Guide
BSL Shaders on a Mac, and what I built instead
By Ryleigh Newman · Published · Updated
BSL Shaders runs on a Mac the way it runs anywhere, as an OptiFine-format pack loaded by Iris or OptiFine on the game's OpenGL renderer. Its Modrinth listing names 26.2 as the newest version, does not list 26.3, and says nothing about macOS (read on 2026-09-19). Rockstar Shaders is not a pack. It is a Fabric mod for Minecraft Java 26.3 on Apple Silicon Macs that carries its own renderer and its own shaders inside the jar, runs on the game's Vulkan backend, and traces rays in Metal.
I made it on a Mac, for a Mac, because the packs people search for are built for loaders that run on OpenGL, which Apple stopped at version 4.1 and Mojang plans to remove. This page says what BSL is, what a Mac changes, and where mine is and is not the better choice.
BSL's own site would not load when I checked on 2026-09-19, so every BSL fact here is from its Modrinth listing, read that day. Every Rockstar Shaders number is from one machine, an M4 Max with 48 GB.
Download free (1.0.0) Modrinth (pending)Minecraft 26.3, Fabric, macOS on Apple silicon. Install guide. Releases and bug reports on GitHub.
Side by side
| BSL Shaders | Rockstar Shaders | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A shader pack in the OptiFine format, by capttatsu | A Fabric mod with its own renderer; the shaders ship inside the jar |
| Loads through | OptiFine or Iris | Fabric Loader 0.19.5 or newer and Fabric API; no Iris, OptiFine or Sodium |
| Graphics API | OpenGL, through its loader | The game's Vulkan backend; MoltenVK on macOS |
| Ray tracing | Not stated | A Metal side-car: sun shadows, sky visibility, one-bounce GI, water reflections, fog occlusion |
| Operating systems | Not stated on its listing | macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 or later) only; Windows, Linux and Intel Macs are not supported |
| Minecraft versions | 1.7.10 through 26.2 listed; 26.3 not listed | 26.3 |
| Tested on | Not stated | One machine, an M4 Max with 48 GB |
| Downloads | 29.2 million on Modrinth | Version 1.0 |
| Price | Free | Free, from rockstarshaders.com and GitHub (Modrinth pending) |
| License | All rights reserved | Proprietary, closed source: personal use, no redistribution; screenshots and videos welcome with credit |
BSL facts read on 2026-09-19.
What BSL is
BSL is one of the packs people mean when they say shaders. Its listing calls it bright, colorful and distinct, and lists what it does: real-time shadows, volumetric light, ambient occlusion, bloom, customisable clouds and water, built-in anti-aliasing, depth of field, motion blur, specular and normal mapping, cel shading and world curvature. It is by capttatsu, all rights reserved, with 29.2 million downloads on Modrinth, and it was updated two weeks before I read it. The loaders are OptiFine or Iris. Complementary, the other pack people search for on a Mac, began as an edit of BSL in 2019, by its own account; that page is here.
Nothing on the listing is about hardware or operating systems. If BSL runs well on your machine, keep it.
What a Mac changes
BSL says nothing about macOS, so the Mac question is a loader question. Iris lists 26.3 and says on its site that Vulkan mods are incompatible and will crash the game, so Iris is the OpenGL route. Sodium, which Iris ships with, says its official support is for cards with drivers compatible with OpenGL 4.5 or newer, and Apple's own table of what each Mac supports stops at OpenGL 4.1. OptiFine's newest download when I looked was a preview for 26.1.2, with 1.21.11 the newest release build. BSL itself listed 26.2 as its newest version, four days after Minecraft 26.3 shipped on 15 September 2026. Mojang wrote in February 2026 that OpenGL is being deprecated on macOS and that the OpenGL renderer will be removed once Vulkan is stable. All read on 2026-09-19.
So on a Mac today BSL means Iris on the OpenGL backend, on a version BSL lists. That works now. It is also the route both Apple and Mojang are closing, and I have no frame rate for it because I have not measured BSL on this machine.
What Rockstar Shaders does instead
Rockstar Shaders only renders when the game is on its Vulkan backend, which Minecraft 26.2 added as a Graphics API option and which macOS runs through MoltenVK. On OpenGL it logs a warning, does nothing, and asks at the title screen to switch. Its ray tracing is not Vulkan ray tracing, because MoltenVK exposes no VK_KHR_ray_query; it is a native Metal side-car inside the jar, reached through VK_EXT_metal_objects, tracing the game's own chunk vertex buffers for sun shadows, sky visibility, one bounce of global illumination, water reflections and the fog's sky occlusion. Without that side-car the mod still renders, minus those, and enclosed spaces look veiled.
Around the trace is a deferred renderer: terrain into a G-buffer, four cascaded shadow maps in a 4096 atlas, ground-truth ambient occlusion, contact shadows, colored block light in a camera-centerd volume, a froxel fog march, an analytic atmosphere, a water engine with a simulated ripple field, temporal anti-aliasing, auto-exposure, bloom, depth of field and AgX grading. K opens the settings in a world.
BSL's feature list, item by item
- Real-time shadows. Four cascades in a 2x2 atlas, 4096 or 2048 on a side, with colored translucent casters, and on top of them the Metal-traced sun for exact edges. Entities and block entities are replayed into the atlas. Your own first-person shadow is wired but does not appear yet.
- Volumetric light. A froxel march out to Fog range blocks (224 by default) in Fog steps samples (32), with each froxel's sky and sun visibility traced by the side-car. Underwater god rays are separate.
- Ambient occlusion. GTAO, 8 steps per direction by default, plus screen-space contact shadows.
- Bloom, anti-aliasing, depth of field. Bloom, temporal anti-aliasing, and a depth of field that blurs the far field when you look close, 12 taps by default.
- Customisable clouds and water. 16 settings on Sky and Clouds, 10 on Water, and about 600 tune keys on the Advanced page behind them.
- Specular and normal mapping. A PBR lighting pass with gold and iron as near-mirrors, adjustable roughness, and parallax mapping on block textures, off by default.
- Motion blur, cel shading, world curvature. Not in Rockstar Shaders.
What it costs in frames, on one machine
Every number is from an M4 Max with 48 GB and only means something at the resolution it names. At a sunset bay, looking down at the water, at 1708x960, a frame took 34.3 to 35.7 ms after the last performance pass; it was 45.7 before. At my own window, 1706x1966, 46.0 to 46.5 ms, of which the water pass was 8.7 to 8.9 ms, the terrain G-buffer 3.9, clouds 1.9 and volumetrics 1.6. Render scale 75% is the default because it took that pose from 44.98 to 33.95 ms, while each quality knob one step down was worth a few tenths of a millisecond. Ray tracing is not the cost to cut: everything on was 27.9 ms and all three traces off was 29.5.
There is no Low, Medium, High, Ultra chooser on screen; the shipped defaults are the top set, and Render scale and Target FPS are the levers, on getting more frames. An M1 will be slower than an M4 Max, and nobody has measured by how much.
What you give up
BSL runs wherever OptiFine or Iris runs; Rockstar Shaders runs on Apple Silicon Macs and nowhere else, and has been run on exactly one of them. BSL is free and finished; Rockstar Shaders is version 1.0, free as well, and settings can move between builds. Known wrong things: the first-person player shadow does not appear, shore foam and spray are compiled out at the defaults so Shore foam % does nothing, ground the horizon generates on demand is not saved, colored block light leaks through thin walls, custom skies from resource packs are not reflected in water, and the ripple field restarts from flat when the settings screen rebuilds the renderer. The software is proprietary and closed source; the license is at /terms.
Which one to pick
On Windows, Linux or an Intel Mac: BSL through Iris or OptiFine, and nothing here applies to you. On an Apple Silicon Mac, on a version BSL lists, wanting a finished pack with a known look: BSL through Iris on the OpenGL backend, for as long as that backend lasts. On an Apple Silicon Mac, on 26.3, wanting the renderer built for the API the Mac actually has, with shadows and GI traced in Metal, and able to live with a 1.0 release: this.
Installing it is a jar in the mods folder and one Vulkan switch, on the install page. What that switch is and why the mod needs it is on Minecraft's Vulkan renderer on a Mac, and every pack together is on the comparison.
Download free (1.0.0) Modrinth (pending)Minecraft 26.3, Fabric, macOS on Apple silicon. Install guide. Releases and bug reports on GitHub.
Related
Sources
- https://modrinth.com/shader/bsl-shaders (read 2026-09-19)
- https://www.complementary.dev/ (read 2026-09-19)
- https://irisshaders.dev/ (read 2026-09-19)
- https://modrinth.com/mod/iris (read 2026-09-19)
- https://github.com/CaffeineMC/sodium (read 2026-09-19)
- https://optifine.net/downloads (read 2026-09-19)
- https://support.apple.com/en-us/101525 (read 2026-09-19)
- https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/another-step-towards-vibrant-visuals-for-java-edition (read 2026-09-19)
- https://minecraft.wiki/w/Java_Edition_26.2 (read 2026-09-19)
- https://minecraft.wiki/w/Java_Edition_26.3 (read 2026-09-19)
Questions
Does BSL Shaders work on a Mac?
Its listing does not say, but it names OptiFine or Iris as loaders, and Iris lists 26.3 and runs on the game's OpenGL backend, which Minecraft still ships. BSL listed 26.2 as its newest version when I read it on 2026-09-19. I have not measured it on this machine.
Does BSL support Minecraft 26.3?
Not on 2026-09-19: its Modrinth listing went up to 26.2. Rockstar Shaders is built for 26.3 and depends on it.
Can I run BSL and Rockstar Shaders together?
No. Rockstar Shaders needs the Vulkan backend and loads no shader packs, and Iris says Vulkan mods crash it. One or the other per launch.
Does Rockstar Shaders have BSL's look?
No. It has its own look, one of it, and no styles to choose from. Sky, clouds, water, lighting, fog and grading each have a settings page; the shipped defaults are the top set.
Does Rockstar Shaders run on Windows, Linux or an Intel Mac?
No, and it has not been tested there. The ray tracing is a Metal side-car and the target is Apple Silicon, M1 or later, tested on one M4 Max with 48 GB.