need playtesting.

Editable model format

Weapon models are standard Java item-model JSON under assets/forgehud/models/item/armory/<id>/. Worn models use assets/forgehud/armor3d/armory/<id>.json: format 1, texture identifier, texture dimensions, and a cube list. Each cube has slot (head, chest, legs, feet), animated bone, origin and size in model pixels, rotation in degrees, texture UV offset, and an emissive flag. The renderer accepts at most 256 cubes per suit and textures up to 1024 pixels. Missing or invalid worn models use the standard equipment-texture fallback. Resource reload clears the model cache. These are Paper/Fabric Java products, not Bedrock Marketplace or ModelEngine packages.