ItemsAdder: custom items, blocks and furniture on your server

ItemsAdder adds items, blocks, furniture, emojis and interfaces that don't exist in Minecraft to a Paper server, without players installing a single mod. Everything goes through a resource pack the server sends on login. It's one of the most used plugins to give a server a visual identity.

What it does

• Items: weapons, tools, food, with their texture and 3D model.
• Blocks: ores, decorations, placed and broken like normal blocks.
• Furniture: chairs you can sit on, tables, lamps.
• Emojis and fonts usable in chat, names and menus.
• Interfaces: custom menus, on-screen display bars (HUD).

It runs on Paper (and its forks): see Paper, Spigot, Purpur or Fabric.

Setup

ItemsAdder is a paid plugin, sold by its author on the major plugin platforms. It depends on other plugins, including ProtocolLib: the plugin's page gives the exact list for your version, install them all.

1. Drop ItemsAdder and its dependencies into plugins/, start the server once.
2. Choose how the resource pack will be hosted (see below).
3. Generate the pack: /iazip.
4. Reconnect: the game offers to download the pack.

/ia opens the menu of available items, /iaget <item> gives you one.

Create a first item

Content is organised by namespace (your server, for example) in the plugin's contents folder. A configuration file describes the item:

info:
  namespace: myserver
items:
  ruby_sword:
    display_name: "&cRuby sword"
    resource:
      material: DIAMOND_SWORD
      generate: false
      model_path: item/ruby_sword

The texture and model go into that namespace's resources folder. After each change: /iazip to rebuild the pack. The YAML validator spots indentation errors before they stop the item from loading.

ItemsAdder's official documentation details every option: behaviours, recipes, damage, sounds. Follow the one for your version, the folder structure has changed over updates.

Host the resource pack

The pack must be downloadable by players. Two solutions:

• Built-in hosting: ItemsAdder serves the pack itself, on a port to open in addition to the game's. Simple, but think of the firewall and the port forward if you're at home.
• External hosting: the pack is uploaded elsewhere, and the server gives its address. More robust when many players connect at the same time.

To make players accept it, turn on require-resource-pack in server.properties (the server.properties generator explains it). A player who refuses would see items without textures.

The traps

• Two content plugins at the same time (ItemsAdder and Oraxen, for example): their resource packs step on each other. Choose one.
• Other packs: if another plugin also sends a pack (a music plugin, for example), merge them, otherwise the last one sent replaces the other.
• Bedrock players: with Geyser, custom items need a pack conversion and a specific configuration; without it, they see vanilla items. Test with a Bedrock account before announcing anything.
• Performance: furniture is made of entities. Hundreds of chairs in a town are felt in TPS; a Spark profile will confirm it.
• Pack size: a 100 MB pack discourages players on mobile or 4G. Compress textures, delete what isn't used.

ItemsAdder or Oraxen?

Both do the same thing with a different philosophy: ItemsAdder is very complete and comes with ready-to-use content, Oraxen bets on simple files and automatic pack hosting. For the list of other useful plugins, see The most popular Minecraft plugins.