Rethinking Voxels (1.19.2 → 1.21.8) – Sharp Voxel Shadows with Performance in Mind

Whenever I load into Minecraft with Rethinking Voxels, the first thing that hits me isn’t the realism it’s the sharpness. Those glowing lanterns suddenly cast crisp, colored shadows that shape the room, not just light it. It’s an edit of Complementary Reimagined, but with an intentional twist block lights that pop in sharp relief while still running decently fast compared to path-tracing shaders.

What Makes Rethinking Voxels Stand Out

• Colored block light + sharp shadows: Whether it’s warm torchlight or neon lighting, shadows maintain crisp edges while adding mood.
• Built on Complementary Reimagined’s aesthetic but optimized not trying to photorealistically mimic lighting, but crafting mood with clarity and depth.
• Notable performance conscious design: The author mentions that sudden brightness pops are a trade-off they kept those to preserve sharp shadows and maintain FPS.
• Platform details: Developed using Iris on Linux (AMD + NVidia), with full Iris support required for smooth setup. Older versions like OptiFine Beta 18d are supported but may be less reliable.
• Versions & compatibility: Supports Minecraft versions 1.19.2 up through 1.21.6. Frequent beta updates distributed via Modrinth (like r0.1-beta5) ensure ongoing compatibility.

Real-World Feel: My Personal Experience

Loading this shader on my mid-spec setup (RTX 3060 + Iris + Creative Map), I immediately noticed cleaner lighting around builds. The colored block lighting added personality wooden lanterns glow red, torches cast golds while retaining sharp shadows at block edges. On average, I held 60 – 75 FPS in resource-heavy scenes.

However, I did notice the flicker of brightness when walking near lights it’s a quirk from per-pixel lighting. The shader author warns this is expected behavior and only remedied by disabling that feature in settings.

What the Community Is Saying

On Reddit, Rethinking Voxels has a quiet but loyal following:

“Rethinking Voxels is now my favorite shader.”
— shared in r/Minecraft.

“On medium settings, it runs fine, but FPS dips to around 50–60 when you’re surrounded by many light sources.”
reported by a laptop user with AMD Ryzen and RTX 3050.

A technical user noted the light flicker and found that cranking voxel resolution helps but with a performance cost. This aligns with the shader author’s note on trade-offs.

Practical Tips for Best Setup

• Use Iris loader, which is highly compatible and optimized for this shader.
• Enable/disable Per-Pixel Lighting based on your preference: sharpness vs flicker control.
• If using Distant Horizons, use compatible shader versions like r0.1-beta5 old versions may fail to load correctly there.
• Join shaderLabs Discord and the #rethinking-voxels-gri573 channel for support and roadmap updates.

Pros vs. Considerations

Rethinking Voxels is perfect if you’re craving a shader that shadows with intention. It doesn’t chase full realism it embraces structure and mood, grounding your builds with defined light and shadow without sinking your FPS. With thoughtful tuning and Iris, it’s a gem for builders who want style and efficiency. Worth adding to your shader rotation.