Game view (F6) is a view mode that draws the viewport with the same GLSL code as the NP Lite shader pack. The Atmosphere · lighting look you tune in the editor looks almost the same in the game (Iris · OptiFine + NP Lite). Path tracing (F7) is a preview that draws shadows, indirect light and reflections with ray tracing. Make shader pack turns the tuned look into an NP Lite shader pack zip.
| What | Where |
|---|
| Game view | F6 or the view mode menu in the viewport’s left bar › Game view (shader) |
| Path tracing | F7 or the view mode menu › Path tracing |
| Atmosphere · lighting panel | The fog icon button in the viewport’s left bar (tooltip Atmosphere · lighting) |
| Sun · time of day | The sun icon button in the viewport’s left bar |
| Make shader pack | Make shader pack at the bottom of the Atmosphere · lighting panel |
| Edit formulas | Edit formulas… in the Atmosphere · lighting panel |
- Press F6 to switch to game view.
- In the sun button, move Time of day (shader preview) or click Day, Sunset or Night.
- Click the Atmosphere · lighting button to open the panel.
- Pick a look under Preset (for example Morning mist).
- Adjust values with Big settings or the detail sliders. Changes appear in the viewport immediately.
- Type a look name in the Name field and click Save to keep it as a look file.
- Click Make shader pack to make an NP Lite shader pack zip with the current look.
- Put the zip in the Minecraft
shaderpacks folder and select it in Iris.
Since 0.9.5: The shader look is saved together with the world file (.npworld). Opening another world switches to that world’s look.
| Preset | Look |
|---|
| Default | The defaults. Eye adaptation, wind and entity shadows are on. |
| Clear day | Slightly brighter and more saturated. Light distance fog. |
| Morning mist | Low height fog over the ground, light shafts and drifting mist. |
| Sunset light shafts | Warm sunset colors, strong light shafts and bloom. |
| Fantasy | High saturation, purplish fog, cloud shadows and contact shadows. |
| Overcast rain | Low saturation, thick distance fog and rain fog. Bloom is off. |
| Close to vanilla | Almost all decorative effects turned off. |
- At the end of the list there is also the preset
UnlitSanctum for a showcase map.
- Saved looks appear under Saved looks in the preset list.
- Look files are saved to
Documents\NPEditor\looks\<name>_vN.json. If the same name exists, the number goes up; nothing is overwritten.
- You can also apply a look by dragging it from Shader looks in the Content Browser into the viewport.
These fields are editor view settings. They are not included in the shader pack.
| Field | Default | Meaning |
|---|
| Render distance (chunks) | 12 (192 blocks) | Match it to the in-game Render distance option. Far fog starts at 75% of this distance. The range is 2–32. |
| Overview mode (editor only) | On | When the camera is high above the ground or far outside the map, pushes far fog out to the map edge and reduces light rays. Close to the ground, the view is the same as the game. |
| Grid in game view | Off | When off, hides the floor grid and chunk borders in F6. You can also toggle it with G in F6. |
- The status line below the fields tells you whether the current view matches the game (for example “Now: same as game”).
- In overview mode, light rays start fading at 48 blocks above the ground and turn off at 144 blocks.
Path tracing draws colored shadows, indirect light, block light and reflections with voxel ray tracing. When on, a Ray tracing bar appears at the bottom left of the viewport.
| Field | Values |
|---|
| Quality | Low (trace resolution 35%) · Medium (50%) · High (50%, 2× rays) · Ultra (100%) |
| Debug view | Final · Lighting only · Albedo · Normals · Reflections only · Accumulated frames · Voxel material · World position |
| Status text | GPU time per stage (ms) · voxel window size · number of block lights · trace resolution |
- When you stop the camera, the image becomes nearly clean within 0.5 seconds.
- If a frame takes more than 40 ms, “Slow — try lowering quality” is appended to the status text.
Big settings are five sliders: water realism, bounce light, fog, light shafts and glow. They range from 0–100%, with 50% as the default look. Moving one moves the linked detail values with it. When you change a detail value directly, it gets a lock and stays put when you move the big setting. Click the lock or All auto to make it follow the big setting again.
| Group | Main fields |
|---|
| Tone | Exposure · Contrast · Saturation · Color filter · Filmic tone mapping · Eye adaptation (auto exposure) |
| Lighting | Sunlight strength · Sky light · Shadows · Shadow distance (game) · Bloom (light bleed) · SSAO (corner shading) · Water reflections (SSR) · Underwater view · Colored block light · Light source glow · Ray-traced bounce light (game) · Colored shadows (stained glass) · Leaf/grass sun translucency |
| Atmosphere | Volumetric light shafts · Height fog (density · base height mode · base height · thickness) · Distance fog · Fog color · Rain fog |
| Game shader pack only | Sunset tint · Torch warmth · Moving mist · Sun rays (light) · Cloud shadows · Sun halo · sunset sky · Held light · Contact shadows · Wind (waving plants) · Block reflections (LabPBR) |
| ▸ Advanced values | Enter shader options that have no look field directly as numbers. Included only in the game shader pack. |
| ▸ Light per source | Light color · spread (1–15 blocks) · halo (0–2×) for each of 9 groups such as torch, soul fire and redstone. |
- You can type a number directly in the value field next to a slider and press Enter.
- The reset icon to the right of a slider returns that field to its default.
- The Game shader pack only group is not visible in the editor preview.
- SSIL (indirect light), SDFGI and Block light (torches and lanterns illuminate) are editor-preview only.
| Base height mode | Meaning |
|---|
| Absolute height (Y) | Base height is a world Y coordinate. |
| Relative to ground (map ground + blocks) | Number of blocks above the map ground height (median of ground columns). This is the mode presets use. |
- The panel shows “Map ground y=… · fog base y=…”.
- If the map is more than 8 blocks below the fog base, a warning and a Match base height to ground button appear.
- Make shader pack bakes the fog height with the same y. For a shader pack to use on another map, open that map and make it there.
In the Edit formulas… window you can edit 9 shader functions directly in GLSL (tone mapping · exposure/color grading order · fog amount · fog color · sky gradient · light shaft scattering · water absorption · hand light · bounce light). Check shows compile errors with line numbers. A formula that does not compile falls back to the default formula in both the shader pack and F6.
| Field | Meaning |
|---|
| Also put in Minecraft shaderpacks folder | Finds .minecraft\shaderpacks and saves a copy there too. Does not overwrite. |
| Make shader pack | Makes a zip from the current look + sky decoration + look volumes. |
- The output file is
Documents\NPEditor\shaderpacks\NP-Lite_<look name>_vN.zip.
- The shader pack is for Iris · OptiFine. Select the pack in Iris and use the profile EDITOR to get the values you tuned in the editor.
- Sun, moon and clouds with Draw with shader turned on in sky decoration are included too (Sky and sound).
Actors you place from main toolbar Add › Volumes.
| Actor | What it does | Included in the game |
|---|
| Look volume | When entered, changes exposure, saturation, tint, fog and some light shaft values (forest fog · indoor warmth · snowy mountain chill · biome · indoor auto · cave auto). | Yes (Make shader pack). |
| Fog volume | Zone fog such as valley fog or cave light fog. | No (F6 preview only). |
| Item | Details |
|---|
| Renderer | Game view and path tracing require Forward+ (Vulkan · D3D12 · Metal). |
| When the renderer does not match | F6 draws the older approximate view. F7 does not turn on and tells you why. |
| Light calculation | The world’s light is calculated once when you first enter F6. After that, only edited areas are recalculated. |
| Meshing | In F6, smooth lighting and AO add more faces. Views other than F6 are unchanged. |
| Far distance | Far LOD areas (levels 2 · 4) are drawn without block light. |
| Heavy fields | Volumetric light shafts · Light shaft quality · Shadow distance (192 blocks or more) · SDFGI · path tracing Ultra |
- If the view is slow, pick the preset Low-end PC in Tools › Performance settings… (view distance · LOD · shadows · threads).
- Ctrl+F7 toggles the performance overlay (FPS · frame ms · draw calls · memory).
| Key | Action |
|---|
| F6 | Game view |
| F7 | Path tracing |
| F1 · F2 | Back to Lighting · Unlit |
| G (in F6) | Toggle grid in game view |
| Ctrl+F7 | Toggle performance overlay |
- The preview and the game draw differently, so they are not exactly the same. Things the editor does not have (rain, status effects, mobs, vanilla stars) are approximated.
- Wind (waving plants) waves only in the game shader pack. The editor preview does not wave yet.
- Stacked glass mixes (game) is visible in F7; F6 still shows only one layer.
- If the terrain is covered in sky color when you view the whole map from afar, check whether Overview mode (editor only) is on.
- To see exactly what the game shows, set Render distance (chunks) to match the game option.
- If you need a high-resolution image, use File › High-res screenshot…. It redraws the F6 view as-is at the size you want.