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Demo:

Available on GitHub.

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Why 6.0

Up to 5.0 I shipped one DBetterModel release per BetterModel version. BetterModel broke its API twice (1.x → 2.x → 3.x), so that matrix kept growing and every BM update stranded someone. 6.0 replaces it with a single universal jar: it detects the installed BetterModel at startup and picks the matching compat layer.

BetterModel	DBetterModel
1.15.x / 2.0.x–2.2.x / 3.x	6.0.0 (single jar)

Historical table for pre-6.0 users:

BetterModel Version	Latest Supported DBetterModel Version
1.15.0	5.0.0
1.14.0-1.14.2	4.3.0
1.13.4	4.2.0
1.13.0-1.13.1	4.1.0
1.11.0	4.0.0
1.10.3	3.5.0 (abandoned, will not be released)
1.10.2	3.4.0
1.10.0-1.10.1	3.3.0
1.9.0-1.9.3	2.1.0
1.8.0-1.8.1	2.0.1
1.5.5	1.1.0
1.5.1	1.0.0

What's in 6.0

• Universal compat core — version-neutral API with three statically compiled layers (v1/v2/v3), selected at startup. No private-field reflection anywhere. Unknown future BM majors (4.x+) get a best-effort probe instead of a crash.
• Capability system — each layer declares what the running BetterModel can do; scripts query it with <bm.capabilities>. Anything unavailable reports a clean error instead of a stacktrace.
• Blockbench keyframe signals — denizen:name{key=value} instruction keyframes fire the bm animation signal Denizen event on all supported BM lines, including 1.15.x and 2.x.
• bmsummon — location-bound models (dummy trackers) for props and cutscenes, no carrier entity needed.
• Full event suite — 14 script events: signals, animation start/end, per-player spawn/despawn, tracker lifecycle, hitbox damage/interact, mount/dismount, reload.
• Read/write bone API — the tags that were write-only in 5.x (glow, tint, billboard, view range, brightness, scale, offset, item...) now read back too.
• skin bone mechanism — apply a player's skin part to a bone as an adjust (skin:[part=head;from=<player>]), the modern take on bmpart.
• Legacy aliases restored — world_rotation, bone bm_entity, lerp_frames work again, so 3.x/4.x-era scripts run as-is.
• 100% backward compatible — every 5.0 script runs unchanged.
• Experimental — a keyframe-to-script bridge and Folia-ready internals; see docs/EXPERIMENTAL.md.

DBetterModel vs denizen-utilities (BetterModel bridge)

Both bridge BetterModel into Denizen. Verified against denizen-utilities 2.8.x (compiled against bettermodel-bukkit-api:3.0.1); the table lists only source-verifiable differences, not a quality judgement.

	DBetterModel 6.0	denizen-utilities
BetterModel support	1.15.x + 2.x + 3.x, one jar	3.x only
BM API access	public API only	reflection into a BM private field (RenderedBone.itemStack via setAccessible)
Off-thread work	Bukkit/region schedulers	a raw new Thread + Thread.sleep(100)
Keyframe signals (bm animation signal)	fire on all BM lines, incl. 1.15/2.x	3.x only
Location-bound models (dummy trackers)	yes — bmsummon	no
Skin part → bone	bmpart command and skin mechanism	.skin mechanism (their bmpart is deprecated)
Mount / billboard	commands (bmmount, bmboard)	mechanisms (.mount, .billboard)

Docs

• Wiki: wiki.meigo.pw/docs/dbettermodel
• In-repo: the docs/ folder mirrors the wiki (commands, events, objects & tags, compatibility, migration, experimental, FAQ).

Editor setup (VS Code)

The Denizen extension's script checker doesn't know DBetterModel's object types out of the box, so it flags bmentity@/bmmodel@/bmbone@ tags as unknown. Teach it: Settings (Ctrl+,) → search denizenscript → Denizenscript: Extra Sources → add

https://github.com/meigoc/dbettermodel/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

then reload the window. See the FAQ for details.

Requirements

Java	21+ (Java 25 only when running BetterModel 3.x — BM 3.x itself requires it)
Server	Paper 1.21.x+
Denizen	1.3.1+
BetterModel	1.15.x, 2.0.x–2.2.x, or 3.x