Elaris

Elaris

Elaris is a performance-focused graphics mod for Minecraft 1.20.1 (Forge), built on top of Embeddium. Its goal is simple: make Minecraft look noticeably better than vanilla while keeping the performance cost as low as possible.

⚠️ Alpha release. Elaris is in early development. Expect bugs, visual glitches and missing features. Please report any issues you find!

Features

• Custom optimized render pipeline integrated with Embeddium
• Improved lighting and soft sun shadows
• Ambient occlusion
• Volumetric fog for a more atmospheric look
• Visual presets to quickly pick the look you like
• Custom water rendering
• ESS (Elaris Super Sampling) – upscaler with adjustable render resolution, including dynamic resolution to hit a target FPS. Uses spatial and temporal techniques to keep the image clean at lower resolutions
• ESS FG – experimental frame generation that inserts an extra frame between two real ones for a smoother picture
• Experimental Vulkan bridge – an OpenGL ↔ Vulkan layer that lays the groundwork for DLSS and other vendor upscalers (still heavy on performance, being optimized)
• Every system can be toggled separately

Made for low-end PCs

Elaris is designed around low cost per effect. Lower the render resolution, let the upscaler do the work, and keep a smooth framerate even on weaker hardware.

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.20.1
• Forge
• Embeddium (required)

Compatibility

• ❌ Not compatible with Oculus, Iris or other shader loaders and shader packs. Elaris has its own rendering pipeline; do not use them together.
• Support for other mods is limited for now. Some optimization mods (e.g. BadOptimizations, ModernFix) may conflict with Elaris, especially with water rendering. If you run into this, please report it along with your mod list.

Roadmap

Elaris is only available for Minecraft 1.20.1 on Forge right now, but this is just the beginning. Planned:

Next updates

• 🛠️ Fixes for far-away water and waterfall rendering
• 🧩 Better compatibility with other optimization mods

Graphics

• 🔦 Ray tracing – ray-traced lighting, shadows and reflections as an optional, performance-conscious feature
• ✨ Proper anti-aliasing for a cleaner, less soft image without upscaling
• More realistic and cinematic lighting, sky and atmosphere

Upscaling & Frame Generation

• 🚀 ESS 3.0 – a new, higher-quality upscaler.
• 🎞️ ESS FG rework – better frame quality with less ghosting and a lower FPS cost, for all GPUs
• 🔮 Multi-frame generation (long-term)
• ⚡ Optimized Vulkan bridge with full DLSS/FSR/XeSS support (long-term)

Platforms

• 🧵 Fabric port
• 🧱 Support for newer Minecraft versions

No release dates yet – follow the project page to get notified about updates.

Feedback

Found a bug? Leave a comment below with:

• a short description of what happened
• your GPU model and graphics driver version
• a link to your game log (upload it to https://mclo.gs and paste the link)
• a screenshot link if it’s a visual issue (Imgur or any image host)