The Material Detector is a utility mod that helps you find ores and materials without endless mining. Instead of strip-mining your way through stone, the detector highlights what’s around you and tells you which direction to dig.
What It Does
You hold the detector and it shows you what materials are nearby at your current height level. It doesn’t just find what you’re looking for, it also displays other materials on the list you might want to grab. Water and lava show up too, so you won’t accidentally dig straight into lava.
Key Features
- Real-time detection of materials around your height level
- Shows materials up to 2 blocks above or below you
- Displays direction to dig with on-screen arrows
- Two arrows mean the material is more than 10 blocks away
- Horizontal mode for ground-level mining
- Vertical mode for cave hunting before you dig straight down
- Water and lava warnings to prevent accidental drowning or burning
Honest Talk
This mod makes finding ores pretty easy. If you’re looking for vanilla survival without shortcuts, this might feel like cheating to you. But if you want to mine smarter instead of longer, it’s a solid quality-of-life upgrade.
Installation
For Minecraft 1.7.x / 1.8
This version requires modifying your base Minecraft installation, so it’s a bit more involved than newer Forge setups:
- Download and run the official Minecraft launcher for 1.8
- Open your Minecraft folder (Edit Profile will show you the Game Directory path)
- Go to the Versions folder
- Rename the “1.8” folder to “1.8_extra”
- Inside that folder, rename 1.8.jar to 1.8_extra.jar and 1.8.json to 1.8_extra.json
- Open 1.8_extra.json with a text editor and change the “id” value from “1.8” to “1.8_extra”
- Extract the mod files into 1.8_extra.jar, then delete the META-INF folder from inside it
- Back in the launcher, go to Edit Profile and set the version to 1.8_extra
- Start the game and it should load with the mod
For Minecraft 1.6.x
- Install Minecraft Forge for your version
- Download the mod jar file
- Place it in your .minecraft/mods folder
- Launch the game through the Forge profile
Version Compatibility
The Material Detector has versions for most 1.5 through 1.8 versions of Minecraft. Check the downloads below for your specific version. Each download link is tested and active on 1Minecraft servers.
Downloads
For Minecraft 1.5
Material-Detector-Mod-1.5.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 85.3 KB
For Minecraft 1.5.1
Material-Detector-Mod-1.5.1.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 85.7 KB
For Minecraft 1.5.2
Material-Detector-Mod-1.5.2.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 87.6 KB
For Minecraft 1.6.2
Material-Detector-Mod-1.6.2.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 93.0 KB
For Minecraft 1.6.4
Material-Detector-Mod-1.6.4.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 110.0 KB
For Minecraft 1.7.2 (Non-Forge)
Material-Detector-Mod-1.7.2.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 110.0 KB
For Minecraft 1.7.2 (Forge)
Material-Detector-Mod-1.7.2-Forge.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 117.0 KB
For Minecraft 1.7.4
Material-Detector-Mod-1.7.4.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 158.3 KB
For Minecraft 1.7.5
Material-Detector-Mod-1.7.5.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 128.6 KB
For Minecraft 1.7.9
Material-Detector-Mod-1.7.9.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 128.6 KB
For Minecraft 1.7.10 (Forge)
Material-Detector-Mod-1.7.10-Forge.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 120.8 KB
For Minecraft 1.8.0 (Forge)
Material-Detector-Mod-1.8-Forge.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 120.0 KB
For Minecraft 1.8.1 (Non-Forge)
Material-Detector-Mod-1.8.1-non-Forge.jarThis file is part of Material Detector Mod 1.7.10 | Forge | 1Minecraft. Visit the main page for features, installation guide, screenshots, and more download options.
Size: 131.4 KB