Shoulder Surfing Reloaded Mod — Guide
Camera Mechanics
The mod introduces several advanced camera behaviors that differ significantly from vanilla Minecraft:
- Over-the-Shoulder View: The camera is shifted to the side of the player, providing a clearer view of the environment and interactions.
- Decoupled Camera: Players can move left, right, or backward without the camera automatically snapping to the player's facing direction. This allows for more cinematic movement and better spatial awareness.
- Free Look: By holding the designated hotkey (default
Left Alt), players can rotate the camera freely around the character without changing the direction the character is moving or facing. - Adaptive Transparency: When the camera is forced close to the player model (e.g., standing against a wall), the player model will automatically fade to transparent. This prevents the 'inside-the-head' clipping common in vanilla third-person views.
- Camera Collision: The camera intelligently reacts to the environment, zooming in when obstructed by blocks to maintain a clear line of sight to the player.
Crosshair System
One of the most significant technical hurdles in third-person mods is aiming accuracy. SSR solves this with a sophisticated crosshair system:
Crosshair Types
- Static: The crosshair remains in the center of the screen. This may result in 'parallax error' where the crosshair does not align with the actual block or entity being targeted.
- Dynamic: The crosshair automatically moves on the screen to stay aligned with the exact point the player's character is aiming at, based on raytracing. This ensures that where you point is where you hit.
- Adaptive: The crosshair only appears or switches to dynamic mode when the player is holding specific items (like bows or swords) or performing specific actions (like aiming).
Obstruction Indicator
When using the static crosshair, an additional indicator can be enabled in the config to show when an object is blocking the line of sight between the camera and the target point.
API and Integration
Shoulder Surfing Reloaded features a robust Plugin API for developers. This allows other mods to modify camera behavior without invasive code changes.
API Features
IShoulderSurfingPlugin: The primary interface for creating a plugin. Developers can register custom camera behaviors or overrides.- Custom Callbacks: Mods can hook into camera rendering events to adjust the FOV, offset, or rotation dynamically (e.g., for a 'lock-on' mechanic or cinematic scripted sequences).
- Compatibility: The mod includes built-in support for several popular mods, including:
- Better Combat: Synchronizes attack animations and camera facing.
- Curios API: Allows items in curios slots to trigger adaptive crosshair states.
- Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks: Adjusts camera behavior during spellcasting.
Developers can access the API by including the ShoulderSurfing-API jar in their development environment.