Hey!
Ever wondered if you could play Skyblock on 1.20.4 feasibly? Are there even any good mods for it? Isn't 1.20.4 slow? Well, I am here to answer those questions.
Skyblock can very well be played on 1.20.4, and there are already a few great mods that give you (or at least me) everything you need. They contain plenty of the QoL features present in mainstream mods. Additionally, there are some mods on fabric that can dramatically enhance performance (although, admittedly, you can only do so much for servers). You can fully replace OptiFine and all its neat features too.
Nevertheless, there are a few caveats that will be addressed.
Why?
Minecraft 1.8.9 is a very old version. Some of you know, it will eventually not be supported. Thus, some modders are already preparing for the update that will bring exclusive modern content. At this point, many of the caveats will be no more. And! There will be tons of new features from the new versions of Minecraft! Yay, content!
I hear many people who are against the switching to modern version, mainly due to how all the modders will have to recode. Well, there are already great mods for this version! so yeah, your argument is invalid B-)
The Mods
This will be using fabric. Fabric is a well trusted alternative to the Forge modloader. I would say it is the better mod loader and many of the best mods utilize it.
- Go to the website.
- Downlaod Installer.
- Run the exe.
- Make sure client, is selected, and minecraft version 1.20.4 is also selected!
- If you have minecraft installed somewhere else, put in that directory. Else, leave "Launcher Location" alone!
- Install
- Thats all folks! From here you just do things like you would with optifine.
First let’s talk about performance. In a singleplayer world, mods like Sodium and Nvidium (if you can) can insanely increase your FPS, much more so than OptiFine. I get around 300 frames in an amplified world. Skyblock honestly feels much smoother than when I was in 1.8.9.
Here are some other good optimizer mods (shamelessly stolen from a modpack):
- Entity Culling, hides invisible entities and increases performance.
- FerriteCore, reduces memory usage!
- ImmediatelyFast
To more holistically replace OptiFine, there are some MORE mods:
- Zoomify, to replace OptiFine zooming.
- CIT Resewn, to add the Skyblock custom textures that OptiFine supported.
- Iris, for shaders.
Not only are these mods more compartmentalized and self-contained, but they are also somewhat more customizable/have more features. With Iris, you can disable shaders immediately. It’s so nice.
Next up are the Skyblock specific mods. There are only 3 you will need. And one of them for the majority of features.
Skyblocker is the one with all sauce. It has quick command buttons in the inventory, slayer helpers, dungeon solvers, countless QoL additions.. see their page for a full list of features! The modders are still very active, heck, it looks like they just released another major update at the time of this post.
Then, I install firmament which provides an item recipe viewer / list that can replace NEU (when combined with REI). Additionally, it has a feature for saving the cursors position when switching inventories. It may have some dependencies that you need to download for this.
Note: Skyblocker claims they now have support for REI. but i'm too lazy to test this so yeah.
Finally, I use DulkirMod for scrollable tooltips (I’m sure it has other useful features, too…)
All these mods are available on github/Modrinth, so, they’re probably safe…
Finally, some other QoL things that you may need on Fabric..
- ModMenu, a menu for you to actually view your mods.
- Borderless mining, for borderless windowed experience.
Oh, and best thing is? They don’t use Essential. No more of that tasteless advertising for cosmetics that cost IRL money or intrusiveness.
Yes, you can use custom skyblock texture packs!
Some context: There was a feature called Custom Item Textures, which was originally in MCPatcher, but later was transferred to OptiFine. Some clever
-boys have re-coded it to work on Fabric (since Forge mods don’t work on Fabric!).
Here’s how to do it:
In replacal of OptiFine, there is something called CIT Resewn. Throw this in your Mods folder.
Then, find the skyblock texture pack you want. Overlays work best. For 1.8.9 texture packs, if it contains GUI elements you may need to do some tweaking. Go ahead and equip the texture pack. If the red “(made for an older version)” really pisses you off, you can go into the texture pack’s folder and open the pack.mcmeta (open with text editor) and change “pack_format” to 22.
Modpack
Alternatively, if you don't wanna go through all the work of downloading these, there is a decent modpack with has most of the things discussed
This is not associated with me / anything here. Maybe i could make my own modpack if people really want me to :?
Caveats
Okay, there are a few issues I’ve noticed that are kinda annoying. As the Skyblock team eventually add more support for the versions, however, these things will likely go away.
Hit distance feels slightly different. When I collect from my minions, I have to go closer to them than I used to. I don’t want to be that close to those smelly things! It feels like I can’t hit as far, but for the most part gameplay is fine. Riftstalker Bloodfiend bug. Okay, there is a really annoying but that happens when the boyfriend spawns a killer spring – all the sound will go out temporarily! Then you cant hear when it will do a twinclaw! Hypixel team, please fix. Or maybe someone will make a mod. Rubberbanding.
Sometimes, when colliding against blocks, you could get stuck and teleport back a few blocks. Although, this may be an issue with all versions.
Swimming.
New 1.20 swimming conflicts with old and lame swimming causing the player to glitch a TON.
Dungeons.
Many of the "techniques" used in dungeons aren't available in 1.20.4, which can cause some
users to have a sub-optimal performance.
Ender Pearls.
Some users have reported ender pearls being extremely glitchy with 1.20.4, and sometimes insta-banning you. Use with caution.
(thanks @Fluboxer )
Anything else?
I may have forgotten a thing. I’ll update this if I remember. Feel free to let me know any issues you would have and I could add them!
Conclusion
In as little words as possible:
Skyblock on Minecraft 1.20.4 is possible and viable, can replace OptiFine and most popular Skyblock mods, as well as still having custom textures and shaders, while having a few issues that should be fixed.
