
Path Tracer
A vanilla-friendly way to discover new paths & leave the ones you need to build your world.
Screenshots


About this Mod

🗺️ Path Tracer
See exactly where you've been. Path Tracer renders a real-time color heatmap overlay on the ground showing your most-traveled routes — no commands, no maps, just a live visual layer on your world. NEW: Explorer Mode shows a color coded path of your walking history – great for caving & complicated areas!
How It Works
Every block you walk on gets tracked. The more you travel over a spot, the hotter its color becomes:
Path Mode
- 🟢 Green → lightly traveled
- 🟡 Yellow → moderate use
- 🟠 Orange → frequent path
- 🔴 Red → heavily worn route
Tiles below your minimum threshold stay invisible, so only your real paths show up. Path Tracer records the block you're standing on plus the 8 surrounding blocks with each step, creating a natural-looking footprint rather than a single-block trail.
Explorer Mode
- 🟢 Green → walked in the last 1 day
- 🟢🔵 Cyan → walked yesterday
- 🔵 Blue → walked 2 days ago
- ⚫️ Dark Grey → older paths
The path gradient can be adjusted from 1 - 14 days, stretching out the gradient progression. Dark Grey is always your oldest paths.
Features
- Live heatmap overlay — updates as you walk, no reload needed
- Fully configurable via Mod Menu — adjust min/max walk counts, render radius, and how long data persists
- Option to set Clear Area keybind (clears out paths within a radius of the player)
- Set keybinds to enable/disable (H), switch modes, & remove paths near you
- Ability to track movement for all loaded players in multiplayer (for building paths for shared builds)
- Client-side only — works on any server, no mod required server-side, no world modifications — purely visual.
Configuration (via Mod Menu)
Footprint Size: 1x1, 3x3, or 5x5
Min Walk Count: How many passes before a tile becomes visible
Max Walk Count: The count at which a tile reaches full red
Render Radius: How far from the player tiles are drawn (blocks)
Max Age: How many in-game days before old data fades out
Track Other Players: Ability to have other players create heatmap paths when in your loaded chunks (set to Off by default if it feels too cheaty).
Clear All Dimensions: Clear all paths across all dimensions.
Compatibility Minecraft: 1.21.11 & 26.1.2
Mod loader: Fabric
Mod Menu: Optional, recommended for in-game config
Path Tracer is a lightweight client mod — your server friends will never know it's there.
Available Versions
How to Install Path Tracer on Your Server
Order Server
Order a Minecraft Java server with at least 3 GB RAM (4 GB recommended).
Set fabric Loader
In the panel under "Egg", select the fabric loader and matching Minecraft version (26.1.2).
Install Mod
Open the mod browser in the dashboard and search for "Path Tracer". Click "Install" – done! Alternatively, upload the .jar via SFTP to the /mods folder.
Compatibility
Mod Loaders
Minecraft Versions
26.1.2, 1.21.11
Server-side
✗ UnsupportedRecommended RAM
4 GB(min. 3 GB)Frequently Asked Questions
Path Tracer server crashes on startup – what to do?
Most common cause: wrong fabric version or insufficient RAM. Check the server log (latest.log) for "OutOfMemoryError" or "Mixin" errors. With Mado Hosting: ensure at least 3 GB RAM is allocated and the loader matches the mod version (26.1.2). You can switch loaders with one click in the panel.
Is Path Tracer compatible with fabric?
Path Tracer officially supports fabric for Minecraft 26.1.2, 1.21.11. The Mado dashboard automatically detects incompatible loader combinations.
Server lagging with Path Tracer – how to optimize performance?
Recommended RAM: 4 GB (per 8 players). Use /spark profiler to check if Path Tracer consumes the most tick time. Common fixes: reduce server view-distance to 8-10, install "performant" or "starlight" as supplementary mods on Forge. With Mado Hosting, your server runs on NVMe SSDs with dedicated CPU cores for minimal latency.
Similar Mods
Rent Modded Server
Install Path Tracer with just one click on your server.