Distant Horizons Mod: Download and Install Guide (26.3)

What Distant Horizons does

Distant Horizons doesn’t raise your normal render distance. It builds LODs (levels of detail): simplified versions of the terrain far away, with less detail the farther away they are. It renders them on your graphics card with OpenGL or Vulkan, and player-built structures are included.

• Default distance: 256 chunks, about 4,000 blocks. You can set anything from 32 to 4,096 chunks. The source code calls it a “best effort number”: the real distance can be a bit higher or lower depending on your other graphics settings.
• First load: the LODs are built in the background, so a new world needs a few minutes. After that, they’re saved for your next session.
• Multiplayer: with the mod only on your side, it saves LODs of what you’ve explored. If the server has it too, the server sends the LODs to you.

My test results

On October 15, 2026 I flew the same camera paths twice in my world Valley of Mods on Minecraft 26.3 with Fabric: once in vanilla and once with Distant Horizons 3.3.4 and default settings. Before filming, every Distant Horizons run got about 12 minutes standing at one spot (four holds of 170 seconds) to build the LODs. In my first test run, every Distant Horizons clip passed my recorder’s stutter check.

• Over the bay: vanilla fades into fog, the island in front of the camera is all you get. With the mod, the coast keeps going to the horizon, with the mountains behind it.
• Around the snowy peak: with Distant Horizons, rivers, forests and the sea stay on screen during the whole flight.
• Low over the trees: flying just above the cherry groves, the hills on the horizon are already there.

FPS: at the same spot, with the F3 screen open, Distant Horizons at its default 256 chunks stayed mostly between 110 and 120 fps (once 99, right when F3 opened). Vanilla showed 120. Two things I have to be honest about:

• 120 was a cap. My graphics driver had a frame-rate limit of 120 set (Max Frame Rate in the NVIDIA settings), which I only found on October 20. So 120 is the ceiling of these recordings, and I can’t tell you how far above 120 either side would have gone.
• My vanilla render distance. I first wrote that vanilla was at its maximum of 32 chunks for that FPS check. Later I found that Minecraft 26.x’s “Fancy” graphics preset overrides the render distance, and that vanilla run actually ran at 16 chunks. My vanilla comparison flights were set to 12 chunks, but because of the same preset I can’t promise they stayed at 12.

With shaders: on the same PC (AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, RTX 4070 Ti SUPER) I also ran Distant Horizons with Iris and the Complementary Unbound shader pack. With the screen recorder running, F3 showed 55 to 57 fps.

In my Minecraft 26.3 tier list Distant Horizons is in S tier at #2.

Settings worth changing

The first four are in the Distant Horizons config menu. Defaults from the 3.3.4 source code, tips from the developers’ FAQ:

• Render distance: 256 chunks by default (32 to 4,096). Lower it if your PC struggles, raise it if you want even more.
• Quality preset: Medium by default. If the game stutters, the FAQ’s last tip is a lower graphics preset in the DH config.
• Thread preset: Balanced by default. The FAQ also suggests lowering DH’s CPU load in its config if the game stutters.
• Distant Generation: on a server, players with the mod and Distant Generation enabled get LODs sent by the server. The FAQ also lists turning it off as a fix for stutter.
• Java garbage collector: not a DH setting, but the FAQ’s first tip: a concurrent garbage collector, ZGC on Java 21 and newer (Shenandoah on Java 8 to 17), set in your launcher’s Java arguments.

Compatibility

• Loaders: for Minecraft 1.20.6 and newer, one file for Fabric and NeoForge. Version 3.3.4 for 26.3 lists no dependencies on Modrinth.
• Client or server: optional on both sides. For Bukkit-based servers there’s a separate plugin, Distant Horizons Support.
• Shaders: Iris 1.7 or newer with shader packs that support Distant Horizons. With OptiFine, only forward-rendered shaders partly work. The 3.3.4 changelog fixes Iris on 26.3 drawing transparent LODs wrongly when a boat is on screen.
• Sodium and Iris: my shader run used Distant Horizons together with Iris and Sodium (Iris needs Sodium).

Troubleshooting

• Far terrain missing in a new world: wait a few minutes while the LODs build. Fly up and look around afterwards.
• No far terrain in multiplayer: with the mod only on your side, you have to explore first. For LODs from the server, the server needs Distant Horizons and you need Distant Generation enabled.
• Stutter: the FAQ’s order is: concurrent garbage collector, more RAM (6 to 8 GB for 4 to 8 CPU cores, 12 to 16 GB for 10 or more), lower CPU load, Distant Generation off, lower graphics preset.
• No LODs with shaders: your shader pack has to support Distant Horizons, and you need Iris 1.7 or newer.

Alternatives

• Vanilla render distance: goes up to 32 chunks, 512 blocks, with real chunks instead of LODs. Sodium gives you more frames at normal render distances.
• Iris with a Distant Horizons shader pack: if you want the far view and lighting on top.
• Xaero’s World Map: if you want to know what’s out there rather than see it, a full-screen map of everything you’ve explored.

How to install Distant Horizons

1. Install a loader: Fabric or NeoForge for Minecraft 26.3.
2. Download Distant Horizons 3.3.4 from the official Modrinth page and drop the file into your mods folder.
3. Load your world and wait a few minutes while the LODs build, then fly up and look around.

New to Fabric? My Fabric install guide for 26.3 walks through every step.

Verdict

Distant Horizons is for anyone who builds, explores or takes screenshots and is tired of the fog.

• Pro: about 4,000 blocks of view by default, without loading more real chunks.
• Pro: one file for Fabric and NeoForge, no dependencies.
• Pro: works with Iris shaders that support it, and on servers.
• Con: a new world needs a few minutes before the far terrain is there.
• Con: it does cost frames. How many on your PC depends on your hardware and settings; my numbers were capped at 120.