5 best alternatives to Complementary Shaders in Minecraft

Complementary Shader is widely regarded as one of the best shaders for Minecraft, as it not only enhances the lighting and shadow engines of the game but also updates the cloud and block textures with PBR (Physically Based Rendering) features. However, for players who want to explore other options, there are several shaders available online that can transform the visual experience of Minecraft.

Here are some alternatives to Complementary Shaders that Minecraft players can try out.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion. All these shaders work perfectly with the latest 1.19.4 version.

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BSL, Rethinking Volex, and 3 other great alternatives for Complementary Shaders in Minecraft

1) BSL

BSL Shaders is also a popular choice in the Minecraft community as they offer basic shader features (Image via Mojang)

BSL is a well-known shader that millions of players have tried. It is one of the oldest shaders for the game, released all the way back in 2013, when the game was still in its early stages.

It provides stunning visuals without adding too many additional features, making it a basic version of Complementary Shaders that is still visually appealing. Like Complementary Shaders, it offers a variety of settings to adjust reflections, lighting, shadows, post-processing, and more.

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2) AstraLex shaders

AstraLex adds a unique dream-like effect to the Minecraft world with lens flair and bloom (Image via Mojang)

AstraLex is another brilliant shader pack that adds various new visual features to the game that other shader packs might not offer. Although it is a fairly new shader pack that was released in 2020, it has quickly become extremely popular amongst the community.

It mainly excels at creating dream-like visuals with a lot of bloom, sun rays, motion blur, and depth of field. It even adds various new cinematic effects like chromatic aberration, distortion, and water refraction. If players want to try something different from the regular Complementary Shaders pack, they can opt for AstraLex.

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3) Sildur's Vibrant shader pack

Sildur's vibrant shaders have more colors but offer the most FPS in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

There are millions of players who use low-end PCs to play the game. The game can run on practically any device, but not all shaders run smoothly and support low-end PC configurations. However, Sildur's Vibrant shader pack is an exception to this rule.

While offering all kinds of visual improvements, this shader pack maintains the same FPS and offers a smooth experience.

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4) RedHat shaders

RedHat shaders enhance the lighting and vibrance of Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

RedHat is a unique-looking shader pack that is based on the old Chocapic13 shaders. It offers punchy colors that make everything vibrant and bright. Furthermore, it offers a special kind of HDR effect that reduces all the darkness in certain areas. Though not everyone will be a fan of the intense look, it is a nice change from Complementary Shaders.

Apart from all these special effects, RedHat offers every basic shader pack setting that players can also find on Complementary Shaders.

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5) Rethinking Volex

Rethinking Volex is a brand new shader pack, but it will soon be one of the best out for Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Despite the game being a decade old, its community still creates new shader packs for it. Rethinking Volex is a brand-new option that can also be used as a Complementary Shaders alternative since it looks extremely similar. However, it offers slightly better clarity and lighting.

The only downside to this new shader pack is that it's currently in its beta testing phase. Because of this, it still has a few bugs that need to be ironed out. For example, if players try to tweak the shader settings to maximize quality, the game may start lagging.