Photon Engine — Next-Generation Voxel Ray Tracing for Minecraft

Experience Minecraft in a completely new light.

Photon Engine is an advanced, experimental shaderpack designed to push Minecraft Java Edition's graphics to the next level. Combining voxel-based ray tracing, global illumination, realistic reflections, physically based atmospheric rendering, and advanced lighting simulation, Photon Engine aims to bring a cinematic, RTX-inspired visual experience to Minecraft.

Unlike traditional screen-space-only shaders, Photon Engine uses a voxel representation of the surrounding world to simulate lighting and reflections beyond what is currently visible on screen.

Key Features

Advanced Ray-Traced Lighting

• Voxel-based Global Illumination (GI) with multiple light bounces
• ReSTIR-inspired many-light sampling for dynamic light sources
• Realistic colored light bleeding between surfaces
• Soft shadows, contact shadows, and realistic sunlight
• Improved indirect illumination in interiors and caves
• World-space radiance caching

Realistic Water & Reflections

• Hybrid screen-space and voxel-traced reflections
• Realistic water refraction and Fresnel effects
• Dynamic water waves and underwater light absorption
• Water caustics and shoreline foam
• Roughness-aware reflective materials

Atmospheric Simulation

• Physically based atmospheric scattering
• Multi-layer volumetric clouds
• Dynamic cloud shadows
• Volumetric fog and god rays
• Weather-driven atmospheric effects
• Rain wetness and puddles

Advanced Material Rendering

• LabPBR material support
• Parallax Occlusion Mapping (POM)
• Realistic metallic and rough surfaces
• Normal mapping and self-shadowing
• Subsurface scattering
• Improved material lighting even without a PBR resource pack

Multiple Visual Styles

Bedrock RTX Inspired Mode

Experience glossy materials, cinematic lighting, realistic water, atmospheric god rays, and a visual style inspired by Minecraft Bedrock RTX.

Anime / Cel-Shading Mode

Transform your world into an anime-inspired environment featuring stylized lighting, ink-like outlines, vibrant colors, and cartoon-style clouds.

Photon Frame Generation Support

Photon Engine is designed to work with the optional Photon Frame Generation mod, which uses GPU optical flow and depth-based reprojection to generate intermediate frames.

Graphics Presets

Choose the balance between performance and visual quality that suits your hardware:

• Low — Performance-focused settings
• Medium — Reduced graphics cost
• High — Balanced experience
• Ultra — High-quality ray-traced visuals
• Cinematic — Maximum visual fidelity

Requirements

• Minecraft: Java Edition 1.20.1
• Fabric: Iris 1.6.11+ and Sodium
• Forge: Oculus 1.7.0+ and Embeddium
• Graphics: OpenGL 4.3+ compatible GPU
• Recommended target: RTX 3060 or comparable GPU at 1080p
• macOS: Not supported

Important Information

Photon Engine is currently in beta development.

• Ray tracing uses shader-based voxel techniques rather than dedicated hardware RTX acceleration.
• Performance varies depending on graphics settings and GPU capabilities.
• Distant Horizons is not currently supported.
• Entity reflections are limited to screen-space techniques.
• Visual artifacts and compatibility issues may occur during development.

Feedback, bug reports, and suggestions are welcome.