Photon Shaders is a gameplay-oriented shader pack for Minecraft, offering a semi-realistic visual style that enhances the overall experience. It is designed to elevate your world’s atmosphere with advanced graphics while maintaining smooth performance.
Key Features
- Revamped Visuals: Enjoy a completely overhauled sky, dynamic lighting, and realistic water effects.
- Cloud Diversity: Experience detailed clouds, featuring multiple layers and a variety of cloud types for more authentic skies.
- Dynamic Weather: Immerse yourself in a weather system that changes skies daily, creating a fresh environment each time you play.
- Voxel-Based Colored Lighting: Available with the Ultra profile and Iris, this adds vibrant colored lighting for deeper immersion.
- Screen-Space Reflections: Realistic surface reflections enhance the world’s appearance.
- Volumetric Fog: Adds a layer of depth and realism with advanced fog rendering.
- Soft Shadows: Shadows feature variable-size penumbras, producing a more natural look.
- Ambient Occlusion: Includes advanced geometry-based ambient occlusion (GTAO) for lifelike shading.
- Camera Effects: Enjoy bloom, depth of field, and motion blur for cinematic visuals.
- Enhanced Image Quality: Utilizes TAA, FXAA, and CAS to significantly improve clarity and visual fidelity.
- Temporal Upscaling: Advanced upscaling (disabled by default) is available for enhanced performance on lower-end systems.
- Customization: An extensive settings menu allows adjustments to every aspect of the shader for a personalized experience.
- Resource Pack Compatibility: Full support for labPBR resource packs ensures seamless integration of textures and materials.
Compatibility
Shader Loaders:
- Iris (Recommended): Delivers superior performance, mod compatibility, and enhanced developer features compared to other shader loaders. Some features, such as Colored Lighting, require Iris.
- OptiFine: Basic compatibility is supported, though certain advanced features may not be available.
GPU Vendors:
- Supported: Nvidia, AMD, Intel
- Not Supported: Apple GPUs (Metal) by default; SH Skylight and Colored Shadows should be disabled on these systems.
Mod Compatibility:
- Designed to work seamlessly with mods such as Distant Horizons, allowing for extended render distances and richer worlds.
Photon Shaders is ideal for players seeking a visually immersive Minecraft experience with a balance of realism and gameplay-focused design.
Except for special cases, Minecraft Shaders are generally backward compatible, but not forward compatible.
Screenshots
- If you don’t know how to use Minecraft Shaders, please click to view the Shaders usage tutorial.
