Aster

Aster is an all-in-one shader pack for Iris. It aims to look as good as possible while staying fast

The sky

• A full night sky: thousands of twinkling, coloured stars, the Milky Way, nebulae, distant galaxies and planets
• Shooting stars, fireballs, meteor showers and rare comets
• Auroras, sun halos and rainbows after rain
• Warm sunrises and sunsets, drifting clouds and a glowing moon
• A custom End sky

Light and shadow

• Soft, clean shadows
• Coloured shadows through stained glass
• Sun rays and god rays through trees
• Leaves and grass that let sunlight through
• Coloured light: torches glow orange, soul fire blue, sea lanterns pale blue, and stained glass tints the light that passes through it

Water

• Reflections of the sky and the world around it
• Animated waves, and streams and waterfalls that visibly flow
• Underwater light rays, and moving spots of sunlight on the bottom where those rays land

Weather

• Thin, realistic rain streaks and custom snowflakes
• Wet ground and walls that darken and shine in the rain
• Dark storm skies, sheet lightning in the clouds and custom lightning bolts that light up the world

Every dimension

• Nether: warm, moody lighting and fog that take their colour from the biome, with glowing lava and fire
• The End: purple-lit islands under a starry End sky, with a soft haze

Also included

• Waving grass, leaves, flowers and vines
• Bloom, temporal anti-aliasing and a filmic tone map
• Low, Medium, High and Ultra presets, plus a menu with clear descriptions for every option

Requirements

• Minecraft Java Edition with Iris (Sodium recommended)
• Works on Windows and macOS. On Mac, coloured light is turned off because macOS does not support the compute shaders it needs; everything else works.

Installation

1. Install Iris (and Sodium).
2. Put the downloaded Aster.zip into .minecraft/shaderpacks/. Don't unzip it.
3. In game, open Options → Video Settings → Shader Packs and select Aster.

Performance tips

• Start with the Medium preset and go up or down from there.
• The options that cost the most are Shadow Quality, Shadow Distance, Sun Rays and Coloured Light.

Feedback

Found a bug or have an idea? Please leave a comment or open an issue, ideally with a screenshot and your version.