Realistic Minecraft 26.3: Shaders, Water, Physics, Distant Horizons

How I tested

One PC with an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, Minecraft 26.3 on Fabric, 1080p, render distance 12, in my world Valley of Mods. Every shader pack ran on its default settings with Iris 1.11.7 and Sodium 0.9.2, and every pack flew the same shots: the coast at noon, the bay at sunset, the Hunter on the tower, the valley at night and a storm over the lake.

The frame rate comes from the F3 screen, in the same spot, read after it settled for a few seconds. OBS was recording the whole time, so your numbers may be a bit higher. The full setup is on How I test.

The FPS of every step

The Distant Horizons number comes from my ultra realistic test on October 15, same spot, same camera path. I didn’t measure the water and physics mods on their own, so I won’t put a number on them.

Step 1: shaders

Shader packs don’t run on plain Minecraft. On Fabric you need Iris, and Iris needs Sodium. Here are the six packs, from the fastest to the slowest.

MakeUp Ultra Fast: 96 FPS

Its author aims for the best ratio of quality to performance. The water already reflects the sky, the clouds are soft instead of blocky, and at sunset the whole world turns a warm, dusty brown. 96 FPS. So much for ultra fast: on default settings, it’s only a few frames ahead of the rest. Version 9.6, 14.4 million downloads on Modrinth. MakeUp on Modrinth

Complementary Reimagined: 92 FPS

By far the most downloaded pack in this test, with 73.5 million downloads. It’s built to keep Minecraft looking like Minecraft: the clouds stay blocky, they just get better light. On default settings, the distance fades into a bright haze and the sunset stays soft and pale. 92 FPS. If you want vanilla, just nicer, this is the one. Version r5.9.3. Complementary Reimagined on Modrinth

BSL: 90 FPS

Its author calls it bright, colorful and distinct, and that’s exactly what you get: big soft clouds, deep blue water and a sunset that sets the whole sky on fire, with a golden path across the ocean. 90 FPS. Beautiful, but it looks more like a painting than real life. Version 10.1.8, 32.2 million downloads. BSL on Modrinth

Solas: 89 FPS

A fantasy shader pack with colored lighting. Everything gets a soft pink glow, and at night the land shines blue under the stars. Dreamy, not realistic. 89 FPS, right in the middle. Version 3.8, 19 million downloads. Solas on Modrinth

Photon: 77 FPS

Its author calls it gameplay-focused, with a semi-realistic style. This is where it starts to look real: the clouds have volume, the sun breaks through them in rays, the ocean mirrors the clouds, and in the rain the whole world turns grey and heavy. 77 FPS, about fifteen fewer than the fast packs, and worth every one. Version v1.4, 29.8 million downloads. Photon on Modrinth

Bliss: 75 FPS

The heaviest pack in my test. Its clouds are just as detailed as Photon’s, the ocean looks calm and clear, and in a storm, light breaks through in beams. 75 FPS, the lowest of the six. Version 2.1.2, 16 million downloads. Bliss on Modrinth

Which one looks the most realistic?

For me, Photon, with Bliss right behind it. Not Complementary Reimagined, even though it has more than twice the downloads of Photon: it doesn’t try to be realistic, and on default settings you can see that. All six side by side in the same spot are in the gallery below.

Step 2: the water

Shaders make the water shine, but it still doesn’t move like an ocean. I recorded both water mods without a shader, so you can see what they do on their own.

• Natural Waters (26.3.0) brings the brighter, more colorful water from Bedrock Edition over to Java. Natural Waters on Modrinth
• Wavify (1.2.1) adds ambient waves: along the coast, swells roll in with white foam on top. It needs Fabric API and MidnightLib. Wavify on Modrinth

Both run only on your side, so they even work on servers that don’t have them.

Step 3: physics

• Physics Mod (3.2.5) makes blocks break into real pieces. In my test, three TNT blocks blew a plank wall apart, and the pieces tumbled across the grass; mobs fall over as ragdolls, too. It all happens only on your screen, so it doesn’t change the game. There’s a free version and a paid Pro version; everything here is the free one. Physics Mod on Modrinth
• Particle Rain (v4.0.2) makes the rain fall at an angle in the wind, with mist rolling over the water. Particle Rain on Modrinth
• Falling Leaves (2.0.8): since Java 1.21.5, vanilla trees drop leaves on their own, so the mod adds very little on top. Falling Leaves on Modrinth

I recorded the physics and rain shots with Complementary Reimagined.

Step 4: the horizon

In vanilla, the world ends in fog a few hundred blocks away. Distant Horizons (3.3.4) draws simplified terrain far beyond that, about 4,000 blocks by default. For this step I switched to Complementary Unbound, the bolder style of Complementary, because it gives that far terrain shadows and proper water reflections. Now the mountains across the bay are actually there, and at sunset the whole valley turns gold.

The first time you load a world, give Distant Horizons a few minutes to build the far terrain. This is the most realistic Minecraft I’ve ever recorded, and the most expensive: about 55 FPS. The full setup, settings and fixes are in my ultra realistic guide.

What I would install

• Weaker PC: skip the realistic packs. Of the thirteen shader packs I tested, Mellow (about 151 FPS) is the best look you can get above a hundred FPS.
• Good graphics card: Photon and Wavify give you the most realistic look for the frame rate.
• The full experience: Distant Horizons with Complementary Unbound, if your PC can take it.

How to install it

1. Install Fabric for 26.3 (step by step in my Fabric guide).
2. Put Sodium and Iris into your mods folder, plus any of the other mods you want (Wavify with Fabric API and MidnightLib).
3. Put the shader pack’s zip file into the shaderpacks folder, without unpacking it.
4. Start the game, open Options, Video Settings, Shader Packs, pick the pack and click Apply.

Every download is linked above, all from the official Modrinth pages.