Solstice v1.0

A lightweight semi-realistic shader pack built for a high performance-to-quality ratio. (developed and tuned on an RX 6600 at 1440p).

Features

• Real-time PCF shadows with per-pixel distortion (sharp near, cheap far, no warping on builds)
• Colored translucent shadows: sunlight through water turns blue with animated caustics
• Volumetric raymarched clouds with self-shadowing, silver linings, wind drift, and a high cirrus layer
• Cloud shadows on terrain, matching the sky overhead
• Screen-space god rays (sun/moon, above and below water) with source-occlusion checks
• SSR water reflections - terrain, trees, and builds mirrored on water; depth-aware
• (clear shallows, mirror depths) with sky-gradient fallback
• Procedural fluid water: Gerstner-style traveling waves, sea-state variation, rain ripples
• Unified atmospheric fog: fog is the sky gradient (aerial perspective), render-distance
• fade dissolves into it seamlessly
• Full weather system: bright diffuse overcast, dark slate thunderstorms, localized lightning
• flashes that light the cloud deck from within, emissive lightning bolts
• Procedural circular sun and phase-accurate circular moon
• Dynamic held-item lighting (torch in hand lights the world)
• Dark survival nights, warm Nether ambient (adjustable in-game)
• HDR pipeline: bloom, ACES tonemapping, FXAA-lite edge smoothing, dithering

Settings

Four profiles: Low / Medium / High / Ultra (shader options screen), plus four option screens: Shadows, Sky & Clouds, Visuals, Color & Tone. Notable sliders: Cloud Coverage, Cloud Speed, Nether/End Brightness, Fog Density.

Requirements

Iris (bundled with Fabulously Optimized). OptiFine untested; Iris-exclusive uniforms (thunderStrength, lightningBoltPosition, hasSkylight) degrade gracefully if absent.

Performance notes

Shadows are the dominant cost, lower Shadow Resolution/Distance first. Clouds cost only on sky pixels (Cloud Quality slider). SSR costs only near water. Everything else is cheap.

Authors

d0mkaaa