The 3D map
Monitor → 3D map shows your server’s terrain as a real 3D landscape, with every base on the server drawn in place and players, tool cupboards and tracked objects standing at their actual height.
There is also a View in 3D button in the live map’s settings panel, which opens the same thing in a new window — handy when you want the 2D map running alongside it.
If your server has only just started this wipe, the page will tell you the terrain has not been sampled yet. The plugin does that once per wipe, within a few minutes of the server starting — there is nothing to do but wait.
What it is for
Section titled “What it is for”The 2D map is the better tool for actually moderating — grid references, clicking a cupboard, scanning who is where. The 3D view is for orientation: seeing that a base is dug into a cliff, that a fight happened on a ridge above a monument, or just getting a feel for the map your players are describing in chat.
Flying around
Section titled “Flying around”Click the view once to take control of the camera, then look with the mouse. There is no collision — you fly straight through terrain and buildings.
| Action | Keys |
|---|---|
| Move | WASD or IJKL |
| Up | Space |
| Down | Ctrl or ; |
| Fly faster | Hold Shift or O |
| Release the mouse | Esc |
Both key clusters work at the same time — use whichever hand you prefer.
Every foundation, wall, floor and roof on the server is drawn where it stands, coloured by the material it is built from:
- Twig — pale tan
- Wood — brown
- Stone — grey
- Sheet metal — dark grey
- Armoured — steel blue
That makes the thing you usually want to know readable from the air: which bases are actually hard, which are still twig, and where somebody has honeycombed a soft base in metal.
Doorways, windows and frames are drawn with their openings, so you can see through a base rather than at a solid block. What fills them is not drawn — doors, garage doors, embrasures, window bars and shop fronts are separate objects, so a sealed-up base looks open from outside.
Two more limits worth knowing before you rely on it:
- The shapes are approximations. Rust’s own models aren’t ours to use, so each piece is drawn as the simple shape it occupies on the building grid. It reads unmistakably as a base; it is not a screenshot. Anything the dashboard doesn’t recognise — a new building piece after a Rust update — shows as a small magenta cube rather than being guessed at or hidden.
- It is a snapshot, not a live feed. Blocks are collected every five minutes, so a wall knocked down in a raid disappears on the next sweep rather than as it happens. The player and cupboard markers are live.
The key in the top-right corner carries the block count for the whole server.
Markers and monuments
Section titled “Markers and monuments”The same markers as the 2D map, at their real elevation. A key in the top-right corner lists every colour along with a live count, so you can see at a glance that everything is there.
- Players — green online, grey sleeping, red dead
- Tool cupboards — blue, amber or red by remaining upkeep; grey once destroyed
- Tracked objects — the same world entities the 2D map shows
Markers are drawn on top of the terrain rather than inside it. A cupboard in a base built into a rock, or a player in a cave, would otherwise be hidden inside the hill — on a moderator tool it matters more that you can see everything than that the depth is strictly correct.
Monuments are labelled with their in-game names, so you can find Outpost or Launch Site without recognising them by shape.
On plugin v0.20.0 or later that includes Large God Rock — the big hollow formations people build inside. Rust does not count those as monuments, so CerebRUST finds them itself and puts them on the map, because “where are the god rocks” is a question every new player on a server asks and nothing else answers.
Everything updates live over the same connection as the 2D map, so a player running around moves here too.
Where you are
Section titled “Where you are”A readout in the top-left corner shows your grid reference, your X / Y / Z position and the biome you are currently over — handy for matching what someone is describing in chat.
Your position is remembered per server and per wipe, so reopening the 3D map drops you back where you left off. A new wipe starts you at the default overhead view, since the world has changed.
Requirements
Section titled “Requirements”Desktop only. The flight controls have no touch equivalent and the terrain is heavy to draw, so on a small screen the page asks you to switch to a desktop browser. The 2D live map works everywhere.
“Terrain not uploaded yet”
Section titled ““Terrain not uploaded yet””The plugin measures your map’s terrain once per wipe, shortly after it connects — it should appear within a few minutes of the server starting. Unlike the map image, this does not need an empty server.
If it never appears, check the server is running plugin version 0.8.75 or newer.
Bases need 0.14.0 or newer — on an older plugin the terrain and markers appear as before and the key simply carries no block count.
Privacy
Section titled “Privacy”Same rules as the live map: it is a moderator tool, players cannot see it, and anyone you grant server access to can see everybody’s position. See Staff and access.