This is a list of the mods I like to use, as of MC-1.20.6
My choice of shaders and resource packs are aimed at making the world prettier and darker, and if anything they increase the difficulty.
Fabric
I use fabric mod loader for both single player/client mods, as well as mods for my server world.
Client Side mods
This is a list of the mods I use to support shaders, and to augment my UI in multiplayer.
- FabricAPI Common dependency for many other mods
- Sodium A modern rendering engine for Minecraft
- Iris A modern shaders mod for Minecraft
- BetterF3 Replaces the default F3 screen making it easier to read.
- Journeymap Real-time mapping in game or in a web browser as you explore
- Falling Leaves This Fabric mod for Minecraft 1.20+ adds a neat little particle effect to leaf blocks
- Dynamic Surroundings (Out of date) Adds ambient sound effects to the world
- BeeNFO (Out of date) Show number of bees and honey level in hives and nests
- ShulkerBoxTooltip (Out of date) View the contents of shulker boxes from your inventory
- Shuffle (Out of date) Randomly place blocks from your hotbar
ResourcePacks
- RealisCraft Texture pack for Minecraft provides a realistic look with detailed textures and natural lighting effects. Perfect for fans of natural aesthetics.
ShaderPacks
- Shrimple A simple Minecraft Java shader that attempts to maintain the vanilla aesthetic while adding optional shadows, colored lighting, and ray-tracing.
Server Mods
My server generally runs on the latest vanilla update running via Fabric. I run Lithium as well as my own home made tweaks mod for changing parts of the game.
Fabric vs Forge
I’ve switched over completely to using fabric. I originally made the switch to fabric purely because of the Lithium mod, which improves server performance without affecting gameplay features.
Fabric is less oriented toward supporting interactive mods that radically change the base game. It’s better suited to light weight tweaks and optimizations to vanilla gameplay. My preference is for vanilla gameplay.
Due to Fabric’s overall simplicity, it tends to update faster than Forge, which is less important for those running long lived modpack instances, but is a pain for my needs running a multiplayer server that serves players connecting with latest vanilla mc clients.