X-Ray and ESP Cheats: What an Anticheat Can and Cannot Do

Can an anticheat see X-ray or ESP on the screen?

X-ray and ESP cheats change what a client displays: ores through stone, or players and mobs through walls. The server still sends the world data the client needs, so an anticheat cannot see the screen. It can watch behavior, such as mining routes, direct paths to hidden ore, and turns toward targets behind walls. Treat those as indirect evidence, and use server-side anti-xray settings to limit the data a client receives.

Why can't the server see the screen?

A Minecraft server sends chunk data, block updates, and entity positions. A modified client can hide or highlight that data locally. The anticheat sees the packets the client sends, such as movement, digging, and interactions, not the pixels on the monitor. That gap is the core limit, and no setting removes it.

What indirect evidence can you review?

Indirect evidence is weaker than a direct packet violation, so review it as a set. Each pattern below also has honest explanations, such as a known vein, a cave the player explored before, or a map the player studied.

• A straight mining route to a cluster of valuable ore without clearing the stone in between.
• Block breaks at a pace or sequence that does not match ordinary mining.
• Repeated turns toward hidden players or entities through solid walls.
• Skipping normal exploration and moving directly toward one area.

What does each cheat expose?

The table separates what the server can record from what it cannot. Use it when you write a rule or explain a decision to a player.

What server-side steps can you take?

Start with the controls your server software already provides. Paper documents its own anti-xray feature, so check the Paper documentation for your version before you change anything. Then test your review process in staging so that staff know what an alert does and does not show.

• Check the Paper documentation for an anti-xray setting in your version, and record the default.
• Build a staging world with a known ore layout.
• Have a staff member mine normally, then record any alerts with their check names.
• Compare those results with a second staff run that follows a direct route.
• Write down in your rules that visual cheats cannot be proven from packets alone.

# Replace the log path with your server's log file.
grep -i "xray\|x-ray\|esp" logs/latest.log | tail -n 50

Which settings should you review first?

Review the anti-xray defaults in your server software and any world-generation plugin before you read mining alerts. Those settings change which ore the client receives and how the world looks, so a review done on a different world will not transfer. Record the world settings with each staging run. A world generated with a different seed or version can change ore clusters, so keep the seed and version in the same record. Staff should also note whether they used a known map, since a map changes what a normal route looks like.

What have we not verified?

We have not measured how any anticheat reports X-ray or ESP. Anti-xray settings, world generation, and client resource packs all change results, and this article does not claim accuracy or performance numbers. Run your own staging test before you rely on any alert. Keep the test world, its seed, and the anti-xray settings with the results, so the run can be repeated after an update.