Your First Effect
Two minutes is enough to see both of ETA’s rendering paths in action.
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Get operator permission.
In single-player, open to LAN with cheats enabled, or use the default single-player op. On a server, add your name to
ops.jsonor run/op <yourname>from the server console. The/etacommands require permission level 2. -
Run a test.
/eta test 1A plain white message appears on your HUD and fades after a few seconds. Try
/eta test 17for a rainbow cycling effect and/eta test 32for a multi-effect combination. -
Send a styled HUD message.
The
/eta sendcommand has this signature:/eta send <player> <duration> <text><duration>is a float in ticks (20 ticks = 1 second). Run:/eta send @s 100 <rainbow>Hello, world!</rainbow>This sends yourself a rainbow-animated HUD message that lasts 100 ticks (5 seconds). The
@sselector targets yourself; you can use a player name or any valid entity selector instead. Any ETA markup tags work in the<text>argument, and plain text with no tags is accepted too. -
Rename an item with markup.
Pick up any item, open an anvil, and type a name using a markup tag:
<wave>Sword</wave>The item name animates in the tooltip and anywhere else vanilla renders item names. This works in chat, lore, signs, and written books too, subject to the server config’s per-surface toggles.
What just happened
Section titled “What just happened”The anvil rename used ETA’s inline markup path. Markup tags are parsed wherever Minecraft renders Component text: item names, lore lines, signs, books, and chat. No commands needed. Any player whose client has ETA installed sees the effects; players without ETA see the plain text without the tags.
The /eta send command used the immersive message path. These are independent HUD overlays with their own position, scale, background, and lifetime. They are sent server-to-client over the network and do not attach to any game object. This path is the one mods use for quest popups, boss introductions, and similar cinematic text.