A custom Minecraft shader pack, reimagined from Photon by sixthsurge, with visual style profiles, Physics Mod ocean physics compatibility and advanced Colorwheel support
See CHANGELOG.md for a full list of changes from the original.
Works best with: 🧊 Voxy - NeoForge Port - compatible Voxy build for 1.20.1/1.21.1 with Physics Mod ocean support · other versions 🌍 Voxy World Gen V2 - background chunk pre-generation for Voxy · other versions
Switch between three visual profiles directly in the shader settings:
- Reimagined (default) - enhanced cinematic look with full Photon quality
- Apocalyptic - darker, desaturated post-apocalyptic atmosphere with heavy fog
- Original - vanilla Photon defaults
7 quality presets from Potato to Ultra, each targeting specific hardware:
| Preset | Shadow Res | Shadow Dist | Key Features | Target Hardware |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potato | 512 | 64 | Bare minimum | Integrated GPUs |
| Very Low | 1024 | 64 | Basic shadows | Weak laptops |
| Low | 1024 | 96 | PCF + VL | Budget GPUs |
| Medium | 2048 | 128 | Colored shadows, GTAO | GTX 1060-class |
| High | 2048 | 192 | Reflections, caustics, SSRT | RTX 2070-class |
| Very High | 2048 | 224 | + Colored lights | RTX 3080-class |
| Ultra | 4096 | 256 | Everything maxed | High-end only |
- Place the downloaded zip file in your
.minecraft/shaderpacksfolder - Requires Iris 1.5+ (recommended) or Oculus on Forge
- OptiFine is also supported on Minecraft 1.16.5 and above
- Install Physics Mod - ocean waves and object physics will render correctly with Photon's pipeline automatically
- Install Colorwheel to enable proper shading for Flywheel-based mods (e.g. Create)
- No Colorwheel Patcher needed - native
clrwl_*programs are built in - Forge 1.20.1:
colorwheel-forge-1.2.4+mc1.20.1.jar - NeoForge 1.21.1:
colorwheel-neoforge-1.2.4+mc1.21.1.jar
# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/realBritakee/photon-reimagined.git
cd photon-reimaginedWindows (PowerShell)
tar -a -c -f "Photon Reimagined - v1.0.zip" "shaders" "LICENSE"Linux / WSL
zip -r "Photon Reimagined - v1.0.zip" shaders/ LICENSE- Native Colorwheel support - Flywheel-based mods (e.g. Create) render correctly with full Photon shading and shadows
- Full Physics Mod ocean support - realistic wave physics rendered correctly in the deferred pipeline
- Fully revamped sky, lighting and water
- Detailed clouds with many layers and 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
- Nvidia
- AMD
- Intel
- NOT Apple Metal - may work with SH Skylight and Colored Shadows disabled
- Iris 1.5+ (recommended)
- Oculus (Forge)
- OptiFine - Minecraft 1.16.5 and above
Package the shaderpack into a zip ready to drop into your shaderpacks folder:
zip -r "Photon - Reimagined.zip" shaders/ LICENSE README.mdSee CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
Copyright (c) 2026 Britakee. All rights reserved.
Based on Photon Shaders by sixthsurge, licensed under the original Photon license.