# Chunky path traces Minecraft worlds into realistic images > Chunky is a Java path tracer that renders Minecraft worlds as realistic images, block by block, with light transport simulated rather than faked. It runs on Java 17 with JavaFX, and it ships a launcher, a headless command line mode and a plugin API. **chunky-dev/chunky** — A path tracer to create realistic images of your Minecraft worlds. - Repository: https://github.com/chunky-dev/chunky - Website: https://chunky-dev.github.io/docs - Stars: 740 · Forks: 78 - Language: Java - License: GPL-3.0 - Published: 2026-10-21 · Updated: 2026-10-21 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/chunky-dev-chunky ## Why a path tracer for a blocky world Minecraft renders in real time with a rasteriser, and its lighting model is deliberately simple so that a mid-range laptop can hold playable frame rates. A photograph of a Minecraft build therefore looks wrong: flat surfaces, hard shadow edges, light that stops at block boundaries. Chunky takes the opposite approach. The project description calls it a path tracer that creates realistic images of your Minecraft worlds, and the README says it uses Path Tracing to do that. The practical difference is that Chunky simulates how light travels through the scene, sampling paths from the camera through the geometry and accumulating radiance over many samples, so soft shadows, colour bleed and light falling off with distance appear without anyone modelling them. The cost is time. A render that a player sees instantly takes a path tracer minutes or hours, and the README says the render time depends on your CPU, the size of the image and the lighting conditions of the scene. ## Java 17 and JavaFX are the hard prerequisites Chunky is a Java application with a desktop interface, and the prerequisites are stated up front. Chunky requires Java 17, and the 64-bit version is recommended on a 64-bit operating system. If Java is missing, the README points to Temurin 17 LTS for download. On top of that you need Open JavaFX 17 LTS, which you download and extract yourself, and the README says the documentation covers valid extraction locations and adding the JavaFX module manually. That is the part of the setup that trips people up: the JavaFX requirement is not bundled, and the troubleshooting article is the reference for it. The repository layout shows how the pieces fit together, with a chunky/ directory holding the main code, launcher/ for the launcher application, lib/ and releasetools/ for packaging, a Gradle build with build.gradle, settings.gradle and the gradlew wrappers, and a separate licenses/ directory. ## The launcher does the version handling for you The quick start guide is three steps. Download the Chunky Launcher and open it, install the latest version of Chunky by clicking Check for Updates, then click Launch Chunky and start rendering. The updater inside the launcher is the reason you do not manage releases by hand, and it matters more than it sounds, because the README notes that new blocks are typically added shortly after a new Minecraft snapshot is released, and that a Chunky snapshot is the way to render them until a new Chunky version is released. In other words, supporting a fresh Minecraft version and using a stable release are two different states, and the launcher is what lets you move between them. The memory limit for the renderer is also set in the launcher, which the README recommends for machines where Chunky runs out of memory and slows to a crawl or crashes. ## Headless rendering for unattended jobs The command line path exists for people who render in batches or on a server, and it is documented as a two-step procedure. You set up the scene in the GUI, save it, and then run Chunky from the command line with the scene name. ```bash java -jar chunky.jar -render SceneName ``` The scene name is the name of the scene to render, and the README links to a headless rendering page in the documentation for more. The constraint is worth stating plainly: the scene has to be built and saved in the GUI first, so a purely command line workflow cannot invent a scene from nothing. That also makes the headless mode a natural fit for a render farm, where one person designs a scene and a machine produces the frames. ## Noise, missing blocks and the limits of the renderer The FAQ is the most useful part of the README, because it is where the project is honest about failure. Noise, grain and random bright dots are not a bug but an effect of the rendering algorithm, caused by torches and other small light sources producing random illumination, and rendering for a longer time eventually removes it, though that may take a very long time. Two mitigations exist: disabling emitters under the Lighting tab in the Render Controls dialog removes most of the bright dots, and the Denoiser Plugin can clean up what is left, at the risk of distorting the image in some cases. Blue question marks mean an unsupported block, either because the Chunky version is outdated or because the block is not supported yet, in which case a bug report is the right move. Red crosses mean missing textures, which means the texture pack does not match the Minecraft version of the world being rendered. ## No mod blocks, no mobs, no GPU acceleration yet Three limits define what Chunky is today. Mod blocks cannot be rendered: the README says that due to the vast number of mods this is not feasible at the moment, though support for JSON-defined block models is being worked on. Mobs are not rendered either, since Chunky currently cannot render all entities, with future support planned. GPU rendering is a work-in-progress OpenCL plugin, and the project invites pull requests for it. None of these are hidden, but they shape the use case. Chunky renders architecture, lighting and scenery, and it does not render a populated world. The README also flags a naming collision worth knowing about: the Chunky SpigotMC plugin is an unrelated project, a handy plugin to quickly pre-generate server chunks, and it has its own repository. ## Version support and a project with a long quiet release gap The version support statement is specific: Chunky 2.4.4 supports Minecraft 1.2 to 1.19.2 worlds, plus Cubic Chunks for Minecraft 1.10 to 1.12 worlds. The recent release tags show the last published version as 2.4.6 on 2024-01-14, with 2.4.5 from 2023-10-22 and 2.4.4 from 2022-10-03. The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-10-13, so work continues on the branch even though the tagged releases are older than the snapshots the README tells you to use for new blocks. The licence is GPL-3.0, and the repository carries a LICENSE file, a CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, a CONTRIBUTING.md, a ChangeLog.txt and a licenses/ directory. For development, the README recommends IntelliJ and a Java 17 JDK, and the build is Gradle based. ## Conclusion Adopt Chunky when you want broadcast quality images of a build rather than a game screenshot, and when you can wait for a path traced result and can supply Java 17 plus JavaFX 17. Do not adopt it if you need modded blocks, entity rendering, or GPU acceleration today, since the README says mod blocks are not feasible, mobs are not rendered, and GPU support is a work in progress OpenCL plugin. Before starting a large scene, save it from the GUI so you can re-render it headless, check that your texture pack matches the Minecraft version of the world, and set a memory limit in the Chunky Launcher if the machine has little RAM. ## FAQ ### What Java version does Chunky need to run? The README states that Chunky requires Java 17, and recommends the 64-bit version on a 64-bit operating system. You also need Open JavaFX 17 LTS, which you download and extract yourself. ### How do I install and start Chunky? Download the Chunky Launcher and open it, click Check for Updates to install the latest version of Chunky, then click Launch Chunky. The documentation page linked from the README has the fuller getting started guide. ### Can Chunky render a scene from the command line? Yes. The README says to set up the scene using the GUI and save it, then run java -jar chunky.jar -render SceneName on the command line, where SceneName is the name of the scene to render. ### Why is my Chunky render noisy, and how do I reduce it? The README says the noise is an effect of the rendering algorithm, caused by small light sources such as torches, and that rendering for longer eventually removes it. You can disable emitters under the Lighting tab in the Render Controls dialog, or use the Denoiser Plugin, which may distort the image in some cases. ### Which Minecraft versions can Chunky render? Chunky 2.4.4 supports Minecraft 1.2 to 1.19.2 worlds, and Cubic Chunks for Minecraft 1.10 to 1.12 worlds. New blocks are typically added shortly after a new Minecraft snapshot, and a Chunky snapshot can render them until a new version is released. ## Sources - [chunky-dev/chunky on GitHub](https://github.com/chunky-dev/chunky) - [License: GPL-3.0](https://github.com/chunky-dev/chunky/blob/master/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://chunky-dev.github.io/docs) - [README](https://github.com/chunky-dev/chunky/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/chunky-dev/chunky/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/chunky-dev-chunky