Minecraft:Vibrant Visuals

File:Vibrant Visuals.png

A screenshot showing many of the features in Vibrant Visuals

Vibrant Visuals is a Minecraft:graphics mode that aims to improve the visual looks of Minecraft:Minecraft<ref>Template:YouTube link</ref> by adding directional lighting, physically based textures, pixel-aligned shadows, atmospheric sky, environmental effects, and various other visual features based on Template:W. It is built with the Minecraft:RenderDragon engine<ref name="gdc">Template:Citation</ref> around a Template:W pipeline used for deferred lighting and Template:W.<ref name="vibrant-visuals">Template:Cite</ref><ref>Template:Cite Discord</ref> It runs locally on the player's device, and can be enabled in the player's settings rather than world specific settings.<ref>Template:Ytl</ref>

Most configurations and textures can be customized using Minecraft:resource packs, and various tagged Minecraft:Marketplace add-ons make use of custom Vibrant Visuals packs.<ref name="marketplace" />

Vibrant Visuals affects only the graphical appearance of Minecraft; it does not affect gameplay. However, enabling Vibrant Visuals on lower-end devices (especially with high render distance and higher graphics settings) can decrease game performance significantly, which can affect the game experience.

Features

Vibrant Visuals moves most visual shading to the Template:W passes on different resolutions, except water and transparencies handled by Template:W. The game calculates Template:W and depth to shade the albedo color image, for a similar result to ambient occlusion in classic graphics.<ref name="gdc" /> It also calculates the image's Template:W, which is affected by various lighting mechanics.

Physically based rendering

File:Dark vibrant comparison.jpg

A comparison of the default and Vibrant Visuals textures, outside a woodland mansion

After the base rendering passes, the game applies Template:W (PBR), which simulates realistic lighting behaviors between different surface materials. This is achieved by creating different texture maps for every Minecraft:block, Minecraft:entity, Minecraft:item, and Minecraft:particle, which define specific characteristics of the surface material per pixel.<ref name="texture-map">Template:Cite</ref> A Minecraft:texture set is used to specify these texture maps for an object in a Minecraft:resource pack.<ref name="texture-set">Template:Cite</ref> Four maps — metalness, emissive, roughness, and subsurface scattering (collectively known as MERS) — define the material's properties. Each property in MERS is assigned to RGBA textures (four channel): red to metalness, green to emissive, blue to roughness, and alpha to subsurface.

Reflections

File:Vibrant Visuals PBR reflections.png

Metallic surfaces like copper fully reflect sunlight and emissive light, smooth surfaces like smooth quartz and Minecraft:bricks only reflect sunlight, and rough surfaces like Minecraft:wood reflect nothing.

Object reflections are heavily affected by their metalness and roughness properties. Metallic surfaces reflect light directly and combine that reflection with their own color. Non-metallic surfaces like Minecraft:grass, Minecraft:dirt, and tree barks show more solid color and less reflection. A surface with low roughness is very smooth, resulting in sharp, mirror-like reflections, compared with high roughness that results in blurry, diffuse reflections.

File:Zuri's vibrant boat ride.jpg

Direct specular, screen space, and cubemap reflections on the surface of water

File:Vibrant Visuals reflection quality comparison.gif

The amount of blocks reflected depends on the "Reflections" setting. "Off" will also disable cubemap reflections. Subsurface scattering is visible on the leaves.

The game uses Template:W (SSR) and Template:W (IBL) to create dynamic reflections which appear on these surfaces.<ref name="lighting">Template:Cite</ref> SSR generates reflections by reusing what's already visible on the screen. They are limited by the objects and parts of the world that are currently visible in the camera's view, which can cause reflections to fade or disappear near the edges of the screen. In contrast, IBL reflections, used to reflect Minecraft:clouds and the sky, aren't limited by what is already displayed on the screen but often appear low resolution and distorted. They use Template:W, which are affected by environmental lighting and atmospheric scattering.<ref name="cubemap" />

Directional light sources are reflected as Template:W with the Template:W,<ref name="gdc" /> creating a single bright spot moving with the eye position. This is not limited by the current image, but always visible.

Most blocks and entities in Vibrant Visuals with high metalness only reflect light sources and do not completely mirror areas. Minecraft:Water surfaces are fully reflective and properly mirror the area surrounding them, including the fading by Minecraft:fog. The variety of metalness and roughness in texture maps makes nearby reflections appear pixelated. The indirect specular reflection quality can be configured under the video settings, which affects their resolution and distance at which they appear.

Surface glows

File:Vibrant Visuals emissive textures.png

Various emissive textures in a cave

Pixels can appear to glow in the dark environment through the emissive texture map. This map defines which parts of a texture should be self-illuminated. It uses the green color channel in the MERS texture; areas of the map that are solid green will glow at full intensity, with different shades of the color affecting their intensity, while black areas will be unaffected by the emissive property. Emissive surfaces do not cast light onto surrounding blocks or entities, and therefore do not cast proper shadows. However, their glow remains visible even in complete darkness, making them appear bright and distinct. They also produce a light bloom effect, which makes their color bleed into the surrounding areas.

Some entities and blocks — like Minecraft:drowned, Minecraft:spiders, Minecraft:sculk, certain dropped items, and firefly particles — use emissive texture maps and produce glowing effect. This effect is often contributed by their natural block Minecraft:lighting (like Minecraft:torches and Minecraft:glowstone), which makes the glow appear more intense and realistic. When emissive textures are reflected, their reflections are also emissive from Cook-Torrance BRDF.

Subsurface scattering

The fourth map, Template:W, simulates an effect of light shining through thin surfaces, like Minecraft:leaves.<ref name="subsurface" /> This effect is applied to blocks exposed to directional lighting, and blends to roughly one block deep for the strongest effects. Diffuse from directional light (see below) penetrates through the surface and will also apply to the backside of affected objects, occluded with the shadow mapping.<ref name="gdc" /> Pixels affected by subsurface scattering can never be affected by metalness and vice versa, although they can still be smooth and create specular highlights.

Directional lighting and shadows

File:Sunlight Vibrant Visuals.png

Pixelated shadows created by the sun on all objects

The primary light sources in Vibrant Visuals are global directional lights, including the Minecraft:sun and the Minecraft:moon in the Minecraft:Overworld, and Minecraft:End flashes in the Minecraft:End.<ref name="lighting" /> Depending on the location of the light source in the sky, they illuminate all objects directly exposed to them with their color, using direct diffuse with Template:W.<ref name="gdc" />

The roughness texture map affects how direct diffuse colors the objects, and subsurface scattering allows it to slightly penetrate through the surface. Light also shines through Minecraft:glass panes and other supported transparent blocks, where it has the same effects on objects behind it.

Directional light sources cast shadows on all objects, including held items on the Minecraft:HUD. The object that creates the shadow and the location of the light source affects the shape, size, and direction of the shadow. Unlike shadows in most shaders, shadows are pixelated to match the resolution of other textures and align with the pixel grid. Shadows can be created by any Minecraft:block that can obstruct lighting, most Minecraft:particles, and Minecraft:entities, including Minecraft:players. Animated objects, like animated player Minecraft:skins or the tentacles of a Minecraft:ghast, create animated shadows as well. Minecraft:Dropped items always create pixelated round shadows. Shadows are rendered at a lower quality at higher distances, which can be configured in the settings.

End flash

File:Vibrant Visuals End flash.gif

A flash in the End. Notice the shadows created by chorus plants.

The End flash is an effect in the Minecraft:End sky that is exclusive to Vibrant Visuals.Template:Until Flashes of directional lighting occur once every 30 seconds at random spots above the horizon. As a directional light source, End flashes illuminate the environment with a purple color and create shadow and reflection effects. Each flash lasts between 5 and 19 seconds, with fading at the beginning and the end, while also producing a sound. Flashes can be disabled in the accessibility settings.

Colored lighting

File:Vibrant Visuals point lights comparison.png

Point lights on and off, showing how they tint volumetric fog and the surrounding area.

If the "Minecraft:Render Dragon Features for Creators" experiment is enabled in Minecraft:Minecraft Preview, and "point lights" are turned on in the settings, light-emitting blocks like Minecraft:torches emit directional light and cast dynamic shadows as well. The light is emitted from a single point at the center of a block, hence the name, and the strength is affected by the block's Minecraft:lighting. This light is colored, and blends additively.

The quality of point lighting and the shadows created by point lights can be adjusted in the settings, or turned off.

File:Vibrant Visuals light colors.png

All different light colors, from both point lighting and static lighting

In addition to point lighting, all other blocks with block lighting create static colored light. Both static colored lights and point lights tint Minecraft:volumetric fog and blend into the environment. The following blocks are affected by point lighting, or have unique static light colors:

Other light sources

File:Sky and directional light.png

Directional lighting is visible in caves until the sky light level hits 0. Ambient and block lighting are still visible past this point.

The final stage of illuminating the image is block, ambient, and sky lighting using indirect diffuse on the surface.

Vibrant Visuals redefines the classic lighting model to realistic approaches with physically accurate values, while keeping the base Minecraft:light appearance from Minecraft. Block lighting simulates the classic Template:W shape with more dynamic illumination and coloring, which also allows static light coloration.Template:Note

Without directional light sources, objects are lit by ambient lighting, to prevent them from rendering pitch black. Ambient lighting has a Minecraft:dimension-dependent strength (0.02 in the Minecraft:Overworld, 0.5 in the Minecraft:Nether, and 0.125 in the Minecraft:End), which illuminates any object. This makes the Nether bright even without light sources, while Overworld caves are much darker.

Overworld Minecraft:sky exposure affects gameplay with the Minecraft:internal light level. To visualize this effect, Vibrant Visuals applies an additional global illumination to objects with higher sky light levels, even in shadows without directional light, making them blend in more with bright areas. In lower sky light levels, diffuse by directional lighting has a stronger contrast with the shadows. When the sky light level is 0, global directional lighting is disabled entirely.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>

Minecraft:Night Vision heavily increases ambient light during nighttime, making caves appear fully bright and shadows no darker than the environment at night. It does not change fog or brightness on the surface of the Overworld like in other graphics modes.

When the player has Minecraft:Blindness or Minecraft:Darkness, global directional lighting is deactivated and the scene appears as in a cave. Under fog effects other than Overworld atmospherics, Blindness and Darkness use the same colors as without the effect, instead of black.

Environmental effects

Each Minecraft:biome and Minecraft:dimension has unique effects for lighting and color that greatly affect the scene. Biome-dependent effects include atmospherics, color grading, volumetric fog, and lighting (excluding point lights). In transitions between biomes, the game automatically blends the effects.<ref name="biome" />

Atmospherics

The sky color of a biome in Vibrant Visuals is defined at the horizon and the zenith using enhanced distance fog, which also fades distant objects.<ref name="atmospherics" /> When these colors are different, the sky will blend these colors between the horizon and the zenith. For example, Minecraft:deserts and Minecraft:badlands have a light orange/green sky and fog color, snowy biomes have a light blue or white color, and pale gardens have a gray color. The color and intensity of sunlight and moonlight are affected by the biome as well, which affects directional specular highlights and the illumination of all objects hit by light sources.

The atmosphere is affected by Template:W which illuminates the sky colors.<ref name="atmospherics" /> There is also Template:W shaped around the sun near the horizon, creating an additional section of the sky tinted and illuminated by a mix of sunlight and atmosphere colors.

File:Vibrant Visuals volumetric fog comparison.png

width=314x314

Vibrant Visuals enhances fog effects with dynamic Minecraft:volumetric fog, creating a tinted haze around directional light sources.<ref name="fog" /> As directional lighting passes through volumetric fog, it gets scattered and absorbed, fading or even blocking the view. It appears in the air exposed to directional lighting; when the camera is inside the effects surround the camera, looking at the light source shows more illumination; when the camera is outside, the effects are visible as light rays falling between objects such as blocks and entities. Certain biomes, like swamps and pale gardens, have denser volumetric fog effects with unique strengths depending on the lighting.

With the Template:W, volumetric fog can create light shafts for scattering in the air. When the camera is inside volumetric fog, directional lighting scatters into variable light shafts in diffuse directions, which depends on the biome. Volumetric fog can be disabled in the settings, and the quality of light shafts and distance fading can be adjusted.

Daylight cycle

File:Vibrant Visuals sun beams.png

Sunbeams and different sky colors during sunrise

All atmospheric effects gradually change during the Minecraft:time of day,<ref name="keyframe" /> for example, mie scattering effects only apply during sunrise or sunset, and the sky, sun, and moon colors are constantly changing. The color of sunlight is darker orange and more dimly lit at sunrise and sunset, gradually increasing in brightness and turning yellow/white at noon. Moonlight is light gray/blue with a much lower illuminance.

At night, the sky color is black at zenith and blue at horizon, appearing almost entirely black due to the dim moonlight and weakened rayleigh scattering. The rising sun illuminates this while the horizon changes from purple, to pink, to bright orange, and eventually gray with high illumination, in contrast to a deep blue sky. Sunset applies these graphics in reverse, but instead of pink, the horizon turns brown for a while.

The colored horizon appears lower in the sky during the night, and gradually higher at daytime. Mie scattering at sunrise and sunset combines the changing sunlight and sky colors into unique appearances for each part of the sky.

Different temperature-based color grading settings distinguish biomes with different temperatures, making especially cold biomes appear gray/blue, and warm biomes colored orange.<ref name="color-grading-tone-mapping" /> Color grading is applied as a post-processing effect to the whole image, including blocks, light, and the sky.

Biome settings

Most biomes, including Minecraft:unused biomes, use default settings for fog, atmospherics, lighting, and color grading, or share a common setting with a specific climate, while some biomes have unique settings.

• Fog settings are split into default, semi-humid, and humid. Minecraft:Ice spikes, Minecraft:mushroom fields, Minecraft:swamps, Minecraft:pale gardens, Minecraft:dark forests, and the End have unique fog settings.
  • For a complete overview of these settings, see Template:Slink.
• In order from warm color temperature, color grading is split into Minecraft:desert, Minecraft:mesa, warmish, Minecraft:mangrove swamp, default, coolish, cold, and Minecraft:ice spikes.
  • Minecraft:Lush caves use warmish color grading with a higher contrast.
  • Mesa biomes have a lower saturation value than other biomes.
  • For more details about these settings, see Template:Slink.
• Most biomes share their lighting settings with the default, but some specific settings differ.
  • Minecraft:Mushroom fields have dynamic purple sunlight colors, while Minecraft:pale gardens and Minecraft:ice spikes have a static light gray sunlight color.
  • Minecraft:Dark forests, ice spikes, and pale gardens have significantly lower sunlight illuminances.
  • Warmish biomes have a more deep blue moonlight color. Minecraft:Deserts increase this effect, while pale gardens have a more light gray moonlight color.
  • Cold and coolish biomes have slightly stronger sunlight at sunrise and sunset.
  • See Template:Slink for more details.
• Various biomes have unique zenith colors. The final color of the sky also depends on directional light sources, fog, and color grading.
  • Minecraft:Dark forests have a slightly darker blue zenith color at daytime.
  • Minecraft:Swamps use a dull brown/green zenith color.
  • Minecraft:Mangrove swamps have a brighter blue zenith color.
  • Minecraft:Deserts use a turquoise zenith color, Minecraft:mesas slightly increase this effect.
  • Warmish biomes, deserts, and mesas have slightly brighter blue zenith colors at nighttime.
  • In Minecraft:ice spikes and Minecraft:mushroom fields, the daytime zenith is light gray. In Minecraft:pale gardens, this is dark gray.
• Some biomes also have unique horizon colors at certain times of day.
  • Minecraft:Mesa biomes have a brown horizon at daytime.
  • Minecraft:Pale gardens have a slightly more gray daytime horizon. Minecraft:Ice spikes also lack an orange sunset/sunrise.
  • Mushroom fields have a very bright yellow/green horizon at daytime, bright red at sunset, dark purple at nighttime, and bright purple at sunrise.

• The End sky uses unique black/dark purple atmospherics, rendered on top of the Minecraft:End sky texture, and a dense purple volumetric fog effect is visible during an End flash.
• The sky in all Minecraft:Nether biomes uses the same atmospheric colors as without Vibrant Visuals to tint the fog. The effect is achieved with static atmosphere colors, illuminated by red moonlight (although the moon is invisible) and minimal rayleigh scattering, with slight differences between the biomes. The red "moonlight" also gives a red tint to the Minecraft:Nether roof.

See Template:Slink for details about all atmospheric scattering values.

• The sky in warm biomes<ref name="warm sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Without humid fog: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink</ref>
  The sky in warm biomes<ref name="warm sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Without humid fog:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink</ref>
• The sky in temperate biomes<ref name="temperate sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink With semi-humid fog: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink</ref>
  The sky in temperate biomes<ref name="temperate sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  With semi-humid fog:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink</ref>
• The sky with coolish color grading<ref name="coolish sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink With semi-humid fog: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink</ref>
  The sky with coolish color grading<ref name="coolish sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  With semi-humid fog:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink</ref>
• The sky with cold color grading<ref name="cold sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink With semi-humid fog: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink</ref>
  The sky with cold color grading<ref name="cold sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  With semi-humid fog:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink</ref>
• The sky in a mangrove swamp
  The sky in a mangrove swamp
• The sky in lush caves
  The sky in lush caves
• The sky in Minecraft:deserts, desert hills, and desert lakes
  The sky in Minecraft:deserts, desert hills, and desert lakes
• The sky in mesa biomes<ref name="mesa sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes: Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink Template:BiomeLink</ref>
  The sky in mesa biomes<ref name="mesa sky" group="note">Includes the following biomes:
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink
  Template:BiomeLink</ref>
• The sky in Minecraft:swamps and swamp hills
  The sky in Minecraft:swamps and swamp hills
• The sky in mushroom fields and mushroom field shores
  The sky in mushroom fields and mushroom field shores
• The sky in ice spikes
  The sky in ice spikes
• The sky in a pale garden
  The sky in a pale garden
• The sky in a dark forest and dark forest hills
  The sky in a dark forest and dark forest hills
• The sky with volumetric fog during an End flash
  The sky with volumetric fog during an End flash

Clouds

File:Vibrant Visuals clouds.png

Clouds with Vibrant Visuals. Note the shadows.

Minecraft:Clouds have more detail and are illuminated by directional light on the edges, making large clouds appear much darker than smaller clouds. Furthermore, clouds can block sunlight or moonlight and cast shadows on the ground. When a cloud covers the sun or moon, the sky and the environment darken and change colors. As a form of scattering, clouds are dynamically tinted by global lighting, which is unique for every biome, weather event, and the time of day.

Unlike other graphics modes, clouds are rendered past the horizon up to 128 chunks. The cloud distance can be adjusted in the Vibrant Visuals options.

Weather effects

File:Rain Vibrant Visuals.png

Rainfall in a forest, where the environment is tinted slightly more yellow than without Vibrant Visuals.

File:Snowfall Vibrant Visuals.png

Snowfall with Vibrant Visuals, with a bright glow in the sky

During Minecraft:weather events including Minecraft:rainfall, Minecraft:snowfall, and Minecraft:thunderstorms, global directional light sources are hidden and the denser fog atmospherics and clouds change to the static colors from classic graphics modes. Color grading still applies, making rain and snow look unique for every biome. Bright mie scattering is still visible at the position of the sun and colored white. Without directional lighting, dynamic shadows and volumetric fog aren't visible.

Unlike in other graphics modes, atmospherics and lighting do not change in dry biomes. During thunderstorms or when a Minecraft:wither is nearby, sky light is heavily reduced, making the contribution of directional light more visible. This results in more unique, yellow-brown colors of the sky, clouds, and lighting, and much darker shadows, even in dry biomes. This effect is barely noticable with rainfall in dry biomes, because reduces the sky light less than thunderstorms.

Water effects

The Minecraft:water color texture is not rendered, making it completely transparent. Instead, water volumes scatter light and accumulate fog, creating a deep blue hue in oceans and tinting underwater objects.<ref name="water" />Template:Note The surface uses MERS textures, making light reflect on smooth pixels in the invisible color texture. Despite this, small bodies of water appear almost invisible, and large bodies are more transparent in general, with a less saturated blue color compared to classic graphics modes. Biome-specific water colors are not applied to the surface or light scattering, but some "tweaks in different biomes" have been announced for future updates.<ref name="evolving">Template:Mcnet</ref>

When the Minecraft:player's eye level is inside water, underwater Minecraft:fog appears more dynamically tinted by directional lighting, brighter in vertical directions and darker in horizontal directions. Looking at a bright area when the camera is in the dark, the fog is illuminated where light falls down. Additionally, underwater volumetric fog effects colors this bright blue, creating light beams falling through the water. These light beams can be obstructed and scattered by objects and fog effects.

When directional lighting hits a surface underwater, water caustics are projected on that surface.Template:Note Water caustics are randomly animated, and certain parts appear brighter than others, depending on the light projecting the water caustics. The effect of Template:W appears when looking at any water surface from underwater.

Water effects do not apply to water in Minecraft:cauldrons, which is rendered like in Fancy graphics.

• Sunbeams underwater
  Sunbeams underwater
• A dark aquifer with directional light falling inside
  A dark aquifer with directional light falling inside
• Water caustics in a Minecraft:desert. Note the caustics projected on the dry sand behind the waterfall.
  Water caustics in a Minecraft:desert. Note the caustics projected on the dry sand behind the waterfall.
• Coral structures and fish obstruct sunlight, the lack of water caustics simulates a shadow effect.
  Coral structures and fish obstruct sunlight, the lack of water caustics simulates a shadow effect.
• A close look of Snell's window. Inside, the water surface is fully transparent although fog still renders behind. Outside, the water surface is fully reflective.
  A close look of Snell's window. Inside, the water surface is fully transparent although fog still renders behind. Outside, the water surface is fully reflective.

Post processing effects

Post-processing effects are visual elements that are not directly produced by either PBR or direct lighting sources, but are instead applied after the scene is fully rendered. There are multiple post-processing effects applied by Vibrant Visuals, such as:

• Template:W which appears on high-luminance areas, notably emissive textures and reflections, directional light sources, direct specular highlights, and mie scattering. It creates a soft and hazy aura of light around the glowing object, with the colors bleeding out around the object. The effect's intensity can be configured on the video settings.
• When the camera is looking at a high luminance, either directional lighting, emissive textures, or bright diffuse,<ref>Template:Bug</ref> the whole view gets darkened by Template:W.
  • Auto-exposure gradually fades in or out when the luminance changes to as a simulation of Template:W.
• Upscaling which is done from low-resolution scene renders. The game usually renders the scene at a lower resolution and upscales it to the native resolution to improve video performance. This effect can be configured on the video settings, where the player can set between TAAU (Template:W Upsampling) and Template:W mode, and the final resolution quality. In general, TAAU makes the game use multiple frames to create a crisper upscaled frame, while Bilinear stretches the frame to fit the screen, more suitable for low-end devices.
• Template:W which controls the saturation, contrast, gain, and gamma of the final image.<ref name="color-grading-tone-mapping">Template:Cite</ref>
  • There is an additional temperature-based color grading which makes the scene look "warmer" with more yellow and orange colors, and "cooler" with more blue color. 14 different color grading effects are applied based on the Minecraft:biome, some biomes also have different contrast or saturation.
• Template:W is also used to remap the colors from the initial Template:W to Template:W, as Minecraft is not supported in HDR.<ref name="color-grading-tone-mapping"/> Mojang Studios developed a generic filmic tone mapping curve, which preserves tint in higher luminance regions, making the scene appear brighter and more vibrantly colored.

• The bloom effect around the sun and its specular reflections. Volumetric fog is disabled to show just the effect.
  The bloom effect around the sun and its specular reflections. Volumetric fog is disabled to show just the effect.
• A comparison of a firefly bush with bloom set to 0% (bottom) and 100% (top)
  A comparison of a firefly bush with bloom set to 0% (bottom) and 100% (top)
• Auto exposure is very noticable when attacking a zombie with Minecraft:Fire Aspect weapons.
  Auto exposure is very noticable when attacking a zombie with Minecraft:Fire Aspect weapons.

Panorama

An exclusive Minecraft:panorama is shown when using Vibrant Visuals. The cubemap consists of HDR image files, which are rendered using the post-processing effects from Vibrant Visuals. Specifically, the image uses the default data-driven color grading settings, and the gamma, upscaling mode, and resolution settings affect it.

Applying

Vibrant Visuals can be toggled on in the video settings in the graphics mode dropdown menu.<ref>Template:Cite</ref> The graphics mode can only be changed in-game when "Allow In-Game Graphics Mode Switching" is turned on, but this can have negative impact on performance and not all devices support this.

If playing Minecraft:multiplayer, not everyone needs to have it activated to play in the world; one player could have it activated, whilst other players could have it inactive since it's a local setting.

Vibrant Visuals options

File:Low quality VV.png

Vibrant Visuals at the lowest quality settings. Bloom and volumetric fog are disabled, SSR reflections are not visible, and shadows have a lower resolution.

The quality of specific features from Vibrant Visuals as well as some technical options can be adjusted in the Vibrant Visuals options, below the graphics mode setting. These options can be preset to the "Favor Performance" for a better experience on lower-end devices, or "Favor Visuals" for a higher quality of Vibrant Visuals on high-end devices. The options can also be adjusted individually.

The render distance for Vibrant Visuals is controlled by the "Deferred Render Distance" slider instead of the regular render distance slider. This slider can be set between 8-28 chunks (may be lower on some devices), but can be changed to any value chunks in Minecraft:options.txt. Higher render distances than 128 chunks will result in the game not loading any chunks further than 128 chunks away from the player, and even higher render distances can lead to glitched visual effects or crashes. Lower render distances than 8 chunks will result in the game not loading any chunks further away than the set render distance, but chunks won't be unloaded until they are further away than 8 chunks. A render distance of 0 chunks results in no chunks being loaded, but Minecraft:entities and Minecraft:particles are still visible.

The regular brightness setting is not available when using Vibrant Visuals, but the brightness can be calibrated in a separate menu in the Vibrant Visuals options. This also affects the brightness of the Minecraft:panorama.

Configurations

All options related to Vibrant Visuals have configurations for specific devices. The default settings for each preset, and the renderer configurations per setting differs between devices. The setting configurations can be found in Template:File as JSON files, with all renderer configurations located in a "lods" sub-directory. These files contain all available options per device, and a platform_configuration.json file contains all defaults for each generic graphics setting. There are separate configurations for three Android memory tiers, Xbox One (X) and Xbox Series X|S, all PS4 and PS5 consoles, three iOS devices memory tiers, and four Windows memory tiers.

There are also configurations for ChromeOS and Nintendo Switch, indicating that Vibrant Visuals may become available on those devices in the future.

This directory also contains configurations for features that are not customizable in resource packs, including tone mapping curves, deferred shading parameters, light clustering, luminance configurations, weather effects, .bin material files, anda brdf_lut.png image used to calibrate BRDF specular and diffuse reflections.

Availability

Vibrant Visuals is available to use on the following platforms:<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Platform	Supported devices
Windows	Graphics card and graphics driver with support for DirectX 12 with feature level 12.1. For Intel GPUs, Intel graphics driver 31.0.101.3430 or later is required for Minecraft to run on DirectX 12.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>
Android	Devices running on Adreno 640, Mali-G68, Mali-G77, Xclipse 530 or higher. Enabled by default on Adreno 740, Mali-G615, Mali-G720, Xclipse 920 or higher.
iOS	A12 Bionic or higher: iPhone XR or later iPhone SE (2020) or later iPhone Air (2025)
iPadOS	A12 Bionic, A12X Bionic, M1 or higher: iPad (2020) or later iPad mini (2019) or later iPad Air (2019) or later iPad Pro (2018) or later
Xbox	Xbox One (disabled by default) Xbox One S (disabled by default) Xbox One X Xbox Series X Xbox Series S
PlayStation	PlayStation 4 (disabled by default) PlayStation 4 Slim (disabled by default) PlayStation 4 Pro PlayStation 5 PlayStation 5 Slim PlayStation 5 Pro

Vibrant Visuals is currently not supported on Template:W devices, Template:W tablets, or Template:W consoles. Minecraft:Mojang Studios intends to bring Vibrant Visuals, either fully or partially, to as many devices as possible.<ref name="article">Template:Mcnet</ref> Though not strictly official, Vibrant Visuals may also be supported on Template:W systems by playing Bedrock Edition through a custom Template:W compatibility layer (see related tutorial).

Some Minecraft:servers may disable Vibrant Visuals during the game using disable-client-vibrant-visuals in Minecraft:server.properties, even when available on singleplayer. All Minecraft:featured servers besides Minecraft:Mob Maze and Minecraft:The Hive<ref group="note">Requires to enable an additional toggle in Template:UI and rejoin the server.</ref> have disabled Vibrant Visuals, although this restriction can be circumvented by using third-party modification software.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Minecraft Minecraft:Realms has Vibrant Visuals enabled.

During local Minecraft:splitscreen multiplayer on consoles, the graphics mode is restricted to Fancy or lower.

Vibrant Visuals has limited compatibility with Minecraft:resource packs, which may be part of an Minecraft:add-on. Resource packs without the pbr capability restrict the graphics mode to Fancy or lower.<ref name="resources" /> When a pack has metadata.product_type set to addon Vibrant Visuals can be enabled, regardless of the pbr capability. Custom textures from the add-on's resource pack default to 0% metalness, 0% emissiveness, 100% roughness, and 0% subsurface scattering.

Java Edition

Vibrant Visuals is currently planned to be added to Template:JE at some point in the future. In preparation, developers are rebuilding the game's rendering code into a dedicated thread, and updating them with "modern approaches to rendering".<ref name="java"/><ref name="rendering-thread"/> To allow newer graphical features and sustain compatibility with all platforms supporting Java Edition, the game will switch to Template:W, a modern graphics technology, replacing the deprecated Template:W API.<ref name="vulkan"/> During development, this can be toggled in-game.Template:Upcoming

Customization

File:Ore UI - Project Vibrant Visuals Settings Menu (Bedrock Editor).png

The Vibrant Visuals Settings window in Bedrock Editor

Vibrant Visuals can be customized with a Minecraft:resource pack. A pack with pbr capability in its Minecraft:manifest.json can define PBR for each individual texture with a texture set.<ref name="resources">Template:Cite</ref> They can also configure light sources, atmospheric effects, volumetric fog and light shafts, color grading and tone mapping, and many more.<ref name="vibrant-visuals" />

Vibrant Visuals is also compatible with resource packs that are designed for Minecraft:ray tracing (with raytraced capability). All ray tracing resource packs only support MER (metalness, emissive, and roughness) for its textures, and these can be applied for blocks only.<ref name="texture-set" /> Vibrant Visuals resource packs however, support MER and subsurface scattering (MERS), and its textures can be applied for entities, mobs, particles, and items.

Global lighting, atmospherics, color grading, cubemaps, and water effects can be customized for each Minecraft:biome.<ref name="biome">Template:Cite</ref> Multiple JSON configuration files can be stored in each directory as long as they have different names and identifiers, which are not the same as the global configurations. To apply settings to a biome, the identifier of the JSON file must be included in the client biome JSON file in Template:File, in the minecraft:setting_identifier components. The configurations will be blended automatically on biome borders, except for tone mapping, orbital offset, caustics, and waves enabled/disabled, which should use the same settings globally.

Resource packs that customize Vibrant Visuals can quickly be created with Minecraft:Bedrock Editor.<ref>Template:Cite</ref> The Vibrant Visuals Settings window allows most JSON configurations to be changed in a graphical environment, and the effects are directly visible in-game. All settings are not saved, but each JSON file can be copied to the clipboard, or a resource pack with all settings can be auto-generated. Once generated, Download Resource Pack will import the pack in Minecraft:mctools.dev, where the pack can be directly exported or further customized.

In the Editor, settings for existing biomes or configurations can be changed, and even new configurations may be added. A biome can be selected with Target Biome (Target Biomes By Location selects the player's current biome), if custom biomes are used the Minecraft:namespace can be changed to disambiguate. Next, the Config Set for Biome selects which settings file is used for the selected configurations. This allows to reorganize vanilla settings in a biome, and the raw JSON text of the client biome file can be copied. A new configuration file can also be created, with a custom namespace and identifier (both cannot have spaces), and it can be auto-filled by inserting the raw JSON content in the Inport button.

Texture sets

File:Vibrant Visuals subsurface scattering comparison.png

A comparison of leaves with maximum (bottom) and without (top) subsurface scattering

Textures from Minecraft:blocks, Minecraft:entities, Minecraft:items (held, displayed, and dropped), and Minecraft:particles use texture sets to calculate how light behaves on the texture, regarding reflections and emissiveness.<ref name="texture-map" /> Texture sets cannot be customized with Bedrock Editor. On top of the regular RGBA Minecraft:texture maps, which control the colors and transparency, Vibrant Visuals uses six new maps for other properties of each pixel, including metalness, emissive, roughness, subsurface scattering, normal, and height maps. The first four are all created in one four-channel image file, collectively known as MERS values (or MER without subsurface scattering).

• Metalness is a texture map on the red channel that affect how metallic pixels look, which makes them more reflective. Pixels can use metalness values between black (non-metallic) and red (completely metalic), where metalness for values in between is affected by the brightness.
• The green channel emissive map is used for pixels that emit light. Black pixels do not emit light at all, and any brighter values result in emissive textures. Pure white pixels are emissive at its brightest. The desaturation of the pixel's colors can be adjusted per biome in Template:File.
• Subsurface scattering is an effect created by light shining on translucent surfaces.<ref name="subsurface">Template:Cite</ref> It is a map based on the alpha channel where opaque pixels allow more subsurface scattering. This texture map cannot be used in conjunction with the metalness map; if both are provided only the highest value will be applied (subsurface scattering when tied).
• Roughness is a blue channel texture map affecting how "rough" pixels are, which can block reflection effects. Black pixels are very smooth and allow all reflections caused by the metalness map, while blue pixels only allow (distorted) light reflection.
• The Template:W is an RGB texture map which affect the depth of the pixel and how light rays are reflected. The RGB elements correspond to XYZ coordinates of the pixel, with (128, 128, 255) being completely flat.
• Height maps are similar to normal maps but in grayscale, allowing less possible textures. Black pixels appear to extrude inward to the object, and white pixels extrude outward. Combining black and white pixels next to each other can create height variation on which light can reflect, while creating a shadow behind. Heightmaps cannot be used together with normal maps.

File:Heightmap texture example.png

An example of a texture pack utilizing heightmaps

Texture maps can be quickly created using Minecraft:Blockbench,<ref>Template:Cite</ref> which may require plugins to customize textures. The PBR textures need to be placed, named like block/particle/entity/item ID_mers / _mer / _height / _normal, in Template:File, in the sub-directory containing textures for the object type. Texture maps can be stored in .tga, .png, .jpg, and .jpeg formats. To make the game replace the default textures with a custom texture set, it needs to be specified in a texture set JSON file, on file for each texture, located in the same sub-directory as the texture itself. All texture maps specified in the texture set are required in the same resource pack.<ref name="texture-set" />

Instead of creating texture maps, the JSON file can also be used to apply uniform MERS or RGBA values to the whole texture.

texture_set.json format

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt: The 3-part schema version used in the file. It needs to be at least "1.16.100" but requires "1.21.30" when using MERS texture sets instead of MER.
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: Required, the name of the "regular" texture file in the same sub-directory providing the visible colors. This can also be an RGB array or HEX string to make the whole texture use one color.
    • Template:Nbt: The name of the normal map file, cannot be used together with heightmaps.
    • Template:Nbt: The name of the heightmap file, cannot be used together with normal maps.
    • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The name of the MER file, cannot be used together with MERS. This can also be an RGB array or HEX string to make the whole texture use one color.
    • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The name of the MERS file, cannot be used together with MER. This can also be an RGB array or HEX string to make the whole texture use one color.

Fallback values

When a resource pack does not contain one or more texture maps, the missing texture maps will default to the vanilla textures instead. However, for custom textures as part of an Minecraft:add-on, all pixels default to values specified in a customizable JSON file in Template:File.<ref>Template:Cite</ref>

global.json format

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt: The 3-part schema version used in the file, requires "1.21.40".
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt global_metalness_emissive_roughness_subsurface: The default MERS value to use for blocks when not defined via texture maps; supports RGBA array or HEX string
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt global_metalness_emissive_roughness_subsurface: The default MERS value to use for actors/mobs when not defined via texture maps; supports RGBA array or HEX string
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt global_metalness_emissive_roughness_subsurface: The default MERS value to use for particles when not defined via texture maps; supports RGBA array or HEX string
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt global_metalness_emissive_roughness_subsurface: The default MERS value to use for items when not defined via texture maps; supports RGBA array or HEX string

Lighting

Various types of light sources can be customized, which are split into global lighting and local lighting in the Template:File and Template:File directories.<ref name="lighting" /> Global light settings are defined per biome and require different JSON files for each biome or set of biomes and need to be specified in Template:File. Local light settings are applied for individual blocks specified in one JSON file. Local lighting currently only includes point lights, while global lighting includes directional lights, emissive textures, ambient light, and sky light.

• Directional lighting includes the Minecraft:sun and Minecraft:moon (orbital), and Minecraft:End flash. For each object, the total brightness can be adjusted, and the color of that lighting. This affects the sky and atmospheric scattering, and all objects lit by the directional light source, which are both also affected by texture sets, atmospheric settings, and color grading.
  • All values for directional lighting in the JSON file and in Bedrock Editor support multiple key frames for different in-game times. See § Atmospherics below for more information.
  • For the sun and the moon, the orbital offset can be customized, which affects how the orbit is rotated towards the south (can be rotated 360 degrees). This can also be keyframed, which allows to customize the position of the sun and moon depending on the in-game time.

    File:Vibrant Visuals orbital offset.png

    A custom orbital offset

• Emissive lights are produced by blocks, entities, and particles with emissive pixels in their texture set. The desaturation of the color of the pixel can be adjusted per biome.

  File:Emissive desaturation.png

  Several mobs with a high emissive desaturation value

• Ambient lighting is always applied and makes blocks visible when there are no other light sources. The strength and color of this light can be adjusted.
• Sky lighting is applied to surfaces exposed to the Minecraft:sky. The intensity can be adjusted, which affects how dark shadows are compared to surfaces lit by directional lighting.
• Static lights are local light sources set per Minecraft:block. They do not create specular highlights or dynamic shadows and are fixed in space and in brightness. It can only be used by blocks with "regular" Minecraft:lighting, which affects the strength. The color of this static light can be customized. When multiple static lights with different colors are overlapping in an area, the total luminance will add up.
• Point lights are local directional light sources in blocks, only available in the "Render Dragon Features for Creators" Minecraft:experiment in Minecraft:Minecraft Preview. Point lights are created by a single point in the center of the block, with a specific color similar to the color for global directional lighting. Static lights are automatically also added to blocks with point lighting. The strength of the point light is affected by the block lighting of the block.

global.json format Template:Info

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The 3-part schema version used in the file, requires "1.26.0" for all current features.
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The identifier for these settings, "minecraft:default_lighting" will be applied to all biomes, other identifiers can be specified in the Template:File files. Must include a namespace.
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt
        • Template:Nbt
          • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The brightness of the Minecraft:sun in Template:W. When 0, the sun disappears.
          • Template:NbtTemplate:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The color that the sun contributes to direct surface lighting; supports RGB array or HEX string.
        • Template:Nbt
          • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The brightness of the Minecraft:moon in lux. When 0, the moon disappears.
          • Template:NbtTemplate:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The color that the moon contributes to direct surface lighting; supports RGB array or HEX string.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The rotational offset of the sun and moon from their standard orbital axis; measured in degrees.
      • Template:Nbt
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt:Template:Fn The brightness of the Minecraft:End flash in lux. When 0, no flashes are visible.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The color that the End flash contributes to surface lighting; supports RGB array or HEX string.
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt: The amount of desaturation to apply to albedo color values during emissive light calculation between 0.0 (full color) and 1.0 (white).
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The brightness of ambient lighting in lux.
      • Template:NbtTemplate:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The color that the ambient light contributes to surface lighting; supports RGB array or HEX string.
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: Scales how much energy the sky contributes to lighting between 0.0 and 1.0.

local_lighting.json format

The point_light type is only available in the "Render Dragon Features for Creators" experiment. Existing light settings can be changed in the Editor, which includes most blocks when the experiment is enabled. Adding new blocks requires to import custom JSON settings.

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt: The 3-part schema version used in the file, requires "1.21.120" for all current features.
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:Nbt: The Minecraft:identifier of the block, with a namespace.
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The color of the point light or static light; supports RGB array or HEX string.
      • Template:Nbt: The type of local lighting applied for this block, either "static_light" or "point_light".

Atmospherics

The colors and some other values for the sky can be changed in Template:File.<ref name="atmospherics">Template:Cite</ref> The atmospheric effects include separate horizon and zenith colors, and mie scattering. The horizon and zenith colors blend into each other depending on the specified heights for both colors. Rayleigh scattering affects global illumination of the horizon and zenith. Mie scattering, created by the sun and moon, can also specify a height and shape.

In this JSON file, all values can be individually key framed.<ref name="keyframe">Template:Cite</ref> Instead of providing a single value for a setting, the setting can be treated as an object with a set of values from the same type. The key is a number from 0 to 1 which represents the in-game Minecraft:time, allowing to change atmospherics based on the time of day. The engine linearly interpolates between the values of the key frames, resulting in the actual atmospherics blending between specified times. A key of 0 is noon, 0.25 is sunset, 0.5 midnight, 0.75 sunrise, and 1 is the next noon.

File:Ore UI - Project Vibrant Visuals Settings Menu - Key Frame Graphs (Bedrock Editor).png

Some key framed settings in Bedrock Editor in different graphs

In Bedrock Editor, a set of different key frames can be adjusted individually. The amount of available key frames varies for each setting, which can only be changed by importing JSON settings. With the slider below each graph, the key value for the X-axis can be seen. The Y-axis shows all values for the setting. Each key can be moved horizontally and vertically, and all keys are connected with a line corresponding to the linear interpolation. Double-clicking on a key shows text boxes for the exact coordinates, and a color picker in RGB-supported settings.

File:VV atmospherics overview.png

All aspects from the atmospheric sky. Colors from objects and sunlight, and the intensities have been adjusted to show them more clearly.

atmospherics.json format

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The 3-part schema version used in the file, requires "1.21.40".
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The identifier for these settings, "minecraft:default_atmospherics" will be applied to all biomes, other identifiers can be specified in the Template:File files. Must include a namespace.
    • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: How strong the atmosphere's Template:W term is, which affects how particles larger or smaller than the light ray's wavelength scatter the light. Functionally, this illuminates the base atmosphere with the zenith and horizon colors. Rayleigh scattering does not affect mie scattering or volumetric fog.
    • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: How strong the Template:W term from the Minecraft:sun and Minecraft:End flash is, which affects how particles from the same size as the light ray's wavelength scatter the light. Functionally, this illuminates the atmosphere with the light color and brightness from the sun blended with the atmosphere, shaped in a sphere around the horizon, cut off at 90° from the sun.
    • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: How strong the Minecraft:moon's mie scattering term is.
    • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: How the lobe of the mie scattering is shaped. A value of 0 sets mie scattering in a sphere similar to (but independent from) the horizon, higher values decrease the effect while shaping it more around the sun.
    • Template:Nbt: This affects how the atmosphere is divided for the atmospheric effects.
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The absolute minimum height where the horizon and mie scattering starts blending with the zenith.
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The absolute maximum height where the zenith starts blending with the horizon. How larger the difference is with the minimum height, how larger the blending space will be. If this height is lower than the minimum horizon height, the position of the horizon and zenith will be swapped.
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The absolute maximum where mie scattering starts blending with the zenith. How larger the difference is with the minimum height, how larger the blending space will be. If this height is lower than the minimum horizon height, mie scattering will be inverted.
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: This controls how far blending with zenith continues inside the horizon below the minimum height. Higher values lower the absolute (opaque) horizon height, including mie scattering. When the horizon or mie scattering is inverted, the scaling of this effect is also inverted.
    • Template:NbtTemplate:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The base color of the zenith region of the atmosphere; supports RGB array or HEX string.
    • Template:NbtTemplate:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The base color of the horizon region of the atmosphere; supports RGB array or HEX string

Scripting

The atmospherics can also be dynamically overridden by the game's Minecraft:scripting modules.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> In @minecraft/server-graphics, all above settings can be customized per biome in the format set<setting in camel case>(setting: input, biomeIdentifier: biome ID): void. The input is similar to the JSON format above: either a float number or key framed float (number, number), or an RGB input red; green; blue, which can also be key framed. Atmospherics can be reset to the data-driven values using reset with the biome.

getBiomeAtmospherics can be used with the biome and atmospherics component to retrieve the current values.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>Template:Upcoming

Fog

The Minecraft:fog in Vibrant Visuals can be customized per biome in the same JSON file as regular fog in Template:File, and using the Template:Cmd command.<ref>Template:Cite</ref> However, Vibrant Visuals has some options for more complex volumetric fog and Henyey-Greenstein G.<ref name="fog">Template:Cite</ref>

The density of volumetric fog can be adjusted, either for specified heights or every height, for each block where fog occurs in different situations (air, water, lava). For fog in the air, clouds, or water, the color of the fog can be specified. Finally, Vibrant Visuals allows to change light shafts inside fog for water and air. All fog settings are optional, if not specified they will equal to lower settings in the fog stack, first global values and then default values.

For all settings and the JSON format, see Minecraft:Fog definition.

Color grading

Configurations for color grading and tone mapping can be adjusted for various situations and colors, making the final look of the scene fully customizable.<ref name="color-grading-tone-mapping" /> Both post-processing effects are configured in JSON file per biome in the Template:File directory.

Color grading is split into three scales based on lighting applied to the objects, and there is an additional temperature grading option. The highlight parameters are applied to the brightest pixels, the shadows to the darkest pixels, and midtones to pixels close to the average luminance of a scene. Highlights and shadows need to be enabled for specified color grading, otherwise the midtone parameters will be applied to all pixels as a global setting. The minimum brightness of the highlights and maximum brightness of the shadows affect which pixels are considered highlights and shadows instead of midtones.

For each color grading parameter, different values for each RGB color can be specified.

• The contrast affects the pixels with different luminances from the average luminance. Higher contrast values will increase brightness of highlights and darken shadows, while lower contrast values result in a more gray image with less differences in color and brightness.
• Gain affects the luminance intensity of the whole image, regardless of the luminance of a pixel.
• Similar to gain, the gamma affects the overall luminance intensity of all pixels, but after all other post-processing effects have been applied.
• The offset adjusts the intensity of pixels based on the average luminance of the scene, which is added to all pixels and has a stronger effect on brighter pixels than darker pixels.
• Saturation changes the intensity of colors apart from their luminance. Higher values increase the intensity, while lower values result in a grayscale image.

Finally, the temperature can be adjusted for the whole image, affecting how "warm" (yellow/orange) or "cool" (blue) the scene becomes. The type of temperature grading can be inverted, to make higher temperatures result in a warmer or cooler image.

Template:FakeImage The tone mapping effect cannot be customized for individual curves, but there are six operators that can be selected. Reinhard is a generic operator which looks good in low-contrast scenes and has a lower quality for higher luminances. Reinhard Luma is an extended variant that preserves details in low dynamic range regions, and Reinhard Luminance is a variant that preserves colors in higher luminance regions.

There are also filmic tone mapping operators, which emulate real-life film and work best when other Vibrant Visuals configurations are based on physically accurate values. Hable and ACES are filmic operators which preserve subtle differences in extremely dark or bright scenes, but come at a higher performance cost. Mojang Studios has developed a generic filmic tone mapping curve which preserves a bit more hue saturation at high luminance regions.

color_grading.json format

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The 3-part schema version used in the file, requires "1.21.90" for all current features.
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The identifier for these settings, "minecraft:default_color_grading" will be applied to all biomes, other identifiers can be specified in the Template:File files. Must include a namespace.
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt: Color grading parameters of all pixels that are not considered highlights or shadows, if they are enabled.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The contrast between 0.0 and 4.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The gain between 0.0 and 10.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The gamma between 0.0 and 4.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The offset between -1.0 and 1.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The saturation between 0.0 and 10.0, per RGB channel.
      • Template:Nbt: Color grading parameters of all brighter pixels.
        • Template:Nbt: Whether the following parameters are applied to highlights, or if they should follow the midtone parameters.
        • Template:Nbt: The darkest pixels considered highlights, between 1.0 and 4.0. 1.0 is equal to the average luminance, and higher values will cause the minimum required luminance value for a pixel to be considered a highlight to rise.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The contrast between 0.0 and 4.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The gain between 0.0 and 10.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The gamma between 0.0 and 4.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The offset between -1.0 and 1.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The saturation between 0.0 and 10.0, per RGB channel.
      • Template:Nbt: Color grading parameters of all darker pixels.
        • Template:Nbt: Whether the following parameters are applied to shadows, or if they should follow the midtone parameters.
        • Template:Nbt: The brightest pixels considered shadows, between 0.1 and 1.0. 1.0 is equal to the average luminance, lower values will cause the maximum required luminance value for a pixel to be considered a shadow to drop.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The contrast between 0.0 and 4.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The gain between 0.0 and 10.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The gamma between 0.0 and 4.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The offset between -1.0 and 1.0, per RGB channel.
        • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The saturation between 0.0 and 10.0, per RGB channel.
      • Template:Nbt
        • Template:Nbt: Whether temperature-based color grading is applied.
        • Template:Nbt: The temperature of the image, between 1000 and 15000 Kelvin.
        • Template:Nbt: The type of temperature grading used, either "white_balance" (higher temperatures result in cooler image) or "color_temperature" (higher temperatures result in warmer image).
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt: The operator used for tone mapping. This can be "reinhard", "reinhard_luma", "reinhard_luminance", "hable", "aces", or "generic".

Cubemaps

Cubemaps are six 2D textures always rendered around the player which are affected by directional, ambient, and sky lighting, and scattering.<ref name="cubemap">Template:Cite</ref> They can be customized in Template:File for each biome or set of biomes. Custom cubemaps only affect the Minecraft:Overworld, the cubemap used in the Minecraft:End sky is unaffected.

The influence of each type of light on the cubemap can be customized, but it is always dependent of the biome's lighting settings and which types of lighting are currently applied. Cubemaps can be affected by two types of scattering. Depending on whether the cubemap contains objects in the sky (such as Minecraft:clouds), or in space (such as Minecraft:stars), atmospheric scattering should be turned on or off, respectively. Volumetric scattering lets fog and light shafts affect the cubemap, for objects close to the surface.

cubemap.json format

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The 3-part schema version used in the file, requires "1.21.130" for all current features.
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The identifier for these settings, specified in the Template:File files. Must include a namespace.
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:NbtTemplate:Nbt: The amount of fixed ambient light applied to the cubemap. Contains pairs of numbers, where the first number should be between 0.0 and 1.0 (time of day) and the second number should be between 0.0 and 100000.0 (ambient light). Default value is 5.625 for all times of day.
      • Template:Nbt: Contribution of the sky light. It should be between 0.0 and 1.0 (default).
      • Template:Nbt: Contribution of the directional light. It should be between 0.0 (default) and 1.0.
      • Template:Nbt: Whether the cubemap is affected by atmospheric scattering (mie and rayleigh), false by default.
      • Template:Nbt: Whether the cubemap is affected by volumetric scattering (fog and light shafts), true by default.

Shadows

File:Vibrant Visuals shadows comparison.png

A comparison of blocky (top) and soft shadows (bottom)

There are two settings for shadows created by blocks, entities, and some other objects.<ref>Template:Cite</ref> They can be changed with a JSON file in Template:File and are applied globally.

• The shadow style affects which type of shadows are rendered. This can be soft, which is often used in third-party shaders and other video games, or blocky, which is used in default Vibrant Visuals. Both types are affected by the shape of the object casting the shadows.
• The texel size represents the resolution in texture to which shadows will be quantized. For the best effect, this should be the same as the pixel resolution used for block textures, which makes shadows align with the pixel grid.

global.json format

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The 3-part schema version used in the file, requires "1.21.80" for all current features.
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:Nbt: The type of shadows to use, either "blocky_shadows" (default) or "soft_shadows".
    • Template:Nbt: The resolution in pixels to snap shadow texels to, defaults to 16.

Water

File:Vibrant Visuals particles comparison.png

Different particle concentrations create colored water fog. Clockwise from top-left: default water, medium CDOM, medium suspended sediment, and low chlorophyll values.

File:Vibrant Visuals waves.png

Animated water waves enabled with a resource pack. This pack uses the default settings for waves.

Minecraft:Water effects can be customized per biome or for default water in the Template:File directory.<ref name="water">Template:Cite</ref> Instead of blending the effects per biome based on the camera's location, the water color is set for the location of the water block in the world, meaning that multiple biome effects for water can be observed at once.

There are three elements that can be customized: particle concentrations, waves, and caustics.

• Particle concentrations affect the fog color and underwater light scattering. There are three particle concentrations in mg/L, which aren't used in default Vibrant Visuals:
  • CDOM produces yellow to yellow-brown collors. Low values result in a fresh, blue appearance, like real-life oceans, and rivers have higher CDOM and more colored water.
  • Chlorophyll produces green colors, which varies based on the temperature in real life.
  • Suspended sediment produces red to red-brown colors, which appears more in real-life rivers.
• Waves are animations on the surface of water, disabled in default Vibrant Visuals. They can partially replace the water surface texture by actual three-dimensional textures, but this doesn't affect gameplay. Waves can be customized with various settings, which affect speed variations, smoother or sharper shapes, the amount of waves (and variations) per block, and the height of waves. Individual wave animations can blend into each other and pull into larger waves, which can be customized.
• Caustics are animated textures projected on any object surfaces behind a water surface when directional lighting hits the surface, which are enabled by default. The caustics use an internal texture with 64 frames of animation, but this can be changed to any custom texture. The speed of the animation (frame length) and scale can be customized, and the intensity can be increased.
  • A custom caustics texture must have all animation frames laid out vertically next to each other, each using the same square resolution. It should be located under the Template:File directory in the Minecraft:resource pack, declared in Template:File.
• The Minecraft:biome's water color is ignored by default in Vibrant Visuals, but the contribution of the regular water color to the fog can be increased. Depending on the setting, water fog and scatttering will be tinted with a color specified in the client biome file, which is applied prior to the effects from particle concentrations.

water.json format

• Template:Nbt The root tag
  • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The 3-part schema version used in the file, requires "1.26.0" for all current features.
  • Template:Nbt
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn The identifier for these settings, "minecraft:default_water" applies to all biomes by default, other identifiers can be specified in the Template:File file. Must include a namespace.
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt: Concentration of chromophoric dissolved organic matter which produce yellow/yellow-brown colors. Can be set between 0.0 (default) and 15.0.
      • Template:Nbt: Concentration of chlorophyll which produces green colors. Can be set between 0.0 (default) and 10.0.
      • Template:Nbt: Concentration of suspended sediment which produces red/red-brown colors. Can be set between 0.0 (default) and 300.0.
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt: Whether waves are on or off (default).
      • Template:Nbt: Controls the amount of wave displacement. Can be set between 0.0 and 3.0, defaults to 1.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls how much the heading changes between each octave. Can be set between 0.0 and 360.0.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls the size of individual waves; higher values create more tightly packed waves. Can be set between 0.01 and 3.0, defaults to 1.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls how much frequencies change in subsequent octaves. Can be set between 0.0 and 2.0, defaults to 1.2000000476837158.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls how much each octave will blend into the neighboring octave. Can be set between 0.0 and 1.0, defaults to 0.20000000298023224.
      • Template:Nbt: Determines how many layers of waves to simulate; high values result in more complex waves. Can be set between 1 and 30, defaults to 28.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls how much smaller waves are pulled into larger ones. Can be set between -1.0 and 1.0, defaults to 0.3799999952316284.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls the resolutions of the fractal effect; higher values result in smoother waves. Can be set between 0.01 and 1.0.
      • Template:Nbt. Adjusts the shape of the wave. Can be set between 1.0 and 10.0, defaults to 1.5.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls the starting speed of the first waves. Can be set between 0.01 and 10.0, defaults to 2.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls how much faster/slower subsequent octaves move. Can be set between 0.0 and 2.0, defaults to 1.0299999713897705.
    • Template:Nbt
      • Template:Nbt: Whether caustics are on (default) or off.
      • Template:Nbt: How many seconds to spend on each frame of animation in the caustics texture. Can be set between 0.01 and 5.0, defaults to 0.09.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls how bright the caustics effect appears. Can be set between 1 (default) and 6.
      • Template:Nbt: Controls the size of the repetition of the caustics texture. Can be set between 0.1 and 5.0, defaults to 0.5.
      • Template:Nbt:Template:Fn Resource location of a custom caustics texture, which defaults to the internal [[Minecraft::File:Caustics.png|caustics.png]].
    • Template:Nbt: Controls the contribution of the water surface color applied by the Minecraft:biome. Can be set between 0.0 (default) and 1.0.

History

Announcement

Vibrant Visuals was revealed at Minecraft:Minecraft LIVE – March 2025, planned for Bedrock Edition in the coming months, with more improvements over the next few years.<ref>Template:YouTube link</ref><ref>Template:YouTube link</ref><ref name="evolving" />

It is planned to come to Java Edition in the future, but without colored lighting.<ref>Template:Cite</ref> Developers are rewriting the rendering code before Vibrant Visuals will be added to all Java Edition supported devices.<ref name="java" /> In order to implement more graphical features and sustain compatibility with macOS, the game will switch from Template:W to the Template:W graphics API in the summer of 2026, which can be toggled in-game until development is ready.<ref name="vulkan" />

Deferred Technical Preview

File:Render Dragon Banner.png

The first image of the deferred technical preview

Before Vibrant Visuals was released, the deferred rendering engine was available behind the "Render Dragon Features for Creators" Minecraft:experiment in Minecraft:Minecraft Preview. This was built on the features for Minecraft:ray tracing, and gradually developed more exclusive rendering features.<ref>Template:Cite</ref> Unlike Vibrant Visuals, Mojang Studios did not provide any default configurations and textures, meaning that it needed to be configured first through Minecraft:resource packs, similar to ray tracing.

Since the vanilla implementation of Vibrant Visuals, the experimental deferred lighting mode has been merged with the graphics upgrade. However, the experiment is still used for other deferred rendering features that are not implemented in Vibrant Visuals, such as colored lighting.
Template:HistoryTable

• The first image of volumetric fog and light shafts
  The first image of volumetric fog and light shafts
• The first image of water effects
  The first image of water effects
• Showcase video of customizing deferred lighting in the Editor
  Showcase video of customizing deferred lighting in the Editor
• The first image of subsurface scattering
  The first image of subsurface scattering
• The first image of waves
  The first image of waves
• Showcase of water customization in the Editor
  Showcase of water customization in the Editor
• Showcase video of customizing atmospherics in the Editor
  Showcase video of customizing atmospherics in the Editor

Trivia

File:Vibrant Visuals older versions.png

Vibrant Visuals in an old world, with soft shadows, lacking water reflections, and no MERS textures

• Vibrant Visuals can be enabled in worlds locked in any older version using Minecraft:world templates and a PBR-enabled resource pack. This ignores all resource packs from versions above the world's version, including Vibrant Visuals configurations and textures. Below 1.21.90, this results in interesting behavior for some features, while most others function normally:
  • All MERS textures are ignored, making environments without directional lighting appear identical to classic graphics modes.
  • Atmospherics and lighting configurations are not applied, defaulting to the hard-coded values, and some environmental effects do not appear at all. Sunset and sunrise for example, tint the zenith sky dark blue and the horizon red, much brighter than regular colors.
  • Shadows are not blocky but soft.
  • End flashes still occur, but are not colored and appear white.
  • The Minecraft:End sky is not colored below the horizon, resembling the classic End sky with Minecraft:Night Vision. At zenith however, the sky is tinted dark green/blue.
  • Without brightness configurations, directional lighting from the sun appears glitched, and excessively bright.
  • The Minecraft:Nether roof is completely glitched without any light.
  • Water reflections or cubemaps don't appear, deep water looks shadow blue.
  • For a moment in the loading world screen before entering the world, the Minecraft:panorama renders with the Minecraft:missing texture.
• The introduction of Vibrant Visuals added MERS textures for any block, entity, and particle present in all vanilla resources, including Minecraft:unused textures and various old textures kept for backward-compatibility. However, these can never be encountered in-game because loading an old world will ignore the resource packs containing these textures.
• According to developers, the deferred rendering mode was build on parts from the Minecraft:RTX pipeline and the rendering pipeline from Template:MCL since 2020.<ref>Template:Cite</ref>
• The vanilla resources contain unused "hot" atmospherics, lighting, and color grading. This generally increases the effects from desert and mesa biomes, but the sky uses a dark blue color instead of turquoise green.
• In physically based rendering, the block light of a Minecraft:torch is 1262.665039 Template:W.<ref name="gdc" />

  File:Vibrant Visuals hot sky.png

  The unused hot atmospherics, lighting, and color grading settings applied to wooded badlands with a resource pack.

• The End sky in an older version with a flash
  The End sky in an older version with a flash
• Sunlight appears too bright, and the sky has unusual colors.
  Sunlight appears too bright, and the sky has unusual colors.
• A glitched Nether roof in older versions
  A glitched Nether roof in older versions
• The missing panorama
  The missing panorama

Gallery

Textures

• The texture of the Minecraft:sun exclusive to Vibrant Visuals, which has more vibrant colors and layers.
  The texture of the Minecraft:sun exclusive to Vibrant Visuals, which has more vibrant colors and layers.
• caustics.png, containing 50 frames of the water caustics animation.
  caustics.png, containing 50 frames of the water caustics animation.
• brdf_lut.png, used to calculate the strength and scattering of specular and diffuse reflections.
  brdf_lut.png, used to calculate the strength and scattering of specular and diffuse reflections.

Screenshots

• A desert sunset with different sky and sun colors and stretched shadows
  A desert sunset with different sky and sun colors and stretched shadows
• Example of underwater lighting with Vibrant Visuals, on an ocean monument
  Example of underwater lighting with Vibrant Visuals, on an ocean monument
• The Minecraft:moon illuminates the environment with a weak blue tint and can create shadows, caustics, and specular highlights.
  The Minecraft:moon illuminates the environment with a weak blue tint and can create shadows, caustics, and specular highlights.
• Sunlight falling into a lush cave through a hole. Although the blocks look fully lit, the Minecraft:light level is still 0 and hostile mobs can spawn.
  Sunlight falling into a lush cave through a hole. Although the blocks look fully lit, the Minecraft:light level is still 0 and hostile mobs can spawn.
• Shadows on trees in an old growth pine taiga, as seen from the position of the sun. Notice the subsurface scattering on Minecraft:leaves, and the Minecraft:player's shadow.
  Shadows on trees in an old growth pine taiga, as seen from the position of the sun. Notice the subsurface scattering on Minecraft:leaves, and the Minecraft:player's shadow.
• An ancient city. The darkness makes blue emissive textures dominate the atmosphere, resulting in an entirely unique environment.
  An ancient city. The darkness makes blue emissive textures dominate the atmosphere, resulting in an entirely unique environment.
• Icebergs create detailed reflections on an ocean's surface, while Minecraft:clouds create blurry reflections.
  Icebergs create detailed reflections on an ocean's surface, while Minecraft:clouds create blurry reflections.
• The sky as it appears with a dry Minecraft:thunderstorm or when a Minecraft:wither is nearby
  The sky as it appears with a dry Minecraft:thunderstorm or when a Minecraft:wither is nearby
• Minecraft:Lush caves are much more vibrantly illumated.
  Minecraft:Lush caves are much more vibrantly illumated.
• Minecraft:The Nether. Screenshot taken over a lava sea in a Minecraft:crimson forest.
  Minecraft:The Nether. Screenshot taken over a lava sea in a Minecraft:crimson forest.
• Minecraft:The End after an End flash
  Minecraft:The End after an End flash
• Point lights and colored lights
  Point lights and colored lights
• Strong volumetric fog created by point lights in a pale garden woodland mansion
  Strong volumetric fog created by point lights in a pale garden woodland mansion
• On the transition between biomes, volumetric fog from both biomes are combined. With Minecraft:mushroom fields, this result in a strong purple glow.
  On the transition between biomes, volumetric fog from both biomes are combined. With Minecraft:mushroom fields, this result in a strong purple glow.
• The Nether has red "moonlight", used to tint the atmosphere but also tints objects on the Minecraft:Nether roof.
  The Nether has red "moonlight", used to tint the atmosphere but also tints objects on the Minecraft:Nether roof.
• The Minecraft:void lets light beams shine through the bedrock at higher distances.
  The Minecraft:void lets light beams shine through the bedrock at higher distances.

Settings

• The Vibrant Visuals options in the video settings
  The Vibrant Visuals options in the video settings
• The Vibrant Visuals gamma calibration screen
  The Vibrant Visuals gamma calibration screen
• A cave with gamma set to 50% (left), 100% (middle), and 150% (right).
  A cave with gamma set to 50% (left), 100% (middle), and 150% (right).
• Example of a render distance of 128 chunks with Vibrant Visuals enabled
  Example of a render distance of 128 chunks with Vibrant Visuals enabled
• Minecraft:Water and reflective copper with reflections off. Specular highlights from the sun and the redstone torch point light are still visible, as well as subsurface scattering.
  Minecraft:Water and reflective copper with reflections off. Specular highlights from the sun and the redstone torch point light are still visible, as well as subsurface scattering.
• The reflections set to Ultra adds SSR and cubemap reflections, visible on both the water and the copper.
  The reflections set to Ultra adds SSR and cubemap reflections, visible on both the water and the copper.
• A copper torch and an end rod with point lights disabled. The colored block lighting and a slight bloom effect is still visible.
  A copper torch and an end rod with point lights disabled. The colored block lighting and a slight bloom effect is still visible.
• With point lights on, the light sources are much brighter and cast shadows. Notably, the dropped stone has two different shadows.
  With point lights on, the light sources are much brighter and cast shadows. Notably, the dropped stone has two different shadows.
• The cloud distance set to Low
  The cloud distance set to Low
• The cloud distance set to Medium
  The cloud distance set to Medium
• The cloud distance set to High
  The cloud distance set to High
• The cloud distance set to Ultra
  The cloud distance set to Ultra

Historical screenshots

• The temporary Vibrant Visuals cloud pattern, also seen in cubemap reflections
  The temporary Vibrant Visuals cloud pattern, also seen in cubemap reflections
• Before 1.21.100, precipitation did not have any graphical effects apart from decreasing ambient lighting.
  Before 1.21.100, precipitation did not have any graphical effects apart from decreasing ambient lighting.
• An old view of a desert with Vibrant Visuals, which had more yellow-ish color grading and atmospherics.
  An old view of a desert with Vibrant Visuals, which had more yellow-ish color grading and atmospherics.
• Point lights used to be much brighter at the center, did barely affect volumetric fog, and static colored lighting did not exist.
  Point lights used to be much brighter at the center, did barely affect volumetric fog, and static colored lighting did not exist.
• The old End sky was much more purple, even without flashes.
  The old End sky was much more purple, even without flashes.

Vibrant Visuals announcement

• A Minecraft:beach without Vibrant Visuals. There is a Minecraft:mangrove swamp and Minecraft:jungle behind it. There are Minecraft:firefly bushes in the swamp, emitting firefly particles.
  A Minecraft:beach without Vibrant Visuals. There is a Minecraft:mangrove swamp and Minecraft:jungle behind it. There are Minecraft:firefly bushes in the swamp, emitting firefly particles.
• The same beach with Vibrant Visuals. The firely particles are more visible, and have a blue color. The Minecraft:sun produces a strong glare.
  The same beach with Vibrant Visuals. The firely particles are more visible, and have a blue color. The Minecraft:sun produces a strong glare.
• Minecraft:Zuri on a Minecraft:boat on the coast of a bamboo jungle during sunset with Vibrant Visuals
  Minecraft:Zuri on a Minecraft:boat on the coast of a bamboo jungle during sunset with Vibrant Visuals
• A Minecraft:forest with Vibrant Visuals. On the left there is a large oak tree, and the Minecraft:leaves are reflecting some of the blue skylight.
  A Minecraft:forest with Vibrant Visuals. On the left there is a large oak tree, and the Minecraft:leaves are reflecting some of the blue skylight.
• A comparison of Fancy graphics and Vibrant Visuals in a Minecraft:cherry grove biome, showing shadows and roughness textures on grass blocks.
  A comparison of Fancy graphics and Vibrant Visuals in a Minecraft:cherry grove biome, showing shadows and roughness textures on grass blocks.
• A similar comparison outside a Minecraft:woodland mansion, with light falling into the window of "Triple bed bedroom", with a potted Minecraft:azure bluet.
  A similar comparison outside a Minecraft:woodland mansion, with light falling into the window of "Triple bed bedroom", with a potted Minecraft:azure bluet.
• A comparison with icebergs in a Minecraft:frozen ocean. The ice is actually less transparent in Vibrant Visuals, so the form of the ice berg underwater cannot be seen as easily.
  A comparison with icebergs in a Minecraft:frozen ocean. The ice is actually less transparent in Vibrant Visuals, so the form of the ice berg underwater cannot be seen as easily.
• A desert Minecraft:village with Vibrant Visuals, during sunset. The screenshot was taken in a Minecraft:river, so the yellow haze of the Minecraft:desert is not present. Instead, there is a blue haze, which makes the texture of the Minecraft:sand more visible.
  A desert Minecraft:village with Vibrant Visuals, during sunset. The screenshot was taken in a Minecraft:river, so the yellow haze of the Minecraft:desert is not present. Instead, there is a blue haze, which makes the texture of the Minecraft:sand more visible.
• A copper boat sailing through a jungle Minecraft:river, with a copper water mill on the right, a large bridge on the cliffs in the background, and multiple cliffside buildings
  A copper boat sailing through a jungle Minecraft:river, with a copper water mill on the right, a large bridge on the cliffs in the background, and multiple cliffside buildings
• A frozen ocean at sunset, with 3 Minecraft:polar bears and a snow Minecraft:fox, while Zuri does some ice Minecraft:fishing. Minor visual glitches can be seen on the icebergs.
  A frozen ocean at sunset, with 3 Minecraft:polar bears and a snow Minecraft:fox, while Zuri does some ice Minecraft:fishing. Minor visual glitches can be seen on the icebergs.
• A lake in a Minecraft:badlands biome, with a Minecraft:wooded badlands behind it. This image shows water reflections from sunlight, clouds, and the terrain.
  A lake in a Minecraft:badlands biome, with a Minecraft:wooded badlands behind it. This image shows water reflections from sunlight, clouds, and the terrain.
• A Minecraft:plains biome at sunrise with more vibrant colors compared to Fancy graphics
  A Minecraft:plains biome at sunrise with more vibrant colors compared to Fancy graphics
• The plains village from the previous image, showing different shadow effects
  The plains village from the previous image, showing different shadow effects
• A Minecraft:cherry grove with the sun hovering just over the cliff, creating light rays. The camera is in a plains biome.
  A Minecraft:cherry grove with the sun hovering just over the cliff, creating light rays. The camera is in a plains biome.
• A player-made Minecraft:wheat and Minecraft:carrot farm, with homes next to it. Minecraft:Kai, Minecraft:Sunny, and Zuri are standing in the farm.
  A player-made Minecraft:wheat and Minecraft:carrot farm, with homes next to it. Minecraft:Kai, Minecraft:Sunny, and Zuri are standing in the farm.
• An Minecraft:old growth pine taiga
  An Minecraft:old growth pine taiga
• A plains with a river running through it
  A plains with a river running through it
• A cabin in a Minecraft:snowy taiga
  A cabin in a Minecraft:snowy taiga
• A tree house in a jungle
  A tree house in a jungle
• Kai, Zuri, and Minecraft:Ari watching a sunset with Fancy graphics
  Kai, Zuri, and Minecraft:Ari watching a sunset with Fancy graphics
• The same scene with Vibrant Visuals has more unique atmospherics and reflections.
  The same scene with Vibrant Visuals has more unique atmospherics and reflections.

Minecraft:Chase the Skies announcement

• Ari using the new leashing functionality to leash 3 mobs in a line, while holding a Minecraft:snowball to attract a Minecraft:ghastling.
  Ari using the new leashing functionality to leash 3 mobs in a line, while holding a Minecraft:snowball to attract a Minecraft:ghastling.
• A trio of Minecraft:happy ghasts ridden by Minecraft:Efe, Minecraft:Makena, and Kai, with mobs in boats underneath
  A trio of Minecraft:happy ghasts ridden by Minecraft:Efe, Minecraft:Makena, and Kai, with mobs in boats underneath
• Ari riding a Minecraft:horse while leashing a Minecraft:camel and a happy ghast
  Ari riding a Minecraft:horse while leashing a Minecraft:camel and a happy ghast
• A ghastling next to Minecraft:water. Ripples and reflections can be seen in the water.
  A ghastling next to Minecraft:water. Ripples and reflections can be seen in the water.
• Each image shows a Minecraft:swamp during sunset. The right image shows the reflection of the sunset in Vibrant Visuals. These images show how Vibrant Visuals enhances the scene.
  Each image shows a Minecraft:swamp during sunset. The right image shows the reflection of the sunset in Vibrant Visuals. These images show how Vibrant Visuals enhances the scene.
• A desert, Minecraft:stony shore, and Minecraft:badlands (right) during sunset
  A desert, Minecraft:stony shore, and Minecraft:badlands (right) during sunset
• A Minecraft:mangrove swamp during sunset
  A Minecraft:mangrove swamp during sunset
• Vibrant Visuals scene with the words "tomorrow"
  Promotional image just before the release of Chase the Skies with Vibrant Visuals

See also

• Minecraft:Overworld Adventures, a series of online stories made to promote Vibrant Visuals.
• Minecraft:Vibrant Memories Add-On, an add-on made to promote the initial launch.
• Minecraft:Vibrant Adventures, an adventure world template featured in the Vibrant Visuals-tagged contents in the Minecraft:Marketplace.
• Minecraft:Shader, the previous system of graphics enhancement in Template:BE using resource packs which is still used in Template:JE.
• Minecraft:Shader packs, similar but unofficial graphic enhancement mods for Java Edition.
• Minecraft:Super Duper Graphics Pack, a previously cancelled graphics update for Bedrock Edition.

Notes

<references group="note" />

External links

• Template:Mcnet
• Template:Cite
• Deferred lighting starter samples on GitHub.
• Vibrant Visuals packs in the Marketplace.
• Vibrant Vanguard, an unofficial Discord server sanctioned by Mojang for developers and modders to discuss Vibrant Visuals development on Java Edition.

Feedback

• Vibrant Visuals – Minecraft Feedback.
  • Vibrant Visuals FAQ Thread – July 30, 2025.
  • Known Issues (Read before you post!) – July 30, 2025.
  • Let's talk about water in Vibrant Visuals! – April 3, 2025.
  • Let's talk about lava in Vibrant Visuals! – April 3, 2025.
  • Let's talk about reflections & roughness on material surfaces and blocks! – April 3, 2025.
• Feedback Discord