Hi guys!

As we have our very own Legion Minecraft Server (wanna join? See here), people occasionally ask how to make the graphics look fancy like in our screenshots. More realistic sky, water and shadows...? The answer is: OptiFine + shaders + nice texture packs.

I recently did this and it was new to me so before I forget all about it - here are the steps I took to install OptiFine and it's not as difficult as it sounds. I'll talk about the shaders and texture packs separately

There are many different guides around on the internet btw but thought it would be useful to have one here and talk about it together. Let me know in this thread if you have any additional tips about OptiFine! 👍

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(This is the lovely view I have from my fishing shack in one of my solo worlds)

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(I built a new pond using a tutorial and it looks really nice with Optifine, shaders and texture packs)



What's OptiFine?
An optimisation mod for Minecraft that will make Minecraft Java Edition look and run better, from adding lots of configuration options and support for HD graphics.

How to download and install OptiFine 11.8.2?

  1. Go to the OptiFine official download page at optifine.net/downloads
  2. Click on the Download button on the latest release (as of writing this, it's 1.18.2)
  3. Save the file on your computer (anywhere, e.g. Downloads folder)
  4. Open your Minecraft Launcher and from the tabs at the top, click on "Installations"
  5. Hover over "Latest Release", and click on the folder icon. It opens your Minecraft installation directory folder, you'll need its filepath soon.
  6. If you haven't yet played the latest installation of the game, launch it so the system recognises it. Once launched, exit the game.
  7. Open the OptiFine installation file you downloaded earlier, and when it shows a field for a file path, make sure it displays the Minecraft installation directory path before clicking Install.
  8. Click Install, and very soon it should tell you that OptiFine has been installed.
  9. Open Minecraft Launcher, and from the version dropdown on the left, pick OptiFine, then click Play. Your game will now launch using the latest OptiFine.


How to update OptiFine to the latest version?
The steps are exactly the same as above if you already have OptiFine installed but need the newest version. You just might not need step 4-6 because your system might remember these steps from the previous time you installed OptiFine. 😊


There you go! 😎 If you followed the above steps, let me know how it went and if you came across any issues?