Shaderpack Installation

This page is intended as a quick tutorial on how to install OptiFine, Iris, Shader Packs.

System Requirements
Due to the sheer variety of available Shader Packs it is difficult to determine general system requirements, especially when it comes to graphics cards. Since all Shader Packs using dynamic shadows require the world to be rendered twice, an at least moderately powerful CPU is recommended. A second gen Ryzen CPU like a 2600X or an older Intel i5 (eg. from the 4000 series) should already provide enough compute power to run Shader Packs using dynamic shadows at reasonable view distances (eg. 8-12 Chunks). Additionally you should make sure that you have enough system memory installed since Shader Packs with supported resource packs can use quite a lot of memory. 16GB of RAM are usually a comfortable amount that should allow you to run most if not all Resource- and Shader Pack configurations.

Giving a requirement for a graphics card to be used depends a lot on the used Shader Packs since there are packs that run fine on integrated graphics while others manage to even make a 2080Ti struggle. Thus no requirement or recommendation is given here, all that generally applies in this regard is that you should make sure to choose a Shader Packs that your system can deliver the desired performance with.

As for the operating system, Windows and in many cases Gnu/Linux work fine. As for macOS, this is highly dependent on the Shader Pack due to some driver restrictions that are not existing with other operating systems, which is why you should go by the compatibility info given in the Shader Packs list.

As a final note you should always make sure to use a fairly recent graphics driver version, since older versions may cause issues that are no longer taken into account by Shader Pack developers.

Installing OptiFine
OptiFine is the main mod that allows shaders to work. You may have also heard of the Shaders Mod. Don't use this. The shaders mod is massively outdated nowadays and Shader Pack support is included in OptiFine. Starting with OptiFine F2 for Minecraft 1.8.8 the Shader Pack support of OptiFine continuously received new features, which eventually got picked up by Shader Pack developers. This rendered the separate Shaders Mod not only obsolete but also incompatible with modern Shader Packs relying on these new features. You can download OptiFine https://OptiFine.net/downloads here. You install OptiFine by executing (double-click) the downloaded java file. This way a new profile will be created inside the minecraft launcher which you then can select by clicking on the game version shown in the bottom left corner.

Installing Iris
Iris is the Fabric alternative to OptiFine and can drastically improve fps. Iris is mostly compatible with OptiFine shaderpacks however some may have glitches. Iris also requires Sodium, but it is bundled in with the launcher. You can download the Iris Launcher https://irisshaders.net/download. You can install the Iris Launcher by executing (double-click) the downloaded java file. Once you choose your version a new profile will be created inside the minecraft launcher which you then can select by clicking on the game version shown in the bottom left corner.

Installing Shader packs
For a list of available Shader Packs please check the Shader Pack list. Once you've downloaded a pack, place the downloaded zip-file in .minecraft/shaderpacks. Some browsers automatically unzip the downloaded file, in that case move the unzipped folder into your shaderpacks folder and make sure that the folder structure looks like this: - shaderpacks - [Shader Pack name] - shaders If the shaderpacks folder does not exist, run the game once or just manually create it. Then, if using OptiFine load up the game and select it from options > video settings > shaders and if using Iris load up the game and select it from options > video settings > shader packs. Usually on OptiFine the Shader Packs also have additional options that can be configured. These options can be found under "shader options" in the shader selection screen.