PeterWolf's Realistic Tree Felling

Cut once. Watch the whole tree fall.

PeterWolf's Realistic Tree Felling replaces Minecraft's static tree cutting with a smooth, physical tree-felling animation.

Break a natural tree trunk with an axe and the entire connected tree falls away from your character as one structure. The trunk, branches, and canopy rotate together, land on the terrain, and remain available for further processing.

No floating logs. No instant tree disappearance. No chain-breaking every block in a single frame.

Features

Real falling trees

When you break a valid natural tree with an axe:

1. The mod detects the connected trunk and canopy.
2. The tree is converted into one synchronized falling entity.
3. It rotates from the cut point.
4. It falls away from the player.
5. The trunk and surviving canopy are placed back into the world.

The animation accelerates smoothly and uses the same direction for both rendering and final block placement.

Natural fall direction

Trees fall in the direction opposite to where the player is facing.

This allows you to control where the tree lands by positioning yourself before finishing the cut.

The server calculates the fall direction, block removal, animation state, and final placement.

Fallen logs

Logs remain in the world after the tree lands.

Each fallen section:

• Is aligned with the actual fall direction.
• Can be chopped with an axe.
• Requires two or three hits.
• Is added directly to your inventory.
• Drops beside you when your inventory is full.

This makes harvesting a fallen tree feel more like processing timber instead of instantly collecting an entire tree.

Canopy impact

Part of the canopy is crushed when the tree hits the ground.

Crushed leaves:

• Drop sticks.
• Can drop the matching vanilla sapling.
• Support mangrove propagules.
• Do not reappear around the stump.

Preserved leaves are placed near the far end of the fallen trunk and continue to use normal Minecraft leaf decay.

Vanilla-friendly controls

Use the mod without learning new key combinations.

• Hold an axe.
• Break a natural trunk block normally.
• The tree falls automatically.
• Sneak while breaking to use normal vanilla block breaking.

The original axe break keeps its standard speed, enchantments, and durability cost.

Smart tree detection

The mod uses bounded tree detection based on Minecraft block tags.

It supports:

• Vanilla logs.
• Tag-based modded logs.
• Connected branches.
• Connected leaf canopies.
• Irregular natural trunks.
• Configurable height and block limits.

The detector rejects structures that do not contain a sufficiently vertical trunk, reducing the risk of wooden walls or horizontal builds being treated as trees.

Multiplayer ready

Tree detection and falling logic are server-authoritative.

The server controls:

• Tree validation.
• Fall direction.
• Block removal.
• Falling entity state.
• Final block placement.
• Item handling.

Clients only render the synchronized animation.

This prevents players from spoofing tree data and keeps multiplayer behavior consistent.

Restart-safe falling

The falling entity stores:

• Its anchor position.
• Fall direction.
• Current age.
• Captured logs.
• Captured leaves.

When the server restarts during a fall, the tree transaction can resume instead of silently deleting the tree.

Configurable

The first launch creates:

config/peterwolfs-realistic-tree-felling.json

The configuration includes options for:

• Tree detection limits.
• Maximum tree height.
• Maximum captured blocks.
• Damage rules.
• Landing behavior.
• Impact settings.
• Preview options.
• Vanilla sneaking behavior.
• Modded log support.
• Falling entity lifetime.

Commands

All commands require game-master permissions.

/treefelling reload
/treefelling config
/treefelling debug on
/treefelling debug off
/treefelling inspect
/treefelling preview
/treefelling cancel
/treefelling forcefall

Use /treefelling inspect to check:

• Detected tree height.
• Tree mass.
• Captured block count.
• Predicted fall direction.

Installation

Requirements:

• Minecraft Java Edition 26.2
• Fabric Loader 0.19.3 or newer
• Fabric API 0.153.0+26.2 or newer
• Java 25

Install the mod on both the client and dedicated server.

Place the mod file in:

.minecraft/mods

For dedicated servers, place the same file in the server's mods directory.

Current version

This release contains the first playable version of the tree-felling system.

Currently implemented:

• Natural tree detection.
• Single-cut activation.
• Falling tree entity.
• Smooth tree rotation.
• Directional falling.
• Fallen log processing.
• Canopy impact drops.
• Multiplayer synchronization.
• Server restart persistence.
• Configuration and debug commands.

Planned improvements include:

• Better terrain collision.
• Impact damage.
• Fragile block destruction.
• Protection mod integration.
• Improved tree models.
• Landing area preview.
• More advanced directional cutting.

Important

The current version does not use a triangular notch, back cut, or hinge simulation.

The tree falls after one normal axe break and uses the player's facing direction to determine where it lands.

Tagline

Chop smart. Fall real.