Horizontal Portals
Every Minecraft player knows the ritual: gather obsidian, build a tall rectangle, light it, and step through. It works, but it is also rigid. Horizontal Portals changes that routine by letting you construct portals in orientations the vanilla game never allowed. Whether you are a builder chasing symmetry or a modpack explorer juggling dimensions, this add-on reshapes how you travel.
What Horizontal Portals Actually Does
At its core, Horizontal Portals introduces horizontal and vertical variants of familiar portal types. The headline feature is the horizontal Nether Portal, which you build from Crying Obsidian blocks in a configuration ranging from a minimum of 4x4 up to a maximum of 21x21. Once the frame is in place, you ignite it and step into the Nether through a portal that lies flat rather than standing upright.
The mod does not stop at the Nether. It also adds vertical End Portals constructed with Ender Frames, which you activate using Dragon's Breath. For players running additional dimension mods, the add-on extends its reach further, supporting portals for The Aether Reborn, Eden Ring, and Mining Dimensions when those mods are present.
Supported Versions and Loaders
Horizontal Portals is built for modern Minecraft releases and is distributed as a mod rather than a datapack, so you will need a compatible mod loader installed before adding it to your instance. Check the download page for the exact Minecraft version and loader your build requires, since support varies between releases. If you run a heavily modded world, confirm that your other dimension mods are present before expecting their portal variants to appear.
For players who prefer a frictionless setup, the foxygame.net launcher handles the heavy lifting: it matches each build of Horizontal Portals to your installed Minecraft version and loader automatically, so you never have to guess which file fits. That kind of version compatibility checking saves a lot of trial and error when you are managing dozens of mods at once.
Portal Types and How to Build Them
Horizontal Nether Portals
These are the signature addition. Lay out Crying Obsidian in a flat frame between 4x4 and 21x21 blocks, then light it. The larger configurations give you plenty of room for dramatic base entrances, and the smaller ones work well for compact survival builds.
Vertical End Portals
Vanilla End Portals only appear in strongholds, but this mod lets you craft your own. Build a frame from Ender Frames and ignite it with Dragon's Breath. Repurposed Structures fans get a bonus: ruined end portals from that mod generate with Ender Frames instead of Obsidian, keeping everything visually consistent.
Aether, Eden Ring, and Mining Dimensions
If The Aether Reborn is installed, you can create its portals using Shroomlight and ignite them with a bucket of water. Eden Ring portals come in both vertical and horizontal forms, built from Eden Frames and activated with an Amethyst Shard. Mining Dimensions portals are supported too, and require Flint-and-shard to ignite.
Crafting the Frames
You will need recipes for the Ender Frame and Eden Frame before any of this works. The mod includes them, but they are not obvious from the vanilla recipe book. Installing REI (Roughly Enough Items) is strongly recommended so you can look up each portal block recipe directly in-game.
- Crying Obsidian frames create horizontal Nether Portals.
- Ender Frames plus Dragon's Breath create vertical End Portals.
- Shroomlight plus a water bucket opens Aether Reborn portals.
- Eden Frames plus an Amethyst Shard open Eden Ring portals.
- Flint-and-shard ignites Mining Dimensions portals.
How to Install Horizontal Portals for Minecraft
Installation follows the standard mod workflow. First, confirm your Minecraft version and mod loader. Next, download Horizontal Portals from a trusted source and drop the file into your mods folder. Launch the game once to generate config files, then start a test world to verify the portals behave as expected. If something fails to appear, double-check that any dependency mods, such as The Aether Reborn or Eden Ring, are installed at compatible versions.
Players who want to skip manual file management can use a launcher that installs add-ons in one click, keeping every dependency aligned. Either approach works, but testing in a fresh world first will save you from surprises in an established save.
Final Thoughts
Horizontal Portals is a small mod with a big impact on how you design bases and plan travel. It respects vanilla mechanics while opening up creative freedom, and its cross-mod support makes it a natural fit for kitchen-sink modpacks. Build a flat Nether gate, craft your own End Portal, and see how much a change in orientation changes your world.