# 🚀 Lumina Shader Lite v1.2.8-rc.2 — Compatibility & Shadow Stability
This release candidate focuses on expanding Minecraft compatibility, strengthening shadow rendering, and preventing mathematical errors across demanding visual effects. The result is a safer, cleaner, and more reliable foundation for the upcoming stable release. ✨
## 🌍 Compatibility & Stability
* 🧩 Improved version-dependent conditions for **Minecraft 1.16.5 through 26.3**.
* 🧱 Corrected identifiers for blocks, cauldrons, vegetation, and boats across different Minecraft versions.
* 📐 Improved line-rendering compatibility.
* 🔍 Strengthened anisotropic-filtering safeguards.
* 🌌 Fixed calculations that could produce invalid values in certain End effects.
* 🌿 Removed interference between biome transitions, improving environmental consistency.
## 🌑 Five Shadow-Related Fixes
Shadow rendering received five focused stability and accuracy improvements:
* ☁️ Unified the depth calculation used by terrain shadows, cloud shadows, and volumetric light rays.
* 🌿 Fixed foliage-shadow displacement when the Sun is positioned directly overhead.
* 🌤️ Corrected cloud-shadow projection when sunlight arrives at an inclined angle.
* ✨ Prevented invalid light-ray calculations at extremely low frame rates.
* 🛡️ Prevented division by zero when no valid volumetric samples are available.
These corrections provide more consistent shadows throughout the day while protecting the shader from rare numerical errors.
## 🧪 Stronger Validation
* ✅ Added new automated regression tests.
* 🖥️ Added shader compilation and linking checks to GitHub Actions.
* 📚 Added dedicated compatibility documentation.
* 📦 Prepared and verified the distribution ZIPs for **rc.1** and **rc.2**.
* 🔎 Expanded validation across version-dependent and optional shader paths.
## 📊 Final Validation Results
* **20 automated tests passed**
* **5,628 shader compilation and linking combinations validated**
* **0 compilation errors**
* **0 linking errors**
## 🚧 Release Status
**Lumina Shader Lite v1.2.8-rc.2** is now prepared and available on the `luminalitedev` branch for final visual testing.
This release candidate brings Lumina Lite closer to complete Minecraft 26.3 support while preserving its lightweight design, broad version compatibility, and performance-focused identity. 🚀💙
Developer information
Projects on Modrinth are automatically available through a Maven repository for use with JVM build tools such as Gradle.
maven { name = "Modrinth"; url = "https://api.modrinth.com/maven" }
