What you need

The theatre runs one fixed version. Anything else will not connect.

The rest of the network plays on 1.13 and up with no mods at all. Only the Movie Theatre needs this, because video is decoded on your own machine.

Installing the mods

These steps work on any launcher: Lunar Client, the vanilla launcher, Prism, MultiMC, the Modrinth App, CurseForge or ATLauncher. All the theatre needs is five jars in a Fabric 1.21.1 mods folder.

1. Get on 1.21.1 with Fabric
   On Lunar, pick version 1.21.1 and make sure the profile is a Fabric one. Everywhere else, run the Fabric installer for 1.21.1, or create a 1.21.1 Fabric instance. Fabric mods will not load on a non-Fabric profile.
2. Unzip the download
   You should get five .jar files.
3. Open your mods folder
   Lunar: version settings → Mods, or the folder icon.
   Vanilla launcher: %appdata%\.minecraft\mods on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/mods on macOS, ~/.minecraft/mods on Linux. Create the mods folder if it is not there.
   Prism, MultiMC, CurseForge, Modrinth App: the instance's own Mods tab or folder button, not .minecraft.
4. Drag all five jars in
   Then launch and join.

Fabric API is the one difference, because Lunar already has it. Lunar Client bundles Fabric API, and a second copy stops every other mod loading, so the ZIP deliberately leaves it out. On every other launcher you have to add it yourself. Get fabric-api 0.116.15+1.21.1, the exact build we run, and drop it in beside the other five. Nothing loads without it.

Do not add Sodium or Iris on Lunar. Lunar has its own renderer and they will conflict. The ZIP leaves them out on purpose.

Use the WaterMedia in the ZIP, not the one from Modrinth. Ours is patched for the theatre. If you already have a different copy in your mods folder, delete it. Two versions of WaterMedia break things the same way two copies of Fabric API do.

macOS and Linux: install VLC first

WaterMedia decodes video through VLC. The mod only bundles the Windows build of that engine, so on macOS and Linux you have to install VLC yourself. Without it you will connect fine and every screen will stay black.

1. macOS: download VLC 3
   Use the universal build, which covers both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs: vlc-3.0.23-universal.dmg. On an Apple Silicon Mac (M1–M4) do not pick the "Intel" download. The mod cannot load it, and every screen stays black. brew install --cask vlc also works; vlc@nightly does not.
2. macOS: drag it into Applications
   Open the .dmg and drag VLC into Applications. It has to be exactly /Applications/VLC.app, because that is the only place the mod looks.
3. macOS: open VLC once, then quit it
   Launch VLC from Applications a single time and let macOS finish its "downloaded from the internet" check, then quit it. Until VLC has been opened once, macOS keeps its libraries quarantined and the mod cannot load them. That is all it takes. You do not need to keep VLC running or change any setting.
4. macOS: still black? Set the path
   Only if screens stay black after a restart: open the game's logs/latest.log and search for VLC. "Successfully loaded VLC 3.0" means it works and the problem is elsewhere; "VLC IS MISSING" means it was not found. In that case, in your Minecraft profile folder (the one that contains mods; on Lunar, open the profile's folder from Versions) create config/watermedia/custom_vlc_path.txt containing the single line /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/lib; "incompatible architecture" means you installed the Intel build on an Apple Silicon Mac; "is not supported, supported versions are between 3.0.0 and 3.1.0" means you have VLC 4.
5. Linux: install from your package manager
   A normal system install, for example apt install vlc or dnf install vlc.
6. Restart Minecraft
   Launch the game after installing VLC so the mod picks it up.

Use VLC 3, not VLC 4. WaterMedia only accepts VLC 3.0.x. VLC 4 and the nightly builds are refused and nothing plays. YouTube links and direct video files go through the same VLC engine, so if VLC did not load, nothing plays; there is no Mac-only YouTube problem to fix.

Linux: avoid Flatpak, Snap and other sandboxed installs. Minecraft and VLC have to be able to see each other, which sandboxed packages prevent. Install VLC the normal way.

Joining

Connect to the network, then walk in.

Link your key to Discord. Run /key link in the Discord once. After that /overlay download gives you the newest build straight away, which helps when an update comes out.

1. Add the server
   Multiplayer → Add Server → address hwic.dev.
2. Join the hub
   You will land in the lobby.
3. Type /movie
   Or open the server selector and pick Movie Theatre. To sit down, type /sit or right-click stairs, slabs and carpets with an empty hand.

Voice chat

The theatre has proximity voice. You hear the people near you, and the further away they are, the quieter they get. You don't need a Discord call. The voice mod is in the download with everything else.

1. Answer the setup on your first join
   The first time you connect, voice chat walks you through a short setup: your microphone, your speakers, and how you want to talk. It only appears once.
2. Pick push-to-talk or voice activation
   Push-to-talk asks you to choose a key, then you hold that key to speak. There is no default key; you pick it during setup. Voice activation opens your mic on its own whenever you talk, so set the threshold high enough that your keyboard and fans do not trip it. During a film, push-to-talk is nicer for everyone else.
3. Learn the three keys
   V opens the voice chat menu, where you find settings, volumes and who is nearby. M mutes your microphone, N switches voice chat off entirely. Muting is unavailable on push-to-talk, because letting go of the key already does it.

Auditoriums are sealed from each other. Voices never carry between screening rooms, so the row watching something else next door cannot talk over your film. Inside a room you carry about 5 blocks, which is roughly your own row and the ones either side. Step out into the lobby and it opens up to 20.

Voice needs the mod. Simple Voice Chat ships in the download above, so if you followed the install steps you already have it. Without it, films still play fine, but you won't hear anyone and nobody will hear you.

Stuck?

If the theatre kicks you back to the lobby, you are almost always on the wrong Minecraft version or missing a mod. Check 1.21.1 on Fabric and all five jars first. On anything other than Lunar, check Fabric API as well. If you get in but the screens are black (YouTube included), you are on macOS or Linux and VLC did not load. Follow the VLC steps: on a Mac that usually just means the universal VLC 3 build, opened once and quit. If everything looks right but nobody can hear you, open the voice chat menu with V and check you picked a microphone during setup. Still stuck? Come ask us.