BetterRailwaySystem

BetterRailwaySystem is a Fabric mod for Minecraft that enhances the vanilla minecart and rail system without replacing it.

The goal is simple:

• keep full compatibility with vanilla rails, powered rails, detector rails, activator rails, and redstone behavior
• enhance minecart movement, operation, station handling, and line management
• avoid introducing a separate railway system like MTR

Current Scope

This mod is built around the vanilla minecart entity and vanilla track network.

Implemented feature areas:

• enhanced vanilla minecart physics and control
• operational railway blocks for spawning, stopping, collecting, and announcing
• world line recording and line map visualization
• in-game configuration, commands, and balise asset management

Features

Minecart Behavior

• smooth acceleration on powered rails instead of instantly jumping to top speed
• smooth deceleration on unpowered powered rails instead of immediate hard stop
• configurable maxSpeed, acceleration, and deceleration in blocks per second
• configurable safe following distance for automatic braking behind a minecart on the same track path
• automatic recovery and re-acceleration after temporary blocking or rebound
• substep-based high-speed rail movement to improve curve and slope stability
• slope and high-speed movement tuning focused on keeping momentum on vanilla rails
• minecart chunk loading while the train is running
• unattended minecart auto-despawn after a configurable timeout
• minecart collision and push behavior against entities disabled to reduce traffic jams
• vanilla minecart rail friction sound reduced to nearly inaudible

Multi-Passenger Minecart

• one minecart can carry up to 24 players by default
• all players share the same vanilla minecart entity
• each player keeps normal local first-person and third-person rendering
• other passengers in the same minecart are hidden to avoid player model overlap
• vanilla dismount flow is preserved

Railway Balise

The railway_balise block is a rail-side trigger block for operational events.

Supported balise modes:

• arrival
• departure
• announcement
• speed_limit_start
• speed_limit_end

Balise behavior includes:

• sending title and subtitle announcements to current minecart passengers only
• playing custom audio to minecart passengers only
• showing a custom HUD image to minecart passengers only
• optional image persistence until the next balise or until the player leaves the minecart
• updating current station and next station state
• optional bossbar updates for onboard passengers
• temporary line speed limits with configurable speed limit start and end markers

Stop Rail

The stop_rail block works as a rail-side stop control block for precise station stopping.

Supported behavior:

• configurable stop distance
• configurable dwell time
• wait modes: immediate, timer, redstone
• automatic restart after release, including a short launch boost so the minecart does not remain stuck

Train Spawner

The train_spawner block can automatically create minecarts on existing vanilla rails.

Supported settings:

• city name
• line id
• line theme color
• spawn direction
• interval-based dispatch
• redstone-controlled dispatch
• circular line flag

Spawner behavior:

• spawns only when a valid rail exists at or above the block
• refuses to spawn if another minecart is already occupying the spawn area
• launches the minecart automatically in the configured or detected rail direction
• binds spawned minecarts to city, line, color, route recording, and circular-line state
• forces the spawner chunk to stay loaded

Train Collector

The train_collector block acts as the end-of-line recovery point.

Supported behavior:

• removes the minecart when it reaches the collector
• records visited stations into the saved railway line map before removing the train
• saves line color and station coordinates along with station order

Railway Map and Line Map

The mod includes both onboard line maps and world railway map views.

Supported behavior:

• open the map with the grave accent key ` / ~
• open the current line map while riding
• open the world railway map while not riding
• city-based grouping of lines
• station transfer merging by shared station name within the same city
• line theme colors shown in the map and bossbar
• station search
• mouse wheel zoom
• drag-to-pan navigation
• station tooltip display with station name, city, line list, and saved coordinates
• per-city legends for line color lookup
• railway map clear actions for all data, one city, or one line from the config screen

Bossbar and Line Theme

• current station and next station bossbar for onboard passengers
• bossbar color follows the line theme color
• line theme color is also reused by saved line data and map rendering

Balise Asset Library

Custom balise media can be managed from the in-game library UI.

Supported behavior:

• image library
• sound library
• upload new .png images and .ogg sounds
• click-to-preview media
• select a media identifier directly into the balise editor
• automatic local resource pack generation and reload for uploaded assets

Configuration

Available config values include:

• maxSpeed
• acceleration
• deceleration
• safeFollowingDistance
• maxPassengers
• stopRailApproachDistance
• unattendedDespawnSeconds

Configuration is available through:

• in-game config screen
• commands: /betterrailwaysystem config show, /betterrailwaysystem config reload, /betterrailwaysystem config set <key> <value>

Environment

• Minecraft 1.21.1
• Fabric Loader
• Fabric API
• Yarn mappings
• Java 21

Development

Common commands:

./gradlew build
./gradlew runClient

Project Structure

Source layout:

• src/main/java/org/dcstudio/minecart minecart runtime logic
• src/main/java/org/dcstudio/renderer client UI and overlay rendering
• src/main/java/org/dcstudio/network client/server payloads and sync
• src/main/java/org/dcstudio/station railway block and block entity logic
• src/main/java/org/dcstudio/config config and command handling

Notes

• The mod id is betterrailwaysystem.
• All custom behavior is designed around vanilla rails instead of replacing them.
• The mod keeps compatibility with vanilla powered rails, detector rails, activator rails, and normal rails.
• Train operation, station events, and map recording are all built on top of vanilla minecarts.

License

This repository is licensed under GPL-3.0. See LICENSE.

Author of the 3D model in the icon:Mareon,khj008008