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Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders icon

Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders

Fabric and NeoForge modpack for Minecraft 1.21.1 by Piotr_Barcz

Get it on Modrinth Full mod list (18)

Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders runs on Minecraft 1.21.1 with Fabric and NeoForge. It has 18 mods, needs about 4 GB of RAM (our estimate) and is client-only. The latest version is 0.5.0+1.21.1.fabric, released Sep 26, 2026.

Minecraft version
1.21.1
Mod loader
Fabric, NeoForge
Mods
18
RAM to allocate
4 GB (estimate)
Runs on
Client only
Latest version
0.5.0+1.21.1.fabric ()
Downloads
858K (#30)
First released
Pack file size
105.9 MB
License
All Rights Reserved

What is Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders?

Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders is a Fabric and NeoForge modpack for Minecraft 1.21.1, published by Piotr_Barcz on Modrinth since 2024.

The latest release, 0.5.0+1.21.1.fabric from Sep 26, 2026, declares 18 mods. Across 50 published versions it has covered Minecraft 1.20.1 through 26.2.

With 858K downloads it ranks #30 of the 518 most-downloaded Modrinth modpacks we track, and its authors tag it as optimization and technology.

Our notes on Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders

What sets it apart

This pack exists to make Distant Horizons, which draws far-away terrain as low-detail chunks, work with Iris shaders. The page says it was first made the day Distant Horizons added shader support, and that another person maintains it now.

It is a small bundle of 18 projects. Along with Distant Horizons and Iris it has Sodium, Lithium, FerriteCore, ModernFix, a faster chunk engine (C2ME) and the Noisium world-generation helper, which the page says speed up terrain generation. The current mod list shows Fast Noise rather than Noisium. The author states none of the mods are theirs.

The long description doubles as a guide. It lists shader packs said to work (Bliss from version 2.1.0, BSL, Complementary Reimagined, Rethinking Voxels, Photon, Noble, Shrimple), known conflicts and terrain-mod suggestions.

Who it suits

Players who want long view distances with shaders and do not want to configure compatible mods by hand. It is a visual pack, not a gameplay one.

Before you install

The page publishes RAM tiers, which are the author’s: 2 GB will crash, 4 GB is a minimum with some stutter, 6 GB is recommended, and 10 GB is only advised with heavy terrain mods. It also advises vanilla render distance of 16 or lower and says more than 320 chunks is probably not wise.

It warns that Distant Horizons is processor-bound, that the first LOD generation can be slow, and that an error about batching world generation timing out can be ignored. The installer’s GitHub repository lists 22 open issues and pull requests. Reported incompatibilities include Replay Mod, Alex’s Caves, OptiFine and most camera mods. A “hall of mirrors” glitch with Bliss is described, with a toggle-order workaround (turn shaders off, then the Distant Horizons renderer, then shaders back on); the author says it should be fixed after Distant Horizons 2.1.

Builds cover Fabric and NeoForge across many versions, from 1.20.1 to 26.2.

Playing with friends

The pack is client-side only, and Modrinth marks server-side as unsupported. No server files are published.

The page says that from Distant Horizons 2.3 onward servers can provide LOD data, so players need not explore to fill distant terrain. If the server lacks that support, each player has to explore the world themselves. Whether a given server offers it is not something the page can tell you.

Written from public sources, not from hands-on testing. Sources: Modrinth project page, GitHub repository. See our editorial policy.

Most widely used mods in Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders

The latest version declares 18 projects. The ones below appear in the most packs we track.

  • 9 run on client and server
  • 7 client only
  • 2 server only

Full Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders mod list

How its mod list compares

Less common picks: 1 mod found in five or fewer tracked packs.

Packs with the most mods in common

What kinds of mods are in Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders?

Of its 18 mods, 11 are tagged optimization, 8 utility and 4 library. Mods can carry several tags, so the counts overlap.

At 61% optimization, that is a larger share than 94% of the 491 packs we track.

  • optimization: 11 (61%)
  • utility: 8 (44%)
  • library: 4 (22%)
  • worldgen: 2 (11%)
  • cursed: 1 (6%)
  • decoration: 1 (6%)

How big is Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders?

With 18 mods, Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders has fewer mods than 87% of the 491 packs we track and fewer mods than 93% of the 86 on Minecraft 1.21.1.

The pack file is 105.9 MB. 7 mods are client-only and 11 also run on a server. It declares no resource packs or shaders.

How actively is Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders updated?

Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders was first published on Jun 8, 2024, and has 50 published versions in total.

The latest release, 0.5.0+1.21.1.fabric, is dated Sep 26, 2026, 46 days before our data was fetched on Nov 11, 2026. Releases have covered 12 Minecraft versions over 2.3 years.

Staple mods Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders includes and leaves out

Across the 325 Fabric packs we track, 15 mods turn up most often. Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders includes 8 of them; it leaves out Cloth Config API, Entity Culling, Fabric Language Kotlin, ImmediatelyFast, YetAnotherConfigLib (YACL), Text Placeholder API and Architectury API.

How much RAM does Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders need?

Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders needs 4 GB allocated (2 GB minimum). Our estimate from the 18-mod list, not measured.

How to set allocated memory

How to install Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders

Search for "Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders" in the Modrinth source of your launcher. Pick version 0.5.0+1.21.1.fabric for Minecraft 1.21.1 (Fabric and NeoForge). Modpack install guide.

Does Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders need a server install?

No: Distant Horizons & Iris Shaders is marked client-only on Modrinth, so there is no server install and players can join an ordinary server running Minecraft 1.21.1.

Modpack server guide.

Versions

Newest build for each of 19 Minecraft version and loader pairs, 15 shown.

MinecraftLoaderPack versionReleased
1.21.1Fabric0.5.0+1.21.1.fabric
1.20.1Fabric0.5.0+1.20.1.fabric
26.2Fabric0.4.2+26.2.fabric
26.1.2Fabric0.4.1+26.1.2.fabric
1.21.11Fabric0.3.1+1.21.11.fabric
1.21.11NeoForge0.3.1+1.21.11.neoforge
1.21.4Fabric0.3.1+1.21.4.fabric
1.21.1NeoForge0.3.0+1.21.1.neoforge
1.21.10Fabric0.2.3+1.21.10.fabric
1.21.10NeoForge0.2.3+1.21.10.neoforge
1.21.8Fabric0.2.2+1.21.8.fabric
1.21.8NeoForge0.2.2+1.21.8.neoforge
1.21.7Fabric0.2.2+1.21.7.fabric
1.21.7NeoForge0.2.2+1.21.7.neoforge
1.21.4NeoForge0.2.2+1.21.4.neoforge