Minecraft player heatmaps and session paths
Every 10 seconds, each Paper server notes which chunk each online player stands in, and sends one count per chunk. The Players page draws that as a heatmap: one square per chunk, brighter where players spend more time, with a switch to see where sessions ended. A Velocity or BungeeCord proxy also records the servers each player moves through, so the Session paths card shows where sessions start, the most common moves, and the last server before players leave. No block position is ever sent, and the map does not say which player stood where.
How it works
Update the connector
Run connector 1.0.15 or newer on your Paper servers for the heatmap, and on your proxy for session paths. Heat sampling is on by default.
Each server counts chunks
A chunk is 16 by 16 blocks. Once a minute the server sends how many looks landed in each chunk and how many different players it saw there today.
A quit marks its chunk
When a player leaves a server and their network session ends right then, the chunk they were in counts as where they quit.
The proxy writes the route
It notes every backend a player connects to, in order, and sends the route once when the session ends.
What you see on the dashboard
Time spent
One server and one world at a time, north up. A brighter square means more player time in that chunk over the range.
Where players quit
Switch the map to the chunks sessions ended in. Point at a square to see how many of those were a first session.
Regions on the map
With WorldGuard 7 on the server, regions are drawn as dashed outlines, so you can tell spawn from the shop at a glance.
Session paths
Where sessions land first, the most common moves from one server to the next, the last server before players leave, and the most common full routes.
What is stored
The heatmap is kept per chunk, per server, per world and per day, for 90 days. The only position tied to a player is the chunk they were in when they left a server, kept 35 days so quits can be counted, then deleted.
Time spent is close, not exact, because it is sampled every 10 seconds. A plan below Network does not store heat. Quits and routes come from session events that every plan sends, so they show after an upgrade.
Questions
Does it send where in a chunk a player stood?
No. It sends a count per chunk. It never sends a block position, and the heatmap does not say which player was in which chunk.
Can I change how often it samples, or turn it off?
Yes. Edit the heatmap section of the connector config.yml on the Paper server: sample-seconds from 5 to 300, or enabled: false. Restart after the change.
Does it work without a proxy?
The heatmap does. A standalone Paper server gets it too. Its session paths are one server long, so the Session paths card is most useful on a network.
Which plans include it?
Network and up. On a lower plan, heat is not stored. The quit and route data comes from session events every plan sends, so it shows after an upgrade.