How to install shaders with Iris and Sodium

Iris loads shader packs, and Sodium rewrites the renderer for much higher frame rates. Together they are the standard way to use shaders on Fabric today — no OptiFine required.

1. Install Fabric first — see our guide How to install Fabric.
2. From the official pages, download Sodium and Iris for your exact Minecraft version. Iris requires Sodium.
3. Put both .jar files in the mods folder and start the game with the Fabric profile.

After a new Minecraft release, Sodium and Iris can take a few days to catch up. If there is no file for your version yet, stay on the previous version for now.

1. In game: Options → Video Settings → Shader Packs.
2. Click Open Shader Pack Folder and drop the shader pack .zip into it — don't unzip it.
3. Back in the menu, select the pack and click Apply.

Browse our shader catalog for packs sorted by downloads, with links to the official download pages.

• Start with a lighter pack and a lower profile (many packs offer Low/Medium presets).
• Shadow distance and shadow resolution are the most expensive settings — lower them first.
• Reduce render distance to 12–16 chunks.
• Laptops: make sure the game runs on the dedicated GPU, not the integrated one.
• Press K (default key) to toggle shaders on and off to compare.