5 best Minecraft mods to use with Distant Horizons

New Minecraft mods are released every single day with the promise of improving specific aspects of the game by adding new custom features. However, not every player is looking to add something new to the game. Many simply want to improve the visual quality. This is where mods like Distant Horizons come in, which will not add anything new but improve the visual quality in unique ways.

The Distant Horizons mod has been in the works for many years but only recently has it gained popularity for being the only mod capable of increasing the render distance to absurd levels. The best part about this mod is that it delivers what it promises without reducing the framerates by a lot on modern systems. However, the experience can be further improved by pairing it with some other options.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinions of the writer.

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Minecraft Mods complementary to Distant Horizons

Player flying around using an elytra (Image via Mojang)

The Distant Horizons mod enhances the game by adding simplified terrain beyond the standard render distance, making it easier for the user's system to handle. This increased view distance offers both practical and aesthetic benefits. Consequently, it becomes easier to spot structures, and the expanded view allows the beauty of various biomes to fill each frame.

The following are a few mods that you must explore with Distant Horizons in Minecraft.

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1) Iris Shaders

Minecraft shaders (Image via Mojang)

Iris Shaders is a popular Fabric alternative to Optifine that delivers better performance and is updated a lot faster for newer versions. With Iris Shaders installed, players have the option to view the extended view distance with shaders.

However, not all shaders work with the Distant Horizons mod. One of the few shaders compatible with the Distant Horizons mod is the latest version of Complementary Shaders.

Even if the user wishes not to use shaders, just installing Iris Shaders will improve overall performance by a noticeable amount.

Note: Iris shaders require the Sodium mod to function properly.

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2) Dynamic Surroundings

The Distant Horizons mod and the Dynamic Surroundings mod promise the same thing: improved immersion.

This Minecraft mod is a complete package for players looking to enhance their usual experience of playing the game by adding subtle features such as biome-specific background sounds and improved weather visuals. The overall sound quality of more than a decade-old sandbox game gets a huge uplift with this mod.

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3) Concurrent Chunk Management Engine (C2ME)

Hundreds of rendered chunks (Image via Mojang)

C2ME, or Concurrent Chunk Management Engine, is a mod for Fabric that will improve the rate at which chunks are loaded in the game. This is especially helpful when paired with the Distant Horizons mod, as a much higher number of chunks are now being rendered.

The mod achieves a faster render speed by taking advantage of multiple CPU cores in parallel. The difference made is higher in older or low-end systems and is a must-try for players who find the Distant Horizons mod unplayable due to the low frame rate.

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4) Tectonic

Incredibly tall mountains generated by the tectonic mod (Image via Mojang)

Tectonic is the only mod on the list that changes how the terrains are generated in Minecraft. It is a world-generation mod that does not add any new biomes but adds life to the existing ones by bringing small but noticeable changes, such as making mountains taller.

The Tectonic mod has been around for quite a while, but it gains new life with the Distant Horizons mod, allowing players to finally see the immensely improved mountains and oceans all in one frame.

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5) Noisium

Noisium ensures fast chunk rendering while maintaining high framerates (Image via Mojang)

Noisium is another performance-oriented mod that claims to improve the chunk generation speed by 20-30%. Although the claimed speedup in generation speed is for vanilla Minecraft, Distant Horizons players can expect to see decent improvements as well.

Noisium is also well-known for tinkering with some world-generation functions that most other performance mods do not touch. This is also the reason behind it being included alongside C2ME, as it can help with chunk render speed in its unique way.