
ink-wash-shaderpack
is an Iris shader pack for Minecraft, inspired by traditional Chinese ink wash painting art. Using post-processing shader technology, it transforms the game's visuals into a real-time ink painting style—featuring natural gradations of ink tones, varied bru
🎨 Ink Wash Painting Shader Pack
Transform your Minecraft world into a flowing Chinese ink wash painting.
✨ Overview
Ink Wash Shader Pack is an Iris shader pack for Minecraft, inspired by traditional Chinese ink wash painting art. Using post-processing shader technology, it transforms the game's visuals into a real-time ink painting style—featuring natural gradations of ink tones, varied brushstrokes, distant mountains fading into a dreamlike white space, and foliage swaying in the wind.
Unlike simple desaturation filters, this shader pack deeply simulates multiple traditional ink painting techniques:
- Five Ink Tones (五墨法) — Natural transitions between burnt, heavy, dark, light, and clear ink tones.
- Brush Stroke Outlines (皴法) — Multi-scale edge detection to simulate the texture of a traditional ink brush.
- Negative Space (留白) — Distant scenery and skies fade into large areas of preserved white space, mimicking the ethereal emptiness found in traditional landscapes.
- Ink Diffusion (墨晕) — A soft, natural bleeding effect simulating wet ink seeping into rice paper.
- Rice Paper Texture (宣纸) — Fractal noise reproduces the authentic fiber texture of traditional Xuan paper.
🖼️ Core Features
🖌️ Global Ink Tone Palette
All blocks are mapped to ink tones based on luminance. Nearby objects show texture details (like light ink sketches), while distant objects gradually dissolve into negative space.
✒️ Three-Tier Brush Outlines
| Brush Size | Detection Method | Visual Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Thick | Depth + Normal Edges (2x sample) | Major structure outlines (mountains, buildings) |
| Medium | Depth + Normal + Color (1x sample) | Block-level edges |
| Fine | Color Edges (0.5x sample) | Fine texture detail lines |
🌿 Wind Sway Animation
Grass and flowers sway dynamically with a 3-layer wind system (main gust + rustle + fine tremor). Leaf blocks sway gently like entire branches. The shader intelligently differentiates foliage using texture transparency so solid ground blocks will not animate.
🌫️ Distant Fading
A depth-based fading system: foregound ink is sharp and clear → midground lightens → background dissolves completely into paper white, much like distant mountains in traditional landscape paintings.
💧 Ink Diffusion
A dedicated post-processing pass simulates wet ink seeping into the paper. Light ink areas spread naturally, strong ink remains crisp, and ink flow is subtly influenced by micro-gravity.
📜 Rice Paper & Mounting
- FBM Paper Texture — Tri-scale fractional brownian motion noise with horizontal fiber bias to recreate authentic papermaking textures.
- Scroll Border — Adds a traditional mounted scroll frame around the screen.
- Vermilion Seal (朱印) — A toggleable traditional red stone seal stamp.
🌙 Time & Dimensions
- Ink tones automatically adapt to Minecraft time—light and elegant during the day, heavy and dark at night.
- Automatically detects the Nether dimension and applies a brightness boost and a subtle warm red tint perfectly fitting the lava atmosphere.
- Subtle "Ink Flow" animation brings a breathing, hand-painted feel to the entire display.
⚙️ Configurable Parameters (18 Settings)
All parameters can be tuned in real-time via the Iris Shader settings menu, featuring full English/Chinese translations. Options include:
- Ink Contrast & Color Tints (Subtle original color preservation up close)
- Night Darkening & Nether Brightness
- Edge Strength for all three brush tiers
- Ink Flow & Wind Sway animations
- Distance Fade & Ink Diffusion
- Paper Grain Intensity
- Vignette, Scroll Border, and Seal Stamp toggles
📦 Installation
- Requires Minecraft with Fabric and Iris Shaders.
- Place the downloaded
.zipfile into your.minecraft/shaderpacks/folder. - Enable the pack in-game: Options → Video Settings → Shader Packs.
- Press
Oin-game to access shader settings and tweak the look to your liking!
