The best Minecraft shaders for 1.21
Find the best, most performant Minecraft shader pack with our list of 1.21 shaders
Want to try out the very best Minecraft shaders? Minecraft has always had a charming look, but those deceptively simple 8x8 pixel textures truly pop when combined with the dynamic real-time lighting, ray-traced shadows, and volumetric fog of a top-tier shader pack. Minecraft shaders have been around for many years now, and each one offers something slightly different in their quest to turn your worlds into drop-dead gorgeous works of art.
There are more shader packs to choose from than ever been before, and downloading and installing them has also never been more straightforward. The issue comes with deciding on just one shader pack to use - because unlike Minecraft texture packs, you can't layer shader packs on top of one another to combine their effects. Some shaders focus more on lighting, others on the sea, others still on weather effects. Some are lightweight, while others are behemoths that require top-tier PCs to run on max settings.
To help sort you out and get you started, we've compiled a definitive list of the very best shaders you can currently use with the latest version of Minecraft, version 1.21. Below you can peruse screenshots and writeups on over two dozen different Minecraft shader packs, and pick which lighting makeover is the best fit for you and your newest survival world!
The best Minecraft shaders for 1.21
Here are all the best Minecraft shaders you can get for 1.21:
- AstraLex Shaders
- Beyond Belief Shaders
- BSL Shaders
- Chocapic13's Shaders
- Complementary Shaders
- Continuum Shaders
- DrDestens MCShaders
- Exposa Shaders
- Insanity Shaders
- MakeUp Shaders
- Nostalgia Shaders
- Oceano Shaders
- Pastel Shaders
- Potato Shaders
- ProjectLUMA Shaders
- RedHat Shaders
- SEUS Renewed
- Sildur's Shaders
- Sora Shaders
- Spectrum Shaders
- Sunflawer Shaders
- Super Super Vanilla Shaders
- TME Shaders
- Triliton's Shaders
- UShader
- Vanilla Plus Shaders
If you want to spend some time comparing the different Minecraft shaders in this list and figuring out which shader pack is best for you, we can help with that. Below is a gallery of screenshots, all of the same Minecraft river scene, but each with different shaders active. Have a flick through the gallery and see which shader pack you like most!
Take a look at each one in more detail below, where you can also download each shader pack and figure out which look is best for your Minecraft world!
AstraLex Shaders
What we like about AstraLex Shaders:
- Highly customisable shader pack
- Fantastic stylised star constellations at night
- Vivid, crisp, and legible effects
AstraLex Shaders is four years old now, and an offshoot of the widely-used BSL Shaders. What struck me from the beginning was AstraLex Shaders' impressive and comprehensive set of customisation options, which allow to you tweak just about everything you can imagine, from specific lighting tones to various post-processing effects. One of my favourite features is a neat black bar effect which comes into play when you're crouching. It may seem like a small gimmick, but it quickly became one of the main selling points of this shader pack in my mind.
Out of the box, AstraLex Shaders look utterly beautiful (they are based on BSL, after all). Everything is crisp and vibrant, and the skyboxes are lovely - particularly at night. Some users might be turned off by the stylised star constellations, but I personally love them.
Beyond Belief Shaders
What we like about Beyond Belief Shaders:
- A strong balance between performance and quality
- Immersive desaturation effect during nighttime
- Decently customisable effects
Beyond Belief Shaders doesn't set itself apart from the other Minecraft shaders on this list in any particular way (although the water is particularly lovely). Instead this pack provides players with a simple, pleasant balance between performance, customisation, and good looks.
Beyond Belief is built upon SEUS v11, a precursor to the SEUS Renewed shaders lower down on this list, and both shaders share several traits. However, Beyond Belief adds a few additional settings atop its foundational shader pack, including a desaturation effect at nighttime (which incidentally makes these shaders perfect for a midnight Minecraft fireworks display), and an admittedly basic celshading effect.
BSL Shaders
What we like about BSL Shaders:
- Exquisite lighting and shadows
- Very customisable
- Good performance considering how great it looks
Good lord, BSL Shaders are beautiful. Like, really beautiful. When all's said and done, this is the shader pack that I tend to go back to for my own survival worlds, as well as any Minecraft servers I frequent. BSL Shaders are among the most popular shaders in the world, and it's easy to see why. Everything included here, from the amazing depth of field effects to the warm, crisp lighting, the beautiful water reflections, and the fluffy far-off clouds, is utterly sublime.
Thanks to the expansive array of customisation options available, BSL Shaders can also run on a wide variety of machines. This pack actually tends to run a little better for me on my (high-end) rig than many other "go-to" shaders on this list. But in this day and age, competition is fiercer than ever for the title of best Minecraft shader pack, and BSL may no longer be the undisputed king, but rather one of several strong contenders.
Chocapic13's Shaders
What we like about Chocapic13's Shaders:
- More subtle but still noticeable shader effects
- Fairly lightweight and able to run on most machines
- Soft pastel-coloured sunlight
Here's a classic shader pack whose name might be familiar even if you've never used Minecraft shaders in your life. The venerable Chocapic13's Shaders pack still stands up today as one of the better options available, thanks to its vibrant but pared-back style and ability to run on a great deal of different hardware setups without too much trouble.
For those looking to really test their machines with the eyecandiest of eyecandy, well, this probably won't knock your socks off like you're hoping. But Chocapic13's shaders somehow create a more relaxing Minecraft than nearly any other shader pack I've tried (and I've tried a lot). There's something so serene about this particular combination of swaying leaves, gently shimmering waves, and soft, subtle lighting.
Complementary Shaders
What we like about Complementary Shaders:
- A very well-optimised shader pack
- Gains most of the benefits of BSL Shaders
- Can be paired with an optional Complementary Resource Pack
Complementary Shaders is an offshoot of BSL Shaders and designed to give users "the most issueless experience possible". This mod-friendly pack boasts excellent performance, and with just as much opportunity for customisation as BSL, whether you choose BSL or Complementary comes purely down to preference. A great choice for showing off your latest Minecraft house build!
The shader pack can also be optionally paired with a Complementary Resource Pack, though you can of course use this shader pack alongside any resource pack you desire. Personally I think it looks great just with the vanilla textures - and yet again, this pack is particularly stunning at night.
Continuum Shaders
What we like about Continuum Shaders:
- Top-tier lighting effects right out of the box
- The rain and storms are incredible
- Very realistic approach to lighting, unlike many more stylised shaders
Continuum Shaders used to be far and away the most visually impressive Minecraft shader pack out there, with jaw-droppingly good lighting, water, and weather effects. Unfortunately, all that screenshot exquisiteness came at the cost of supremely low performance.
Nowadays, Continuum runs just fine. It's still perhaps on the more demanding end of all the packs listed here, but there's enough room for customisation that you can run it decently on a wide array of gaming rigs. And while it still looks beautiful, it's no longer far and away the leader when it comes to lighting effects.
That being said, two things still stand out with Continuum Shaders. The first is the cool crispness of the lighting. If you're a bit tired of Minecraft shaders bathing the landscape in hot orange light, then you might love Continuum's more realistic approach to lighting. And secondly, the rain is exquisite. When it rains or storms in your world, turn on Continuum Shaders. You won't be sorry.
DrDestens MCShaders
What we like about DrDestens MCShaders:
- Very lightweight option for low-end PCs
- Great skybox and cloud textures
- Good-looking water effects
DrDestens MCShaders are very new compared to most other shader packs on this list, but this pack is well worth checking out for players who want more lightweight options to liven up their Minecraft worlds.
The big drawback of DrDestens MCShaders is also one of its greatest selling points: no shadows. Not bothering with all the real-time rendering of shadows leaves this shader pack looking a little less eye-catching than its peers, but it also frees up a lot of frames, making DrDesten's Shaders a great choice for mid-to-low-end PC setups. So if you're hunting for a shader pack that offers a lighter touch, focused mainly on skybox and water effects rather than lighting and shadows, give DrDesten's a try.
Exposa Shaders
What we like about Exposa Shaders:
- Vivid sunrises and sunsets
- Impressive 3D volumetric clouds
- Good-looking water from a distance
Installing Exposa Shaders will give your sunrises and sunsets an immediate pop of colour. Thanks to this pack's lovely skybox, nice cloud textures, and some effective (but not overpowering) lens flare effects, the beginning and end of the Minecraft day quickly became my favourite times to be out and about.
As far as performance and customisation options go, Exposa Shaders are... okay. There are enough settings to give the overall look some preferential tweaks and eke out a few extra frames. I was also able to run the shaders on max settings with my 2060 Super, although not at quite the same frame rate as I could get from various other shader packs on this list. That said, if it works well with your machine and you enjoy a nice orange sunset, then Exposa Shaders are a great choice.
Insanity Shaders
What we like about Insanity Shaders:
- A great choice for horror-themed Minecraft worlds
- Very atmospheric lighting and skybox
- Subtle lens flare effects
Well now, here's a shader pack that looks decidedly different from most, wouldn't you agree? Insanity Shaders, based on BSL, has been designed to turn your Minecraft survival adventure into an unsettling, brooding horror-esque experience. Those screenshots above? They were taken during the day. The nights are far darker - be sure to bring torches to light your way.
Given its very pointed aesthetic, you'll either love or hate using Insanity Shaders. It certainly conjures a very immersive and foreboding atmosphere, and the level of customisation is quite impressive, so if you're looking to tone down the vibrancy of Minecraft and give it more of a gloomy demeanour, Insanity Shaders are simply the best choice.
MakeUp Shaders
What we like about MakeUp Shaders:
- Lightweight without sacrificing major features
- Nice and crisp visuals
- Great water reflections
MakeUp Shaders are a lightweight but powerful choice which will give your Minecraft worlds a makeover (pun intended) without sacrificing too much in terms of performance. Unlike the similarly performance-focused DrDesten's Shaders, which earn extra frames by not bothering to render shadows, MakeUp Shaders will still do just about everything you'd expect from a Minecraft shader pack - just with a lighter touch than most.
The result is a shader pack that doesn't blow you away with incredible visuals, but instead strikes a nice balance between making your default Minecraft world look a lot crisper and nicer, and keeping the frame rate smooth enough to enjoy playing with it enabled.
Nostalgia Shaders
What we like about Nostalgia Shaders:
- The best Story Mode clouds in the business
- Great looks and performance out of the box
- Lovely rain
Nostalgia Shaders give you an extremely lightweight and wonderfully subtle graphical overhaul for your Minecraft worlds. Designed to emulate the first few popular shader packs of the early 2010's, Nostalgia may be a little lacking in the customisation department compared with others on this list, but the flipside of this is that you don't need to do much tinkering to get a great-looking Minecraft experience that chugs along well on most PCs.
By far my favourite thing about Nostalgia is the cloud options. Do yourself a favour and turn on Story Mode style clouds - they look so, so very good. Why is this not what clouds look like in regular Minecraft? Can't you just imagine building up to the height limit with some terrific palacial Minecraft build using this shader pack?
Oceano Shaders
What we like about Oceano Shaders:
- Excellent water, particularly from a distance
- Bright and natural lighting
- Decently customisable shader options
As the title might suggest, Oceano Shaders give Minecraft's water surfaces a much-needed makeover. From a distance, they're possibly the best shaders out there for oceans, though I'll admit this pack does look a little stange with smaller bodies of water.
Nevertheless, the overall look and feel of this shader pack more than makes up for these occasional anomalies. Oceano Shaders feels a bit like a cross between Continuum Shaders and SEUS (the latter of which you'll meet shortly below), but comes away looking very much like its own thing. It's a great pack to install if you want to explore the depths of the ocean for rare sights like Buried Treasure, Axolotls, and other seafaring Minecraft mobs.
Pastel Shaders
What we like about Pastel Shaders:
- Colour presets allow you to colour grade your world with ease
- Performs well on many mid-to-high-end PCs
- Relatively unknown - go support a smaller shader pack!
At the time of writing, Pastel Shaders is more or less completely unknown on CurseForge, with a scant 650 downloads to its name. But I wanted to give this new shader pack a big shout out for its lovely colour presets - rose quartz, lemon, and periwinkle - which allow players to very easily colour grade their Minecraft worlds without spending ages tweaking settings.
Pastel Shaders doesn't come with all the bells and whistles of the biggest Minecraft shaders out there such as BSL and Continuum - but it keeps things looking nice and characterful while providing solid performance on a wide range of modern PCs.
Potato Shaders
What we like about Potato Shaders:
- Extremely lightweight, perfect for low-end PCs
- Surprisingly good fog effects
- Doesn't stray too far from the default Minecraft look
Potato Shaders give players another option when it comes to the most lightweight shader pack possible, enhancing the look of any Minecraft world even on the humble potato setup. It does a very admirable job of this worthy goal, going the same route as DrDesten's Shaders in omitting dynamic real-time shadows to help improve performance.
You should never expect Potato Shaders to look as good as the more intensive Minecraft shader packs on this list, but the name likely gives that away. I'm not a fan of the very blurry water, which seems out of place compared with the clean lines of the rest of the landscape, but that's a tolerable flaw. Other features in this pack make up for the wonky water, especially the surprisingly good fog effects, which truly shine during periods of bad weather. In any case, this is about as lightweight as good Minecraft shaders can get, so if your setup is something of a spud, give Potato Shaders a go.
ProjectLUMA Shaders
What we like about projectLUMA Shaders:
- Photorealistic skyboxes
- Lovely vibrant sea-blue water
- Highly performant shader pack
The official successor of the venerable KUDA Shaders, projectLUMA Shaders aims to give Minecraft as much of a visual pop as possible without tanking your computer. Unlike some other shader packs, the results here are extremely positive. If you want to start a new survival save that you intend to play for a long time, projectLUMA's a fine choice to make all of your interactions shine, from building your first house to fighting the Wither boss.
Rather than opting for the fluffy marshmallow clouds present in most shaders, projectLUMA gives you photorealistic skyboxes, matched with excellent lighting options that give the landscapes below an amazing sense of life and colour. It's not quite as beautiful as you head underground (unless you reach something truly noteworthy, like an Amethyst Geode) but the skyboxes alone make this shader pack worthy of inclusion in this list.
RedHat Shaders
What we like about RedHat Shaders:
- Lots of extra lighting and post-processing effects
- A fine degree of customisation control
- Vibrant landscapes
RedHat Shaders are an edit of the Chocapic13 Shaders that appeared earlier in this list, and the two packs look very similar indeed. Both give Minecraft's landscapes a lovely neat lighting and shadows overhaul, but RedHat Shaders pushes the boat out a little further with extra (toggleable) features like godrays, lens flares, film grain, light absorption through water, and more.
There's certainly a lot to like about RedHat Shaders, although with all the extra bells and whistles it's not exactly the most well-optimised shader pack on this list. It makes up for this with a good set of customisation options which allow you to tone down or turn off various effects, so you can stay focused on the lovely sharp shadows, warm sunlight, and swaying leaves.
SEUS Renewed
What we like about SEUS Renewed:
- Looks excellent without the need for customisation
- Very well-optimised considering its visual prowess
- Opts for a clean and familiar Minecraft look
Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders, or SEUS for short, is the starting point for many players first dipping their toes into the Minecraft shaders ocean. This shader pack goes for a very clean and familiar look that's less flashy than many on this list but just as beautiful, particularly in motion. It makes even mundane tasks like mining for Diamonds or wandering about a village look gorgeous.
SEUS Renewed is a recent reinvention of the original versions of SEUS, focusing on striking a strong balance between effect quality and performance. It doesn't feature the same level of customisation as shader packs like BSL, but you're guaranteed that things will look great right out of the gate, no tweaking of settings required. The skies are bright and bold, the shadows add a new level of depth to the world, and the gentle flapping of the leaves in the wind will really help you lose yourself in a vast survival experience.
Sildur's Shaders
What we like about Sildur's Shaders:
- Fantastic amount of control over effects and colours in settings
- Many different versions to choose from
- Great fog effects
Sildur's Shaders is an extraordinarily popular pack and always has been. And it's clear why. Not only does this shader pack give Minecraft a much-needed and incredibly comprehensive makeover, but it's also made a name for itself as one of the most customisable and flexible packs around.
That's really where Sildur's success lies. After all, every single shader pack on this list looks beautiful. But with Sildur's, it's very easy to spend ages tweaking little settings to achieve the absolutely perfect look for you and your Minecraft world. On the Sildur's Shaders website you'll find six different versions of the mod to try out, from Lite to Extreme, so no matter your specs you'll be able to run Sildur's with little effort. And even at maximum settings, Sildur's is remarkably lightweight and scores massive points for performance compared to most other Minecraft shader mods.
Sora Shaders
What we like about Sora Shaders:
- A very well-rounded shader pack with no real flaws
- Realistic and natural lighting effects
- Wonderful skyboxes and clouds
An edit of projectLUMA Shaders, Sora Shaders simply does nothing wrong that I can see. This shader pack just looks like it has absolutely nailed everything it's set out to do, and whether you go with this or a different set of shaders depends entirely on personal preference.
Amazingly good-looking skyboxes and wonderful subtle lighting effects in this pack give Minecraft an entirely new atmosphere. The water looks lovely, the shadows and reflections are realistic rather than stylised (again, it comes down to personal preference), and everything just appears super crisp and clean and colourful. Perfect for starting up a new Minecraft world.
Spectrum Shaders
What we like about Spectrum Shaders:
- Very convincing natural clouds
- Great water effects
- Nice, subtle waving effects
Spectrum Shaders is one of the most realistic packs on this list - not in terms of pure visual fidelity, but in terms of style. The clouds in particular are convincingly lifelike, combining "traditional" fluffy clouds with long streaks of cloud moving about the world while you play.
The water is also done very well in Spectrum Shaders. In fact, just about everything is done well here, from the subtle waving of leaves and grass to effective colour changes from night to day and vice versa. If these environmental effects are your cup of tea, give Specrum Shaders a try.
Sunflawer Shaders
What we like about Sunflawer Shaders:
- Gains the performance and customisability of BSL Shaders
- Vibrant and intense skybox during dawn and dusk
- Nice subtle shadows
Sunflawer Shaders is yet another shader pack that's build upon the framework of the uber-popular BSL Shaders. As a result, it's highly performant and customisable, but out of the box it looks rather different, with a more vibrant and diverse skybox and some marked changes to the look of shadows, reflections, and water.
I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of the look of the water in Sunflawer Shaders, but you may disagree. The rest of the pack still looks as stunning as its foundational shader pack - just a different flavour of stunning, and one which you might or might not prefer.
Super Duper Vanilla Shaders
What we like about Super Duper Vanilla Shaders:
- Strikes a balance between performance and lighting quality
- High degree of customisation
- Lovely stars and Story Mode clouds
The simply but effectively named Super Duper Vanilla Shaders is one of the few newer shader packs that isn't built off the success of one of the previous generation of shaders. Effective, usable on a wide variety of PCs, and highly customisable, this pack really is as super as its name suggests.
Bright skies and wonderful Nostalgia-esque Story Mode clouds are the highlight of these shaders for me, and the nights, while very simple compared to the magnificent auroras of many other shader packs, hold a real charm of their own. I also quite like how the stars remain visible for a longer portion of the day than you might expect, so that warm dawns and dusks are permeated by an eye-catching star-filled sky. Perhaps not the most realistic option, but I really love how it looks.
TME Shaders
What we like about TME Shaders:
- Great for players who don't want lots of options
- Good performance on lower-end PCs
- Details remain clear even at a distance
TME Shaders are another edit of Chocapic's Shaders, and they're a good choice for players who don't want to bother with lots of customising to find the perfect look for their shader pack. I mean seriously, TME Shaders have barely any settings at all.
Nevertheless, I can't argue that this is a good-looking, level-headed edit, especially if you suffer from choice paralysis. Details remain crisp and clear all the way to the horizon with TME Shaders installed, and the water looks excellent from a distance, making it a great option for screenshots, particularly if you're not on a very high-end rig.
Triliton's Shaders
What we like about Triliton's Shaders:
- Eye-catching saturation and temperature levels
- Nice clear shadows - when they work
- The sun actually feels bright
Triliton's Shaders are attention-grabbing, to say the least. The saturation and temperature levels have been cranked up to 11 with this shader pack, with yellow and orange light washing over every crevice of your Minecraft world when the sun rises above the horizon.
When I tested this pack there was some definite glitchiness occurring with the shadows, but otherwise the experience was a good one. At first, it was difficult to get used to the incredible vibrancy and high saturation of everything in sight of that bright sun. But after a while, it became more difficult to go back to the way things were with other packs, and everything felt more washed out in comparison to Triliton's Shaders. Is this how they get you?
UShader
What we like about UShader:
- Lovely cloud formations
- Strong natural light
- Nice, inoffensive water effects
UShader is, curiously, based on a modified version of SEUS v10.1 (a precursor to SEUS Renewed) which the author used to use privately for their Minecraft exploits. But it's not an edit - this pack was built from scratch as a direct competitor, and it puts up a good fight against its spiritual predecessor.
Where UShader shines most is in the sky, with some very convincingly shaped and coloured cloud formations and a bright, realistically indistinct sun that bathes the landscapes below in natural light. I think the shadows leave a bit to be desired overall when compared to SEUS Renewed, so there's a bit of a tradeoff there. But this is still a very respectable choice of shader pack for any player who can run it (we're probably looking at mid-to-high end PCs with this one).
Vanilla Plus Shaders
What we like about Vanilla Plus Shaders:
- Doesn't stray far from the vanilla Minecraft look
- Excellent choice for mid-to-low-end PCs
- Very clean lighting and shadows
Another popular shader pack from the creator of Nostalgia Shaders, Vanilla Plus Shaders aims to give you a high-quality, elegant, lightweight Minecraft graphics makeover while staying as true as possible to vanilla Minecraft. And this it does with outstanding success.
I contend that this is what Minecraft should look like all the time, right out of the gate. You'd be forgiven for looking at the above screenshot after a long while spent away from Minecraft, not noticing the shader pack, and instead saying to yourself, "my god, I forgot how good Minecraft looks sometimes." While testing packs for this guide, I think I spent about 10 minutes longer wandering the world on Vanilla Plus Shaders than I did with any other shader pack, looking at random blocks like Enchanting Tables and Lightning Rods to see what they looked like now. It's impressive how good this pack makes Minecraft look without losing the charm and nostalgic feel of plain-old vanilla Minecraft.
How to install Minecraft shaders
You can install and use any of the shaders listed here with Minecraft 1.21 right now, using either Sodium or Optifine. We'll cover both options below.
How to install Minecraft shaders with Sodium and IrisShaders
We recommend you use Sodium to install shader mods for Minecraft, because it seems to be able to run the packs better. Thanks to a mod called IrisShaders, you can run any of the above shaders on Sodium.
Here's how to install any of the above Minecraft shader packs with Sodium for 1.21:
- Go to the IrisShaders Download page and click "Download Universal JAR".
- Run the downloaded JAR file, and install both Sodium and IrisShaders for the correct version of Minecraft (1.21).
- Download any (or all!) of the shader packs above.
- Place the downloaded ZIP folder(s) in the following location on your PC: %appdata%\.minecraft\shaderpacks
- Run the Minecraft launcher, select the "Iris and Sodium" installation, and click "Play".
These steps will install Sodium and IrisShaders in one go, so you'll be able to enjoy the performance benefits of Sodium and the beauty of the above shaders all at once. Pretty sweet, eh?
How to install Minecraft shaders with Optifine
Here are the instructions for installing Minecraft shaders with Optifine:
- Download and install Optifine for your version of Minecraft (if you can't see a link for 1.21, it may be under "Preview versions" at the top of the page).
- Download any (or all!) of the shader packs above.
- Place the downloaded ZIP folder(s) in the following location on your PC: %appdata%\.minecraft\shaderpacks
- Run the Minecraft launcher, select the "Optifine" installation, and click "Play".
The shader packs listed here cover the entire spectrum in terms of looks, customisation options, and performance impact, so hopefully you've found the perfect mod for you. If you want to experiment with a wide variety of seeds to really put these packs to work, see our guide for the best Minecraft seeds for 1.2.