BCU shades

BCU Shaders

BCU stands for Better Complementary Unbound.

BCU Shaders is a performance-focused visual overhaul inspired by the visual style of Complementary Unbound. The goal is simple: deliver high-end Minecraft visuals while keeping performance as high as possible.

BCU is a derivative work of Complementary Unbound, created under the Complementary License Agreement 1.5. The original project is credited and linked below, and the applicable license is included with the shader.

What makes BCU different?

BCU focuses on improving both visual quality and performance rather than sacrificing one for the other.

Visual improvements

• Enhanced lighting and color grading
• Improved atmospheric effects
• More cinematic environments
• Enhanced End lighting and atmosphere
• Improved nighttime visuals
• Stronger environmental lighting
• Refined shadows and illumination
• Improved overall scene depth and contrast

BCU is designed to keep Minecraft's recognizable visual style while making the world feel more atmospheric and detailed.

Performance

Performance is one of the main goals of BCU.

In testing on an RTX 3070, BCU reached approximately 150 FPS on High settings, while Complementary Unbound reached approximately 110 FPS in the same test.

That is around 40 FPS more in that particular test, while maintaining or improving the visual quality.

Performance will vary depending on hardware, Minecraft settings, world complexity, resolution, and other mods.

Recommended hardware

Recommended:

• NVIDIA RTX 3060 or better
• 8 GB RAM or more

BCU is intended to provide high-quality shader visuals without requiring an extremely high-end GPU.

Visual effects

BCU includes atmospheric and lighting effects that can cause sudden changes in brightness or flashing in certain situations.

Photosensitivity warning: some effects may flash.

Compatibility

Minecraft: Java Edition

BCU is intended for modern shader loaders such as Iris and may support additional configurations depending on the Minecraft version and shader environment.

License & Attribution

BCU Shaders is a derivative work of Complementary Unbound.

BCU is distributed under the Complementary License Agreement 1.5. The original license is included with the project.

Original project:

Complementary Unbound https://modrinth.com/shader/complementary-unbound

BCU is not an official Complementary project and is independently developed as a modified version.

AI-assisted development

AI tools were used to assist with parts of the project's code and packaging. AI assistance does not replace the project's development or testing.

Creators

sapirNL outlawrl_

Development

BCU is actively being developed. Visual effects, optimization, compatibility, and overall shader quality may continue to change between versions.

The goal of BCU is to keep pushing the balance between visual quality and performance.