Download and install

Rockstar Shaders 1.0.0 is free. Installing it takes about five minutes on an Apple Silicon Mac: Fabric, the jar, and one switch to Vulkan.

Download rockstarshaders-1.0.0.jar1.3 MB. Also on Modrinth (pending) and the GitHub releases page.

What you need

• Minecraft Java Edition 26.3
• Fabric Loader 0.19.5 or newer, and Fabric API for 26.3
• A Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or later) on macOS 13 Ventura or newer. Java 25 comes with the game.

1. Install Fabric

Any launcher works. The official launcher, MultiMC and Prism are all fine.

1. Install Fabric Loader 0.19.5 or newer for Minecraft 26.3. In MultiMC or Prism that is Edit Instance, Install Loader, Fabric.
2. Put the Fabric API jar for 26.3 into the mods folder of that instance.

2. Add the jar

1. Download rockstarshaders-1.0.0.jar free with the button at the top of this page, or from Modrinth (pending) or the releases page on GitHub.
2. Put the jar in the same mods folder, next to the Fabric API jar.

3. Switch the game to Vulkan

A fresh profile runs on OpenGL, and there the mod only writes a log line. Start the game once. At the title screen Rockstar Shaders asks to switch the graphics API to Vulkan and quit. Say yes, then start the game again.

By hand, if you prefer: Options, Video Settings, Graphics API, Vulkan, then restart. In options.txt the line is preferredGraphicsBackend:"vulkan", with the quotes.

4. Open a world

K

The Rockstar Shaders settings. Options, Video Settings, Rockstar Shaders is the same screen. The master switch at the top says whether the pack is active. High is the shipped look; Low trades the water, clouds and caustics for frame time.

C

Hold to zoom.

F3

The usual debug overlay. Include it in bug report screenshots.

Good to know

• Rockstar Shaders replaces the same parts of the renderer as Sodium, Iris, Embeddium, Nvidium, Distant Horizons and Voxy. Remove those first; if one is installed, it steps aside and says why.
• In singleplayer, Generate horizon (on by default) fills in missing far terrain in the background and saves it into your world, about 24 KB per chunk. Turn it off on the Performance page before opening a world you want to keep untouched.
• The first launch picks a quality level for your chip. On an M1 or M2, Medium or High is the place to start.

If the world looks like plain Minecraft

Open the settings screen. If the master switch is off, turn it on. If it is on and the picture is still vanilla, the game is almost certainly on OpenGL: check the Graphics API setting. The log at logs/latest.log says why the pack did not start; search it for Rockstar Shaders. The troubleshooting page goes further.

Reporting a bug

Send logs/latest.log and a screenshot with the F3 overlay to the issue tracker on GitHub. For a performance report, turn on Show pass timings in the settings and screenshot that overlay. Say which Mac and which profile.

Every setting is explained in help, and release notes are on what is new.

Verify your download

SHA-256 of rockstarshaders-1.0.0.jar:

57fed71b9b588087fb2847ada2ea59137580b1cdcbc05b4ad5e42416afaea4c0

Download only from this page, Modrinth (pending) or the GitHub releases page. Copies anywhere else are not official. Use of the mod is covered by the license; it collects no data (privacy).