Dynamic Flashlight

Dynamic Flashlight adds a battery-powered flashlight to Minecraft. Instead of acting like a torch glued to your camera, it creates a directional beam with range, spill, falloff, animated handling, battery drain, and reloads.

The newest update makes the flashlight much better for multiplayer: nearby players can see the visible beam coming from your flashlight, and server owners can optionally enable temporary server-side light blocks so the world itself brightens for everyone too.

The model and animations are handmade and not perfect. They are the best I can make right now, and I wanted them to give the flashlight some personality instead of feeling like a flat item. The main focus of this mod is still the light itself: how it looks, how it moves through darkness, and how it feels while exploring.

Features

• Smooth directional flashlight beam
• Visible flashlight beams from nearby players
• Projected illumination across floors, walls, ceilings, and uneven terrain
• Optional server-side temporary light blocks for real world brightness
• Animated power switch and improved battery reload animation
• Battery charge, automatic drain, and battery reload loop
• Configurable beam range, brightness, angle, spill, falloff, and entity glow
• Server config for battery gameplay and server-visible lighting
• Custom 3D model and textures
• Survival-friendly crafting recipes
• No GeckoLib, shader pack, or external rendering library required

Dynamic Flashlight is focused on making one handheld light feel good: directional, physical, readable, and fun in caves, night builds, horror maps, or survival exploration.

Compared To TCT Flashlight

TCT Flashlight is probably the closest comparison to this mod. I do not want to pretend it is bad, because it is not. It is a better fit if you want a broader equipment mod with several lighting tools, such as a flashlight, headlamp, lantern, and night vision goggles.

Dynamic Flashlight is trying to do something narrower. It is built around making the handheld flashlight itself feel better, even if the model and animation are not professional quality. The goal is one focused tool with a shaped beam, soft spill, falloff, battery reloads, multiplayer-visible beams, and optional server-side world lighting.

TCT Flashlight may be better if you want:

• More lighting gadgets in one mod
• Wearable or placeable light options
• Night vision goggles
• Wider Minecraft version coverage
• A bigger existing project with more downloads

Dynamic Flashlight may be better if you want:

• A focused flashlight mod instead of a larger lighting gadget set
• A beam that feels directional and physical, not just like a simple glow
• Other players to see the visible flashlight cone in multiplayer
• Optional real server-side block lighting for shared world brightness
• No required core/library dependency for the main Forge/NeoForge experience
• A survival tool that still lets darkness matter

So this is not meant as a "mine replaces theirs" thing. TCT Flashlight is the broader lighting toolkit. Dynamic Flashlight is the smaller, more focused alternative for players who mostly care about the flashlight beam feeling cool, moody, and satisfying to use.

Multiplayer Lighting

The visual beam is rendered on clients, so players with the mod installed can see active flashlight beams from nearby players.

The optional server-visible lighting is separate. When enabled, the server places short-lived invisible light blocks along the flashlight direction so nearby terrain actually brightens for everyone. This is useful for servers and modpacks that want the flashlight to affect the shared world, not only the local player's screen.

Server owners can tune:

• serverVisibleLights
• serverLightRange
• serverLightSpacing
• serverLightRefreshTicks
• serverLightLevel

Lower range, wider spacing, and slower refresh are cheaper. Higher range, tighter spacing, and faster refresh look smoother.

Controls

• Right-click: Turn the flashlight on or off
• Sneak + right-click: Reload while carrying a battery
• Batteries are consumed when inserted
• The tooltip shows power state and remaining charge
• When charge reaches zero, the flashlight automatically turns off

Loader / Version Notes

• Forge 1.20.1 is the main build.
• NeoForge 1.21.1 is available as a modern port with the main visual and gameplay features.
• Fabric 1.21.11 is available as an early support milestone with gameplay, batteries, recipes/assets, and server-visible lighting. The fancy visible beam renderer and animated custom item renderer are not fully ported to Fabric yet.