Locator Bar

The locator bar is an upcoming feature for the player HUD which shows the position of other players in multiplayer and entities.

Usage

Locator bar in Survival mode.

The locator bar appears in place of the experience bar, except when gaining XP, which is hidden for 100 game ticks (5 seconds). It can be toggled by the locatorBar game rule. By default, it shows the position of other players in multiplayer as colored indicators, often referred to as waypoints.

Waypoints appear on the bar approximately within 120 degrees of the camera facing towards the target. If the target is on a significantly different Y-level, an arrow pointing to the target vertically appears over the indicator. The color of a waypoint is randomly assigned to a player when they join a multiplayer game, or when a waypoint is tracked for the entity; it may also be assigned by their team color, or customized using the /waypoint command.‌

In Java Edition, waypoints are controlled by waypoint_transmit_range and waypoint_receive_range attributes. They control the waypoint's transmit range of players and entities, and the receive range of players exclusively. When a player enters within a transmission range of an entity, they will receive waypoint information of that entity in their locator bar. Similarly, players only receive waypoints that are inside their receive range (and receive nothing if that range is zero). Any entities that can transmit a waypoint is called waypoint transmitter. They only include living entities, which are armor stands, mobs, and players.

Waypoints' icon changes based on the player's distance to its location. The further away the player to the waypoint, the smaller the icon shown on the locator bar. Several sprites of the icon can be observed based on the far distances: square (0–180 blocks), circle (180–232 blocks), small square (232–284 blocks), and small circle (284+ blocks). These sprites can be changed by setting the waypoint's style using /waypoint command; multiple waypoint styles can be defined in a resource pack.

Entities' waypoints are tracked by the game when their transmission range is set to greater than zero. Setting a waypoint's color using /waypoint for the entity also enables tracking, but it does not appear on the locator bar and temporary (no longer tracked) after reloading the world.

Players can prevent their positions from being shown in the locator bar; they can sneak, wear a mob head or carved pumpkin, or be under the Invisibility effect. Additionally, players in Spectator mode are only visible to other spectators in the locator bar.

NBT format

The following NBT data are stored on the entities' data about the waypoint's icon visual information:

• [NBT Compound / JSON Object]: The entity data.
  • [NBT Compound / JSON Object] locator_bar_icon: The waypoint's icon visual data in the locator bar.
    • [Int] color: The waypoint's color stored as 32-bit signed integer using two's complement, assuming the color is fully opaque.
    • [String] style: The waypoint's style name from waypoint_style directory in a resource pack.

History

[hide]Upcoming Java Edition
1.21.6 Experiment Locator Bar			25w15a				Added the locator bar behind its own experimental data pack.
1.21.6			25w17a				The locator bar is now available without its experimental data pack.
							Added waypoint style for customizing waypoints' icon in resource packs.
							Waypoint fade effects are removed.
[hide]Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.21.80 Experiment Locator Bar			Preview 1.21.80.20				Added the locator bar behind experimental toggle.
			Preview 1.21.80.21				Player dots on the locator bar now show correctly regardless of simulation distance.
			Preview 1.21.80.22				Dots are now shown representing players in spectator mode to other players also in spectator mode on the locator bar.

See also

• Banner markers can be used for marking spots on the map using a placed-down banner.

Issues

Issues relating to "Locator Bar" or "Waypoint" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• There exists an unused waypoint icon bowtie.png in the game's texture files.
• The "Locator Bar" experimental toggle on Java Edition is the shortest-lived experimental toggle in any Minecraft version, being removed just 14 days after it was added.

Gallery

Mojang screenshots

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  Three players appear as colored icons on the locator bar.

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  Players in a cherry grove appearing on the locator bar.

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  Sunny avoids being seen on the locator bar.

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  The locator bar correlating with a map's player markers.

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  Locator bar in Creative mode.