BlueMap

BlueMap renders the server world into a map that anyone can open in a browser. The map is in 3D: you can rotate it, zoom in, search for places, and see builds as they look in the game. It's not an image — it's a browsable map.

Players use it to find their way (where is that village we built), to plan builds, and for orientation. Visitors and new players, on the other hand, will see that the server is alive — the map is the best invitation because it cannot be faked.

BlueMap can do two things that are useful for the web: render live directly from the plugin (its own small web server) or save finished tiles to files and publish them on your own website. The second option is better for a server with a website — the map then runs on the same website as the rest of the pages.

Rendering is demanding on the processor and disk. The first rendering of a large world takes a long time and the map takes up space, so it pays to set how large a part of the world and at what quality it should be rendered.

The map can be supplemented with markers — points of interest, city names, portals. Markers are added in the configuration, and if you use PlaceholderAPI, they can also carry live data.

One thing to watch out for: the map also shows what players have built in private. If you have hidden builds on the server, set in the map what should not be rendered.

1. Find out how much free disk space the server has — the map can take up tens of GB.
2. Download BlueMap from modrinth.com/plugin/bluemap (it also exists for Fabric/Forge) for your server version.
3. Upload the .jar to the plugins folder and restart the server.
4. Let the plugin render the first map. It can take a long time — that's normal.
5. In plugins/BlueMap/, set which worlds should be rendered and at what quality (the higher the quality, the larger and slower).
6. Decide how you will publish the map: either leave it on the plugin's own web (port), or set up saving to files and deploy the map on your own website.
7. When you publish the map on a website, set the correct address and access rights for it — so visitors can see it without logging in.
8. Verify in a browser that the map loads and that you can rotate and search in it.
9. Add markers for important places: towns, shops, portals. Players will appreciate them more than the map itself.
10. Set what should not be rendered (hidden builds, private areas) — and after the first render, check that this is the case.
11. Plan when the map updates. Continuous rendering is demanding, so it pays to refresh the map when the server is empty.

The first rendering of the world takes a long time, and the map takes up a lot of space. Calculate the free space in advance and set how large an area to render and at what quality.
It is best to render when nobody is on the server. Continuous rendering takes CPU and disk, and players will notice it as lag.
When you publish the map on your own website (into files, not through the plugin’s web), it runs on the same website as the rest of the pages — it is faster and easier to maintain.
Check what the map shows. Hidden builds, private bases, and secret places must not be visible unless the players want to show them.
Markers make the map useful. Without them it is just a pretty picture of the landscape — with them it is a tool for finding places.
The map is the server’s public showcase: links to it belong on the website, in Discord, and on the server profile. A visitor can then see that the server is truly alive.
After a Minecraft update, verify that the plugin loaded and that rendering works — new versions of blocks may appear with a delay.