Unlimited nametag feature hides original nametags and display armor stands instead. It was created back in MC 1.12, where we were actively suffering from 16 character limit in prefix and suffix. The very next version mojang removed the limit. Had they done it 1 version sooner, this feature may have never existed. It has unlocked a lot more than just that, and has become quite popular (about 20% of servers using TAB have it enabled). However, as time goes by, this feature is becoming more and more complicated to maintain, which made me decide to completely remove it. It was a good run, but I don't want to keep going.
Main reasons for removing this feature include, but are not limited to:
- The feature was suffering from server-sided bugs, client-sided bugs, new limitations, as well as random issues, which I was not able to fix despite trying for years. Synchronization issue with the players (moving ahead / behind the player), players randomly not having their armor stands visible, players randomly not having their armor stands removed, and a lot more. Literally all of the bug reports sucked, not one of them provided anything useful that would help fix their issue.
- Code is becoming more and more complicated, especially to support all MC versions. Some functionality had to be limited, hoping no one will notice, to not introduce extreme complexity. As a bonus, shortly after I decided to remove this feature, Mojang reworked entity packets in 1.21.2.
- Mojang is (albeit extremely slowly) making this feature less and less useful with less and less limits in vanilla nametags (removed 16-character prefix/suffix limit in 1.13, removed belowname value being limited to a number in 1.20.3).
- People constantly kept asking the same questions over and over (top question being why they cannot see them with F5), making it by far the highest time investment into the feature (far more than coding itself), and roughly 33% of all assistance requests. I wish to provide the best quality of all provided services, so refusing to help people with this feature is not the way I want to go. Having a feature without knowing how to configure it would be useless anyway (nobody reads the wiki anyway, let's be real here).
- As of TAB 4.1.6 (Released with MC 1.21), this feature was marked for removal:
- NO support will be provided
- All wiki references will be deleted (besides the feature page itself, which will have a warning on top)
- No bugs will be fixed anymore and all existing bug reports will be closed
- A new branch called 5.0.0 was created, which has the feature removed. This branch will become the active one.
- 4.x branch will no longer be actively maintained, only receiving support for new MC versions and critical bugfixes (in other features) before 5.0.0 is released.
- Github actions will only contain dev builds of 5.0.0 version, instead of 4.x
- When MC 1.21.2 hit, version 5.0.0 was be released, fully removing the feature
- 4.x branch will become completely abandoned and stay on github to compile for anyone who still wants the feature and doesn't care about anything else
Let's go through all ways you can deal with this:
- Find alternative way to display information using existing features:
- 16 character limit on <1.13 - Update to 1.13+
- Belowname limits - Update to 1.20.3+ and use
fancy-value-playersvalue - Multiple lines - You'll need to display everything you want in just 2 (almost) fully customizable lines instead. It's enough to display everything important (prefix, suffix and Belowname).
- RGB Username - Beg mojang to add hex support to team color
- Changing player name - There are nick plugins that offer this (actually changing player's name in game profile and sending modified packet), although I am not aware of any good one. This is a very complicated process with tons of side effects that need to be accounted for, so it will not be added into the plugin.
- Stay on TAB 4.x. If you are stuck on MC versions older than their player base, you can also just keep your plugins outdated as well. The plugin works and currently doesn't have a single bug affecting Bukkit installation, so you won't be hurting at all. Even if one is found, it will be fixed.
- Look for alternative plugins willing to deal with this mess. You can check these 3rd party plugins out (not affiliated with me in any way, use at your own risk):
While nothing you can say will change my mind, you can share your feedback below, such as questions or things I made unclear or forgot.
What's the character limit for usernames past version 1.13? Also, can you hex color the prefix and suffix that go before vanilla nametags, or are those limited to the default /team colors?