Afterburner

Afterburner 0.2.8 (Forge 26.3)

Made for weak PCs (2 cores, 4 GB of RAM, Intel graphics). The game builds only the shaders it uses at startup, so it reaches the title screen about a third sooner (46 s down to 30 s on a 2-core test), and lets go of graphics memory it is not using: the title screen picture while you play, and a full-screen depth buffer while no screen effect needs it. On PCs with under 6 GB of RAM, Java also keeps less spare memory while you play. New options that change the look a little (cheaper fog, half-size glow outline and menu blur, stepped animations) are off by default.

New (each can be switched on or off in the settings)

• Skip Finished Fade-In: Terrain skips the fade-in blend once a chunk has finished appearing. Same picture, a little less work per pixel.
• Free Idle Graphics Memory: Lets go of the title screen's background picture (about 24 MB) while you are in a world, and of an extra screen-sized buffer that is only needed for effects like spectating a creeper. Both come back when needed.
• Half-Size Glow Outline: The outline around glowing entities is drawn at half width and height, which is much lighter on the graphics chip. The outline looks a little softer and wider. Off by default.
• Skip Unused Shaders: Shaders this computer can't use with the current settings (Improved Transparency while it's off, multi-draw terrain on graphics cards that don't use it, debug views) aren't built at startup, and identical ones share one program. Turning a setting on later still works, with a short pause the first time.
• Half Size Menu Blur: The blurred background behind the title screen and the pause menu is worked out at half the width and height, which is much lighter on a weak graphics chip. The blur looks a little softer. Off while a shader pack is active.
• Plain Random Numbers: Every world and every entity drew its random numbers with a locked memory write and a check against other threads on each one, thousands of times a tick. Now they use the game's own plain source, which gives the same numbers. Same results as vanilla.
• Repair Damaged Region Files: When the table at the start of a world's region file is damaged, chunks are found again from the data still in the file instead of being lost, after a copy of the file is kept. Healthy files are never changed. Off by default: switch it on for a broken world.
• Faster Server List: The multiplayer list refreshes faster: more servers are pinged at once, and servers listed by IP address skip a server-redirect lookup that public name servers can never answer. The list shows the same.
• Stepped Animations: Textures that fade smoothly from one frame to the next (command blocks, sculk, magma, prismarine...) jump between frames like the rest, and are only redrawn when the frame changes. Less work for slow graphics chips.
• Faster Block Entity Cleanup: When hoppers, furnaces, spawners and the like go away (chunks unloading, an area cleared, an explosion), each one taken off the list of block entities to tick moved every one after it down the list. With thousands going at once, that could take a tenth of a second or more in one tick. Now the list is tidied in one pass. Same results as vanilla.
• Cheaper Fog: Fog is worked out at the corners of each terrain triangle instead of at every pixel. Slightly less work per pixel; distant fog can look a touch different.

Servers: random ticks, block entity tickers, fluids and villager job sites do less work, and the server list pings faster on dual-core PCs.

Everything else is as in 0.2.7.