GLBImport

This project was developed with significant AI assistance. I'm disclosing this because I believe it's important to be transparent about how the mod was created.

GLB Import

Bring any 3D model into Minecraft: full size, full detail, in one click.

GLB Import turns any 3D model file into something you place like a block: .glb and .gltf, plus .obj, .fbx, .blend and more, converted for you. Statues, cathedrals, spaceships, characters, 3D scans, even entire game maps show up exactly as they were made. Every triangle and every texture appears at full resolution, lit by Minecraft's own sun, moon and torches, or by your shaderpack.

Then make it part of your world. Walk on it, send it flying along a path and ride it, sit on it, open its creaking doors, give it your own sounds and smoking chimneys, mine and chisel it, let it light up the night, wire it to redstone, film it with a built-in camera, or turn it into real blocks.

How it works

1. Press G, or use a GLB Model item from the Functional tab.
2. Click Import… or just drag files onto the game window: glTF, OBJ, FBX, .blend and more.
3. The model lands in your hand. A see-through preview shows exactly where it will go, so you can place it like any block.

One glTF metre equals one block, and models face you when you place them.

Features

Full detail, any size

• Nothing simplified. There's no polygon reduction and no texture downscaling.
• Whole maps and cities.
  • Only the parts in view and within render distance are drawn.
  • Big models load in gradually instead of freezing the game.
  • A map stays visible wherever you stand inside it.
• Looks like it belongs. Models get Minecraft's lighting, day and night, torchlight and fog, plus transparency and vertex colours.
• Glow, opacity, glass and tint. Make a model glow at night, turn it into a see-through hologram, make its windows clearer, or give it a colour.
• Bigger than 100×. Sizes normally stop at 100×. The host and operators can Ctrl+click x2 to keep going, up to 10,000×.

Any 3D format, even .blend files

• Drag in almost anything. OBJ (with its materials and textures), STL and PLY convert instantly, built in.
• Blender does the rest. .blend, FBX, DAE, 3DS, USD/USDZ, Alembic, X3D/VRML and DXF go through Blender (free), which GLB Import runs for you invisibly in the background.
• Procedural materials are baked. Materials glTF can't describe (procedural textures, mixed shaders, node effects) are baked into real textures, so a .blend looks the way it does in Blender.
• Pick your Blender. Have several versions? Blender… lists each one, so you choose which converts.
• Safe, and you can see it working. Scripts inside .blend files never run. Progress shows in the menu, and Stop cancels.
• Or drop files in the folder. Files put straight into glb_models are converted where they are.

Huge maps that load like chunks

• Simplify or full detail. Files over 1 GB ask first: Simplify to fit (about 5 million triangles, loads well on most computers) or Full detail.
• Full detail streams in tiles. The map is split into tiles that load one at a time, nearest first, while you're near them, and are let go when you're far away. Memory stays bounded however big the map is.
• Pick your tiles. Tiles… shows the map from above. Click any tile to switch it off (it never loads) or back on.
• Still one model. You place it once, and collision and Build in Blocks work through the tiles one at a time.
• Big conversions keep going after you quit, which frees memory for Blender. The model is waiting in your list next time.

Shaderpacks, with shadows

• Works with Iris. With a shaderpack on, models get the pack's lighting, fog, sky colour and post-processing, like any entity.
• They cast shadows. Every model within the pack's shadow distance casts the pack's shadows.
• Nothing to set up. Switch the pack off and models go back to the normal look. Iris is optional.

Visible far past your render distance

• Models stay in view. By default they're drawn up to 8× your render distance, 1,536 blocks at 12 chunks, with or without Distant Horizons or Voxy. A castle on a far-off hill doesn't vanish.
• How. Minecraft cuts off everything past 4× your render distance, so far models are drawn as exact scaled-down copies just inside that limit. They look identical, terrain still hides them correctly, and they don't fade into the fog.
• Works with Distant Horizons and Voxy. A model's invisible collision blocks stay invisible in their far-off scenery.
• Your choice. Set the distance, or turn it off for slower computers, in the config file.

Real light from glowing parts

• Glowing materials light the world. Neon signs, lit windows and lava give off real Minecraft light. Anything with an emissive colour or texture lights the blocks around it, brighter where it glows more.
• Lamps from Blender work. Point and spot lights in the file light the room they hang in, as far as their range reaches.
• It's real block light. It spreads like torchlight, keeps mobs from spawning, grows crops, and shaderpacks light it like any torch.
• It follows the model when you move or mine it, and the Lights button turns it off.

Animations, with redstone

• They play the moment you place them: skeletal characters, spinning wheels, machines and clocks.
• Your choice of clip and speed, and one of six modes:
  • Loop
  • Play Once
  • Back and Forth
  • Redstone: Open/Close plays forward while powered and back when the power stops.
  • Redstone: Run plays only while powered.
  • Interactive lets you open and close each part by hand (below).
• No jumps. Flip a lever halfway and the animation turns around smoothly.
• The same frame for every player, with no extra network traffic.

Sounds: creaking doors, humming engines, or your own

• Parts sound like what they are. Doors creak, chests thump and pistons hiss as parts open and close. Choose from Wooden Door, Iron Door, Trapdoor, Fence Gate, Chest, Barrel, Piston or Ender Chest.
• Ambient loops. A model can make a sound all the time, heard nearby: an engine hum for a spaceship, a portal's whoosh, a crackling fire or running water.
• Upload your own. Give any model your own .ogg sounds for opening, closing and its ambient loop, up to 2 MB each. They're positional, fade with distance and follow your volume settings.
• Everyone hears the same. Uploaded sounds are shared with every player automatically, and all sounds are saved with the model.

Particle effects from Blender

• Name an object fx_smoke (an Empty in Blender) and smoke streams from that exact point: chimneys, torches, engine exhausts, magic.
• 15 effects: smoke, flame, soul_flame, campfire, spark, sparkle, portal, drip, lava, splash, cloud, snow, heart, note and ash.
• They follow animation, so flames on a spaceship's engines fly with the ship.
• Light on the network. Each player's game makes the particles itself, only near the model.

Live collision: ride inside moving models (experimental)

• Fly a spaceship and walk around inside it. With Collision set to Live, a model's moving parts collide every tick as they move, and carry you along when you stand on them. It works for airships, lifts and carousels too.
• Exact carrying. You move along the precise path of the spot under your feet, so turning decks carry you round the arc. Mobs and dropped items ride along too.
• Still parts stay solid blocks, so a landing pad or lift shaft stays walkable and minable.
• No extra network traffic. Every player's game works out the same moving shapes from the same animation clock.

Movers: trains, lifts, ferries and starships

Make any model travel a route you lay out in the world, with no animation needed in Blender. Ride it the whole way: it collides as it goes and carries you along, round corners too.

• Lay out the path with the Path Wand. Right-click the model, then right-click blocks to add stops, or sneak + right-click the air to drop a stop right where you are, even up in the sky. A dotted line traces the route.
• Choose how it travels:
  • Loop
  • Back & Forth
  • Redstone: out while powered, back when not.
• Smooth curves. With Curves on, it glides along a smooth curve through the stops instead of zig-zagging.
• Turning, on every axis:
  • Off keeps facing one way (a lift).
  • Face turns to face where it's going (a train).
  • Tilt also pitches up and down slopes (a rollercoaster).
  • Bank also leans into turns (a plane).
• Every stop has its own settings (right-click a selected stop again):
  • Speed to here, so it can slow into a station and race down the straight.
  • Pause here, easing in and out like a real train.
  • Rotation here: yaw, pitch and roll, blended along the way. A roll of 360 is a barrel roll.
  • Animation on the way: which of the model's clips plays on that leg, like walk, fly or takeoff.
• Huge routes. Up to 256 stops, as far as 16,384 blocks away, at up to 256 blocks a second. Type exact coordinates, or use Move Here, in the stop editor.
• Orbit tool. One click makes a perfect circular orbit, tilted however you like: ships circling a planet, or a moon going round its world.
• Pivot. It turns about its own middle, wherever you've moved it in edit mode, or about its anchor block, like a carousel arm.
• Visual only. Turn Collision off for pure animation that costs nothing, even for a giant starship.
• Edit freely:

• Smooth even when huge. A mover's collision is built once in the background, so a giant ship costs no more per tick than a small boat.
• Same place for every player, with no extra network traffic.

Craft the Path Wand from a rail above two sticks.

Working doors, gates and drawbridges

• Collision follows the animation. With Collision set to When It Stops (the default), a door's collision is rebuilt once it has finished moving: walk through once it's open, and it's solid again once it closes. With Interactive models, every part does this on its own.
• Solid while it moves. The old collision stays until the motion ends, so nothing slips through a half-open gate.

Interactive models: click to open

• Right-click a moving part to open it, and again to close it. On a cabinet with two doors, each door opens on its own.
• No setup. The mod works out which animation moves the spot you clicked, even when a door is already open.
• Redstone per part. A lever can open just one part, a pressure plate another (see the Redstone Link Wand).
• Anyone can open them, even on locked models, so they're perfect for doors in adventure maps.

Sit on models

• Right-click the top of any model with an empty hand to sit exactly where you clicked: chairs, benches, sofas, thrones, car seats, ledges. Sneak to stand up.
• Share a bench. You sit at the spot you click, so several players fit on one seat.
• Works with Interactive models. Moving parts still open when clicked, so a carriage can have opening doors and seats.

First-person arms for realistic maps

• /glbarms <model> swaps everyone's blocky first-person arm for a 3D model: real hands, gloves, sleeves or armour.
• Animated. Clips named idle, walk, swing and use play to match what the player is doing.
• Map-friendly. It works in command blocks, so arms can change with the area: bare hands outside, gloves in the lab. /glbarms none goes back to normal.
• Lit like the real hand, and shaderpacks treat it like one.

The Redstone Link Wand

Power a model from any block, not just the one it stands on: a lever across the room, a button by the door, or a pressure plate in front of a gate.

While you hold the wand, outlines show which blocks power which model. Craft it from redstone dust above two sticks.

Collision you can stand on

• Precise. Surfaces are mapped at 1/8-block precision, so you can walk on floors, climb stairs and bump into walls.
• Hands-off. Collision builds in the background, updates when you edit the model, and never overwrites your builds.

Mine models like blocks

• Break a block of a model and it's carved out, as if the model were made of blocks. The cut is exact, with textures carried through.
• Solid inside. Holes are sealed and coloured like the material you mined: dig into a statue and you hit stone, not an empty shell.
• Everything follows. Collision, water and Build in Blocks all use the carved shape, and holes move with the model.
• Restore in the Placed tab puts every mined block back.

The Model Chisel

Carve in detail, and put pieces back.

A highlight shows exactly what you'll carve or put back. Craft it from an iron ingot above a stick.

Flush placement (experimental)

• Press J and blocks placed on a model go to the grid spot nearest its real surface, instead of floating in the next block out.
• Never more than half a block off, where before a block could float almost a whole block away.
• A light blue outline shows where your block will go.

Water that flows over models

• It runs like on terrain. Pour a bucket on a roof and it spreads, runs off the edges and falls. Ramps drain downhill, basins fill up like pools, and holes let water drip through.
• It stays put. Floors hold water even when they sit halfway up a block.
• It's real water. Swim in it, pick it back up with a bucket, or soak it up with sponges.
• Lakes survive. Placing a model in a lake keeps the lake.

Build in Blocks

• Real blocks. Turn any model into real Minecraft blocks, colour-matched from its textures.
• Preview first. A live preview shows it in the world before you build.
• Pick your blocks.
  • Presets: All 134 blocks, Colorful, Concrete, Wool, Terracotta, Natural or Mountain.
  • Your own pick: Pick Blocks… lets you choose exactly the blocks to use, like stone, dirt, grass and snow for a mountain. Colours are still matched, but only among your picks.
  • Glass: see-through parts become stained glass.
• Hollow or solid. Blocks go in a little each tick, so the game keeps running.
• Safe. Nothing already built is ever replaced, and Undo takes back any of your last 3 builds.
• Permanent. The result is plain vanilla blocks: it stays even if you remove the mod.

Export to schematic: build it in survival

• Export Schematic saves the converted blocks as a .schem file for Litematica or WorldEdit, plus a materials list in blocks and stacks.
• Build it in survival with Litematica's hologram, or paste it with WorldEdit. Pasted at the model's anchor block, it lands exactly on the model.
• Anyone can export, on any server, since nothing is placed.

Edit in the world

• Edit while you walk around it. Look at a model and press H.
• Three tools. Move, Rotate and Scale all use the arrow keys, so there's nothing to memorise.
• Fine control: steps down to 1/16 of a block and 1°.

Folders and search

• Search every model in your library as you type.
• Folders keep a big library tidy. Make folders, move models into them, and imports land in the folder you're looking at.
• Real folders inside glb_models, so you can organize in File Explorer too. Moving a model never affects copies you've already placed.

Showcase camera: film your models

Made for YouTube Shorts, TikTok and trailers. Press O:

• Orbit the Model I'm Looking At. The camera glides in a smooth circle around it, framed to its size, with the HUD hidden. That's instant footage.
• Keyframe flights. Add keyframes around your build, then play a smooth curved flight through them.
• 9:16 frame guide. It shows exactly what a vertical video will crop to.
• Speed control. Choose ½×, 1× or 2×.
• Smooth at your frame rate. The camera detaches from you, so you're never in the shot.
• A small credit. "Made with GLB Import" sits inside the 9:16 frame. Switch it off in the Showcase menu.

Made for servers and map makers

• Only one player needs the model. Take a model the server doesn't have and it uploads automatically. Everyone else downloads it when they need it.
• The Sharing screen lists every model on the server and in your library:
  • Share to Server uploads one of your models without placing it.
  • Save to My Library keeps a server model for yourself.
  • Remove from Server deletes it from the shared library (host and operators).
• Lock models so nobody can break or mine them, not even in creative. Explosions, pistons, withers and the Ender Dragon can't destroy models either.
• The Placed tab manages every placed model: edit, animate, build in blocks, copy, lock, glow, lights, collision, restore mined blocks or remove.
• Live reload. Overwrite a model file and it updates in-game within seconds.
• Clear version check. A player with a different version of GLB Import is told which version to install, instead of being disconnected with a confusing error.
• Players without the mod who join are told what your world uses and where to get it.

Handles messy files

• Multi-file models. A .gltf with separate .bin and texture files (like Sketchfab downloads) is packed into a single file on import.
• Complex models. Rigged characters, instanced scenes, quantized meshes and texture transforms all load.
• See-through materials done right. Materials wrongly marked see-through (common in Blender exports) draw solid, and real glass sorts correctly. Glass made with Blender's transmission setting comes through clear.
• Commands too: /give @s glbimport:model_anchor[glbimport:model={model:"statue.glb",scale:2.0f,anim_clip:0}]

Editing controls

Look at a placed model and press H to start.

• R switches tool.
• Backspace resets the current tool.
• Shift makes big steps and Alt makes fine ones.
• Ctrl while scaling up goes past 100× (host and operators).
• Enter or H finishes.

Keys can be rebound in Options → Controls → GLB Import.

Multiplayer

GLB Import is needed on both the server and every client, in the same version.

• Shared library. The server's glb_models folder is shared with everyone. Server owners can also drop files straight into it; they're picked up within 30 seconds.
• Uploads. Taking or sharing a model the server doesn't have uploads it, up to 1 GB per model. Uploaded sounds are shared the same way.
• Downloads. Other players download models into .minecraft/glb_cache/, once per model. Nobody's own models folder is ever touched, unless you choose Save to My Library.
• Permissions.
  • Taking, uploading, animating, linking, laying out paths, choosing or uploading sounds and building models in blocks need creative mode, operator permissions, or being the host.
  • Placing models you already hold, opening Interactive parts, sitting, and exporting schematics work for anyone.
  • Removing shared models, lifting block limits, sizing past 100× and /glbarms are for the host and operators only.
  • The Showcase camera needs creative or spectator mode.
• Single player, LAN and hosted worlds (like Essential's): nothing changes for the host, and guests download from the host.
• Converting (OBJ, FBX, .blend and so on) happens on your own computer. Everyone else just receives a normal model.

Good to know

• Compressed files (Draco or meshopt) aren't supported. Re-export without compression; in Blender, untick Compression in the glTF exporter.
• Textures: PNG and JPEG work. KTX2, WebP and AVIF textures show untextured.
• Animations: skeleton and moving-part animations play; shape-key (morph) animations don't.
• Interactive models work best when each animation moves a different part, like one Blender action per door.
• Live collision is experimental. It's accurate to half a block, so very thin moving parts may let small things through. For looping flights, end the path where it starts.
• Ambient sounds play from the model's anchor block, so a ship that flies or travels far away leaves its hum behind.
• Far models are drawn by GLB Import, not by Distant Horizons' or Voxy's scenery, up to the distance you set. A model converted with Build in Blocks shows at any distance.
• Movers move the whole model as one piece. Its own animations still play, but it collides with its resting shape. Editing a path starts the mover from the top.
• Showcase flights: keep them within your render distance of where you stand, since that's where the world is loaded.
• Yellow or red boxes mark a model that's still loading (yellow) or couldn't be loaded (red). Only builders see them; look at one and the action bar says why.
• Build in Blocks and schematics use the model's imported pose, not its current animation frame.
• Mining needs the model's collision on. Locked models and models with an animation playing can't be mined, and carved models don't animate.
• Materials use base colour with Minecraft lighting, not full PBR.
• RAM: maps of several million triangles want 6–8 GB allocated to Minecraft. Full-detail tiled maps stream, so 8–12 GB is plenty.
• Converting through Blender needs Blender installed (free from blender.org). A .blend opens best in the Blender it was made in, or newer. Blender 5 no longer opens DAE files, so use 4.x for those.
• Tiled (full-detail) models: sitting, opening parts, movers and mining use the first tile. In multiplayer, copy every part file into the server's glb_models folder.
• Flush placement is experimental.
• Limits:
  • Collision and Build in Blocks each go up to 1,000,000 blocks per model. The host or an operator can Ctrl+click Build or Collision to lift that, at their own risk.
  • Mining goes up to 65,536 blocks per model, and lighting up to 16,384 lit blocks per model.
  • Sizes go up to 100×, or 10,000× when lifted. Paths have up to 256 stops within 16,384 blocks.
  • The model itself always renders in full.

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.21.1 (or 1.21)
• Fabric Loader 0.16 or newer
• Fabric API
• Optional: Iris (shaderpacks), Distant Horizons or Voxy (far terrain)
• Optional: Blender (free), to convert .blend, FBX and other formats