Halcyon
A cinematic, realistic shader for Minecraft Java 1.21.x, built for Iris + Sodium. It focuses on atmosphere: warm sunrises and sunsets, big soft clouds, reflective water, and a moody purple End.
Features
Sky
- Atmospheric scattering with warm sunrises, golden hour, pink twilight and a deep navy night
- Perfectly circular sun and moon, with real moon phases
- Stars that each twinkle at their own pace
Clouds
- Real 3D raymarched clouds with sun-lit edges and dark undersides
- Separate looks for clear weather, overcast and thunderstorms
- Cloud colour follows the real sun direction (orange and pink at sunrise and sunset)
Water
- Animated waves with subtle surface displacement
- Fresnel reflections: screen-space reflections, with sky, clouds and sun as the fallback
- Depth-based blue-green absorption, underwater caustics and shoreline foam
Weather
- Softened rain, wet surfaces that reflect the sky, and lightning flashes
- Rainbows after rain
Lighting
- Soft, coloured shadows (stained glass and water tint them)
- Ambient occlusion, contact shadows, god rays, bloom and filmic tonemapping
Dimensions
- The End: deep violet atmosphere with glowing light pillars, layered purple fog that hides distant islands, pale rim light on terrain, and violet-tinted blacks
- The Nether: dense haze tinted by the current biome
Settings
Four presets (Low / Medium / High / Ultra), plus individual options for:
- shadow resolution, distance and softness
- cloud quality, coverage and speed
- water detail, wave height, clarity, caustics and reflection quality
- ambient occlusion, god rays and bloom
- fog density (Overworld, Nether and End)
- star brightness and sun and moon glow
- rainbows, exposure, saturation, contrast and vignette
Requirements
- Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.x
- Sodium and Iris
- Not compatible with OptiFine or Bedrock Edition
Installation
- Install Sodium and Iris.
