Capes

Custom player capes for Paper. Players upload a cape image from their browser and wear it in game. Everything the client needs (models, textures and a small core shader) is delivered in resource packs that the plugin builds and serves itself. No client mods and no external resource pack are required.

Features

• Upload from the browser. /cape upload gives a one-time link to an upload page with a live preview. JPG and WebP are converted to PNG automatically.
• Vanilla behaviour. The cape is attached to the shoulders and uses vanilla cape physics: it sways while walking, lifts when running and falling, and sits over a chestplate. It turns smoothly with the body. Like vanilla, it is hidden from your own first-person view and visible in third person (F5).
• Elytra. Equipped elytra get wings textured from the same cape image.
• One small pack per cape. Uploading a new cape sends a pack only to the players who need it. Nobody else gets a resource reload.
• Cape menu. /cape opens a menu with your capes: equip, unequip, delete, upload.
• Coloured names. Cape names in chat and in the menu are tinted with the cape's own colours.
• Configurable. Limits, cape size and position, forced packs, and all messages (MiniMessage).

Requirements

• Paper 1.20.3 - 1.21.x
• Java 21+
• One open TCP port for the built-in web server (default 8085)

Installation

1. Put Capes-<version>.jar into plugins/ and start the server.
2. In plugins/Capes/config.yml set public-url to an address players can reach, for example http://your.server.ip:8085.
3. Open that port in your firewall / hosting panel.
4. Restart the server (the web server port is only read on startup).

Commands

capes.use is granted to everyone by default, capes.admin to operators.

Cape images

Use the standard Mojang cape layout: 64×32 pixels, or a 2:1 multiple such as 128×64. The same image also provides the elytra wings, exactly like vanilla capes.

Resource packs and the shader

Each cape gets its own pack, served by the plugin at <public-url>/pack/<name>.zip. Packs are added on top of the server's own resource pack, never replacing it.

To hide your own cape in first person, the packs include a core shader (assets/minecraft/shaders/core/item.vsh and item.fsh). It is the vanilla item shader plus one small branch. The owner's copy of the cape is tinted rgb(254, 254, 254), and the shader drops that copy when the camera is right next to it (first person).

Minecraft uses only one item.vsh / item.fsh, the one from the last loaded pack. If your server already sends a resource pack with its own versions of these files, either:

• set generate-shader: false in config.yml and copy the branch marked Capes plugin from this plugin's shader into your server's shader, or
• set hide-own-cape: false. The shader is then not needed, and you will also see your own cape in first person.