How to install and run shaders in Minecraft

Shaders dramatically enhance Minecraft’s visuals, from realistic lighting and reflections to experimental textures. In this tutorial, I will guide you through installing, configuring, and optimizing shaders in Minecraft Java Edition—not available in the Bedrock version used on consoles and mobile devices. Keep in mind that shaders can significantly affect game performance, especially at higher resolutions like 4K. However, the vast selection of shader packs caters to various system specifications, and many include performance impact details and adjustable quality settings to ensure smooth gameplay on both high-end and lower-end systems.

How to run shaders via Iris

Simply downloading shaders into the game is not enough for Minecraft to understand and support them properly. First and foremost, we require a mod that will allow us to run shaderpacks. The two most well-known being Optifine and Iris Shaders. These are standalone modified versions of the game, and do not require other mod launchers such as Forge. Between the two, whilst Optifine has a reputation for being able to increase the performance of the game, I recommend Iris due to its overall better installation experience and user interface, good overall performance, and the fact that when new versions of Minecraft release, it’s much faster to update and become compatible with the latest version of the game. In order to install Iris:

• Head to the Iris download site and download the universal JAR installer.
• Open the downloaded .jar file and click Install. If prompted by Windows which software to use to open it, select Java(TM) Platform SE Binary.
• When prompted about installing the standalone Iris launcher or Iris with Fabric, select the latter if you wish to use other mods with your shaders.
• Once it’s installed, if you open the Minecraft launcher, and click on the version selector in the bottom left, new Iris or Fabric options should become available.

With Iris now properly set up, we can now run shaders in the game, and can now download and install the shaders we want.

How to download and install shaders

Shaders can be downloaded from one of many websites online. There are many popular shader repository sites, such as or. Certain packs however feature standalone sites for download. If unsure, we recommend watching our video on the best shaders currently available for the game. Once you have found the pack you wish to use:

• Download the shaderpack from the site. It should download as a .zip file. You do not need to unzip it for the rest of the process to work.
• Press Win+R on your keyboard, and a new Run window should appear. In it, type appdata.
• In the folder it opens up in Windows Explorer, navigate to Roaming/.minecraft/shaderpacks.
• If no shaderpacks folder exists in that directory, create a new folder with that name, with no capital letters.
• Move the downloaded shader file to this folder. It will now be accessible within the game.

How to turn on shaders in-game

Once you have at least one shader involved, and have a version of the game capable of running shaders such as Iris, you can now activate them in-game. In order to do so:

• Launch the game in either the Iris of Iris and Fabric version of the game from the Minecraft launcher.
• Once the game is launched, head to the Settings tab, followed by Video Settings. A new version of the video settings tab should now display with several new features.
• Within this menu, select the Shader Packs tab in the selection at the top. This should now display a list of all shaders within the shaderpack folder. Select the shader you wish to use, and press Apply.

When you now load into your Minecraft world, the shader will be used.

How to configure shaders and change settings

Shaders can be further configured in-game through the new Video Settings tab. This can be done by:

• Within the same Shaders tab as below, click on the Configure Shaders option located at the bottom of the menu.
• This will bring up the options to configure the shaders currently being used, with each shader including different options.
• These can be used to further increase graphical fidelity or the quality of effects, or turn some settings down or off completely in order to improve performance.
• This menu will appear different for each set of shaders, with each implementation offering a slightly different amount of customisation options.

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