What is Oculus?
Oculus by Asek3 ports Iris Shaders to classic Forge, letting the big 1.16.5–1.20.1 Forge modpacks run OptiFine-format shader packs on the Embeddium/Rubidium rendering stack. If you have played All the Mods 9 with Complementary shaders, Oculus was doing the work.
It requires its companion renderer (Embeddium or Rubidium) the same way Iris requires Sodium.
Setup on Forge Packs
- Confirm the pack has Embeddium or Rubidium — Oculus depends on one of them.
- Add Oculus matching your Minecraft version.
- Drop shader packs into
shaderpacksand select them under Video Settings → Shader Packs, exactly as with Iris. - Toggle with the shader keybinds and tune per-pack settings in the same screen.
Compatibility follows Iris closely for common packs (BSL, Complementary), with occasional Forge-specific quirks in heavily modded scenes — updating Oculus and Embeddium together resolves most render bugs.
For NeoForge 1.21+ packs, this pairing retires: Iris itself ships NeoForge builds there, alongside official Sodium.
Oculus FAQ
Does Oculus need Embeddium?
Yes, Oculus layers shader support onto Embeddium or Rubidium; install one of them first.
Which versions does Oculus support?
Forge 1.16.5 through 1.20.1. Newer NeoForge versions use Iris directly instead.