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Installing Shaders

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danger

Always download mods/shaderpacks from trusted sources, otherwise they may cause harm to your operating system. All the sources in this page are official.

caution

Shaders usually require powerful hardware to run smoothly, such as a powerful GPU and a decent CPU. Otherwise your game will run terribly with low framerates or significant lag spikes.

This guide will cover how to install and use shaders in Minecraft; but it should be noted that different shaderpacks are designed for different shader mods, which are built for different mod loaders. This guide will cover the common ways to install shaders.

Installing shaders through Iris​

Iris is a shader mod designed to work with all existing OptiFine shaders. It can be installed as a seperate profile or a standalone Fabric, Quilt, and NeoForge mod.

Installing Iris through the Installer​

Note: This option installs Sodium alongside Iris.

  1. Start by heading over to the official Iris website and downloading the Iris installer.
  2. Run the installer and click Download.
  3. An Iris profile will now show up on the left sidebar in SKlauncher; you may need to restart the launcher if it doesn't show up.
  4. You can now move on to downloading shaders.

Installing the Iris mod​

Note: You will need one of 3 mod loaders for this option: Fabric, Quilt, or NeoForge. It doesn't matter which one you use unless you plan on using other mods alongside shaders.

  1. Head over to the Iris mod download page on Modrinth.
  2. Download the correct Iris mod for your mod loader and version. (i.e If you have Fabric 1.21.4 choose 1.21.4 as your version and Fabric as your platform)
  3. You must now place the Iris mod you downloaded in the mods folder, which is in your Minecraft* folder. If there isn't a mods folder, create one.
    * - If you modified your game directory, then you should look for mods folder in that location.
  4. To use the Iris mod you must select your Fabric/Quilt/NeoForge installation in SKlauncher and launch it.
  5. You can now move on to downloading shaders.

Installing Iris shaders​

You can find shaders for Iris on many websites, but it is always advised to get them from trusted sources, such as Modrinth or Curseforge.

  1. Start by downloading the correct shaders from Modrinth, Curseforge, or any trusted site.

    • IMPORTANT: Shaderpacks are usually downloaded as a ZIP archive (.zip). It is important that you do not extract it, otherwise the shaderpack will not work. On macOS, it may be downloaded as a folder, and in that case, simply compress the folder.

  2. You must now move the shaderpack.zip file you downloaded to the shaderpacks folder located in your Minecraft* folder. If there isn't one, create one.

    • On Windows this is %APPDATA%\.minecraft\shaderpacks
    • On Linux this is ~/.minecraft/shaderpacks
    • On macOS this is ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/shaderpacks
    * - If you modified your game directory, then you should look for shaderpacks folder in that location.

  3. Launch your Iris installation if you installed Iris + Sodium, or launch your mod loader if you got the Iris mod.

  4. Once you're in the Minecraft main menu, you can now go to Options > Video Settings > Shader packs and select your shader pack.

  5. You're done! If you followed the steps correctly, your shaders should work! You can tweak some settings to improve performance.

Installing shaders through OptiFine​

OptiFine is a performance-boosting and shader mod that uses OptiFine Shaders, you can install OptiFine as a seperate profile or as a Forge mod.

Installing OptiFine shaders​

All you need is OptiFine to use OptiFine shaders. Follow this guide to learn how to install it.

  1. You can download the correct shaders for OptiFine through a trusted site such as Modrinth or Curseforge.

    • IMPORTANT: Shaderpacks are usually downloaded as a ZIP archive (.zip). It is important that you do not extract it, otherwise the shaderpack will not work. On macOS, it may be downloaded as a folder, and in that case, simply compress the folder.

  2. You must now move the shaderpack.zip file you downloaded to the shaderpacks folder located in your Minecraft* folder. If there isn't one, create one.

    • On Windows this is %APPDATA%\.minecraft\shaderpacks
    • On Linux this is ~/.minecraft/shaderpacks
    • On macOS this is ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/shaderpacks
    * - If you modified your game directory, then you should look for shaderpacks folder in that location.

  3. Launch your OptiFine installation or Forge installation with the OptiFine mod.

  4. Once you're in the Minecraft main menu, you can now go to Options > Video Settings > Shaders... and select your shader pack.

  5. You're done! If you followed the steps correctly, your shaders should work! You can tweak some settings to improve performance.

Troubleshooting​

It's not rare to run into issues while trying to run shaders. The next part will cover some common issues with shaders.

Laggy game​

This is a very common issue and there's many causes for this.

  1. Weak hardware: Shaders are very resource intensive and usually need a good GPU to run smoothly. If you do have good hardware and your game is lagging it could be because Minecraft is using your iGPU (integrated GPU) instead of your dGPU (dedicated GPU). You can learn how to solve that here.
  2. High settings: Your shaders may be set to High settings which use require more graphical processing power. You can lower your shader settings by going to Options > Video Settings > Shaders... > Shader Settings on OptiFine and Options > Video Settings > Shader Packs > Shader Pack Settings on Iris.

My game just crashed​

This can be caused by multiple factors, such as incompatible mods, drivers, etc.

  1. If you have other mods, a conflicting mod could be causing the issue. Read the crashlog to find out what mod is causing it. You may also have gotten the wrong version of a mod.

Need more help?​

  1. You can read the troubleshooting guide or...
  2. You can ask the SKlauncher community for help! Join the Discord server if you're stuck and need guidance!