# sixthsurge/photon

A gameplay-focused shader pack for Minecraft

Repository: https://github.com/sixthsurge/photon
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/sixthsurge-photon
Language: GLSL
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-07-26T19:12:48+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 75/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 94, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1540, "days_push": 38, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1875, forks 319 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:47.681207+00:00)

## What it is
Photon is a gameplay-focused shader pack for Minecraft written in GLSL, adding realistic lighting, shadows, water, clouds, and post-processing effects. It runs via shader loaders such as Iris (recommended) or OptiFine and offers an extensive in-game settings menu.

## Use cases
- make minecraft look realistic with shaders
- add soft shadows and volumetric fog to minecraft
- get screen-space reflections and better water in minecraft
- shader pack that doesn't hurt gameplay performance
- colored voxel lighting for minecraft with iris
- customize every graphics setting in a minecraft shader

## When to choose
- you play Minecraft with Iris or OptiFine and want high-quality visuals with a gameplay focus
- you want labPBR resource pack support and extensive customization
- you need an actively maintained shader pack with multi-language menus

## When to avoid
- you play on Apple Metal / macOS, which is not supported
- you have a very low-end GPU and can't disable heavy features
- you need a shader pack for a game other than Minecraft

## Facets
- artifact type: plugin
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, simulation, image-processing
- domain: gaming-tools, graphics
- platform: cross-platform
- tags: minecraft-shaderpack, glsl, iris, optifine, ray-tracing-effects, volumetric-lighting, labpbr, game-development, minecraft, gpu

## Member repositories
- sixthsurge/photon (main) score 75

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:47.681207+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:14:47.065993+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/sixthsurge/photon (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:47.681207+00:00, sha fab88ee4c196)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.