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Photon Shaders

Photon Shaders

by sixthsurge • Downloads: 0 • Followers: 0
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Description
Gallery
Changelog
Versions

Community

  • Join my discord server for questions, suggestions and development updates
  • You can also donate if you would like to say thanks

Frequently asked questions

  1. "When will Photon be released for new Minecraft version?"
    • Shader packs are generally not very dependent on MC versions; as long as Iris is available, Photon should just work.

Features

  • Fully revamped sky, lighting and water
  • Detailed clouds with several layers and many different cloud types
  • Immersive weather system providing different skies each day
  • Voxel-based colored lighting (enabled with Ultra profile, requires Iris)
  • Screen-space reflections
  • Volumetric fog
  • Soft shadows with variable-size penumbras
  • Detailed ambient occlusion (GTAO)
  • Camera effects: bloom, depth of field, motion blur
  • Much improved image quality with TAA, FXAA and CAS
  • Advanced temporal upscaling (disabled by default) for low end devices
  • Extensive settings menu allowing you to customize every aspect of the shader
  • Full labPBR resource pack support

Compatibility

Shader loaders

  • Iris (recommended)
    • Iris is a modern shader loader with far better performance, mod compatibility and developer features than OptiFine
    • Some features (Colored Lighting) will only work on Iris
  • OptiFine

GPU vendors

  • Nvidia
  • AMD
  • Intel
  • NOT compatible with Apple GPUs (Metal)

Mods

Showcase videos

Acknowledgments

All Versions

+ Add Version
Name Game version Platforms Published Downloads Actions
26.1.x 1.21.x 1.20.x +4
Iris OF OptiFine
17h ago 1
26.1.x 1.21.x 1.20.x +4
Iris OF OptiFine
17h ago 1
26.1.x 1.21.x 1.20.x +4
Iris OF OptiFine
17h ago 1
1.21.x 1.20.x 1.19.x
Iris OF OptiFine
17h ago 1
1.21.x 1.20.x 1.19.x
Iris OF OptiFine
17h ago 1
1.21.x 1.20.x 1.19.x
Iris OF OptiFine
17h ago 1
1.21.x 1.20.x
Iris OF OptiFine
17h ago 1
1.20.4
Iris OF OptiFine
17h ago 1
[v1.3b] photon v1.3b by sixthsurge on Oct 07, 2026
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Fix a mistake in the previous fix that was causing incorrect behaviour on 1.21.11
[v1.3a] photon v1.3a by sixthsurge on Oct 07, 2026
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This is a tiny hotfix update which removes the "Use Separate Entity Draws" option and instead uses the recommended value for this setting based on the Minecraft version
[v1.3] photon v1.3 by sixthsurge on Oct 07, 2026
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  • Added support for Voxy
  • Added screen-space shadows and subsurface-scattering for distant terrain
  • Added material support for new Minecraft additions - thanks to Candymanmax
  • Improved the sun and moon, with thanks to Xyber
  • Lots of bug fixes, with special thanks to Lassebq and rrtt217

Huge thanks to the community members who contributed to this release:
  • Candymanmax
  • Lassebq
  • rrtt217
  • Xyber
  • Fooze
  • Miclus
  • Swung0x08
  • PatataNL
  • JXDYJS
[v1.2a] photon v1.2a by sixthsurge on Oct 07, 2026
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This is a small update fixing a few issues that were found in v1.2.
[v1.2] photon v1.2 by sixthsurge on Oct 07, 2026
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Hi everyone,

Despite my extremely sporadic work schedule for this project, it's time for another update! I am very excited about this one - while the previous update mostly focused on technical changes, this one brings a lot more atmosphere to the game.

## Weather and Clouds
  • The previous daily weather system has been replaced with a much more dynamic system, which some people will remember from extremely old Photon versions. This provides much more natural weather variation which is also influenced by the biome you're in.
  • The weather affects the clouds, fog and even the waving plants.
  • The downside of this is that you can no longer adjust the weather per-day.
  • Cumulus congestus clouds may now appear alongside the regular cumulus clouds rather than replacing them.
  • I've adjusted a lot of the cloud shapes and lighting. Altostratus-like clouds will also appear now.
  • Reworked rainy weather.
  • Lightning flashes now illuminate the sky.
  • Added rainbows :)

## Crepuscular Rays
  • Added crepuscular rays through the clouds.
  • These are also controlled by the new weather system.

## Colored Lights Fog Scattering
  • When _Colored Lights_ is enabled, the fog will be illuminated by light sources.
  • I also made the voxel volume for the Colored Lights centered ahead of the player rather than on them, so you can see colored lights much further with no performance impact.

## Improved Indirect Lighting
  • SH Skylight is improved by using bent normals and enabled by default.
  • Added a new approximation for indirect subsurface scattering based on AO.
  • This makes shaded areas and dusk/dawn look much more natural.

## Miscellaneous
  • New fast fog approximation, which is used in reflections, behind translucents and when volumetric fog is disabled. This means that fog no longer disappears in these cases.
  • Updated water waves - I think they look much nicer now and the pattern is much less repetitive.
  • Updated the moon with a new textured look.
  • Improved the Pale Garden atmosphere with dense fog and light emission from eyeblossoms.
  • Added an edge highlight effect to the Nether portal.
  • Added materials for 1.21.5 additions.
  • Added two new menu translations
  • Italian translation by Jmayk.
  • Russian translation by Timtaran.

As always I have also spent quite a lot of time fixing bugs and implementing various optimisations.

[v1.1] photon v1.1 by sixthsurge on Oct 07, 2026
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  • added Chinese translation by NakiriRuri and OrzMiku
  • added some modded blocks to block.properties
  • adjust TAA to reduce ghosting
  • adjust fog
  • enable water texture on underground water for improved visibility
  • hardcoded materials for 1.21 and 1.21.4 additions
  • improve cloud filtering
  • improve rough reflections
  • improve silver lining on clouds
  • increase sky vibrance, especially at sunset
  • multilayer reflections: water no longer loses its surface behind stained glass
  • new cloud types: cirrocumulus clouds, noctilucent clouds
  • new sky option: Galaxy (milky way in the night sky)
  • small plants are displaced close to the player
  • water wave height variation
  • many bug fixes and optimisations
[v1.0a] photon v1.0a by sixthsurge on Oct 07, 2026
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Fix syntax error with Colored Lights
[v1.0] photon v1.0 by sixthsurge on Oct 07, 2026
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Initial release
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Google AdSense / Yandex RTB kodingiz shu yerda avtomatik yuklanadi. Hozircha sinov rejimida ishlamoqda.

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