Minecraft:Starfield

Starfield is a unique graphical effect used for rendering certain features related to Minecraft:the End.

Use cases

Starfield effects are used for the following:

• End portal
• End gateway
• Minecraft:Endermen holding End portals or End gatewaysTemplate:Verify
• Minecraft:Minecarts with custom-displayed End portal or End gateway blocksTemplate:Verify
• Lit Minecraft:TNT entities set to display as End portals or End gatewaysTemplate:Verify
• Minecraft:Block display entities set to display as End portals or End gatewaysTemplate:Only
• Minecraft:Background in the Minecraft:credit sequence, Minecraft:End poem, and loading screen when entering or leaving the EndTemplate:Only
• Items using the Template:Code special model type in a resource packTemplate:Only

Minecraft:Falling block entities of the End portal and End gateway do not render the starfield effect, and it seems highly unlikely (although unproven) that Minecraft:moving piston blocks would either.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>

How it is rendered

Java Edition

The rendering of the starfield effect has changed several times throughout the game's history.

There are two subtly different gateway effects, referred to by the Template:Code special model type as Template:Code (used for end portal blocks, the dimension loading screens for entering and exiting the End, and the credits sequence and preceding poem) and Template:Code, used specifically for end gateways. The latter renders an extra layer of blue pixels which are absent from the former, which can be seen by placing the two blocks next to each other; blue pixels will disappear when they migrate to the space where the end portal is present. See later in this section for a technical explanation of the difference.

Two different texture files are utilised in generating the starfield effect:

Template:Code	Template:Code
Template:Pximg	Template:Pximg

The "End sky" texture, which is indeed the same texture used for the actual Minecraft:End sky, is used as the "background" texture: it is sampled using screen-projected coordinates and multiplied by Template:Color. The shader uses the projected screen-space y-coordinate directly as the vertical texture coordinate; because the screen-projected vertical coordinate increases upwards while the texture image is displayed with its vertical axis running downwards, the background texture appears vertically mirrored.Template:Info needed

The "End portal" texture is sampled in multiple layers on top of this background. Each layer uses a different colour multiplier, scale, rotation, fixed horizontal offset, and time-based vertical offset. In the fragment shader, the RGB results of the layers are combined additively before the final colour is output with full opacity. The End portal uses 15 layers of the "End portal" texture, while the End gateway uses 16 layers. The first 15 layers are shared between both effects, while the End gateway has an additional layer using Template:Color.

The colour values used by the layers are as follows. Index 0 is also used for the "End sky" background, but the velocity listed for index 0 applies only to the first layer of the "End portal" texture. The End portal uses indices 0 through 14, while the End gateway uses indices 0 through 15. The Velocity column gives the rate at which the time-based vertical offset increases. In the current Windows behaviour, this is also the apparent downward velocity of the layer. In the pre-25w07a behaviour, where the apparent travel direction follows each layer's rotation, the same listed velocity is transformed by the layer's rotation and scale.

Index	Velocity	Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr	Colour	Used by
					Template:Code	Template:Code
0	Template:Frac	20°	8.5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
1	Template:Frac	44°	8	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
2	Template:Frac	72°	7.5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
3	Template:Frac	104°	7	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
4	Template:Frac	140°	6.5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
5	Template:Frac	180°	6	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
6	Template:Frac	224°	5.5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
7	Template:Frac	272°	5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
8	Template:Frac	324°	4.5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
9	Template:Frac	20°	4	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
10	Template:Frac	80°	3.5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
11	Template:Frac	144°	3	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
12	Template:Frac	212°	2.5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
13	Template:Frac	284°	2	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
14	Template:Frac	0°	1.5	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
15	Template:Frac	80°	1	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc

For the nth layer, where n starts at 1 and equals the table index plus 1, the horizontal offset is Template:Frac, the rotation angle is (n×n×4321+n×9)×2 degrees, and the scale is (4.5-Template:Frac)×2. The vertical offset is (2+Template:Frac)×(GameTime×1.5). Since GameTime increases by Template:Frac per game tick, the Velocity value listed in the table is Template:Frac. In unaffected rendering behaviour, the Rotation value gives the apparent travel direction, while the apparent travel velocity is the listed Velocity divided by the listed Scale.

On some AMD Windows systems, the layers appear to move vertically downwards instead of following the directions listed in the table. This behaviour is unintentional and only affects OpenGL; the Vulkan renderer does not exhibit this behaviour, nor does OpenGL on macOS, Linux, or when using Nvidia graphics hardware.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>

The starfield effect is completely constant regardless of view: while moving and rotating the camera will change the position of the object using the starfield effect itself on screen, the starfield itself will remain fixed in place. In effect, anything using the starfield effect effectively creates what can be seen as a "hole" in the world, behind which the starfield rests. The shape of the starfield also changes with the window size, although this is presumably not intentional.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>

Bedrock Edition

Template:Info needed section The starfield effect in Bedrock Edition is rendered using a layered parallax system.

For Minecraft:end portals, the effect consists of 17 overlapping horizontal quadrilateral layers with identical positions, dimensions, and depths. Each layer covers the full horizontal area of a block and consists of 2 triangles.

For Minecraft:end gateways, the effect consists of 17 overlapping layers with identical positions, dimensions, and depths. Each cube layer occupies a full block space and consists of 6 faces and 12 triangles.

In both effects, one layer forms an opaque base layer, while the remaining 16 render the pixels making up the starfield. The geometry of the 17 layers overlaps exactly within each effect; the depth and parallax of the starfield are produced by the different texture coordinates and layer parameters used by each layer.

Two different texture files are utilised in generating the effect:

Template:Code	Template:Code
Template:Pximg	Template:Pximg

The Template:Code texture supplies the starfield pattern, while the Template:Code texture supplies the colours used by the individual starfield layers. Both textures use nearest-neighbour filtering and wrap addressing on both texture-coordinate axes, so coordinates outside the texture range continue sampling from the opposite side.

The opaque base layer has a layer parameter of 1. In this case, the pixel shader enters the base-layer branch and generates the output colour from the current fog colour and fog factor. At positions unaffected by fog, the fog factor is 0, causing the layer to appear black; as the fog factor increases, the colour of the base layer approaches the fog colour of the scene.

The remaining 16 layers render the starfield pixels and are indexed from 0 through 15. Their layer parameters are Template:Frac, Template:Frac, and Template:Frac, decreasing by Template:Frac for each subsequent layer until Template:Frac at index 14; the layer parameter at index 15 is 0.

Each starfield layer has a fixed set of colour texture coordinates. The 16 coordinate pairs form a 4x4 grid, with both coordinates successively taking the values Template:Frac, Template:Frac, Template:Frac, and Template:Frac. With nearest-neighbour filtering, these coordinates fall within the bottom-right 2x2-pixel region of the colour texture, so four colours are used,Template:Verify each by four starfield layers.

The parameters used by the starfield layers are as follows. The Rotation column gives the exact angle in radians, reduced to the range from 0 to 2π:

Index	Layer parameter	Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr	Colour texture coordinates	ColourTemplate:Verify
0	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
1	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
2	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
3	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
4	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
5	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
6	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
7	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
8	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
9	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
10	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
11	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
12	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
13	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
14	Template:Frac	Template:Fracπ	Template:Frac	Template:Frac	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color
15	0	0	0	1	(Template:Frac,Template:Frac)	Template:Color

For a starfield layer with a layer parameter of p, the virtual depth is 32p, the rotation angle of the texture coordinates is 32p×Template:Frac radians, and the layer brightness is 1-p.

The RGB components of the vertex colour encode the direction of the current block face, while the alpha component stores the layer parameter. The vertex shader uses the vertex position, block-face direction, viewpoint position, and virtual depth to calculate the position projected from the viewpoint onto a virtual sampling plane. The actual geometry of all 17 layers overlaps exactly, but the virtual sampling planes corresponding to the layers lie at different depths, producing multiple levels of parallax as the camera moves.

The virtual sampling position is then converted into two-dimensional coordinates according to the direction of the block face and scaled to Template:Frac of its original size. The coordinates are rotated by the rotation angle of the layer, then offset by 32p in the same direction. The time value supplied by the renderer is divided by 256 and added to the second texture coordinate, causing the starfield pattern to move continuously. All layers use the same time increment, while their different rotation angles and virtual depths produce different apparent directions of travel and degrees of parallax.

The time value supplied by the renderer increases in seconds, so the time offset increases by Template:Frac of a texture-coordinate unit per second. The parallax texture uses wrap addressing; with the camera position and other rendering parameters kept unchanged, the starfield animation returns to the same texture phase every 256 seconds.

The output colour of an ordinary starfield layer is obtained by multiplying the colour texture, parallax texture, layer brightness, and fog attenuation component-wise. If the layer parameter is p and the fog factor is f, the colour of the layer is the component-wise product of the colour texture, the parallax texture, 1-p, and 1-f.

The blend state causes the base layer to replace the existing colour in the framebuffer, after which the 16 starfield layers are added successively. Different graphics backends may use different output alpha values and destination blend factors to produce the same colour-compositing result.

The effect uses depth testing and depth writing, with the depth comparison function set to less than or equal. As all 17 layers of each effect use the same geometry and depth, each layer can pass the test at equal depth and take part in the final composition.

History

Java Edition

Table of visual changes

Parallax

Versions	Template:Code	Template:Code	Changes
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 to 12w22a	File:Parallax Portal Starfield JE1.gif	-	Portal introduction
12w23a to 1.8.9	File:Parallax Portal Starfield JE2.gif		End Sky texture change
15w31a to 15w32c		File:Parallax Gateway Starfield JE1.gif	Gateway introduction
15w33a to 1.9.4		-	Gateway now camera-independent
16w20a to 16w39c	File:Parallax Portal Starfield JE3.gif		The starfield is darker and greener
Parallax starfield no longer exists from 16w40a onward

Fixed

Versions	Template:Code	Template:Code	Changes
15w33a to 1.9.4	-	File:Fixed Gateway Starfield JE1.gif	Fixed starfield added, used by end gateway
16w20a to 16w39c		File:Fixed Gateway Starfield JE2.gif	The starfield is darker and greener
16w40a to 21w08b	File:Fixed Portal Starfield JE1.gif		Portal now camera-independent
21w10a	File:Fixed Portal Starfield JE2.gif	File:Fixed Gateway Starfield JE3.gif	Background now stretched instead of repeating, particle size increased
21w11a to present	File:Fixed Portal Starfield JE3.gif	File:Fixed Gateway Starfield JE4.gif	Particle size reverted

Blocks

Versions	Template:Code	Template:Code	Changes
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 to 12w22a	File:End Portal JE2.gif	Template:Tc	Portal introduction
12w23a to 1.8.9	File:End Portal JE3.gif	Template:Tc	End Sky texture change
15w31a to 15w32c		File:End Gateway JE1.gif	Gateway introduction
15w33a to 1.9.4		File:End Gateway JE2.gif	Gateway now camera-independent
16w20a to 16w39c	File:End Portal JE4.gif	File:End Gateway JE3.gif	The starfield is darker and greener
16w40a to 21w08b	File:End Portal JE5.gif		Portal now camera-independent
21w10a	File:End Portal JE6.gif	File:End Gateway JE4.gif	Background now stretched instead of repeating, particle size increased
21w11a to present	File:End Portal JE7.gif	File:End Gateway JE5.gif	Particle size reverted

Bedrock Edition

Table of visual differences

Host	Template:Code	Template:Code	Notes
Windows 11 AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT	File:Starfield BE.gif		All 16 colors are used