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Controls and Synchronization

The server owns radio state. Every control action updates one shared radio, while each client receives the best playback method it supports.

Radio menu

Depending on tier settings and access, the native menu can provide:

  • play, pause, resume, and stop;
  • previous and next track;
  • direct track selection;
  • loop or shuffle;
  • queue management;
  • shared radio volume;
  • personal listener volume;
  • hearing distance;
  • accurate seek controls for compatible clients.

Tier settings can independently hide or lock playback actions. See Radio Tiers.

Access modes

Mode Who controls the radio?
ADMIN_ONLY Players with administrative control permission
TRUSTED_PLAYERS Owner plus players trusted for that specific placed radio
ALL Anyone who passes the tier's control permission

Trusted-player radios receive a five-character ID. Owners use that ID with /radio trust to list, add, or remove trusted players.

Mixed vanilla and modded listeners

Players with the optional client can join a currently playing radio at the exact server position. Vanilla resource-pack sounds cannot begin at an arbitrary timestamp, so each tier chooses a fallback:

vanilla-join-behavior Result
PLAY_FROM_START The entering vanilla player hears the active track from its beginning until the next global change.
RESTART_TRACK The current track restarts for every listener.
WAIT_FOR_SYNC The entering vanilla player remains silent until the next full track start.

Actions that synchronize everyone

Skipping, selecting another track, stopping, or starting a full track creates a common synchronization point for vanilla and modded listeners.

Seeking is different: modded listeners can move immediately, but vanilla listeners cannot. When vanilla listeners are nearby, the UI requests confirmation and shows the next synchronization state.

Positional behavior

sound:
  proximity: true
  directional-audio: true
  max-distance: 32.0
  falloff: LINEAR
  • proximity enables distance-based playback.
  • directional-audio moves audio between left and right based on radio direction.
  • Set directional-audio: false to preserve distance attenuation while centering audio.
  • falloff accepts LINEAR, SMOOTH, or NONE.

The optional client reproduces configured falloff more accurately. Vanilla playback still follows Minecraft's native positional sound rules.

Empty areas and restarts

pause-when-empty can pause a radio when no listeners remain inside empty-check-radius.

disable-on-server-restart: true leaves a placed radio stopped after restart. Set it to false to restore the saved playing state and position.