Screenshot 1 of 5. Pine forest under a purple and pink dusk sky with a bright square sun, rendered with Wisp Shaders.
What Wisp Shaders works with.
| Platform | Java Edition |
|---|---|
| Loaders | Iris |
| Minecraft versions | 1.20, 1.20.6, 1.21.11, 26.1.2 |
Wisp Shaders is a vanilla-like, semi-realistic shader pack for Java that runs on Iris. It deliberately skips PBR and fancy rendering tricks, and instead pushes lighting, color, foliage and water so the world still looks like the blocky original. The pack is client-side only, and Modrinth files it under the potato, low and medium performance tiers.
Shader loaders and versions
- Iris: Minecraft 1.20 to 26.1.2. Some builds for 1.20 to 1.21.11 require Iris Shaders.
What it changes
- Directional lighting driven by the lightmap.
- More vibrant environment colors.
- Custom clouds, with cloud reflections in water.
- Adjustable fog.
- Waving leaves.
- A foam effect on water.
- Rain puddles.
The look sticks to the vanilla style rather than fancy realistic rendering, and the shader works on lighting, color, clouds, foliage and water.
Installing and compatibility
Install Iris first, since the pack needs a shader loader. Put the pack's .zip in the shaderpacks folder, then pick it under Video Settings > Shader Packs. The shaders were developed for 1.21.1 and up with Iris 1.7 and up, and the author says older releases may work but are not the target.
Waving leaves use the minecraft:leaves tag when tag support is present. Without it, the pack falls back to leaves from vanilla and Biomes O' Plenty, so leaves from other mods may not sway.
Performance and trade-offs
The tier labels point to a pack that suits modest hardware, though they are editorial positioning, not a promise for any specific GPU. The trade-off is scope. There is no PBR and no fancy effects, so players after a cinematic look should choose a heavier pack.
Questions about Wisp Shaders.
3 questions
How do I install Wisp Shaders?
Install Iris, then place the downloaded .zip in your shaderpacks folder. Launch the game, open Video Settings, choose Shader Packs, and select Wisp Shaders. The pack runs only on the player's machine, so nothing needs installing on a host.
Are Wisp Shaders good for low-end PCs?
Modrinth tags the pack as potato, low and medium, and the author describes it as primitive shaders with no fancy effects or PBR. That positions it as light. Actual frame rates still depend on your hardware, other mods and chosen settings.
Do Wisp Shaders support PBR or realistic reflections?
No. The author states the pack has no PBR and no fancy effects. Its extras are limited to lightmap-based directional lighting, custom clouds with water reflections, waving leaves, water foam, adjustable fog and rain puddles.
