Your game may look exactly like vanilla after installing Aerie. That usually means one of the setup steps was missed. Remember that Aerie is meant to look close to vanilla, so check for the right signs before assuming it's broken.
Confirm what "working" looks like
Aerie doesn't change textures or block shapes. Look for these instead:
- A soft bloom glow around bright objects in dark places
- Lighting that looks more consistent between blocks and items
Test at night or in a cave next to a light source. In bright daylight the bloom is hard to notice.
Work through the checklist
1. Is Canvas running? Aerie is a Canvas pipeline and does nothing without the Canvas renderer. Check your mod list to make sure Canvas loaded.
2. Is the pack enabled? Open Options → Resource Packs and make sure Aerie is in the *selected* column, not just sitting in the folder.
3. Is Aerie the active pipeline? Open Canvas's settings and confirm that Aerie, not the default, is chosen as the pipeline. Enabling the pack alone is not enough.
4. Is it in the right folder? Aerie belongs in resourcepacks, not in a shaderpacks folder used by other shader loaders.
5. Reload. After you change anything, back out of the menus fully, or restart the game, so Canvas rebuilds with the new pipeline.
If the pack still doesn't appear in Canvas's pipeline choices, take it out of the folder, put it back in, and run through the checklist again from step 2.