How to install Minecraft shaders

To install Minecraft shaders on Java, use the free Iris mod, which comes with Sodium: run the Iris installer, pick your Minecraft version and then add a shader pack. In game you switch it on under Options, Video Settings, Shader Packs.

Shaders only run on your own computer. Nothing needs installing on the server, and each friend decides whether to join in. A cake tastes exactly the same with shaders, by the way, it just looks shinier. Everything below was checked against Java 26.3 in early October 2026.

What are shaders?

A shader pack changes how Minecraft draws light: real shadows, sunbeams, reflections on water and leaves that move with the wind. The game itself stays the same, so your blocks, mobs and recipes don’t change. Java can’t load shader packs on its own; you need a shader mod for that.

Iris is that mod: open source, compatible with most packs made for OptiFine and already updated for 26.3. OptiFine itself is lagging behind: in early October 2026 there’s no version for 26.3 yet, and only a preview for 26.2.

On Bedrock (consoles, phones or the Windows app) these shader packs don’t work. Bedrock has Vibrant Visuals instead, an official graphics mode with shadows and reflections that you turn on in the settings, on devices that can handle it. Mojang is working on bringing it to Java too.

How to install Iris and Sodium

1. Download the installer from irisshaders.dev: the .exe for Windows or the Universal JAR for any system. The JAR needs Java.
2. Pick your Minecraft version and click Install. Using other Fabric mods as well? Choose Fabric install as the installation type, so everything shares one mods folder.
3. Open the launcher and start the new Iris profile.
4. Check that it worked. Video Settings now shows Sodium’s menu, with a button or tab for Shader Packs.

Prefer doing it by hand? Download Iris and Sodium for your version from Modrinth and put both in the mods folder of a Fabric profile. Iris runs on Fabric and, from 1.21.1, on NeoForge, but not on Forge. Setting up Fabric is covered in how to install Minecraft mods.

How to add a shader pack

1. Download a shader pack, for example from Modrinth. It’s usually a .zip file and there’s no need to unzip it.
2. Press O in game, or go to Options, Video Settings, Shader Packs.
3. Drag the file into the window, or click Open Shader Pack Folder... and drop it there. Click Refresh if the pack doesn’t show up straight away.
4. Select the pack and click Apply. If it says Shaders: Disabled, click that first.

Press K to switch shaders off and on in one go. Handy when a busy base starts to stutter.

Which shader pack suits your PC?

Shaders are hard work for your graphics card. On Modrinth you can filter shader packs by Performance impact, from Potato to Screenshot. Start light and step up while it still runs smoothly.

The Screenshot label says it all: gorgeous for pictures, heavy to play with. Also check that a pack supports Iris and has a version for your Minecraft version.

Shaders and your frame rate

• Sodium already helps a lot. Its developers say it greatly improves frame rates and reduces micro-stutter, even without shaders.
• Lower your render distance. Fewer chunks to draw makes an instant difference.
• Tune the pack. Under Shader Pack Settings... you can turn heavy effects, such as shadows, down a notch.
• Watch your resource packs. Resource packs with their own core shaders don’t work while a shader pack is on.
• Give it time after a big update. Java is moving from OpenGL to Vulkan, which is already the default in the 26.4 snapshots. Mojang says mods that use OpenGL will need extra work to catch up, so give Iris and your pack some time.

Shaders and servers

A server only sends you the world; how it looks is up to your own computer. That’s why shaders work on any server, whether it runs Paper, Fabric or NeoForge. Everyone chooses for themselves: one friend plays with sunbeams, another without.

• Nothing on the server. Iris and Sodium are client-only, and Modrinth labels them Client-side. Never put them in your server’s mods folder.
• Modpack on Fabric or NeoForge? Then you can add Iris to your own copy of the pack. The server won’t notice. How to run a pack with friends is in a modpack server with friends.
• Bedrock server? Each player turns Vibrant Visuals on for themselves. As the admin you can stop it for everyone with disable-client-vibrant-visuals in server.properties; editing that file is covered in edit the settings in server.properties.

Half the group on PC and the rest on console? Here’s how to play Java and Bedrock together.