Shaders Guide

Real-time lighting, shadows, waving water and god rays - in ten minutes.

Install shaders step by step

1. Install your loader with Iris Shaders and Sodium - see our install guide.
2. Download a shader pack from its official page (Modrinth or CurseForge). You get a .zip file - do not unzip it.
3. In game: Options → Video Settings → Shader Packs → Open Shader Pack Folder, and drop the .zip in.
4. Select the pack in the list. Done.

Which shader pack

• Complementary Reimagined - the community favorite: gorgeous but tasteful, keeps the vanilla feel, great on mid-range PCs.
• Complementary Unbound - the cinematic big sibling with more dramatic skies.
• BSL Shaders - bright, soft and colorful; a classic that runs well almost everywhere.
• MakeUp - Ultra Fast - for weaker PCs and laptops; huge quality per frame.
• Photon - a modern open-source pack with impressive clouds and water.

Performance expectations

• Any dedicated GPU from the last years runs Complementary/BSL at 60+ FPS with Sodium. Integrated graphics: use MakeUp or disable shadows.
• Shaders only change visuals - your world, mods and achievements are untouched.
• Pair with Distant Horizons for the full screenshot-mode experience (it needs Iris support enabled in its settings).

On Bedrock: Vibrant Visuals

Bedrock Edition has no shader packs like Java, but Mojang added Vibrant Visuals (an official graphics upgrade with directional lighting, shadows and volumetric fog) in the Chase the Skies drop - enable it in video settings on supported devices. Third-party "shaders" for Bedrock exist as resource packs but do far less than Java shaders.