ARC Shaders
by Null
A lightweight Iris shader from Null, the author of Shrimple. ARC delivers colored block lighting and clean shadows with minimal performance cost, and its last published build targets 1.19.4.
About ARC Shaders
ARC Shaders is the small counterpart to Photon in what it sets out to do, and the engineering is the interesting part. Null gets coloured lighting, the feature that normally forces a pack into the demanding tier, running on a GTX 750 with 1 GB of VRAM without the result feeling like a compromise.
In practice that means every light source carries its own colour and spills it onto what is nearby, so a room lit by torches is warm and one lit by sea lanterns is cold. On a pack this cheap that single quality is what separates it from looking merely lit, and it is why ARC turns up in recommendations well above its hardware class.
Everything advanced is absent by design: no path tracing, no volumetric clouds, no depth of field, and fewer options than the larger packs offer. It is Iris only on Minecraft 1.16 through to 1.19.4, targeting the loader capabilities rather than reaching backwards. Anyone choosing between this and Shrimple should start from which Minecraft version they are actually on.
ARC Shaders effects, shown
The first tile is the achievement and the rest are what paid for it. Coloured lighting on a GTX 750 with one gigabyte of memory meant leaving out path tracing, volumetric clouds and depth of field entirely, and keeping every remaining effect cheap enough not to compete with it. Compare this set against Shrimple's, which reached the same place from a slightly different direction.
ARC Shaders ships 6 headline effects. Each preview below shows one of ARC Shaders' own screenshots behind the effect name instead of a crop taken from it. The pack publishes only one scene of itself, and cutting a single frame into 6 separate close-ups would mean claiming to isolate effects that frame does not clearly separate. The tiles therefore show the pack itself, and the line under each one tells you what that effect does in game.
Colored lightingColored lighting
Every light source carries its own colour into the room around it, and getting this onto a GTX 750 with one gigabyte of memory is the pack's real achievement.
Soft shadowsSoft shadows
The outline of a shadow softens with every block between it and its source, kept cheap here so the coloured lighting keeps the budget it needs.
BloomBloom
A glow around bright sources that also helps each light's own colour read at a distance, which is worth more here than it would be in a neutral pack.
Enhanced waterEnhanced water
Water gains depth and ripples, and with coloured light reaching into it a lantern below the surface shows its own hue rather than plain white.
Waving vegetationWaving vegetation
The whole planting sways on a single breeze so a field moves as one surface, chosen because it costs almost nothing on the hardware ARC targets.
Custom skyCustom sky
The sky gets a gradient and star field of its own, kept as light as everything else Null trimmed to hold the low tier.
How ARC Shaders changes Minecraft
ARC changes the lighting only, and it spends nearly its whole budget on one feature that packs three tiers up normally reserve for themselves. Everything after it was kept cheap so that it could exist:
- Colored lighting: every light source carries its own colour into the room around it, on a GTX 750 with a single gigabyte of memory.
- Soft shadows: the further a shadow sits from what casts it, the softer its outline, kept cheap so the coloured lighting keeps the budget it needs.
- Bloom: a glow around bright sources that also helps each light's colour read at distance, which is worth more here than in a neutral pack.
- Enhanced water: water gains depth and ripples, and with coloured light reaching in, a lantern below the surface shows its own hue.
- Waving vegetation: plants pick up a shared breeze so a field moves as one, chosen because it costs almost nothing at this level.
- Custom sky: vanilla's sky is set aside for one acting as a measured light source rather than a backdrop, which is what the exposure model works against.
- Overall direction: Photon's author working at the opposite end of the range, with coloured light as the one luxury the budget allows.
Loaders ARC Shaders runs on
ARC Shaders system requirements
What ARC Shaders does well
- Great colored lighting
- Very lightweight
- Same developer as Shrimple
- Clean and modern
Cons
- Iris only
- Limited advanced effects
- Less configurable than larger packs
How to install ARC Shaders
- 1Install Fabric or Quilt with the Iris Shaders mod, on a Minecraft client between 1.16 and 1.19.4. ARC is Iris only and will not load under OptiFine.
- 2Download the ARC Shaders .zip by way of the source above and leave it as an archive.
- 3Run the game under Iris, then follow Options through Video Settings until the Shader Packs screen appears.
- 4Open Shader Pack Folder brings up the right directory. Copy the archive across and go back to the menu.
- 5Select ARC Shaders and press Apply. It compiles quickly, which comes with being a low-tier pack. Then stand in a room lit by a single torch, which is where the pack earns its keep.
ARC needs Iris and will not load under OptiFine. It also stopped receiving builds after 1.19.4, so a current client is outside its range. If you are on 1.20 or later and want coloured lighting at this hardware level, Shrimple is still being updated and is the pack to look at instead.
ARC Shaders performance notes
ARC Shaders is a low-impact pack that still manages per-source coloured lighting, which is the engineering achievement it should be judged on. Null trimmed everything advanced specifically so that one feature could survive at this price.
The card it is measured against is a GTX 750 with 1 GB of video memory alongside 2 GB of RAM. That is remarkably low for a pack with coloured light, and it means a machine that cannot hold a frame rate under a medium-tier shader still has a real option here.
It targets Minecraft 1.16 through to 1.19.4 on Iris only, so Fabric or Quilt with the Iris mod is required and there is no build for newer clients. That range follows from a pack that was written against the loader of that period and then stopped.
Because the cost is low, raising render distance is usually available rather than the reverse. If frames do get tight, the coloured light propagation range gives the most back, though it is also the thing the pack exists for.
Tags
What to turn down first in ARC Shaders
ARC is already tuned tightly, so the sliders here are about protecting the coloured light.
- 1
Render distance: outside the pack and still the largest lever on the hardware it targets.
- 2
Shadow quality: the only meaningful internal cost, and soft shadows survive a lower setting well.
- 3
Coloured light radius: reduce this last. It is the reason to choose ARC over something plainer.
How many people run ARC Shaders?
Under a million installs, and the release history explains it: the last build was for 1.19.4 in 2023. For its size the follower count is high, which is what you see when a small pack is loved by the people who found it.
| Downloads of ARC Shaders on Modrinth | 842,441 on the maker's page |
|---|---|
| People following ARC Shaders for updates | 579 |
| Last ARC Shaders release by the author | 1 March 2023 |
| Where ARC Shaders sits on this site | 22 of 26 packs we could count, see the full ranking |
The ARC Shaders figures above were counted on 21 August 2026. Modrinth is the only platform with an open counter for ARC Shaders, so anyone downloading it elsewhere is not in this number.
Where ARC Shaders sits in our shortlists
Coloured lighting inside the smallest budget on the site, on the versions it was built for:
Why ARC Shaders is not on the 1.21 shortlist
Its last build targets 1.19.4 and there has been nothing since. For coloured lighting on a small card and a current client, Shrimple is by the same author and is still being updated, which makes it the direct replacement.
Best shaders for Minecraft 1.21Ready to install ARC Shaders?
OptiFine will not load ARC. Our walkthrough handles Fabric with the Iris mod, which is the only arrangement it accepts.
Installation GuideSomewhere to run ARC Shaders
ARC gives you coloured lighting inside a 1 GB budget, so it is the pack for the friend on the oldest machine in the group. Everyone can join the same world; not everyone needs the same card.
ARC loads into your own client under Iris and needs nothing from the host. On a mixed group that is the whole trick: the cheapest machine still joins the same world as the most expensive one.
Set up a world for ARC ShadersCode GUIDE5 is ours, and it applies to a ARC Shaders world from the link above.Last updated . This page is rebuilt when its own figures change, not on every deploy.