Minecraft:Starfield

Template:No navbox 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 gateways
• Minecraft:Minecarts with custom-displayed End portal or End gateway blocks
• Lit Minecraft:TNT entities set to display as End portals or End gateways
• Loading screen when entering or leaving the End
• Minecraft:End Poem background screen
• Minecraft:Credit sequence background screen
• Items using the Template:Code special model type in a resource pack

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; the following is present as of Minecraft:Java Edition 1.21.11.

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; the End portal uses indices 0 through 14, while the End gateway uses indices 0 through 15. Template:Info needed section

Index	Velocity	Colour	Used by
			Template:Code	Template:Code
0	4/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
1	5/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
2	6/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
3	7/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
4	8/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
5	9/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
6	10/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
7	11/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
8	12/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
9	13/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
10	14/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
11	15/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
12	16/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
13	17/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
14	18/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc
15	19/24000	Template:Abbr	Template:Tc	Template:Tc

These layers slowly move vertically downwardsTemplate:Verify over time, the scale and rotation of each layer change the appearance of the texture pattern, but the time-based offset is applied after the rotation, so the direction of motion is not rotated with each layer.Template:Verify For the nth layer, where n starts at 1, the horizontal offset is 17/n, the rotation angle is (n×n×4321+n×9)×2 degrees, and the scale is (4.5-n/4)×2. The vertical offset is (2+n/1.5)×(GameTime×1.5), giving the nth layer a downwardTemplate:Verify velocity of (3+n)/24000 texture coordinate units per game tick.

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

The specifics of Template:El are less known, however the behaviour more closely resembles the position/rotation-based rendering as seen for end portals before JE 16w40a and end gateways before JE 15w33a (though without the latter's distortion).

History

Java Edition

Table of visual changes

Blocks

Versions	Template:Code	Template:Code	Changes
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 to 12w24a	File:End Portal JE2.gif	Template:Tc	Portal introduction
12w25a 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 to 25w06a	File:End Portal JE6.gif	File:End Gateway JE4.gif	Background now stretched instead of repeating, particle size seemingly increased
25w07a to present	File:End Portal JE8.gif	File:End Gateway JE5.gif	All particles now move downwards (Windows only)