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Resources / Shaders / Zephyr Starlight

Zephyr Starlight

Experimental real-time path traced shaderpack for Minecraft

ShadersFree1.21
by Kirilpro6284 · listed from Modrinth
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Direct download from Modrinth · 19,299 downloads

Zephyr Starlight screenshot 1Zephyr Starlight screenshot 2Zephyr Starlight screenshot 3

What it does

Zephyr Starlight is a shader pack made by Kirilpro6284. Experimental real-time path traced shaderpack for Minecraft.

It supports Minecraft 1.21. It has been downloaded 19,299 times on Modrinth. The last update came out on Feb 23, 2026.

Supported versions

1.21

Release history

Zephyr Starlight has had 3 releases on Modrinth since Feb 9, 2026. 3 of them came out in the past year. The newest is v0.2.2a-hotfix1, released on Feb 23, 2026. It is made for Minecraft 1.21 – 1.21.11. It runs on Iris. The download is 4.0 MB.

VersionReleasedMinecraftType
v0.2.2a-hotfix1Feb 23, 20261.21 – 1.21.11Alpha
v0.2.2aFeb 22, 20261.21 – 1.21.11Alpha
v0.2.1a-hotfix1Feb 9, 20261.21 – 1.21.11Alpha

Latest release on GitHub

Zephyr Starlight is open source. Its newest release on GitHub is v0.2.2a-hotfix1, published on Feb 23, 2026.

Zephyr Starlight v0.2.2a-hotfix1

Description from the author on Modrinth

⚠️ Disclaimer: This shaderpack is an early work-in-progress so bugs, missing features and performance issues are to be expected.

Features

  • Accurate ray-geometry intersection
  • Path traced diffuse, reflections and sun shadows
  • Temporal anti-aliasing and upsampling
  • Normal & specular mapping support
  • Physically based sky rendering
  • Hillaire multi-scattering approximation
  • Sparse irradiance cache for diffuse multi-bounce approximation
  • Reflection motion vector calculation (no TAA ghosting on reflections)
  • Spatiotemporal denoising
  • Camera effects: motion blur & depth of field
  • Post-processing: auto exposure & chromatic aberration

Compatibility / Mod Support

  • GPUs: NVIDIA, AMD
  • Minecraft - version 1.21 and above
  • Iris - version 1.8.0 and above
  • Optifine - not supported
  • Distant Horizons/Voxy - not supported (planned)
  • OrthoCamera - supported but still broken in a few cases
  • macOS - not supported

Performance Tips

  • Sample count: This directly affects the quality of the lighting. Higher sample counts show less noise and more detailed lighting/reflections at the cost of performance. Keep this at 1 for the best performance.
  • Diffuse Lighting > Denoising Passes: The amount of passes used for diffuse lighting denoising. Even though not as high as sample count, this has a performance impact too. You can still get decent lighting with just 6 passes most of the time, but a pass count of 8 is recommended for the best lighting. You can set this to 0 if you're fine with the noise.
  • If you are in a completely closed room with no outdoor light entering it, set Shadow Samples to 0. This will disable sunlight.
  • Irradiance Cache > Update Interval: The maximum amount of frames that are allowed to pass between updates of the same part of the irradiance cache. Lower values cost more performance, but result in more responsive lighting and less noise in reflections.

Written by Kirilpro6284. Read it with pictures on Modrinth.

How to install Zephyr Starlight

  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 Zephyr Starlight 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
1.21
Edition
Java
Needs
Nothing else
License
CC BY
Price
Free
Upkeep
Actively updated (Nov 11, 2026)

Zephyr Starlight compared with similar ones Compare all alternatives

ResourceDownloadsVersionsLast updatePrice
Zephyr Starlightthe one you looked at19K1.21Feb 23, 2026Free
Lyrae Shaderslucysir47K1.20 – 1.21Jan 23, 2026Free
Serieclorece4,0161.18 – 26.xJun 30, 2026Free
Soft Voxels LiteRRe36598K1.16 – 1.20Jun 12, 2023Free

Questions

Does Zephyr Starlight work on Minecraft 26.x?

Not yet. The newest version it supports is Minecraft 1.21.

Is Zephyr Starlight free?

Yes. Zephyr Starlight is free to download from Modrinth.

Is Zephyr Starlight still updated?

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

What are the best alternatives to Zephyr Starlight?

The closest ones are Lyrae Shaders, Serie and Soft Voxels Lite. Compare all alternatives

Alternatives to Zephyr Starlight

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Free101 downloads
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