Side by side

Complementary Shaders vs DrDesten’s Minecraft Shaders

Both stand on minecraft shader packs. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Complementary Shaders

Free plan LinuxMacWindows

Complementary Shaders offers two configurable looks and a range of performance profiles for Minecraft Java Edition. Choose the installer route or download the pack and arrange a shader loader yourself.

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DrDesten’s Minecraft Shaders

Free plan LinuxMacWindows

DrDesten’s Minecraft Shaders pairs broad visual controls with PBR support and effects such as raytraced reflections. Consider its loader requirement, performance tradeoffs and possible parallax artifacts before using it.

Visit DrDesten’s Minecraft Shaders

The facts

	Complementary Shaders	DrDesten’s Minecraft Shaders
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	Linux, Mac, Windows	Linux, Mac, Windows
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Not published
Plans published	1	None
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	complementary.dev	github.com
On minecraft shader packs	#5 of 38	#9 of 38

Complementary Shaders: what it does well

Offers two customizable visual styles.
Profiles range from Potato to Ultra.
Custom effects cover almost every game block.
Free for Linux, macOS and Windows.

What to know first

For Minecraft Java Edition only.
Java is required to run the installer.
Manual downloads require users to install a shader loader.

DrDesten’s Minecraft Shaders: what it does well

Supports Minecraft 1.8.9 and newer.
Supports LabPBR 1.3 and SeusPBR/OldPBR.
Offers configurable camera, fog and sky options.
Version 2.1 added Distant Horizons support.

What to know first

Requires OptiFine or Iris.
Higher bokeh sample counts affect performance.
SSAO has a high performance impact.
Parallax occlusion mapping can cause artifacts.

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