The Dynamic Lights Mod adds a pretty basic thing to Minecraft: dynamic lights. This means that you no longer have to actually place torches, glowstone, lava, and more, in order to have them light up the surrounding areas. Simply holding a torch or something similar in your hands will generate light! You can also drop it on the ground, not place, and it will still generate light.
This allows you to easier navigate dark areas, to mine faster while using less torches (as you can just drop the torch, mine, pick it up again), and is generally pretty cool, something you didn’t quite know you missed before you tried it.
By default, the items which illuminate surrounding are:
- Torches
- Redstone torches
- Glowstone
- Glowdust
- Lit Pumpkin
- Redstone
- Lava Bucket
- Powered Minecart
They can illuminate areas by three various means (other than placing them in the case of the torches):
- When equipped by the player in their hand
- When they are dropped on the ground
- When they are equipped by another player in multiplayer
Setting things on fire also makes them illuminate the surrounding areas, and creepers who are about to explode will also emit light.
Important: the Dynamic Lights Mod requires Minecraft Forge in order to function.
The mod offers plenty of customization, and you can add any item ID you wish in order to make them shine, via the settings file. This also supports armor items, so now your golden set of armor can actually glow!
Newer versions of the mod has had their efficiency boosted by a lot, as it was quite demanding in previous iterations. It is still somewhat demanding, especially if you place or use multiple dynamic light sources. So if you want to light a place up, it is still recommended that you do so through traditional means such as placing torches or lamps, this mod is meant more for exploration and quick and easy light sources, as well as to add some common sense to the game (obviously torches should light up the surrounding area when held in your hand).
You can toggle the mod on or off at any point while playing, by pressing the “L” key (default). This button can be rebound from the in-game options. There is no limit to how many dynamic light sources can be present at any one time, but do exercise caution as many at once are fairly FPS-costly. Modules can be disabled for better FPS though.
OptiFine is also recommended to make the whole thing run smoother, as Notch’s render code is kinda funky, and honestly kinda shitty, OptiFine fixes some of that.
The mod can be used, and works, in Multiplayer, however since it is entirely clientside, it won’t count as proper lighting, so it won’t prevent mobs from spawning unless you actually place torches and such. The upside to this is that it can’t nor won’t lag the servers.
For more information on the mod and how to customize it, check out its official website.
How to install the Dynamic Lights Mod for Minecraft:
- Download the mod.
- Important: Download and install Minecraft Forge.
- Open your Minecraft folder (in Windows: Start -> Run -> “%appdata%\.minecraft”).
- Copy the mod .jar file(s) you downloaded to the “mods” folder, found inside the .minecraft folder.
- That’s it, the Dynamic Lights Mod should now be installed, enjoy and have fun!
Here is a video showing the mod off, I highly recommend you watch if you want a better in-motion look at what the mod does and how it works: