Frequently Asked Questions

This page contains **Frequently asked questions** about Shader Packs.

## I installed a shader pack, but it doesn't work?

Shaders are not guaranteed to work right out of the box. Sometimes, it could be incompatible with your graphics card, graphics drivers, or other installed mods. For example, many packs don't work with AMD or Intel graphics, or the astral sorcery and advanced rocketry mods (see below). The Shader Packs list tells you which graphics cards a pack is compatible with.

Sometimes shader problems can be caused by a faulty download. Some web browsers (like Safari) don't handle ZIP files correctly. Try a different browser, like Chrome or Firefox. Some packs might even be zipped incorrectly to begin with. In this case, try extracting the zip file manually. The folder structure should be `.minecraft/shaderpacks/*(shader name)*/shaders/`

Another thing to look for when debugging shaders is the dreaded "invalid program" error. If a shader fails to compile, you will see "invalid program" in your chat menu when you enable the shader pack. However, it won't tell you what the actual issue is. For that, you'll need to look in your log file. If you have Forge installed, this can be found in `.minecraft/logs/fml-client-latest.log`. Otherwise, use `.minecraft/logs/latest.log` instead. Simply upload this log file somewhere, and we'll help you figure out what the issue is. It also helps if you do **not** select any other shader packs after the broken one. This way, the broken one will be the last thing in your log file, so it's easier for us to find information on it.

If you don't have any invalid programs, the next step in debugging is to see if it works with the latest version of OptiFine, and **no** mods. If it works correctly in this case, then it's likely a mod is breaking things. The fastest way to find out which mod is the culprit is with a binary split search:

1. Split your mods into 2 groups.
2. Test both groups, and keep whichever group is still broken.
3. Repeat until there's only one mod left.

If you have ruled out invalid programs and mods, then the next step is to report the issue to whoever develops the shader pack. Most popular packs have channels in ShaderLABS Discord. Remember to state your issue **CLEARLY**. "It's broken!" doesn't help. Additionally, be sure to provide screenshots or videos of your issue **WITH THE F3 MENU OPEN**. Your F3 menu gives us a lot of useful information that we can use to diagnose the problem.

If all else fails and you just can't get the pack to work, all is not lost! Remember, there's more than one shader pack out there. Try a few until you find one that does work for you.

## I have astral sorcery and/or advanced rocketry. Am I out of luck?

No! As it turns out, both of these mods have a config option which fixes most shader issues. For astral sorcery, it's called **weakSkyRenders**. It can be found in `.minecraft/config/astralsorcery.cfg`. All you need to do is add `*0*` to that list, so that it looks like this:

```
    S:weakSkyRenders <
        0
    >

```

For advanced rocketry, it's called `overworldSkyOverride`, and it can be found in `.minecraft/config/advRocketry/advancedRocketry.cfg`. All you need to do is set that to false, like so:

```
B:overworldSkyOverride=false
```

## My game is just flat out crashing when I enable shaders!

First, open up your crash log and take a look at it. Crash logs can be found in `.minecraft/crash-reports`. If your crash log starts with "java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: field\_191308\_b", then this is an easy fix. Either update to the latest **preview** version of Optifine, **or** delete "entity.properties" inside your shader pack. If your crash log does **not** start with that specific error, then ask about it on the shaderLabs Discord. Be sure to upload the crash log itself too, as we can't really help much without that.

## I got a pack to work, but I'm getting really bad framerate while it's enabled.

Pretty graphics don't come out of nowhere. All shader packs will be worse on framerate than not having any shader packs enabled at all. Sometimes, this is unavoidable, because there's no fast way of doing a certain effect. The good news however is that some packs have config options to disable certain effects. The config options for shader packs can be accessed by clicking "shader options" in the bottom right corner of the shader selection menu. Mess around with this menu a bit, and try disabling or reducing effects that you don't care about.

## I like the water from *<some pack>*, but I like the clouds from *<a different pack>*. Can I combine the two packs?

Usually, no. There's no "standard" way of doing hardly anything in shaders, so different packs usually do effects in different ways. Combining packs is nearly impossible. If you're good at coding though, you can certainly give it a try.