Continuum Shaders vs Miniature Shader

Continuum Shaders is a set of customizable shaderpacks for Minecraft Java that adds graphical effects, with Continuum 2.1 available free through Focal Engine. Continuum 2.1 includes a physically based sky and material system, ambient light, reflections, and volumetric clouds, air, and water. Camera settings, color grading controls, and custom LUT uploads provide further image adjustments. Focal Engine is required for both Continuum 2.1 and Continuum RT, and using the engine requires a Continuum Graphics account. Continuum Early Access costs $15, paid once and gives access to in-development, non-ray-traced shaders; it currently includes Continuum Legacy, which is in Alpha. The maker plans a full free release of Legacy. Listed Minecraft versions are 1.14.4, 1.16.5, 1.17.1, 1.19.2, 1.20.1, and 1.20.4, with both loader types supported. Effects include physically based lighting, water features, rain, puddles, fog, and color grading. Performance depends on hardware, and some effects are expensive despite optimization. The license is limited to personal, non-commercial use.

Miniature Shader is a Minecraft Java Edition shader for lighting, shadows and reflections. Its stated aim is to retain Minecraft’s model-like appearance without compromising performance. It adds blocky shadows, reflections on water, ice and other commonly reflective blocks, and a slight overhaul of emissive lighting. The project lists compatibility with Minecraft versions from 1.7.x through 26.3 and supports Iris and OptiFine. It is available through Modrinth and CurseForge, with source code on GitHub; the repository lists GLSL as its language. The project is free under the MIT License, which permits use, copying, modification, distribution, sublicensing and sale when the copyright and permission notice are included. The license also disclaims warranty and provides the software as is. The repository identifies Mateus A. Kreuch as maintainer. Its Issues page currently restricts issue creation. Open issues report that it no longer works with Voxy on Minecraft 26.2, that version 2.18.12 has black particles, and that the Aeronautics mod can cause a screen glitch.