Luster Shaders

Luster is a cinematic, gameplay-focused shader pack for Minecraft: Java Edition, heavily reworked from the (https://github.com/sixthsurge/photon) codebase by SixthSurge. It is built around modular rendering systems — dynamic Rayleigh/Mie/Ozone/Mist atmosphere, layered volumetric clouds, configurable lighting and reflections, SSPT Colored Lighting and Sun/moon Bounce, Directional Ambient Lighting, PBR materials and water, physically based Camera Pipeline, and a full post-processing pipeline.

Luster is designed to be highly configurable through Iris' in-game Shader Options, with quality and performance controlled through profiles rather than hard feature limits.

A dedicated Mac Compatible profile is included for Apple Silicon systems using Iris' OpenGL 4. 1 compatibility path, while retaining the core atmosphere, lighting, clouds, water, reflections, shadows, and post-processing features where practical.

### Choose Your Profile

Luster ships with five profiles. The profiles only change default settings and quality levels — every available option can still be customized in Shader Options.

Low — reduced sampling and effects for lower-end hardware. Medium — balanced image quality and performance. High — higher-quality shadows, reflections, clouds, ambient occlusion, and lighting. Ultra — maximum quality and sampling, including the highest available cloud, shadow, AO, reflection, and material settings. Mac Compatible — a conservative configuration tuned for macOS and Apple Silicon.

Profiles are starting points, not limits. You can mix settings freely, such as using higher-quality clouds on Medium or lowering expensive effects on Ultra.

### Compatibility

Shader Loader: Iris only. OptiFine is not supported.

GPU: Nvidia · AMD · Intel · Apple Silicon

Apple Silicon systems use Iris' OpenGL compatibility path. Some rendering features are hardware- or platform-dependent.

Mod Support: (https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/distant-horizons) · (https://modrinth.com/mod/voxy)

### Installation

Install (https://irisshaders.dev/download) for your Minecraft version. Download the latest Luster `.zip` from the release page. Place the `.zip` directly in `.minecraft/shaderpacks` — do not unzip it. In Minecraft, open Video Settings → Shader Packs and select Luster. Start with Mac Compatible, Medium, or High depending on your hardware, then tune individual settings from there.

### Links & Credits

Luster is built on substantially reworked code from (https://github.com/sixthsurge/photon) by SixthSurge. Original Photon credits and applicable licenses are retained in the project.

(https://github.com/FourthEcho/Luster) (https://github.com/FourthEcho/Luster/issues) (https://discord.gg/Q9n4WMVSK) * (https://github.com/sixthsurge/photon)

See the included `LICENSE` files for full attribution and licensing terms.