⚠️ Breaking Changes

• Maximum GIF grid size reduced from unlimited to 4x4
• Maximum static image grid size set to 10x10
• Minimum frame delay increased to 50ms (20 FPS max)

New Features

Custom Color System

• Replaced Bukkit's MapPalette with custom EmageColors class
• Perceptually-weighted color matching (green-biased for human vision)
• Pre-computed 262,144 entry color cache for instant lookups
• Full Minecraft 1.17+ palette with all 248 map colors
• Fixed dark colors appearing as yellow/banana or transparent

GIF Caching System

• Processed GIFs are cached to avoid reprocessing
• Cache key based on URL + grid size + quality
• Maximum 20 entries or 100MB memory
• Auto-expires after 30 minutes of no use
• LRU (Least Recently Used) eviction when full
• Second use of same GIF is instant

New Commands

• /emage cache - View GIF cache statistics (hit rate, memory, count)
• /emage clearcache - Clear all cached GIF data

New Flags

• --nocache / --nc / --fresh - Force reprocess GIF, ignore cache

Grid Size Limits

• Static Images: Maximum 10x10 (100 maps) - Any size recommended
• Animated GIFs: Maximum 4x4 (16 maps) - 2x2 or smaller recommended

User Warnings

• Warning displayed for GIF grids of 3x3 or larger
• Error displayed when exceeding maximum grid sizes
• Help text updated with limits and recommendations

Performance Improvements

Lag Fixes

• Fixed player timeout issues with large GIF grids
• Fixed 40%+ CPU usage spikes during GIF playback
• Removed aggressive parallel processing that flooded network
• Single-threaded processing prevents system overload

Animation System

• Animation tick runs every 2 ticks (100ms) instead of every tick
• Only sends map updates when frames actually change
• All maps in sync group update together efficiently
• needsRender flag prevents redundant canvas updates
• Animation starts only after all maps are applied

Memory Management

• Sequential frame processing reduces memory usage
• Reusable pixel buffers across frames
• Frame references cleared immediately after processing
• Efficient buffer reuse throughout processing pipeline

Processing

• Proper frame disposal handling (restoreToPrevious, restoreToBackgroundColor)
• Correct metadata extraction for delays and positions
• Better handling of 0-delay frames (defaults to 100ms)

Bug Fixes

Color Issues

• Fixed dark colors appearing as banana/yellow color
• Fixed very dark areas appearing as transparent
• Fixed COLOR_BLACK palette entries being skipped incorrectly

GIF Playback

• Fixed GIFs running at 5 FPS instead of correct speed
• Fixed frame skipping in first few seconds of playback
• Fixed maps showing different frames (desync issues)
• Fixed animation starting before all maps were ready

Stability

• Fixed player timeout issues with large GIF grids
• Fixed CPU spikes during GIF playback
• Fixed memory leaks from unreleased frame data
• Fixed network flooding from excessive map updates

Code Reorganization

New Project Structure

├── EmagePlugin.java
├── cache/
│ └── GifCache.java
├── command/
│ └── EmageCommand.java
├── config/
│ └── EmageConfig.java
├── manager/
│ └── EmageManager.java
├── processing/
│ ├── EmageColors.java
│ ├── EmageCompression.java
│ └── EmageCore.java
├── render/
│ ├── EmageRenderer.java
│ └── GifRenderer.java
└── util/
└── UpdateChecker.java[/CODE]