I’ve been going quite a bit of streaming of Vanilla (unmodded) Minecraft lately. When I play Vanilla, I play it with shaders and texture packs. Texture packs make the blocks look different (in my case, I just use a higher res texture pack). But shaders completely change the way the game looks. In fact, below are two screenshots showing the difference.
Without Shaders:
With Shaders:
There are tons of different types of shaders and shader packs, but I’ll go through how to install the one I’m using in what I feel is the simplest way. Note: there are tons of tutorials.
Start with Multi MC
MultiMC is a program that lets you easily manage and install minecraft instances. It’s great for modpacks, modding, or even just playing around without potentially messing up your existing worlds. You can install shaders with nearly any launcher, or directly, but Multi MC is the easiest way I’ve found.
Download Multi MC: https://multimc.org/
Install the version that is for your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc)
Set up your account. Click the “account” button and put in your account information.
Create a new instance. You’ll want to create a new instance. Right-click anywhere in the big white space and select “create instance.”
You’ll need to create it using Minecraft 1.8 (as of now, Forge is not supported for 1.8.1 or higher, so JUST 1.8). You can select 1.8 using the “…” button next to version.
Add Forge
Forge is an awesome java application that lets Minecraft to be easily modded. You’ll need to install it if you want to do shaders. To do so, right-click on your new instance in MultiMC and click “Instance Settings.”
Next, click “Version” on the left, then “install forge” on the right. When selecting which forget version, scroll to the top and select the latest (as of doing this tutorial, it was 11.14.3.1491). Select it then press “ok.”
Add the Shaders Mod
The official SEUS page has great information. To install them you’ll still need to do 1 more step – install the shaders mod. You can download the GLSL Shaders mod using the link below.
NOTE: This is an adfly link. DO NOT click on anything. Wait a few seconds until the SKIP button comes up on the top-right and then click that button. Shaders Mod Jar file. Remember where you save that file.
Go back to Multi MC and right-click on your instance and go to Instance Settings. Under “Loader Mods” you want to click “add” and find the Shaders Mod .jar file you downloaded. Once added, click “close” and then launch the instance (double click on it).
Your Minecraft should launch – click “quit game.” The only reason we launched was to ensure it worked and set up the directories. Now highlight the instance and click the blue folder icon (open instance directory). Click on your instance folder, then “minecraft” and now “shaderpacks”. This is the directory you want to put your shaders.
Selecting your shaders
I use SEUS shaders. Go to the SEUS homepage and scroll to the bottom and choose which shaders you want (standard, Ultra, etc..). Download the file (again, adfly, so DO NOT click anything until the “next” comes up on the top right). and put it in the shaderpacks directory noted above. The file is a zip file – DO NOT UNZIP IT. Just place the zip file in the directory.
Now boot up your instance again.
Enabling Shaders
Once in Minecraft. click “options” and “Shaders” (on the left menu). Select the zip file you want to use as Shaders (should only be the SEUS one you downloaded). Click Done then Done. Then create a world (or load up one you already have). CONGRATS! You have shaders.
A note about shaders
Shaders use up more processing power and graphics power than standard minecraft. If you have a slow computer, shaders may not work well at all. I recommend you play with your video settings. Reducing the visible chunk distance, and other settings may cause shaders to run smoother.
Enjoy!
P.S. Thank you to CrossroadsWanderer for giving me the initial tutorial on how to get shaders and texture packs working!