Enhance Water and Reflective Surfaces

Enable Reflection Features

The BalancedLite shader automatically applies lightweight reflections to water and shiny blocks. These are active by default, but you can verify they're working by standing near a large water body or looking at polished blocks like dark oak wood or smooth stone.

Maximize Reflection Quality

In Video Settings > Shaders > shader options, locate the reflection or water quality setting. Set it to the highest level your device can handle without dropping frames significantly. The shader is optimized to keep reflections fast, so you should see minimal performance impact.

Observe Improved Lighting

Reflections work best when combined with the shader's updated lighting system. Move through different times of day — dawn, noon, and dusk — to see how light bounces off water and polished surfaces more realistically than vanilla Minecraft.

Note: Reflections are most visible on still water. Moving water and waterfalls may show reduced reflection detail to maintain performance.