Adjust Shadow Quality and Distance for Your Hardware
Finding the Shader Settings
Open the shader options menu by pressing the designated key while in-game (usually accessed through the pause menu or a shader settings hotkey). Look for shadow-related sliders and toggles.
Tuning Shadow Performance
If you're experiencing frame drops, reduce the shadow distance slider—this limits how far shadows render from your character, significantly improving performance on lower-end systems. Lower values mean shadows only appear close to you.
Adjust shadow softness to find your balance. Higher softness creates smoother, more realistic shadows but costs more performance. Lower softness gives sharper shadows and better frame rates.
Testing Your Changes
After adjusting settings, move to an area with trees or tall structures casting shadows. Walk around and observe frame consistency. If you're still dropping frames, reduce distance further or lower softness more.
Return to the shader menu and save your configuration. Most shader packs remember your preferences between sessions, so you won't need to reconfigure after restarting the game.