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Quality settings: what ships, and what to lower first

By Ryleigh Newman · Published 19 September 2026

Rockstar Shaders ships one configuration, and it is the Ultra one. There is no Low, Medium, High or Ultra chooser on any screen: every quality setting sits on its own category page, and the shipped defaults are the values the pack was tuned at. The four profile tables still exist in the code, and this page shows what they hold, so you know which thirteen keys are the cost knobs when you want frame time back.

I made Rockstar Shaders, and on 2026-09-12 I took the chooser off the front page: the pack is being perfected in one configuration before any other exists. Older notes that say to pick High are stale.

Download free (1.0.0) Modrinth (pending)Minecraft 26.3, Fabric, macOS on Apple silicon. Install guide. Releases and bug reports on GitHub.

Why there is only one profile

The shipped numbers are Ultra. Every value in the Ultra column below equals the default the pipeline builders read, checked key by key, so a fresh install has nothing to turn up. The config file records "profile": "ultra"; move one of the thirteen keys a profile pins and it becomes "custom"; Reset to defaults on the front page puts it back. The README, the release notes and the settings document still describe a chooser and call High the shipped look; both statements are older than the code.

What the four tables hold

Two notes. Spray over falls reads On in the Ultra table but Off on a fresh install, because the shader default follows the Advanced key waterWhite, which is 0; turning it on works on its own. Parallax mapping is on in Medium and High and off in Low and Ultra, so the shipped look has no relief on block textures. Detail rungs was 1 until 2026-09-19.

Where each key lives

Every key in the table is on a category page, with its range. Cloud march steps (16 to 128) and Cloud light steps (1 to 6): Sky & Clouds. Wave octaves (2 to 5), Detail rungs (0 to 3), Parallax steps (0 to 16) and Spray over falls: Water. AO steps (2 to 12), Contact shadow steps (4 to 24) and Parallax mapping: Lighting & Shadows. Screen trace steps (8 to 48): Reflections & Materials. Fog steps (8 to 48) and Fog range (48 to 320 blocks): Fog & Volumetrics. DoF taps (4 to 16): Post-processing. All thirteen are also on the Advanced page, with about 600 more keys.

How a change applies

Three kinds of setting, and each tip says which. A tune setting, which is every key in the table, is stored as an override and applied when the page closes with Done; that rebuilds the shader pipelines in about a second, the ripple field restarts from flat, and a value put back to the shader default is stored as no override at all. An immediate setting, such as Render scale or Dynamic lights, applies at once; the master switch and Show pass timings rebuild the renderer on Done instead, and Smart leaf culling re-meshes every loaded chunk. A restart-only setting, such as Ray-traced shadows or Shadow resolution, says "Restart to apply." in its tip and the header reports that it applies at the next launch.

What actually buys frame time

Every number here is from one M4 Max with 48 GB, at the resolution named. Render scale is the big one: at 1706x1966, 75% took the sunset bay frame from 44.98 to 33.95 ms, 11 ms, while each quality knob one step down was worth a few tenths of a millisecond. That is why 75% is the default. At the same size the water pass is the largest at 8.67 to 8.84 ms, and inside it Screen reflections off gave 7.81 ms, Detail rungs 0 gave 8.02, Wave octaves 4 gave 8.20 and Parallax steps 0 gave 8.40. Shadow resolution 2048 against 4096 was 0.39 against 0.50 ms on a clear noon scene. The ray tracing is not a cost to cut: everything on was 27.9 ms, and every trace switched off cost more than the trace it replaced, 29.7 ms without shadows, 29.3 without reflections, 29.3 without fog, 29.5 with all three off. There is no measured cost for Low, Medium or High against the current defaults, so I publish no frame rate per profile.

On a slower Mac

The release notes say an M1 will be slower, and that is the whole record: nothing smaller than the M4 Max has been tried, and I will not guess a frame rate for an M1, M2 or M3. The old advice to start on the Medium profile cannot be followed on the current screen. What can be done, in order: Render scale down a step or two; Target FPS on the same page, which lowers the scale by itself while frames miss the rate and raises it when there is room; then the Low or Medium column of the table by hand, starting with the water keys and the fog range. Performance and overlays explains the governor and the pass timings overlay.

Custom, and putting it back

Once a pinned key moves, the config says custom and nothing else changes; the pack renders the values, not the label. On the Advanced page a changed key is prefixed with an asterisk and its tooltip shows the default and the value now. Clear all overrides on the Advanced page forgets every tune override. Reset to defaults on the front page does the same and sets the profile back to ultra; the restart-only switches keep their value either way. The Advanced page covers the config file itself.

Download free (1.0.0) Modrinth (pending)Minecraft 26.3, Fabric, macOS on Apple silicon. Install guide. Releases and bug reports on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman wrote Rockstar Shaders and every page on this site. Facts about other packs and programs come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Related

• The Advanced page, tune keys and the config file
• The Performance and Overlays page
• Getting more frames from Minecraft shaders on a Mac
• First launch: the Vulkan prompt and the master switch
• Minecraft shaders on M1, M2, M3 and M4: what to expect from each

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