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OptiFine is not your savior: a retrospective & PSA on how optimizing Minecraft has changed

It is highly recommended to read from the off-site mirror for footnotes. You should still come back here to comment and kudos drop, of course.

If I could also put the footnotes here, I wouldn't also advertise my blog :(


In progress since 7/26/25 3:44 PM. Original idea from 7/18/25.

Introducing...

Minecraft is one of those games that I will always have a love-hate relationship with. The experience of modding either ends in love and two hours of love and power as I play with crazy cool improvements
...or I'm spending the next hour removing mods one by one and reading game logs to figure out what went wrong. Only for it to be something trivial, stupid, or well, I give up on the spot.

Not everybody gets to share that sentiment. People prefer Client Launchers that just open the game, apply a few optimizations and the fun is over. While I have some issues with that, it's not hurting anybody. People have many reasons to not care about playing, including time and effort, but some just have super rigs with good temps and can afford to undercut.
Of course, that's a terrible way of looking at it, but people are people.

I can also get people who just can't wrap their heads around the optimization space. And of course, several lists exist to help with that! Well, as best they can.

Generally, there's just so much I'd love to talk about when it comes to modding. There's so many good posts, a lot of rants that would be fun to share my experiences with, as well as just generally reminding people that modern Minecraft has a lot of new performance advancements!

And then... There's that thing. In the title.
I fear it.

OptiFine.

...

Either I just pissed off a good few people, became the fourteen hundred thousandth person to rant about it, or just said what everybody knows.

A quick "hello"!

That's nonsense, of course. I never even told you about the man of the hour! Let me introduce you to this man before I yap your ear off about his warcrimes.

OptiFine is a Minecraft tweak created by sp614x around the time of Minecraft's Beta 1.2 days, originally created as two mods. It started in 2011 as a silly, simple project about Minecraft and optimizating the game, before the main developer would decline giving their code to Mojang roughly around 2013,

OptiMine

The first was OptiMine, which seemed to have started around Beta 1.2 (released Janurary 2011) and was created by a different person named Scaevolus. It was about rewriting the text engine to support Unicode (although fonts not included), Fast Render, and other general optimizations.

It's last update was during Beta 1.3_01.

OptiFog

The second was OptiFog, a predecessor to OptiFine released for Beta 1.4 (March 2011, the day before April Fools!). It was mostly about removing Fog, but also had some basic optimizations such as "FPS Boost", Occlusion Culling, and chunkloading optimizations in it's first ever version. Later versions would add MCPatcher, OptiMine & Modloader support, and some other familiar options that would make it to Minecraft later.

It's last version was during Beta 1.7.2.

OptiFine: Merging the two Projects

Okay, you probably got really bored listening to all that yap. Long story short, the two projects, as well as another mod project merged into OptiFine for beta 1.7.3, and the rest is history.

That's fine, that seemed to be the end of the post, right? Most people probably walked out on the history yap, thinking this is just a post full of slop, yeah? This is just a lame talk that's clickbait about how OptiFine is popular?

Well, you didn't even let me to get to that part!

Welcome to 2025.

Minecraft is a game that, while not seemingly so, has many issues with Performance. Maybe one day, I'll make a post about Sodium. Maybe a post about modloaders, or even about 1.21.5... Yikes.

But in the meantime, we need to talk about OptiFine. Specifically, modern version of OptiFine. Yeah, mind fucking, I know.

I get the argument on legacy versions

Let me just first off say that this isn't about "OptiFine" being the devil and that you need to quit it NOW for this alternative version. The truth is, there's not always an alternative.

On versions like 1.8, 1.0 and even the beta builds, you just have to suck it up and use OptiFine. 1.7 has Angelica and anything after 1.14 has Sodium, but for everything in between, you're just plain hosed. OptiFine is really your only choice right now. And last I checked, Legacy Fabric doesn't have anything solid to replace it. Or a Sinytra Connector clone.

So for a version like a beta, or maybe a very early release version, I get it. The mod support for early versions is very dry now that 2011 is a decade past and we've moved on to newer versions. Yet, I just wish there was a way to backport the OptiFine competitor out of spite... Embeddium's done it, Rubidium's done it, Angelica's done it, but I still don't get how 1.8 doesn't have an Angelica-like mod yet. Why does 1.7 need the special treatment, because they have GregTech? 1.8 needs it for competition! It's a very popular version for PvP and

Sorry, just very passionate about Minecraft. The modding scene is a little bizzare, and since 1.20 ages, modders have struggled to keep up. Some mods are approaching a year since their last update :(

it's just... we could use so many better choices. OptiFine did it's job in what, 2014? Back when the optimizations were still fresh and actually relevant, compared to today, where they're just super old and only do the bare minimum for performance now. It's just...

The version racism is stupid.

Yes, titlecard. Thank you.

Modding's racism is so dumb. First of all, OptiFine itself has done so, skipping 1.21.5 themselves, so they're definitely guilty of it. 1.21.6+ is available but under pre-release status, etc. So before you put this on modders, don't forget that your savior has also sinned.

Second of all, the modding space has ALWAYS been hostile. 1.7 being the only pre-1.15 version to get any kind of Sodium resembling overhaul is already ridiculous, let alone 1.8-1.14 having to just "make do" by themselves. I know that 1.9 is very unpopular, and 1.8 is mostly just Hypixel players that already use Lunar for performance, but come the fuck on, people!

This was also always going to happen, considering the modding space is also full of a lot of conflicting opinions. You have mod authors that haven't updated in almost a year and seemingly have gone missing, dead, or possibly demotivated to update mods you really want, picking the right version, deciding between Forge and NeoForge for 1.20+, if Forge has all the ports you want...

Like holy shit, was it not enough OptiFine was replaced since 1.15? Did we need to also over complicate everything? This is not a modding issue in its entirety, but it's still an issue some authors fuel. God...

Things have changed

But some things are meant to change. That's why we have Sodium to replace it. That's why every modder warns you to avoid OptiFine like the plague on every version past 1.14. That's why modders gravitate towards Fabric. That's why I always tell my friends to use Fabric over Forge. Because times have changed, and all the good things are currently on Fabric. Either the people porting to Forge have specific versions in mind, or are only going for the low hanging fruit: the most popular choice.

It's just all very hostile. So hostile, in fact, that Lunar Client has chosen steal Sodium for themselves! The CaffeineMC team has made a mod so good at outdoing OptiFine, that clients are starting to use it over OptiFine. Talk about funny?

Sorry, that was my victory lap. I just find it funny they've already jumped ship. After all, I've already complained about them being inefficient, I guess they have to one up that by taking what was a modder exclusive.

There's better options

Okay, listen. I know, I'm dogging on OptiFine really hard. You're probably either really sick of the yap, or you just want me to hurry up and recommend an alternative. I got you.

First of all, get Modrinth's launcher for Minecraft. If you have never modded before, Prism Launcher looks too bloated and you're too tired to learn anything else, Modrinth is easy, updates your mods to the latest version for you, and does what it's meant to do.

Now, the mods. The launcher won't do the magic on it's own. That's tiresome, I know, but we have lists for that! Try picking up Toolkit or TheUsefulLists. Find the version you want to play on, browse the list, and install whatever mods show up for your version. Profit, and you're de-fined! If you miss shaders, just install Iris and be on your way.

Connected textures? Continuity. There's also some mods for many features OptiFine had! See here for more options!

Of course, this kind of thing might not encourage everybody, but I'm just saying that the option is out there.

Isn't a faster rendering engine better than an all in one modpack that was last performing at its peak in 2012?

This was a bit of a hard yap... Maybe I'll follow this up another time.


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Benji

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I haven't heard much about modding since I last messed with it, but I already had a lot of issues with modding modern Minecraft before they started doing game drops. I bet that modding right now is even worse off right now because of the faster pace releases making large mods way harder to keep updated.

If I were to recommend Minecraft today, it would be 1.12 modded. Playing games including modded games should at least somewhat simple and 1.12 is the peak of the standard modding APIs and development unlike today where it's a constant cat and mouse of updating APIs and mods just for them to become outdated in less than 6 months. The only other option is Bedrock Marketplace and it's contents which is basically the promised modding API turned into a paid games platform where you are better off just buying actual games instead.

Anyway, that's what my friends might say if they were using my words. Most of the stuff I see with 1.12 are tech packs though which are cool but not my kind of thing.


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This post is mainly about older versions where the support is slow or nowhere, because surprise surprise, OptiFine's performance is irrelevant in Modern Minecraft, the exact same scenario where you play SMPs and the like!!! Assuming you're on Fabric with no care in the world, you can just slap Sodium in your modpack and call it a day, no more bullshit needed to think, you've done step one and could just rock sodium alone.

I do definitely agree a lot with modern Minecraft being a nightmare for mod developers. The effects of these constant drops are already settling in, considering 1.20.5 being fucking alien and out of place, all the mods still stuck on 1.20.1/1.21.1, some mods that even I like and want being outdated as far back as 1.21.5, 1.21.4, hell sometimes even 1.21.1. I've started already restoring to searching for ports to later versions. 1.21.5 is literally from March. It's been 4 months and some mods haven't even gotten to 1.21.5. Might I also add 1.21.5's watered down performance, Sodium's official warning, and even 1.21.5 getting performance mod exclusives it shouldn't?

Bedrock being the only other alternative aside from 1.12 is definitely horrible. It's free on Java, there is ZERO incentive to buy it just to get it on Bedrock.

As for 1.12 being a recommendation for modding... Eh. 1.7 (maybe 1.8) and 1.12 have earned their statuses for being very famous versions to mod on, but the performance space is lacking. 1.7 gets Angelica, 1.15+ gets Sodium, what does 1.12 get?
All of the side optimizations like VanillaFix don't count, by the way, find me a rendering overhaul that can replace OptiFine in it's entirely.

1.12 is cool and all, and I've played on it before, but the neglect for Sodium type ports and projects for pre-1.15 is basically null and void, and OptiFine has basically taken that space over. That was the point of this blog, not that "modern minecraft" is superior or anything, just that in the modern day, we literally have a shit ton of resources and a bunch of cool, further ahead stuff. 1.21.5+ might have nuked performance and SMPs are making it worse, but at least we got Sodium at all.

Remember that some versions didn't get that same luxury.

by April / Riv; ; Report