Bedrock Viz vs The Explorer's Friend

Bedrock Viz parses Minecraft Bedrock Edition world files to create overview images and reports, and it can generate a browser-based viewer for exploring a world. The viewer covers Overworld and Nether layers, biomes, mobs and items, spawnable blocks, chunk boundaries, elevation shading, and distance measurement. It can browse 256 layers from bedrock to the build limit. Image outputs include world layers, biomes, block light, block height, and grass color; movie output is available for world layers and requires ffmpeg. The software is free and listed for Linux, macOS, web, and Windows. The README provides a Windows 10 download, supports macOS 10.15 and later through Homebrew, and directs Linux users to compile the source. Generated maps can be served locally with Docker and NGINX, or viewed offline. Running the program can change world files, so work from a backup. Locally opened viewers may lose some features because of browser restrictions, and slime chunk finding may be unreliable.

The Explorer's Friend renders a live topographic map of a Minecraft world and serves it from an embedded web server. It runs on a server using Fabric, Quilt, NeoForge, Spigot or Paper, with different builds depending on the platform and Minecraft version. Explored chunks appear as players move through the world; full renders read region files on worker threads without loading chunks. Players can open the map in a browser using vanilla Minecraft clients, without installing a client mod. Separate layers show claims, player positions, markers and Waystones. Claim data can connect to several protection systems or be imported from JSON. Server administrators can disable or round player positions; invisible players and spectators are hidden by default. The server binds to 127.0.0.1 by default and has no built-in account system, so the project recommends a reverse proxy for public maps. Its optional outbound connection downloads the official vanilla client JAR once and verifies it by SHA-1. The MIT-licensed project is free, with live updates, dimension maps and read-only HTTP endpoints.