The documentation on setting up the spectral relay to relay starlight to an altar does not specify how these sparks that go to the altar show up, and if they are a "stream" of sparks, then I have either not set it up correctly, or the relay isn't able to find my altar (which is about 6 blocks away)

seems to work okay in single player, but not in a server environment. I placed everything correctly according to the journal, but it adds SO little starlight that it's hardly worth it. is one meant to put this in a spot of focused starlight?

It follows the same rules for collection as the altar minus the point where you have to place it in a spot of focused starlight. So night = more, higher up = more, has to have clear view of the sky, ...

the particles are very different in singleplayer (there is no stream in MP at all, no matter how many times I replace altar and relay) and gives white and blue particles, while in SP, it gives grey particles. is that important at all?

Grey should never come up as color...
I'm going to double check this.

yep. confirmed. will fix for next version - idk about wht the particles are grey tho. must be some sort of lighting interaction

Sigh This bug came forth from my derpyness at porting the changes from 1.11.2 to 1.10.2 ... this will be fixed next version... :| Sorry for the inconvenience~

I'm currently playing this on 1.11.2, it only shows up on the SMP server I play on.

the Relay works in Singleplayer, but NOT in SMP.

pls kill me. i ported it correctly, the 1.11.2 version had the same problem.. Sorry D:

Be sure the structure around it is correct. It - as expected - also needs a view to the sky. Additionally, as described in the journal, you need to place a glass lens onto it. If you've verified all that and it still doesn't seem to function properly, place the altar again and place the relay again. The order in which relay & altar are placed shouldn't matter either way normally.