This is my personal list of OptiFine replacements. Although other lists exist, this list aims to be an simple feature replacement list that aims not to overwhelm you.
This list was written with 1.18 and 1.17 in mind, but many mods should still be available for 1.16 and 1.15. The critiques of OptiFine aren't relevant to a specific version of the game.
- CarbonGhost's OptiFine alternatives
OptiFine is a ubiquitous mod, and has been around for years. It's feature rich and, historically, has improved performance. However in recent years OptiFine's performance benefits have gotten smaller, and the mod now boasts list of bugs and drawbacks. OptiFine is known to replace large sections of vanilla code, and is now has years of technical debt, and this is all maintained by one person.
As stated above, OptiFine has a long list of issues, some of primary ones are:
- The mod breaks vanilla mechanics
- The mod updates slowly
- The mod has poor compatibility
Going through these point by point. OptiFine breaks vanilla mechanics with a few bugs, sometimes breaking world generation with fast math, as well as increasing player reach, bot to mention any rendering or stability issues that aren't present in vanilla.
OptiFine updates slowly, and Forge updates even slower, if you want to use the mod on the latest update, or in conjunction with other mods, you're likely to be waiting for awhile.
OptiFine has poor compatibility, this is a bigger issue, and not really something the mod can address. Without getting too technical, OptiFine is closed source, making fixing issues with other mods opaque to the end user; And unfortunately, this issue cannot be solved because of the way that OptiFine was developed.
OptiFabric shares all of the same issues as OptiFine when run natively, along with a host of new incompatibilities and bugs. While this implementation of the mod is usable, I can't recommend that it be used.
This list goes by feature and offers a list of mods to replace it, all of these mods are tested and compatible unless otherwise stated. This list is specifically targeted at Fabric, which is a preferable modloader to Forge. If you still wish to use Forge there is a brief section about it here.
Iris is a mod which intends to add full support for OptiFine shaders. This mod provides shader options and is compatible with Sodium.
Supported shaders [Out of date]
Sodium is a mod which provides huge performance gains in rendering. This can be used on it's own, or together with Sodium.
Indium adds a selection of features to Iris and Sodium, this mod is required for connected textures and better grass.
LambdaBetterGrass adds a more detailed implementation of smooth grass as well as better snow and resource pack support Requires Indium
Continuity adds support for MCPatcher connected textures. Requires Indium
Cull Leaves adds an option similar to OptiFine's fast leaves to improve performance.
LambDynamicLights adds a better and more configurable implementation of dynamic lighting to the game.
Bobby allows you to set your view distance higher than what is allowed on the server, by caching previously loaded chunks.
Sodium Extra adds additional features to Iris and Sodium, like fog customization, toggleable animations, togglable particles, configurable cloud height, and more.
MCPPP allows you to port some resource packs that use OptiFine's MCPatcher format to more modern formats.
More Block Predicates adds features that allow further customization of resource packs.
Custom GUI allows resource pack creators to further customize the GUI.
The Custom Entity Models mod adapts MCPatcher's CEM system to be able to be used with modern Fabric mods.
Animatica allows you to use animated textures with the OptiFine format.
OK Zoomer adds a zoom hotkey with adjustable magnification levels and animations.
Armor Visibility allows you to hide yours or other's armor to see your skin more clearly.
Shield Disrupter allows you to hide items (totems, and shields) in your offhand when not in use.
Lithium is a complete game optimization mod that does not break any vanilla mechanics.
Starlight is a mod that optimizes the light engine to be faster while maintaining vanilla mechanics.
Lazy DFU is a simple mod that makes worlds and the game load faster by making some code execute only when needed.
Fabric Capes allows you to fully customize your in-game cape for free.
No View Bob Screen Shake removes the lurching that can occur when view bobbing is enabled that may cause motion sickness.
Inspectio is a fully featured tooltip extension mod, it adds bee hive info, shulker tooltips, and more.
Forge currently does not have a suitable OptiFine replacement, due to many incompatibilities with mods, I cannot recommend either OptiFine nor the Halogen mod (port of Sodium and Lithium).
If you have taken the time to read through the suggestions here, or have compiled this list of mods yourself, you may be wondering why this has to be so difficult, when OptiFine can be installed in about 3 clicks. The answer is that there is no reason for it.
It is my personal opinion that, if ever OptiFine were to fall out of use, the Fabric modding community needs to make an option that is as appealing and easy to use for the average person as OptiFine currently is. The mods exist to replace the majority of the mods features, with equivalent or better results, the last obstacle is widespread adoption, and making the alternatives easy to use.
Written by CarbonGhost
How and why you should run a Fabric server
Shortlink https://tiny.one/nooptifine
updateAdded Animatica.