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Resources / Shaders / Alpha Piscium

Alpha Piscium

High-quality realistic Minecraft shaderpack.

ShadersFree1.20 – 26.x
by Luna5ama · listed from Modrinth
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Direct download from Modrinth · 364,173 downloads

Alpha Piscium screenshot 1Alpha Piscium screenshot 2Alpha Piscium screenshot 3

What it does

Alpha Piscium is a shader pack made by Luna5ama. High-quality realistic Minecraft shaderpack.

It supports Minecraft 1.20 – 26.x. It has been downloaded 364,173 times on Modrinth. The last update came out on Sep 29, 2026.

Supported versions

26.x1.211.20

Release history

Alpha Piscium has had 35 releases on Modrinth since Oct 13, 2025. 30 of them came out in the past year. The newest is 1.10.0, released on Sep 29, 2026. It is made for Minecraft 1.20.5 – 26.3. It runs on Iris. The download is 48.3 MB.

VersionReleasedMinecraftType
1.10.0Sep 29, 20261.20.5 – 26.3Release
1.10.0-Beta2Sep 9, 20261.20.5 – 26.2Beta
1.10.0-Beta1Aug 30, 20261.20.5 – 26.2Beta
1.9.2Aug 15, 20261.20.5 – 26.2Release
1.9.2-Beta1Aug 5, 20261.20.5 – 26.2Beta

Latest release on GitHub

Alpha Piscium is open source. Its newest release on GitHub is Alpha Piscium v1.10.0, published on Sep 29, 2026.

Highlight

  • Added parallax mapping with shadowing, SSGI support
  • Added Primary Color Calibration and HSL Color Mixer controls to the display transform (by leed)
  • Improved cloud lighting with a new multiple scattering technique
  • Improved rendering performance across raster geometry, shadows, and post-processing

New

  • Added parallax mapping with shadowing, SSGI support.
  • Added independent RGB primary hue/saturation calibration and eight-band HSL hue, saturation, and luminance controls (by leed)
  • Added configurable color-grading color space and transfer-function settings (by leed)

Improvement

  • Improved cloud lighting with a new multiple scattering technique and boundary confidence
  • Refined cumulus density/noise modeling, lighting, edge shaping, and detail textures
  • Packed solid G-buffer TBN data in view space and removed redundant geometry varyings and shadow transforms
  • Optimized PCSS, SSS, and translucent shadow sampling with reused random inputs, deferred gathers, early exits, and selective material decoding
  • Reduced TAA, FXAA, RCAS, Bloom, and exposure workgroup and dispatch overhead
  • Improved GI denoiser temporal stability

Fix

Read all release notes on GitHub

Before that: Alpha Piscium v1.10.0-Beta2 (Sep 9, 2026), Alpha Piscium v1.10.0-Beta1 (Aug 30, 2026).

Description from the author on Modrinth

Alpha Piscium

High-quality realistic Minecraft shaderpack featuring global illumination, volumetric clouds, atmospheric scattering, and stunning visual effects.

Official Website link: alphapiscium.org/ \
Discord server link: discord.gg/E2Uq2MmHgq

Features

Installation

  1. Download the Alpha Piscium shaders for Minecraft from Modrinth or GitHub Release.
  2. Install Iris shader loader.
  3. Open the Minecraft launcher and choose the Iris profile you just created with the version you're playing.
  4. Launch Minecraft.
  5. Go to Options → Video Settings → Shader Packs, then click Open Shader Pack Folder.
  6. Move the downloaded ZIP file into this folder (.minecraft/shaderpacks).
  7. In-game, select the newly installed pack from the shaders list. (If you select a shader pack using Iris, its filename will turn yellow.)
  8. Click Done or Apply and the shader will be loaded.

FAQ

  • No lighting at night: Please use PBR resource packs. For vanilla style, SPBR is recommended. Otherwise, try Patrix.
  • Can't load shaderpack: Please use Iris with version 1.7 or higher.
  • Everything goes dark when turning back: This is due to the limitations of screenspace techniques. There isn't a perfect way to fix this.
  • Intel GPU: Alpha Piscium uses cutting-edge graphics technology. Unfortunately, Intel doesn't maintain their OpenGL driver well, so Intel GPUs are not supported.
  • AMD GPU: Check if your GPU driver is newer than 22.7.1. If older, please update your driver.
  • Other loading errors: Press Ctrl+D in Iris's shaderpack selection screen, then reload the shaderpack. Make an issue with the error message and the relevant files in .minecraft/patched_shaders as shown in the error message.

Roadmap

1.9 Specular GI

  • Add specular GI

2.0 World Space Tracing

  • Add voxelization and voxel tracing

2.1 DRT Update

  • Release Skibidi DRT
  • HDR mod support?

2.2 Volumetrics shadowing

  • Add cloud shadowing to volumetrics
  • Add screen space shadow to volumetrics

2.3 Local fog

  • Add ground fog

2.4 Cloud shadow

  • Add cloud shadow to terrain rendering
  • Add cloud to reflection/GI

2.5 Cloud update part 1

Improve cloud lighting

  • Add altocumulus
  • Rewrite cirrus modeling

2.6 Cloud udpate part 2

  • Rewrite cumulus modeling
  • Add stratocumulus and nimbostratus

2.7 Upscaling???

  • Add FSR 3.1 (no framegen)

2.8 Parallax mapping???

  • Add steep/smooth parallax mapping
  • Add parallax mapping shadow

AI / LLM Code Disclosure & Compliance Notice

Please be advised that this codebase incorporates software components generated or assisted by Large Language Models (LLMs). If your personal policy, regulatory constraints, or usage criteria prohibit the deployment or execution of AI-generated software, you are requested to immediately cease utilization and remove all instances of Alpha Piscium from your systems.

License

Files under the scripts directory are licensed under the MIT License. All other files are licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Written by Luna5ama. Read it with pictures on Modrinth.

How to install Alpha Piscium

  1. Install Iris (with Sodium) or OptiFine for your Minecraft version: shaders need one of them.

  2. Download the .zip file from Modrinth. Do not unzip it.

  3. In Minecraft, open Options, then Video Settings, then Shader Packs, and click Open Shader Pack Folder.

  4. Drop the .zip file into that folder, pick Alpha Piscium in the list and click Done.

  5. Shaders are heavy on the graphics card. If the game gets slow, pick a lower profile in the shader settings.

Full guide: How to install Minecraft shaders

Compatibility

Minecraft versions
26.x, 1.21, 1.20
Edition
Java
Needs
Nothing else
License
GPL
Price
Free
Upkeep
Actively updated (Nov 11, 2026)

Alpha Piscium compared with similar ones Compare all alternatives

ResourceDownloadsVersionsLast updatePrice
Alpha Pisciumthe one you looked at364K1.20 – 26.xSep 29, 2026Free
Kappa ShaderRRe363.4M1.16 – 1.21Feb 28, 2025Free
FastPBRRRe362M1.18 – 1.21Feb 28, 2025Free
Luster ShadersFourthEcho20K1.21 – 26.x14 days agoFree

Questions

Does Alpha Piscium work on Minecraft 26.x?

Yes. Alpha Piscium supports Minecraft 26.x. All supported versions: 26.x, 1.21, 1.20.

Is Alpha Piscium free?

Yes. Alpha Piscium is free to download from Modrinth.

Is Alpha Piscium still updated?

Yes. The last update came out in the past day.

What are the best alternatives to Alpha Piscium?

The closest ones are Kappa Shader, FastPBR and Luster Shaders. Compare all alternatives

Alternatives to Alpha Piscium

Compare all alternatives ›

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