About ️

The CameraPlugin introduces a camera mode that allows players to temporarily leave their physical bodies. Using a command, the player separates from their body and can freely explore the world as an invisible camera.

While the player explores the world, their body remains as an armour stand with the player's head at the starting position. A key feature of the plugin is that this body remains vulnerable. If the armour stand takes damage from mobs or other players, the camera mode is immediately terminated for the player and they are returned to their original position. This mechanism ensures that the feature carries a strategic risk ⚔️ and cannot be abused to circumvent dangerous situations.

How it works

1 Activation: A player types /cam to start cam mode.

2 Saving: The plugin immediately saves the player's current state (position, inventory, Hearts, etc.).

3 Transformation: An armour stand (the ‘body’) and an invisible hitbox are created at the player's position. The player is put into a special flight mode and made invisible . ️

4 Exploration: The player can now fly around freely and explore the world.
Interactions such as mining blocks or attacking are blocked.

5 Return: The player returns in one of several ways:

• They enter /cam again.
• Their armour stand is damaged by an external source.
• They attack their own body.
• The time limit expires (if activated).

6 Restoration: The player is teleported to the location of their body and their original state (inventory, game mode, etc.) is fully restored. The armour stand and hitbox are removed.

key features

• Leave your body: Activate camera mode with /cam to leave your body behind as a vulnerable armour stand.
  
  
• Free flight: Free flight allows you to view your structures from any angle. Fly upwards to see the big picture, or circle around your project to check the details.
  
  
• Inventory security: Your entire inventory, armour, experience level and effects are securely stored and fully restored upon your return.
  
  
• Vulnerable body: Your abandoned body can be attacked by mobs and other players. If it is attacked, you will return immediately!
  
  
• ️ Combat safety: Prevent players from activating camera mode to escape from combat.

Configuration

To apply any changes made to the config file live, admins can use the command /cam reload to update the plugin without needing a server restart.

Texts & Messages:

• Change the content and colour of all messages sent by the plugin. You can also enable or disable most of them individually.

Flight & Visibility Rules:

• Set the maximum flight distance a player is allowed to move away from their body.
• Set how players are seen in camera mode (for everyone, no one, or only for other cameras).

Time limits & cooldowns:

• Activate a time limit for the duration of camera mode.
• Set a cooldown period before the mode can be used again.
• Configure an optional boss bar that displays the remaining time, including colour and text.

️ Safety & Fair Play:

• Activate a protection feature that prevents entry into camera mode if a player has recently taken damage.
• Allow or prohibit flying through lava.

Visual adjustments:

• Set whether the body left behind (armour stand) is visible, has a name or is affected by gravity.
• Deactivate or activate the particle effects for the flying player.
• Activate an optional cosmetic camera head for players in flight mode.

Background and motivation

The original idea for this plugin arose from a specific challenge on a private server: players with operator rights (OP) used spectator mode to gain an unfair advantage. They could see underground and thus find structures or locate hidden bases, which was detrimental to fair play.

The aim was to create an alternative that fulfils two main purposes:

1. For all players: Give players without operator rights the opportunity to fly freely through the world to view their structures from new perspectives.
   
   
2. As a fair replacement: Provide a controlled flight function that prevents abuse through ‘X-ray’ behaviour. For this reason, the plugin puts the player into adventure mode: It prevents you from being able to pass through blocks while in camera mode.

Since I don't have any programming skills myself, all of the code for this plugin was generated by AI. The result is a functional and largely bug-free plugin.

The creation with AI

It is important to know the history behind this plugin, as it explains why it is the way it is. I myself have no programming skills. The idea arose from a need on my server, but I was unable to implement it myself. Therefore, this plugin was developed entirely with the help of artificial intelligence.

The process was a journey through various AI models:

1. I laid the foundation for the code with Claudete Sonnet 4 until I reached the limit of free access.
   
   
2. I then continued development with Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro in Google Ai Studio to further expand the core functions.
   
   
3. ChatGPT Codex was ultimately used for fine-tuning, debugging and finalisation. I had originally taken out the ChatGPT Plus subscription for a school project.

This unconventional development process is also the reason why the plugin is fully functional but not perfect in every detail. My priority was clearly to create a stable and error-free core experience. There are practical reasons for this: development with AI has its limits, and since my ChatGPT Plus subscription has expired, I no longer have access to ChatGPT Codex.

For this reason, features such as exact 1:1 damage transfer (where damage to the armour stand is deducted directly from the player's health bar) or some settings in the config file are still missing.

However, the plugin reliably and stably solves the core problem for which it was created and offers a fair alternative to spectator mode.