Screenshot 1 of 2. A sunset over water with a village and statue covered in colorful square glitch artifacts from the Datamosh shader.
What Datamosh works with.
| Platform | Java Edition |
|---|---|
| Loaders | Iris, OptiFine |
| Minecraft versions | 1.7.3, 1.16.5, 1.17.1, 1.18.2, 1.19.4, 1.20.6, 1.21.11, 26.1.2, 26.2, 26.3 |
Datamosh is a datamosh shader for Minecraft Java that runs on Iris and OptiFine. It does not enhance the picture. It corrupts it, recreating the look of broken MPEG video, and it works purely on the player's own machine.
Shader loaders and versions
- Iris and OptiFine: Minecraft 1.7.3 to 26.3.
What the effect does to the picture
The image is split into 8×8 pixel macroblocks. Each block updates on its own timer and samples pixels from an offset spot, so most stay stable while others drift or jump across the frame. Displaced blocks keep pulling from the wrong region, which produces the smeared, fragmented look of damaged P-frames.
- Adaptive color quantization, with heavier banding where a block is displaced more.
- Chroma subsampling artifacts, giving color bleeding and misalignment.
- DCT edge ringing, with bright and dark fringes near block borders.
- Mosquito noise around high-contrast edges and moving regions.
Datamosh is a single composite post-processing pass written in GLSL 1.20. It works only on the rendered image, so lighting, materials, shadows and world rendering stay as they were. That keeps the base picture vanilla-like.
Installing Datamosh
New to shader loaders? The shader install guide covers the folder and menu steps, and the shader troubleshooting guide helps if the pack refuses to load.
- 1.Install Iris (on Fabric or NeoForge) or OptiFine.
- 2.Drop the Datamosh .zip into the shaderpacks folder.
- 3.Select it under Video Settings > Shader Packs in Iris, or the shader menu in OptiFine.
Trade-offs
Datamosh is a visual-effect shader focused on compression artifacts and nothing else. The pack has no custom buffers, lighting systems or advanced rendering pipelines, so it will not change how the world is lit or rendered. If you want a prettier world, look elsewhere.
Questions about Datamosh.
3 questions
How do I install the Datamosh shader?
Install Iris on Fabric or NeoForge, or use OptiFine. Place the Datamosh .zip in your shaderpacks folder, then pick it in the shader menu. In Iris that is Video Settings > Shader Packs. Nothing else needs installing.
Does Datamosh work with both Iris and OptiFine?
Yes. Both loaders have builds listed for it, and the newest release requires no extra mods. It is a Java-only shader pack, so Bedrock cannot run it because Iris and OptiFine are Java mods.
Will Datamosh improve how my world looks?
No. It deliberately adds macroblock displacement, color banding and noise to imitate corrupted compressed video. It only alters the final rendered image and leaves lighting, shadows and materials alone.
