Photon Shaders

Photon Shaders

A gameplay-focused shader pack with a semi-realistic style

14.5M downloads
Created Apr 9, 2026
by sixthsurge

About

Community

  • Join my discord server for questions, suggestions and development updates
  • You can also donate if you would like to say thanks

Frequently asked questions

  1. "When will Photon be released for new Minecraft version?"
    • Shader packs are generally not very dependent on MC versions; as long as Iris is available, Photon should just work.

Features

  • Fully revamped sky, lighting and water
  • Detailed clouds with several layers and many different cloud types
  • Immersive weather system providing different skies each day
  • Voxel-based colored lighting (enabled with Ultra profile, requires Iris)
  • Screen-space reflections
  • Volumetric fog
  • Soft shadows with variable-size penumbras
  • Detailed ambient occlusion (GTAO)
  • Camera effects: bloom, depth of field, motion blur
  • Much improved image quality with TAA, FXAA and CAS
  • Advanced temporal upscaling (disabled by default) for low end devices
  • Extensive settings menu allowing you to customize every aspect of the shader
  • Full labPBR resource pack support

Compatibility

Shader loaders

  • Iris (recommended)
    • Iris is a modern shader loader with far better performance, mod compatibility and developer features than OptiFine
    • Some features (Colored Lighting) will only work on Iris
  • OptiFine

GPU vendors

  • Nvidia
  • AMD
  • Intel
  • NOT compatible with Apple GPUs (Metal) by default
    • Disable SH Skylight and Colored Shadows

Mods

Showcase videos

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/vxE_CVeU8Rs" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/gMLFZMBK-ZQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/_aSmM7jg9Nw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Acknowledgments

Versions

vv1.2aLatest
1.19, 1.19.1, 1.19.2, 1.19.3, 1.19.4, 1.20, 1.20.1, 1.20.2, 1.20.3, 1.20.4, 1.20.5, 1.20.6, 1.21, 1.21.1, 1.21.2, 1.21.3, 1.21.4, 1.21.5, 1.21.6, 1.21.7, 1.21.8, 1.21.9, 1.21.10iris, optifineJun 29, 2025

This is a small update fixing a few issues that were found in v1.2.

Download
vv1.2
1.19, 1.19.1, 1.19.3, 1.19.4, 1.20, 1.20.1, 1.20.2, 1.20.3, 1.20.4, 1.20.6, 1.21, 1.21.1, 1.21.2, 1.21.3, 1.21.4, 1.21.5, 1.21.6iris, optifineJun 25, 2025

Hi everyone, Despite my extremely sporadic work schedule for this project, it's time for another update! I am very excited about this one - while the previous update mostly focused on technical changes, this one brings a lot more atmosphere to the game. ## Weather and Clouds - The previous daily weather system has been replaced with a much more dynamic system, which some people will remember from extremely old Photon versions. This provides much more natural weather variation which is also influenced by the biome you're in. - The weather affects the clouds, fog and even the waving plants. - The downside of this is that you can no longer adjust the weather per-day. - Cumulus congestus clouds may now appear alongside the regular cumulus clouds rather than replacing them. - I've adjusted a lot of the cloud shapes and lighting. Altostratus-like clouds will also appear now. - Reworked rainy weather. - Lightning flashes now illuminate the sky. - Added rainbows :) ## Crepuscular Rays - Added crepuscular rays through the clouds. - These are also controlled by the new weather system. ## Colored Lights Fog Scattering - When _Colored Lights_ is enabled, the fog will be illuminated by light sources. - I also made the voxel volume for the Colored Lights centered ahead of the player rather than on them, so you can see colored lights much further with no performance impact. ## Improved Indirect Lighting - SH Skylight is improved by using bent normals and enabled by default. - Added a new approximation for indirect subsurface scattering based on AO. - This makes shaded areas and dusk/dawn look much more natural. ## Miscellaneous - New fast fog approximation, which is used in reflections, behind translucents and when volumetric fog is disabled. This means that fog no longer disappears in these cases. - Updated water waves - I think they look much nicer now and the pattern is much less repetitive. - Updated the moon with a new textured look. - Improved the Pale Garden

Download
vv1.1
1.19, 1.19.1, 1.19.2, 1.19.3, 1.19.4, 1.20, 1.20.1, 1.20.2, 1.20.3, 1.20.4, 1.20.5, 1.20.6, 1.21, 1.21.1, 1.21.2, 1.21.3, 1.21.4, 1.21.5, 1.21.6iris, optifineJan 28, 2025

- added Chinese translation by NakiriRuri and OrzMiku - added some modded blocks to block.properties - adjust TAA to reduce ghosting - adjust fog - enable water texture on underground water for improved visibility - hardcoded materials for 1.21 and 1.21.4 additions - improve cloud filtering - improve rough reflections - improve silver lining on clouds - increase sky vibrance, especially at sunset - multilayer reflections: water no longer loses its surface behind stained glass - new cloud types: cirrocumulus clouds, noctilucent clouds - new sky option: Galaxy (milky way in the night sky) - small plants are displaced close to the player - water wave height variation - many bug fixes and optimisations

Download

Download

Download vv1.2a

Minecraft: 1.19, 1.19.1, 1.19.2, 1.19.3, 1.19.4, 1.20, 1.20.1, 1.20.2, 1.20.3, 1.20.4, 1.20.5, 1.20.6, 1.21, 1.21.1, 1.21.2, 1.21.3, 1.21.4, 1.21.5, 1.21.6, 1.21.7, 1.21.8, 1.21.9, 1.21.10

Loaders: iris, optifine

Tags

irisoptifine1.21.61.21.71.21.81.21.91.21.10