Best Minecraft shaders (February 2021)
These are the best Minecraft shaders in February 2021.
- Sonic Ethers Unbelievable Shaders
- Sildur Shaders
- Shaders of Chocapic13
- Shaders SFLP
- Voyager Shaders
- Shaders without lag
- Cel Shaders de Naelego
- Shaders BSL
- Shaders Continuum
- Shaders KUDA
These shaders range from super light to amazingly capable. Some of them will drop your framerate lower than your usual, but the graphics upgrade is well worth the performance. Continue reading below for more information on each shader pack.
The incredible shaders of Sonic Ether
Probably one of the most recognizable Minecraft shader packs of all time, The incredible shaders of Sonic Ether is, well, amazing. It has remained a classic shader for good reason. Gorgeous lighting, realistic water, and better shadows combine to give Minecraft an incredible facelift. The only downside to Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders is that you'll definitely need a powerful enough PC to run it at an acceptable frame rate, but the beauty is well worth the performance.
It's not just bright outdoor environments that benefit from Sonic Ether's Unbelievable Shaders. Caves reach new levels of darkness, making torches an absolute necessity on any underground trip. Interior spaces are also much nicer, with more natural shadows and lighting coming from windows and doors.
Sildur Shaders
Another extremely popular Minecraft shader pack, Sildur Shaders offers a drastic visual overhaul of the game without such a heavy impact as some of the other shaders on this list. It still requires a somewhat powerful platform to run, but Sildur's Shaders are designed to be lightweight and run on a wide variety of hardware configurations. It does everything you'd expect from a shader, reworking the lighting and adding advanced post-processing effects, but you can customize individual effects to save performance if you don't have a high-end PC. .
Shaders of Chocapic13
Another shader pack that has been around for quite some time is Chocapic13 Shaders, and that is largely down to its scalability. Shaders of Chocapic13 has multiple presets that accept many different hardware configurations, but it still aims to deliver a quality experience even at its lowest preset. At the high-end level, however, Chocapic13's Shaders really shine with beautiful, vibrant colors during the day and dark, moody lighting at night. Mid-range GPUs can still get great performance with this shader pack, even using a high-end preset.
Shaders SFLP
Minecraft shaders usually have a pretty heavy performance, but this shader pack is designed for low end PCs. Shaders SFLP Literally stands for 'Low-end PC Shaders', which is accurate considering that its main purpose is to bring the shader experience to those without super powerful setups. This is actually an improved version of Chocapic13's shaders, which redefines this style to work on less powerful hardware. You won't get a lot of crazy effects with SFLP shaders, but it still provides a nice lighting overhaul without sacrificing too many frames.
Voyager Shaders
While most of the shader packs on this list go for vibrant and colorful styles, Voyager Shaders is a little more sober. It offers a more muted and realistic color palette than most shaders and pairs well with a realistic texture pack. That's not to say that Voyager Shaders isn't filled with beautiful sites. The night is especially beautiful, but you will definitely need torches or glowing stones to see through the total darkness. Unfortunately, Voyager Shaders only works with Nvidia graphics cards, so AMD and Intel HD users will have to find another shader pack to use.
Shaders without lag
Just like SFLP shaders, Shaders without lag is designed for low-end PCs. Because it doesn't take advantage of all the bells and whistles of powerful graphics cards and other hardware components, Lagless Shaders doesn't look too crazy, especially compared to the other shaders on this list. However, if you like framerate over everything, Lagless Shaders is for you. It's a bit more intensive than SFLP shaders, but you'll get a few more sophisticated effects to compensate for the slight impact on performance. This is also great for purists, as Lagless Shaders doesn't change the style of vanilla Minecraft too much.
Cel Shaders de Naelego
If you are as much of a Borderlands fan as you are a Minecraft fan, then you might want to consider Cel Shaders de Naelego. Cel Shaders by Naelego transforms Minecraft into a shaded world of bright, bold and vibrant colors with bright colors and bold outlines. It's not an incredibly realistic look like you would most of the other shaders on this list, but it's definitely a unique style. While you might not like the heavily styled graphics of Naelego's Cel Shaders, they still offer a nice change of pace from the mine of hyper-realistic shader packs.
Shaders BSL
Shaders BSL doesn't deviate too much from the vanilla Minecraft visual style, but sometimes you don't need a drastic change. Rather than changing it, BSL Shaders improves the appearance of Vanilla Minecraft. Sure, the lighting and shadows are drastically overhauled and there are a ton of whimsical effects like ambient occlusion and bloom projected onto everything, but ultimately BSL Shaders still maintains that Minecraft style while delivering. almost unmatched visuals. Performance is heavy, but if you have a PC powerful enough to run BSL Shaders, you'll be treated to some of the nicest blocks you've ever seen.
Shaders Continuum
If you want the best possible graphics for Minecraft, look no further than Shaders Continuum. There are countless edits and additions to the graphics, to the point where you'll want to stop and watch every view you come across. Realism is the name of the game with Continuum Shaders, and the in-game lighting has been completely reworked to make everything look more cinematic. The water flows and ripples, the grass sway in the wind, and the rivers and lakes reflect the trees along their shores. Continuum Shaders is well worth the performance hit if you have a PC powerful enough to run it.
Shaders KUDA
Shaders KUDA turns colors up to 11, delivering a bold and vibrant presentation. It's definitely one of the boldest shader packs on this list, and every little detail of the surroundings stands out with the saturated colors and stark contrast on the screen. It still retains the vanilla Minecraft style, but it makes everything look a whole lot prettier. Also, the performance success is not that huge despite the nice graphics. It's a nice middle of the road shader pack that doesn't change things drastically, but tweaks enough to create a noticeable upgrade. If you think there are too many other shaders on this list, KUDA Shaders is for you.
Minecraft is now available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices. For more Minecraft tips, check out our best Minecraft enchantments list or our best Minecraft mods list.
-
