For the more casual gamers, UI might not be something you pay much attention to. Now you might be wondering why you would even want a mod for something as simple as the UI.
Once you notice it, you’d be surprised by how much the UI actually impacts your overall experience of any game.
While playing around in Minecraft just ask yourself – is the game pointing me in the right direction? Do I have the information I need to move forward? This is how powerful the GUI can be without even realizing it.
Lucky for us, Minecraft modders have found all sorts of ways to improve this over the years. So let’s dive in and find something that’ll greatly enhance how you play Minecraft.
I’m sure we all have preferences when it comes to our characters’ appearance.
With more and more games giving expansive options for character creation, the possibilities are endless.
Though this might not be as big a deal in Minecraft, this simple mod allows at least a small level of customization.
The Cosmetic Armor Reworked mod allows you to wear an additional set of armor strictly for its appearance. Want to keep all the stat benefits of the Chainmail set but hate the look? Go ahead and put on your Diamond set over it and you’re good to go!
VanillaFix is a huge mod that addresses numerous bugs and improves performance in vanilla Minecraft.
It claims to improve performance to the point of doubling or even tripling your FPS, which should be a huge help for players with lower-end PC setups.
However the biggest feature is probably how it addresses game crashes.
Diving into the world of user-created content, you’re bound to run into bugged mods. Whether you’re running something that hasn’t been tested extensively, or trying something your PC just can’t handle – this mod can definitely save you a lot of time.
In the event of a crash, instead of closing the whole game, VanillaFix only shuts down the current world and takes you back to the main menu. And you can learn what specific mod caused the crash, and even given a copy-paste crash report which can easily be sent to the modder. Nice!
If you feel that the hotbar isn’t enough, or if you just want to avoid having to go through your inventory over and over for essential items, you’re going to want to install Smart HUD.
For items that you constantly want within reach, Smart HUD adds two additional item slots to the right of your hotbar.
Though they were initially intended specifically for the clock and compass, the slots are completely customizable.
Change the items at any point in time to better suit your play style and avoid having to go through your inventory with your essential items at arm’s length.
I’m sure any Minecraft player will find this one useful.
Whether you’re playing PvP or Survival, you’ll find use for the Durability Show mod.
With the simple push of a button this adds a display towards the bottom-right of your screen showing durability levels of your equipped tools and armor.
Durability information is separated for each individual armor and tool slot. A quick glance will be enough to tell if you’re helmet, chest plate, leggings, or boots need to be replaced any time soon.
And this is just as useful when mining in Survival Mode, as you’re going to want to know how much longer that pickaxe will last.
Some might consider TrashSlot to be too much of a cheat.
But it’s definitely a useful mod to have.
It simply creates an additional slot in your item screen for trash.
Worried about accidentally throwing something valuable? Worry no more because modder BlayTheNinth already thought of that.
Items placed in the trash slot are only destroyed once another item is placed over it.
There are even a number of useful keybinds that will help make cleaning out your inventory that much quicker. You can easily click to get rid of a specific item or even delete all items of the same type all at once.
Almost all modern games come with a borderless window option in the graphics menu.
For older games, this usually has to be forced with external software.
As is the case with Minecraft, this mod allows the game to run in a fullscreen borderless window, giving you the benefits of running the game in normal windowed mode but without the displeasing black frame around the game.
With modern PCs mostly being powerful enough to juggle Minecraft alongside other applications, many gamers prefer to run in windowed mode for easier multitasking.
This is also a huge help for streamers and content creators as it allows for smoother switching between apps and allows for multi monitors to be maximized without interrupting the game.
Based from the Tidy Plate mod from WoW, the Neat mod adds nameplates above all units in the game.
As if that isn’t helpful enough, a great added feature of Neat is how customizable it is.
You can change the appearance of the nameplates or choose whether or not they appear over specific unit types like bosses or players. You can even change the information shown on each to include details like HP, HP%, and armor.
Get Neat enabled for just a few minutes, you’ll immediately be able to appreciate the thought that went into it. Health bars go from green to yellow to red depending on unit health, and nameplates do not appear when the units are not visible or behind other blocks.
Minecraft players who have explored different mods will know the pains of having keybind conflicts.
With multiple mods enabled, each with their own set of keybinds built-in. You’re bound to run into conflicts sooner than later.
With the Controlling mod you can save yourself the time and hassle of going through all of your keybinds with two simple features that it adds to your controls menu.
This allows you to quickly search for keybind actions by name. It also adds a button to quickly see all actions with conflicting keybinds. Easy right?
Now instead of spending too much time cleaning up messy controls you can get right to playing the game!
Another simple quality of life mod that just makes your Minecraft experience much smoother.
Crafting Tweaks helps you craft much quicker, adding 3 buttons to many Crafting Tables in the game.
Avoid the annoying back and forth to get the amounts just right with Crafting Tweaks. With a simple click you can do anything like rotating materials within the crafting grid, balance the material amounts, or clear the grid entirely.
Aside from those controls, there are additional options that allow you to quickly add items instead of dragging them, quickly craft full stacks, and compress or decompress blocks.
The overall simplicity makes Crafting Tweaks something you’ll always want to play with once you’ve tried it.
A great addition especially when playing in Survival Mode, AppleSkin modifies the hunger bar of your HUD.
Providing additional information with easily understandable animations, managing hunger in Minecraft has never been this easy.
Tooltips now show value of food items, making it easier to decide what to eat in any situation.
AppleSkin also adds visualizations of how much of the bar will be replenished by specific food items, along with how long that particular food will last before needing to eat again.
Just a great mod to have. Helping you stay alive and survive.
Especially helpful when playing through different mod packs, What’s That Slot does exactly what it says.
When encountering new types of blocks you’ll no longer have to wonder what items go where.
A simple keybind will open up a new menu showing all items that can be used in any particular slot.
This could save you loads of time. Especially if you’re playing with a mod for the first time and encounter unfamiliar blocks you’re not quite sure how to use.
Not only does MineMenu address keybind conflicts, but this could very well change the way you play Minecraft entirely.
This mod gives you a modern radial menu at the push of a button.
Used by many modern games like GTA, The Last of Us, and Assassin’s Creed, this is a quick and easy way to make your gameplay much smoother.
The radial menu consists of 10 buttons. And what’s great about this is each slot is completely customizable.
You can assign whatever actions, keybinds, or creative functions you’d like. It’s basically like having 10 custom macros compressed into one quick push of the keyboard.
