RRe36's Shader for Minecraft

Review RRe36's Shader

RRe36's Shader: Fabulous or Realistic?

It is not that easy to transform the graphics of Minecraft, even if you have got a shader with a lot of options and various effects. Default settings are enough to ensure a beautiful visual picture, but a perfect result is obtained only after one adjusts each parameter, tries to enable different options, and tests all this in the game.

RRe36's Shader can also boast a wide range of settings. It was created a long time ago and, despite not being actively supported by the developers, is still very popular. This pack allows you to thoroughly customize the swaying of grass and foliage, get a completely new version of water and lighting, enjoy cool and attractive nights, change the color scheme, increase the brightness, admire spectacular sunsets and sunrises, enable numerous options related to shadows, and adjust many other effects.

We are going to examine the latest 10.1 version. Please note that the developer of RRe36's Shader has prepared other shader packs, so he devotes little time to it. However, many fans create their own packs based on his developments, which proves the popularity of this project.

Nighttime

One of the features of this shader pack is the transformation of the color scheme in the daytime and at night, so we have decided to start our review with the nighttime. It is not as dark as in the vanilla Minecraft, and we can say that the developer has added more fog and blue shade. Every night, you will see bluish clouds and stars in the sky, and shadows of numerous objects will cover the terrain.

We have deliberately taken several screenshots in different locations, such as a winter biome, where snow and ice prevail, and in a usual grass biome. Do you notice all this flavor? It cannot be said that the game environment looks particularly realistic, but isn't it beautiful? It certainly is! The shader pack's developer has succeeded in this, adding a lot of nice effects for us.

In the sky, you will see a large number of small but very realistic stars, each of which is slowly circling overhead, shifting along its axis. The closer it gets to dawn, the less intense shades we see in the sky. In general, we can say that the nights in Minecraft have proved to be amazing, and you should certainly not overlook them.

When it comes to the moon, it is, in fact, not particularly attractive here, although its light makes full use of the effects added by the developer. It illuminates everything around with a soft light, perfectly combines with the shadows, casts a reflection on the water, and creates a pleasant nighttime atmosphere. Moreover, it allows the player to move around the game world without using any light sources, seeing everything thanks to its mere glow.

Sunsets and Sunrises

The game will now feature very vivid and fascinating sunsets and sunrises. This is also ensured thanks to the abundance of colors and contrast given by the developer to this time of day. Wherever you direct your gaze, you will see a hazy glow with lilac shades at sunsets and sunrises. This looks very beautiful and unusual.

All the shades smoothly flow from one to another during the change of day and night, which makes the gameplay even more interesting. You even don't want to build any structures or cultivate plants and are ready just to admire such a wonderful phenomenon. The default settings of RRe36's Shader are quite enough to ensure a bright and colorful visual picture, although a huge number of extra parameters are also available, and you can change the angle of the sun or moon and customize the glow, intensity, and size of objects, and adjust many other aspects.

Sunny Weather

During the daytime, the entire Minecraft game world becomes bright, although it has become much more contrast compared to the vanilla version. Shadows now play an even bigger role, but we will consider this point in one of the following paragraphs. The sun has greatly transformed: it is slightly smaller than the standard one but has received a round shape, thus becoming closer to its real prototype. The reflections from it are now not so intense, and the screen darkening or glare is not noticeable, although some shader packs add such effects.

Generally speaking, the entire surrounding atmosphere has been greatly transformed, and one now wants to constantly move around the cubic world watching different mobs and animal behavior both on the ground and underwater. The visual picture has become brighter, more vivid, and more attractive. Beautiful clouds have appeared in the sky, which look cool both during the day and at night. But during the day, they are white and fluffy, while in the nighttime, they are dark and as if painted with gouache or a brush.

Shadows

All shader packs are focused on improving shadows, and RRe36's Shader is no exception. We have already noted that this pack has not been updated by the developer for a long time. Even so, his developments and implemented features related to shadows are impressive. The updated shadows are fully dynamic, which is noticeable almost everywhere. Moreover, you will not have to configure anything to get a bright and vivid picture.

Depending on the sun's position, the shadows are cast by most blocks and terrain elements. Thus, if the sunrays fall on a mountain, part of the territory becomes dark because of the shadow, and as the sun moves, we will see it moving too. The quality and clearness are at the proper level: there are no rough transitions between pixels, and the visual picture and effects are quite decent.

The same applies to shadows from mobs and grass. Wherever you are, you will always witness a large number of shadows cast by different mobs, such as sheep, cows, endermen, and pigs. The shadow appears behind the player even when they move around the game world, and this looks very cool. However, there are not that many shadow settings, and it will not in fact be possible to thoroughly adjust them. Even so, the changes will be noticeable not only in the Overworld but also in the Nether and the End, which is extremely important for a game where the player constantly moves between several dimensions.

Water Effects

The texture and effects related to water will also significantly change, which is particularly important for most players installing such add-ons. The updated water is not that transparent but closer to reality. It looks beautiful, interesting, and unusual. Moreover, the weather conditions also affect it, so when it is windy, however slightly (that is, practically always), the water will tremble. The waves are not so pronounced but quite balanced and beautiful. Compared to the vanilla Minecraft, the water now looks completely different.

Another cool feature is the water reflections. Literally everything is reflected in the water, beginning with the sun and the moon and ending with the main character or mobs flying over rivers and lakes. However, in fact, you will see not your truthful image but a mere dark-colored shadow. The reflections of the environment look more interesting. Thus, if there is a forest biome around the lake or a large amount of grass and mobs, all this will be reflected in the water. The reflection is dynamically distorted depending on the sun's movement.

At night, the water reflects shadows and glare from the sky and the moon, along with sunsets and sunrises. So be sure to build a house somewhere in an aquatic biome and watch how the reflections will change depending on the time of day. The water transparency also cannot but please players, especially when you are at the bottom of the ocean. The light penetrates through the water, refracting and dissipating as the depth increases. The fish that sink to the bottom or float to the surface half sticking out of the water look very beautiful.

The changes are perceived in different ways. Thus, in large reservoirs like oceans, the water effects will look in one way and in a different way in lakes or small rivers. Even puddles are transformed beyond recognition, although you might previously not have noticed such minor elements at all.

Vegetation

Like any similar shader pack, this mod adds the waving animation for all the in-game vegetation. The foliage will now sway depending on the wind's intensity. The same applies to grass and various plants, including flowers, mushrooms, and much more. These mechanics also affect both water and lava. The entire game world has now greatly transformed in terms of environment, and in whatever biome the player finds themselves, they will notice movement, some special effects, and changes everywhere. Compared to the vanilla Minecraft, all this looks like a completely different project.

Lighting

A great job has been done on the lighting, which is not surprising, as such effects are the main focus of the majority of shader packs' developers. RRe36's Shader was no exception. It adds nice and very vivid effects for different types of light sources. We can even say that the in-game lighting has basically become more pleasant and warmer but more contrast.

Another feature is the light scattering. In the standard version of Minecraft, there has always been a lack of basis for smooth light scattering depending on the source. The developer of this pack has fully corrected all the shortcomings. At night, you will see a soft and slightly yellowish light emitted by various lamps and lanterns. If you place sea or ordinary lanterns underwater, you will get a completely different picture. There will be one glow under the water and a completely different one above it.

The environment will also have a huge impact on the in-game lighting. Even though the latter is dynamic, the time of day affects it in many ways. Thus, at night, we observe an abundance of dark places and locations, and light sources come to the fore. In contrast, during the day, the mere sunlight will be enough, as the sunrays at times penetrate even into remote areas, such as caves. In general, we can say that the updated in-game lighting is quite balanced and reworked, although there are, of course, not that many parameters allowing one to ensure a colorful visual picture, and we have to be content with what we have.

RRe36's Shader will not properly work on every PC, as it has certain effects that are quite demanding of your hardware. The number of mods in your build also matters. Even so, its performance level is basically normal on most PCs, although shadows and high settings may well reduce the FPS rate.

For an average user who is not particularly interested in adjusting shader parameters, the mod offers several predefined configurations. It will be enough just to put RRe36's Shader in the required folder and enter the Minecraft game world. For those who would like to experiment, there are plenty of settings, but not as many as in other global shader packs. Thus, the parameters related to shadows and clouds are quite scarce.

One more thing to note: even though the latest official version of 2019 was designed for 1.14.4, it works quite correctly on 1.19.2, which we have checked while writing this review for you. So install this shader pack, customize the graphics, and transform Minecraft in a few clicks. It is one of the most popular mods, based on which other shaders with more impressive functionality are created.

Images RRe36's Shader