Minecraft expected to be 30% faster on Linux using Mesa Drivers: Report

Minecraft was built using the Java programming language, which enables the game to run on any system using Microsoft Windows, Apple's macOS, and Linux. While the majority of players play Minecraft on systems that run Windows, a small percentage use macOS, with an even smaller one using Linux.

However, according to reports, Minecraft players on Linux can expect a performance boost for their game with the release of the newly updated Mesa drivers.

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Minecraft on Linux: Can Mesa drivers run the game better?

The Mesa software is an open-source version of popular graphics APIs like OpenGL and Vulkan, which essentially means that the software can be used, studied, changed and distributed by anyone for any purpose. The software constantly releases updated drivers for players to use it to play video games and more.

The Mesa software is set to receive an updated version on December 15, 2021. This update brings the option for some applications to use threaded OpenGL, a feature which can boost performance by a significant amount, namely 30%.

While some games like Alien Isolation, Civilization 5 and 6, some Saints Row games, American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator are already using this feature, Minecraft is set to receive the option to use it when Mesa’s new drivers drop on the 15th of this month.

Players can test out the new changes themselves when they get access to the new version. All they have to do is run the following command in the game's Mesa configuration:

mesa_glthread=true application-name

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How to boost Minecraft on Windows and macOS?

The Windows and Mac logos (Image via Microsoft and Apple)

Linux players have the upcoming Mesa update to look forward to for a chance to boost their game's performance and make it faster. However, players on platforms like Windows and macOS should not fret, as they have a selection of useful performance mods to choose from that can make a huge impact on how their game runs.

List of the best performance mods for Windows and macOS users

1) Sodium

The Sodium mod (Image via How to Kylr on YouTube)

Sodium is an incredible open-source rendering engine that serves as one of the most popular performance mods in Minecraft. It can increase framerates by around 400%, without affecting the game's visual quality.

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2) Optifine

Optifine is another popular mod for Minecraft that brings several performance upgrades with it, while also serving as the parent mod to help install a plethora of other mods in Minecraft.

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3) Phosphor

Phosphor is yet another open source mod which is available to download for free. It vastly increases the framerate without affecting the way the game looks and feels. Its main focus is optimizing the lighting and chunk load times in the game.

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For the most part, Minecraft is quite a lightweight game. The vanilla version of Minecraft runs on almost any PC configuration, and stuttering can be reduced by tweaking just a small number of settings.

Apart from that, a plethora of performance mods exists for Minecraft, such as Sodium, Optifine, and FPS Plus. The main performance aspect for Minecraft is usually the render distance value, as that impacts FPS the most.

Minecraft is available to run on a plethora of different platforms and operating systems like Linux and macOS. This greatly increases the game's playerbase and will continue to do so as support for these platforms keeps getting updated.