How To Install Iris In Minecraft

Minecraft is known for its blocky style of visuals but this hasn’t stopped the community from making ways to enhance its graphics and create a more immersive visual experience in-game. Shader packs are behind this as they add lighting effects, realistic shadows, and other visual improvements to change the look and feel of the game.

To enable Shaders, mods such as Iris make shader packs more accessible across different game versions and devices. It ensures that on lower-end systems of players, performance is still in top shape and you can customize Shader settings to your liking.

Thought of trying out Shaders? You can with the Iris open-source Shaders mod. This guide will break down what you need to know about Iris, why you should use it, and how to install Iris and shaders themselves.

What Is Iris Shaders?

To give you a rundown on Iris Shaders, it was created to fill the void seen in Minecraft customization and graphical enhancement. The founder and lead developer of Iris Shaders saw how OptiFine, the current dominant mod for loading shader packs had compatibility issues with mods players would use. It opens up the possibilities to get the best Minecraft shaders experience for players.

It should be taken note that Iris has been on a public stable release for versions 1.18.2, 1.19.2, and 1.19.3 alongside public beta for Minecraft snapshot releases. Moreover, it’s reassuring to know how it’s constantly in heavy development to get new improvements with each new Minecraft update.

Why Should Use Iris And Shaders?

First, using Iris Shaders offers a lot of benefits. Mainly, it’s to enhance in-game visuals through compatibility with a variety of shaders. This includes shader effects such as realistic lighting, shadows, reflections, textures, and more vibrant colors.

Another reason is how the mod has performance optimization. It’s designed to be highly efficient to ensure your game still runs smoothly despite the enhanced graphics. A notable feature of the mod is that it works well with other performance mods like the Sodium mod.

Then we have customization. Iris has a variety of settings that will let you adjust the visual settings to your preference. If you like a more realistic feel or stylized look, Iris can make it happen.

In terms of using Shaders itself, these can transform Minecraft’s blocky and pixelated graphics into a more visually immersive experience. It makes the game more lifelike. You can make your world more colorful, moody, or atmospheric. Additionally, it will help you feel more engaged in playing.

How do I Install Iris Shaders?

If you’re convinced of the benefits of Iris and Shaders, then you can now head to downloading and installing it.

Take into account that while installing Iris doesn’t necessarily have any system requirements, the Shaders you download may need specific hardware specifications to ensure that Minecraft still runs smoothly.

System Requirements

Some general system requirements to run most Minecraft shaders include the following:

• Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
• RAM: At least 8GB
• GPU: 4GB Graphics Card such as a Nvidia GTX 1650 or an AMD RX 570
• Storage: 15GB

While these are some recommended requirements, be sure to still check the requirements of each shader pack you’ll try out so you don’t run into problems in the future.

Step By Step Guide

Now that you’ve got the right hardware, we can now install Iris.

The first step to installing is to go to the download page of Iris. You’ll find a “Universal Jar” which is a simple installer to run the mod. You don’t have to go into the system files to copy and paste the “.jar” file as Iris will run automatically after clicking on it.

After downloading, you can run the installer and choose your version of Minecraft. Ideally, pick the latest version of 1.21 from the dropdown options. But as some shaders are still not compatible with 1.21, you can use earlier versions like 1.20.1.

There’s an option to either install Iris only or Iris with the Fabric Mod loader. It’s up to you on which you’ll choose.

Click “Install” then wait for the installation to complete. It should only take a few seconds.

Once you’re done with installing, you can then open the Minecraft Launcher. You’ll find on the Play tab, the Minecraft version “Iris & Sodium for 0.16.5 – 1.20.1” of Minecraft which has the mod included.

Upon setting the version of “Iris & Sodium for 0.16.5 – 1.20.1,” you can then launch Minecraft.

When you’re in your Minecraft world, you can then open the menu, and choose the “Options” menu.

Select “Video Settings” and go to the “Shader Packs” section.

This will lead you to click the “Open Shader Pack Folder” in your files.

Now, you can pick out the Shader Pack you want to add.

Select “Apply” to confirm which Shader Pack you want to use and your chosen Shader Pack should be applied already.

With that, you now know how to install Iris Shaders in Minecraft.

Where Do I Download Shaders?

For installing shaders, there are a lot of places you can check out. The top place to check out shaders is CurseForge. It has a variety of options players can choose from. From a horror Shader Pack to Fantasy-styled packs, there are numerous choices.

Another website is ShadersMods. They have a specific section dedicated to Minecraft Iris. The website also guarantees that their recommended mods have all been tested and are working perfectly. You can even see a preview of what each shader looks like when scrolling through each pack.

How To Add Minecraft Shaders To Iris?

After installing Iris and finding where to download Shaders, you can then add your chosen shaders to your game.

To add your shader, first, download it from the website source. Make sure that the pack you download is a zip file. This example uses Bliss Shaders.

Afterwards, open the Minecraft root directory folder where Iris was installed. This is found by typing in your Start Menu “%appdata%.”

You’ll find a folder named “.minecraft” which you can open.

Then you can click the folder titled “shaderpacks.”

Open the folder, then Copy and then Paste your chosen Shader’s zip file.

Once you’ve added the shader to the folder, you can then try running the game and select the “Video Settings” menu button and then “Shader Packs.”

You should find your added Shader Pack to the list of packs on your screen. You can click which pack to add and then hit “Apply” for the shader to activate similar to the previous steps of installing Iris.

Overall, when you have to install shaders, you would want to have a hassle-free experience in terms of compatibility. Knowing about Iris Shaders and learning how to install them will give you limitless opportunities to get the most out of your gaming experience visually.

Make sure you choose the Shaders that will fit with your system requirements to avoid getting lag and still maintain the ideal performance for playing. There are a variety of shaders in different styles to choose from, so look carefully and pick a pack that will best suit the visual style you want.