Every gamer knows the importance of frames per second (FPS), especially when a game’s graphical settings are the topic at hand. Despite its pixelated vintage style, Minecraft isn’t an exception since higher FPS values will allow for a smoother experience. The problem is the Minecraft game itself doesn’t lend towards boosting FPS.
With OptiFine, this problem is resolved for most gamers. This mod helps optimize your game and make it run without a hitch. After installing Optifine, you’ll notice the difference when you launch Minecraft.
How to Install Optifine
Before installing OptiFine, you need to make sure that you’re playing on Minecraft: Java Edition. The Bedrock Edition isn’t compatible with Optifine. Java is the edition that works with mods, and Bedrock’s mod compatibility is relatively low.
There are two main ways to install OptiFine. One way is to install it without using other mods, while the other allows you to do so. We’ll cover the first method first.
How to Install OptiFine Without Mods
With this method, you’ll only be using OptiFine with Minecraft: Java Edition. However, there won’t be any game mechanic-changing mods installed. If you want to use these other mods, then this method doesn’t apply to you.
Here’s how you’ll install OptiFine without other mods:
- Go to the official OptiFine website.
- Download the version of Optifine that corresponds to your Minecraft version.
- Execute the OptiFine installer file you downloaded.
- When the installer window pops up, select the installation destination.
- Click “Install” when ready.
- Wait for the process to finish.
- Once OptiFine is installed, launch Minecraft: Java Edition.
- Enable OptiFine from the drop-down list located to the “Play” button’s left side.
- After the game finishes loading, go to “Options.”
- You’ll know the mod is correctly installed when there are more graphics options than before.
- Change the settings as you see fit.
With the help of OptiFine, your game will run a lot smoother than before. Optifine grants you many more options to optimize. If you’re playing on a weaker computer, you can reduce the settings to help boost the framerate.
Computers with weaker graphics cards and lower RAM will benefit the most from OptiFine. Without it, you may experience choppy gameplay and frame drops. By installing OptiFine, these problems will go away with the proper settings, for the most part.
Bear in mind that OptiFine doesn’t magically make your computer run better. You may have to adjust the settings a lot for smoother gameplay. Lower settings usually mean sacrificing visual quality for performance.
How to Install OptiFine With Mods
This method allows you to optimize Minecraft with OptiFine and install other mods as well. It requires Minecraft Forge, so we recommend that you download it first. Forge is what allows Minecraft: Java Edition to use mods.
- Download Minecraft Forge and install it.
- Head to OptiFine’s official website on your browser.
- Download the correct OptiFine version that matches your Minecraft game.
- Open your Minecraft launcher.
- In your launcher, select “Forge” and then click “Play” to open modded Minecraft.
- Go to the “Mods” menu in Minecraft Forge.
- Select “Open Mods Folder.”
- The game will open the Forge mods folder.
- Move or copy the OptiFine JAR file into your Forge mods folder.
- Close Minecraft and relaunch it the same way.
- Minecraft should tell you it has two modules to load.
- To check if Forge is appropriately installed, head to the “Options” menu.
- Open “Video Settings.”
- If you see more options than before, then OptiFine has been installed correctly.
- Adjust the settings as you see fit.
If you already play with other mods using Forge, this second method will allow Optifine to integrate seamlessly. You’ll notice a performance boost after installing OptiFine as well. Since OptiFine doesn’t mess with other mods, they usually run fine alongside each other.
How to Improve Your OptiFine Settings for Minecraft
With OptiFine installed in the game, you can start boosting Minecraft’s performance. The extra options in the Video Settings menu are what help with increasing your framerate count. With a more robust graphics card and OptiFine settings, you can reach more than 100 FPS.
Let’s take a look at the various settings you can adjust for a smoother Minecraft experience.
Graphics
The game already comes with its own graphics quality options. They are:
- Fast
- Fancy
- Fabulous
As you can tell, Fast is the better one for performance. You sacrifice quality for performance with this option. Fabulous is the opposite, exchanging performance for beauty.
If your computer can’t handle at least 60 FPS with Fabulous or Fancy, we recommend using Fast. It’s easier on your hardware, and you’ll be able to make the most of your computer’s juice.
Smooth Lighting
With Smooth Lighting on, your game will spend more resources on producing the best lighting effects. It also affects your game performance negatively. That’s why you should turn it off.
If you can afford it, you can select “Minimum” to balance FPS count and quality. This option still requires some resources, but not as much as “Maximum.”
Shaders
Shaders are among the most taxing graphics features in Minecraft. By turning them off, you can get a substantial boost in FPS. While you can use Optifine to load custom shaders, this feature has also been known to cause some bugs, glitches, and crashes.
There’s also no guarantee that shaders work with custom blocks or other mods. Turning them off is the best course of action if you want to improve performance.
Dynamic Lighting
Dynamic Lighting comes with three options:
- Off
- Fast
- Fancy
Turning the Dynamic Lighting off will make the game darker, but you also get more frames in exchange. “Off” and “Fast” are the best choices, and depending on your computer, you can choose the best one for your needs.
Fast Dynamic Lighting has 500 milliseconds of latency, but Fancy has real-time Dynamic Lighting without latency. The latter is also taxing on computer resources, so having it on isn’t recommended if you’re worried about performance.
The best performance comes with no Dynamic Lighting at all or using the Fast setting.
Details
The Details option contains more than 10 choices, including:
- Clouds
- Trees
- Vignette
- Fog Start
- Stars
- Rain & Snow
- Translucent Blocks
- Swamp Colors
- Alternate Blocks
All of them have at least two choices. Optifine also gives you tips for improving performance. For the Details, here are the best settings:
- No clouds
- Fast trees
- No sky
- No sun and mood
- No fog
- Fast translucent blocks
- Fast dropped items
- Fast vignette
- Entity distance of 100
- No cloud height
- No rain and snow
- No stars
- Don’t show capes
- Fog starts at 0.8
- Held item tooltips are on
- No swamp colors
- No alternate blocks
- No biome blend
These settings can give you better performance at the cost of a relatively barren and dull game. However, for best performance above all, this is the only way.
Animations
The animations are also affected by the OptiFine treatment. There are many things to toggle on or off, such as:
- Water animations
- Redstone animations
- Void particles
- Terrain animations
- Water particles
- Animated textures
- Explosion animations
You can click on “All Off,” which makes the game look very static and flat; however, it gives you the best FPS gain. Even so, just a fair warning: your game will look drastically different aesthetic-wise.
Particles should be “Minimal” for decent visual quality. You don’t want the game to look too ugly even if you get more than 200 FPS.
Quality
The Quality tab also has many settings to adjust for optimal performance. Since they take too long to explain each one, we’ll get into the best settings for this menu.
- Mipmap Levels should be off
- No anisotropic filtering
- No emissive textures
- Turn off better grass
- No custom fonts
- Fast connected textures
- No custom sky
- No custom entity models
- No random entities
- Turn off better snow
- No custom colors
- No natural textures
- No custom items
- No custom GUIs
All of these settings will free up RAM and your graphics card. The downside is, again, a game with less visual appeal.
Performance
This tab has even more areas for adjustment, and each one helps with increasing your FPS. Here are the best settings for the Performance tab:
- Turn render regions on
- Turn smart animations on
- Turn smooth FPS on
- Set chunk updates to one
- Turn on lazy chunk loading
- Turn on fast rendering
- Turn fast math on
- Turn smooth world on
- Turn dynamic updates on
This is the second to last tab for the best OptiFine settings. The last one is called the “Others” tab.
Others
In this last tab, the settings mostly have to do with some miscellaneous features. Here’s how you could adjust them:
- Lagmeter should be off
- Don’t show FPS
- The weather should be on
- No fullscreen
- Default screenshot size
- Turn the debug profiler off
- No advanced tooltips
- Default time
- Show the GL errors
- Current fullscreen model
- 10-12 minutes between autosaves
There’s some wiggle room in all of these settings. If you want to go all the way for performance, these should help you gain the most FPS. It still doesn’t look pretty, however.
Additional FAQs
How Do I Change My OptiFine Resolution in Minecraft?
Go to the Video Settings in your Options menu. There’s a slider that allows you to adjust your Optifine resolution. Drag it around until you achieve the resolution you prefer.
Why Is My FPS Different With OptiFine Installed?
Optifine allows you to optimize your Minecraft graphical settings. You can use it to increase your FPS drastically or decrease it. The result depends on your settings, but OptiFine is primarily used to get more FPS.
Which OptiFine Edition Should I Get?
There are three OptiFine versions:
· OptiFine Ultra
· OptiFIne Standard
· OptiFIne Light
Ultra has the most options for optimization, while Standard is the middle ground. Light is better for laptops with lower hardware specs but has fewer features and doesn’t work with Forge or Modloader.
For most situations, Ultra is the way to go due to its many advanced settings. It works with all computers, and you can run it alongside other mods. Standard is a decent choice if you only want a smaller boost than what Ultra can offer.
Minecraft in 500 FPS
With OptiFine’s help, even computers with low specs can play without frame drops and stutters. Most people can play Minecraft fluidly and without worrying about the odd stutter. The mod also helps reduce your computer’s load.
How many FPS can you get out of Minecraft with Optifine? What version of Optifine do you use? Let us know in the comments section below.
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