Setting Up a Web Map With BlueMap

Setting Up a Web Map With BlueMap

A live, explorable 3D map of the server, viewable in any browser without installing anything.

BlueMap renders a server's world files into an interactive 3D map, viewable through a web browser. Unlike older 2D map plugins, it renders real block geometry — players can see builds, terrain, and structures close to how they actually look in-game.

Install BlueMap

Drop BlueMap-x.x.x-spigot.jar into plugins/ and restart. On first run it generates a default config and starts rendering the map in the background — large worlds can take a while on first render.

Accessing the Map

By default, BlueMap serves its web interface on port 8100. Open the firewall for it:

sudo ufw allow 8100/tcp

Then visit http://<server-ip>:8100 in a browser to see the map once rendering has progressed far enough to show something.

Configuring Which Worlds Render

plugins/BlueMap/core.conf and the per-world config files under plugins/BlueMap/maps/ control which worlds get rendered and how. Disabling render for worlds that don't need a map (temporary or private worlds) speeds up initial generation significantly.

Hiding Specific Areas

For areas that shouldn't appear on a public map — staff-only regions, unfinished builds — BlueMap supports marker-based hiding and can integrate with WorldGuard regions to automatically skip protected areas, configured in the per-map config file.

Forcing a Re-render

Normal operation updates the map incrementally as chunks change. After a major world edit or terrain change, a full re-render can be forced:

/bluemap render <world>

Putting the Map Behind a Domain

Running BlueMap behind a reverse proxy (nginx or similar) lets it live at a clean subdomain like map.yourserver.com instead of an IP and port — this also makes it straightforward to add HTTPS via a standard certificate, which the raw BlueMap server doesn't handle on its own.

A Few Things Worth Knowing

• Initial render time scales with world size and explored area — a heavily explored survival world can take hours on first render, while a small modest world finishes in minutes.
• BlueMap uses real-time rendering for live player markers, but terrain updates on a configurable interval, not instantly block-by-block.
• It's read-only by default — BlueMap doesn't let website visitors interact with or modify the world, only view it.