YUNG's Better Portals (Forge)

This mod completely reimagines the vanilla Nether portal system. Instead of building a boring obsidian rectangle and setting it on fire, Nether portals now appear as Dimensional Rifts that you'll discover deep underground. To reach the Nether, you'll need to find one of these Rifts—but be careful, as it's a one-way journey!

To return from the Nether, you must locate a Monolith. These are new, somewhat rare structures that are easily spotted from afar thanks to the beams they shoot into the sky. The block at the center of each Monolith that creates this beam is called a Reclaimer, and it's the key to getting back to the Overworld. However, the Reclaimer won't function without a bit of power. To activate it, you need to place a gold block on each of its four sides—a task that shouldn't be too difficult in the Nether. Once powered, the Reclaimer can lift you back to the Overworld.

This mod addresses two main goals:

• Make the Nether portal system more engaging and immersive. It should reward exploration rather than rely on an arbitrary obsidian rectangle.
• Simulate dimension stacking. By placing Dimensional Rifts at the bottom of the world (and teleporting players near the top of the Nether), the mod intuitively simulates dimension stacking in a vanilla-friendly way. Time to bring your "hellevators" to Minecraft :)

If the new system seems too cumbersome for you—don't worry. You can collect Dimensional Plasma from a Rift in a bucket and move it closer to your base, and you can mine the Reclaimer from a Monolith and place it right next to where the Plasma teleports you in the Nether. So, it's almost a two-way portal, with the only real difference being that you first have to find a Dimensional Rift and a Monolith.

Additionally, these new blocks offer extra utility just waiting to be explored. For example, Reclaimers levitate all entities that enter their beam, including players, mobs, and items. Did someone say potential for vanilla-style automation? Or perhaps a vanilla-friendly elevator?

Configurability

The mod features extensive configuration options. You can create and edit Dimensional Rift and Monolith variants for any dimension. You have full control over every aspect of each variant—check the README file in the betterportals folder in your config directory. This folder will be generated when you first run the mod.

Skip to 9:10 to see the portals in action!