Exposa Shaders for Minecraft

Review Exposa Shaders

Exposa Shaders: A Realistic Shader Pack

Are you ready to download a shader pack for your launcher to change the graphics in Minecraft and add many different effects? We have already uploaded more than one, and even much more than dozen shader packs for the game, but still have to tell you about each of them systematically and in detail to highlight some of its features. All such mods are basically similar to each other. However, many of them also have plenty of unique features, settings, effects, and options that you will not find everywhere. A pack called Exposa Shaders is among the latter.

It is worth noting from the outset that Exposa Shaders and Exposa Unique Shaders are just two names of one and the same shader pack. The developer has simply removed 'Unique', and the name has thus become shorter. But the features have remained the same. The potential of the mod is broad, although the developer claims that there are no unnecessary effects here, unlike many other similar add-ons. A high FPS rate on most PCs, a simpler settings system, and a pleasant appearance of the game are accordingly guaranteed.

Environment

As usual, let us begin our review with the environment as it is changes related to it that we immediately see after launching Minecraft with the shaders installed. Our build used 1.18.2, OptiFine, and the standard settings of this mod.

The visual effects in Minecraft have always fallen short of the desired level, and the developers have not really devoted much time to this, as they have plenty of other tasks. However, given the huge fan community of the game, various forums, and millions of modders around the world, it would be difficult for the guys from Mojang to satisfy the requests of all players even if they were to try, so it remains only to rely on a wide collection of shader packs created by independent designers and enthusiasts.

In this regard, the designer of the mod in question has done a great job and added a large number of visual effects and settings for users. The number of its downloads has exceeded 200,000 on one website only. But there are hundreds of thousands of different web resources from where this add-on can be downloaded.

But let us go back to the environment. As in other such mods, gravity, weather conditions, and physics work here properly, so all the vegetation around you will be affected by the wind and sway depending on its intensity. This is true not only of the trees but also of the grass. However, the flowers remain static, which is a small disadvantage for a good shader pack. But, again, this is a matter of taste: while for some players this is very important, for others, this is completely unnecessary and even redundant when it comes to ensuring a high FPS rate.

Sunny Weather and Nighttime

In clear weather, the game's graphics become unusual, and sometimes it seems like you are playing in a dream. Everything is still changing around, but it cannot be said that that is particularly realistic. The small sun is shining in the sky. This is not an exaggeration — it is really very small, and this is far from reality, as this star is in fact several times closer to earth than this shader pack suggests. The sunrays penetrate through the mass of trees and foliage, leaving shadows from various objects. This looks beautiful and significantly changes the visual picture and all the effects compared to the vanilla Minecraft.

At night, you will see a dark sky and thick blue clouds all over it. Among all these effects, you can witness something like the northern lights, but they are far from perfect. The overall atmosphere is always different: if the moon shines brightly and dim rays penetrate the clouds, you can safely move around the world even in the dark.

But if there are thick clouds in the sky, and the moon does not shine very brightly, the situation will become particularly aggravating. And given that a large number of mobs become active at night, you will have to run for the hills so as not to encounter one of them. But all the design options are interesting in their own way, and it is still much more pleasant to play with such effects.

The moon is square and not particularly beautiful, but the night background neutralizes all the shortcomings, especially if huge clouds are literally floating in the sky. As for the sun, it is small and round and looks more interesting than the usual one. By the way, when there are huge clouds in the sky, you can see a beam of rays penetrating through them in some places, which looks very beautiful and uncommon. Not every such mod can boast similar effects.

Clouds

The big advantage of Exposa Shaders is clouds. They are really beautiful and realistic here and can be both small and in the form of a huge solid mass covering everything around. And they are not square and awkward as in many other shader packs. The mod makes use of a special technology that makes it possible for clouds to literally roll into one. That is, you can see in real time how the shape of a cloud is getting bigger and bigger, growing into a huge mass moved by the wind.

The cloud effects look cool both during the day and at night, and here each time of day has specific advantages in this regard. Using the shader settings, you can always adjust the density and movement speed of clouds, as well as their intensity, the background color, and many other parameters. There is a separate section in the menu for that.

Water and the Underwater World

The mod adds a lot of water effects. They include the reflection of your character and objects in the water, shadows, and various other features. If there is a forest or any other biome next to a sea, it will be partly reflected in the water. The water itself is not particularly transparent, so there are not many innovations in this regard. There are shader packs that are much more interesting in terms of the aquatic environment and various effects.

When it comes to the underwater world, it should be noted that shadows are nicely implemented there. Even if you dive to the very bottom, some rays, however partially, will still get there. Moreover, they will make kelp, fish, squids, and other aquatic flora and fauna cast shadows as well.

You will find a large number of various plants underwater, such as grass and kelp, and all of them will also be subject to physical laws: they sway under the influence of water currents, whereas dolphins, fish, and the main character will leave bubbles while swimming. You will also notice an interesting color scheme and refraction when looking through the water. So the sunrays will look one way above the water and another way under it.

The waves are also nicely implemented, whether they are on a river, on an ocean, or within a small aquatic biome. If a gentle wind blows, you will see just small waves. But if there is a hurricane, the intensity of the waves will increase accordingly.

Weather

You will also see quite a high-quality effect when the weather changes. We have already considered sunny days when the sunrays and shadows basically prevail. But if the weather changes and it begins to rain, you will see small drops on the screen. Even though they are not perfect, they are still close to reality.

But even in such conditions, you will be able to see the sun and numerous rays, depending on the biome, which looks beautiful. So you can well take colorful screenshots or make thumbnails for YouTube videos.

The Nether

When you visit the Nether with this shader pack installed, it is hard to get immediately used to the local atmosphere. There is too much contrast there, and the lava has become much darker. However, large lava lakes significantly strain the eyes. The fire texture and fire effects have been changed. They now look more realistic without particularly affecting the FPS rate even when literally everything burns around you.

It has become more difficult to move around the Nether, as the contrast level is now too high, the visibility is worse, and the main focus is made on large bodies of lava. As a result, we have a large number of burning objects before us, and all of them are roughly the same color. Another somehow unfinished aspect of this shader pack is that you can see the sky even in the Nether, but it is basically the same as in the Overworld.

The End

It is quite pleasant to stay in the End on the default settings. There is now more light there and a large number of shadows cast by various objects, including endermen. The chorus fruits now look particularly cool, so we recommend that you necessarily look at them while visiting this dimension.

The End ships also look great. Just look at these colors! In general, the design of the End has become more pleasant, and all this is due to the lighting, shadows, dynamic blur, and other effects supported by this shader pack.

Exposa Shaders feature a large number of predefined settings, such as VeryLow, High, Extreme, and Oceano, as well as several options in between. So if you are not satisfied with the level of graphics, you can simply change the default config in the settings and evaluate the result. As for us, we had to select the High option, as the default parameters have proved to be inappropriate for the End (everything was dark, there were too many shadows and not enough light). Once we enabled this config, we got a completely different visual picture.

In general, we can say that the shader pack in question is a noteworthy option, which basically features only those effects that are important to most players. There are a lot of settings related to clouds, sky, water, color scheme, and some more effects. The mod has no redundant options, unlike many large-scale projects, and can boast proper optimization, a high FPS rate even on weak PCs, and a large number of predefined configurations, which is highly important for many players who do not want to spend hours to comprehend the subtleties of the shader settings. So feel free to download the add-on, try it, and disable this or that effect in the settings if you do not like something.

Images Exposa Shaders