Minecraft has added a huge variety of blocks over the years, but the overall appearance has remained the same. If you are looking to branch out and experience different lighting and textures, then you've come to the right place. In this guide, we are going to take a look at how to install shaders.
Shaders are essentially mods that change the graphics setting of your Minecraft world. Oftentimes, shaders are used to give the world a more realistic feel, with enhanced lighting and sunlight. First, let's take a look at what you need to do prior to downloading shaders.
Updated January 11, 2025 by Jacqueline Zalace: Still want to know how to install shaders in Minecraft? We've updated this list with a bit more information on how to do so, as well as some tips for those of you looking to get shaders on the Bedrock version of the game.
Optifine is a mod that basically allows shaders to work in your Minecraft world. It is important to have Optifine installed prior to downloading shaders.
Optifine will quickly install if you have Java on your computer. You can download Java for Windows here.
To download Optifine, you can go to the website and click 'download'. When downloading, be sure to click on 'Mirror' for the most recent version of the game. Doing so will cause the file to download to your computer.
With Optifine downloaded, right-click and select 'Open with'. From here, select the Java option. Now, a menu for Optifine will appear; click install and then head over to the Minecraft launcher.
To the left of the Play button, you should see a little menu showing the version of the game that you are currently playing. Click on the arrow and select Optifine, and you're all set!
Shaders can be downloaded from various websites. There are hundreds of shader options, so you are Bound to find one that looks nice to you.
Prior to downloading shaders, be sure that you are using a trustworthy site! As with downloading anything from the internet, you should be cautious.
A great place to look for shaders is Reddit; read threads about shader packs before downloading one.
We suggest making a new folder to hold your downloaded shaders. This way, you will easily be able to find them when it comes time to put the shaders in the game.
Here are some safe websites where you can find shaders (these are 'hubs', rather than sites for individual shaders).
Not all shares are developed with mods in mind! If you have a specific mod that really changes the game, it's worth checking the mod's page to see if shaders work with it. You might even find a modpack that comes with mods and shaders that are compatible with each other.
If you don't know where to start in terms of searching for a shader, we've got you covered. Below, you can find several shaders we recommend, as well as a screenshot of the game with the shader on.
These shaders aren't too drastic and can help you ease into the world of Minecraft shaders.
|
Shader |
Appearance |
|---|---|
| Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders |  |
| BSL Shaders |  |
| Nostalgia Shader |  |
| Sildur's Shaders |  |
| Iris Shaders |  |
| Rethinking Voxels |  |
| Cartoon Shaders |  |
Be sure to open the images in a new tab to get a better look!
Now that you have a shader pack downloaded, it's time to open Minecraft.
From the home screen of Minecraft, head to 'Options' and then go to 'Video Setting', followed by 'Shaders'. From here, you will see a screen with several options on the right side and a list of shaders on the left side.
The Shaders options will not be visible if you don't have Optifine installed.
Click 'Shaders Folder' on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, and then move your desired shader pack here. You can do this by pasting the shaders directly into the folder. Once you have the shaders in the folder, press 'Done'.
When you go to enter your Minecraft world, the shaders should now be installed!
You can install shaders in a server that has other players. This is great if you want others to experience the full beauty of a specific build with shaders on.
Shaders are client-side, which means that they can be installed on an individual computer. Essentially, you will still download the shader exactly the same as shown above, since this won't have any direct impact on the server itself.
As such, other players won't be able to see the shaders you have installed, unless they also have the same shader.
Yes, shaders can cause lag. If your computer is not powerful enough, having shaders on can definitely cause some FPS drops. If you are set on using shaders though, try using them only at specific times.
For example, do you want to take some nice screenshots of your build? This is a great time to use some shaders. After the photoshoot is over, turn them off. You can also turn them on if you just want to admire your base.
Overall, shaders are not essential to making your server look good, so if your computer can't handle them, it's okay! Several shaders are 'low-end' as well; we suggest doing some research on shaders like this.
You can increase your performance by lowering the render distance, turning off smoothing FPS (for Optifine), or considering moving to a place in your server without large-scale builds.
The biggest tip is to play around with your graphics settings to see if that makes a difference. Sometimes, just lowering the render distance is enough to noticeably boost your FPS. If you have shaders on specifically to look around a base (or something nearby), you don't need a long render distance.
It's still possible to get shaders in Bedrock, but things are a bit different. If you are playing on console, then it's important to note that there are no shaders in the Marketplace. While there are a wide variety of texture packs for you to use, you won't actually be able to find shaders.
While there are no Marketplace shaders, you'll still be able to find some that are compatible with Bedrock. If you are looking to install shaders on Xbox, it's definitely possible, but it's recommended to have access to a PC in order to set it up.
Bedrock shaders exist on many of the websites that we mentioned above; when looking for shaders, be sure to read the descriptions to make sure that it works with the Bedrock edition of the game.
There is no shortage of shader installation tutorials online if you are struggling to get them for Bedrock. Below, you can check out two helpful tutorials that we have found. Remember, there are more out there, so search around to find one that works for you.
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