Shaders

Shaders are used to define the game's rendering of certain elements.

Java Edition
Two distinct kinds of shaders exist: core shaders and post-processing shaders.

Core shaders are used to render fundamental parts of the game.

Post-processing shaders are used for certain minor visual effects:
 * Certain mob vision types as seen in the Spectator gamemode
 * The Fabulous! graphics setting's fixed handling of translucent objects
 * The glowing status effect

Shaders are written in the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL). Each single render program comes in two parts, "vertex" and "fragment"; vertex shaders modify the positions of individual vertices, whereas fragment shaders are applied to every pixel. For example, vertex shaders are often used to create waving foliage and water, and fragment shaders can be used to add effects like bloom, god rays, and blur.

Shaders are stored in the assets/minecraft/shaders/ directory of minecraft.jar, and can be replaced with a resource pack. Note that if any error occurs when loading the shaders, the resource pack is disabled and fabulous graphics mode is turned off.

Core shaders
Core shaders are responsible for rendering parts of the game. They are used to render not only blocks and entities when playing the game, but also menu and inventory screens.

Each core shader is a single render program defined by a JSON file, in which vertex and fragment shader files are specified.

Core shaders are stored in the assets/minecraft/shaders/core directory of minecraft.jar.

List of core shaders
A list of all core shaders can be found by expanding the header below, listing descriptions of what each shader is responsible for, with images highlighting each element in red:

Rendertype

 * Blocks


 * Entities


 * Miscellaneous

Include shaders
Include shaders should be invoked by other shader files; they are not standalone shader programs.

Include shaders contain commonly used helper functions. To import a glsl file in a shader, use  or. The imported file needs to end with an empty line, otherwise the shader does not load.

Include shaders are stored in the assets/minecraft/shaders/include directory of minecraft.jar.

Post-processing shaders
As mentioned previously, post-processing shaders are used for special Spectator mode mob vision types, the Fabulous! graphics setting, and for rendering the outline associated with Glowing.

Post-processing shaders use "post" files to define a pipeline made up of applying a sequence of "programs". Each "program" is then defined by another JSON file, in which a single render program is defined.

"post" files are stored in the assets/minecraft/shaders/post directory of the jar file, while "program" files are stored in assets/minecraft/shaders/program.

Only five post-processing shaders are currently used in the game:
 * creeper.json : Used when spectating a creeper
 * invert.json : Used when spectating an enderman
 * spider.json : Used when spectating a spider
 * entity_outline.json : Used when a glowing entity is on screen
 * transparency.json : Used when in "Fabulous!" graphics mode.

In these two directories, there are also many unused shaders, which were used for "Super Secret Settings" before 1.9 (15w31a). See Shaders/Before 1.9.

Render program

 * The root tag
 * Settings for OpenGL blending.
 * : Operator to be used when blending. Can be,  ,  ,  ,  , or  . Not case sensitive. Defaults to  . Used as   parameter of
 * : Used as  parameter of   or   parameter of  . Can be ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , or . Case insensitive. Ignores "_". "1", "0", "-" can be replaced by "one", "zero", "minus".
 * : Used as  parameter of   or   parameter of  . Can be ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , or . Case insensitive. Ignores "_". "1", "0", "-" can be replaced by "one", "zero", "minus".
 * : Used as  parameter of  . Can be ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , or . Case insensitive. Ignores "_". "1", "0", "-" can be replaced by "one", "zero", "minus".
 * : Used as  parameter of glBlendFuncSeparate. Can be ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , or . Case insensitive. Ignores "_". "1", "0", "-" can be replaced by "one", "zero", "minus".
 * : If true, run . If false, run  . Defaults to true.
 * : The name (without file extension) of the vertex shader to be used.
 * : The name (without file extension) of the fragment shader to be used.
 * : Attributes to be used by the vertex shader.
 * : An attribute. Available values are hard-coded.
 * : A list of samplers that may be used in the shaders.
 * : A sampler.
 * : The samplers name.
 * : A list of uniforms that can be used in the shaders.
 * A uniform.
 * The name of the uniform as referenced in the GLSL code. Some names give a uniform special behavior(Note that these following special uniform does not work in all shader programs):
 * (float) Time: A value from 0 to 1, representing time in seconds. Resets every second. Valid only in post-processing shaders.
 * (vec2) InSize: The width and height of the input buffer in pixels. Valid only in post-processing shaders.
 * (vec2) OutSize: The width and height of the output buffer in pixels. Valid only in post-processing shaders.
 * (vec2) AuxSize  : The width and height of the auxiliary buffer in pixels.  should be replaced by the order of the auxtarget in the render pass. Valid only in post-processing shaders.
 * (matrix4x4) ModelViewMat: The model-view matrix. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (matrix4x4) ProjMat: The projection matrix.
 * (matrix4x4) TextureMat: 4D matrix used to transform UV's for item glint effects. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (vec2) ScreenSize: vec2 containing the current framebuffer width and height, in that order.
 * (vec4) ColorModulator: A global vec4 of multipliers that can be set from the game code as a color multiplier. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (vec3) Light0_Direction: First light direction as vec3 for entity rendering. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (vec3) Light1_Direction: Second light direction, see Light0_Direction. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (float) FogStart: Fog start distance from the camera. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (float) FogEnd: Fog end distance from the camera. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (vec4) FogColor: vec4 fog color. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (float) LineWidth: Line width, used for rendering wireframe lines such as the block selection frame and debug hitboxes. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (float) GameTime: Global time of the world, in fractional days. Valid only in core shaders.
 * (vec3) ChunkOffset: When rendering a chunk section, the offset from the camera world position to the chunk section's base point. Valid only in core shaders.
 * : The type of the uniform. Can be one of,  ,  ,   and  .   can also be interpreted as  ,   or   depending on how many values are actually included in  .   can also be interpreted as  ,   or   depending on how many values are actually included in.
 * : The number of values included in.
 * : The value of the uniform, given as a list of floats. The length of the list should be the same as.

Render pipeline
Here's the process of how a post-processing shader is used in game: first, the shader initializes all of the render targets specified in the "targets" list with the proper width and height. After that, the shader goes through each render pass specified in the "passes" list from first in the list to last in the list. Each pass applies the program shader on the render target specified by "intarget" (with any extra data provided by other auxiliary render targets) and output the end result on the render target specified by "outtarget".


 * The root tag
 * : A list of render targets. They can be buffer provided by the game, or new buffer with any name.
 * : The name of a render target. The size defaults to screen resolution. Post-processing shader  must contain render targets named ,  ,  ,   and  . Post-processing shader    must contain a render target named.
 * : A render target to add.
 * : The name of the render target to add.
 * : The width of the render target.
 * : The height of the render target.
 * : A list of passes.
 * : A render pass.
 * : The name of a program shader to apply on the input and post into the output. Use "blit" to copy the data from intarget to outtarget.
 * : The name of a render target to use as an input. Use  to specify the main screen.
 * : The name of a render target to output to. It should not be the same as intarget. Use  to specify the main screen.
 * : A list of auxiliary targets.
 * An auxiliary target.
 * : The auxiliary target's name that is passed into the "Program" JSON.
 * : The auxiliary target's id. Either points into the name of a buffer that is defined in  or into the location of a texture under   (use a resource location to reference it). Append   after the name of the buffer to access its depth buffer. For example, to access the depth buffer of , use.
 * : Required if  references a texture. Describes the width of the texture in pixels.
 * : Required if  references a texture. Describes the height of the texture in pixels.
 * : Required if  references a texture. Determines whether the scaling algorithm used for the image is bilinear or nearest neighbor.
 * : A list of overrides that change the values in the  list in the "Program" JSON.
 * : A uniform.
 * : The name of the field that should be changed.
 * : The values that the field should be changed to.

Tutorials and useful docs
Here are some guides with additional information on creating shaders:


 * Minecraft Vanilla Shaders Guide
 * Vanilla Shaders Wiki

Bedrock Edition
Since Bedrock Edition 1.18.30, third party shader resource packs are no longer supported on all devices except Fire OS.