Continuum Shaders
Continuum Shaders encompass every ‘traditional’ shaderpack we’ve developed from our first namesake shader with Continuum 1.3, to the newest, with Continuum Legacy. The only shader not included in this category is Continuum RT, which has it’s own page, due to how fundamentally different it is vs our ‘normal’ shader offerings.
Shaders are ordered chronologically by release order.
Continuum Legacy
Continuum Legacy, while based on the same robust shared codebase as Continuum 2.1, aims to go in a different direction. Legacy not only embraces the visual style of the much loved Continuum 1.3, but also the more ‘fun’, less realism driven ethos that shader was driven by.
This is quite the departure from our other modern shaders, where we focus on realism wherever possible, but has been both a fun change of pace for our developers, as well as our wider community. We hope to continue expanding on this idea as Legacy progresses through our Continuum Early Access program, towards its eventual full, free release.
Familiar Features...
Legacy has all the features Continuum 2.1 users have come to expect, just with a less realistic, stylized twist…
Volumetric 3D clouds are still present, but now hang unrealistically low in the sky, and have a more stylized visual aesthetic.
Rays are still cast through volumetric fog, but come from a much larger Sun, with more pronounced fog throughout the day. We also brought back the classic 2D god rays from 1.3 for an even more dramatic effect in certain situations.
Water is more stylized as well, with more dramatic waves, caustics, and even color.
And Familiar Settings
All the existing, heavily tweaked, and newly added features available in Continuum Legacy are still as user configurable as ever.
Everything from the height of waves on the surface of water, to the density of volumetric fog throughout the day…to the robust physically based camera system can be adjusted to suit your preferences (including applying LUTs)…even if those preferences are less than realistic!
We plan to continue to offering the high level of configurability you expect with every new feature added to Continuum Legacy.
Want Continuum Legacy now? Consider Continuum Early Access!
Continuum 2.1
Continuum 2.1 is the natural evolution of Continuum 2.0. It comes with a further refined and optimized code-base, with which we are able to push effects not seen in most ‘AAA’ titles, with better performance than ever before. Continuum 2.1 is designed to suit the needs of cinematic creators, builders, and general Minecraft players alike, while still offering many advanced tools and features you’d only find in modern rendering engines. It’s also our first shader to be rebuilt from the ground up to take full advantage of our Focal Engine shader mod, which has enabled it to become our most polished, feature rich and performant shader package yet.
PHYSICALLY BASED LIGHTING
Continuum 2.1 is designed in two stages; the lighting stage, and the toning stage. In the lighting stage we do our best to assure proper energy by rendering with real measured values. Coming with a physically based Sky, Material System, Ambient Light, Reflections, and Volumetrics (Clouds, Air and Water); Continuum can make any Minecraft build look like it was exported from offline renderers, but in real time*.
*Performance will vary depending on your hardware configuration. Continuum is optimized, but some of the effects being used are quite expensive regardless.
FAMILIAR TONING SETTINGS
Continuum 2.1 comes equipped with a physically based camera system. This means that we are simulating a raw camera inside the game. Using common values such as Aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed, and Exposure, the user can line up the perfect screenshot, just like you would with a camera, but in Minecraft!
Continuum 2.1 will offer a highly intuitive and configurable color grading system. Everything down to the tonemap will be configurable, with options to adjust the toe, slope, and shoulder of the tonemap, the user can truly make the shader their own. Other settings will include White Balance, Contrast, Vibrance, Saturation, Gain, and many more, making adjustments is easy and convenient. However, if that isn’t enough for your needs, we will allow you to upload a custom LUT into the shader just to make sure we offer anything a cinematographer would need.
Thanks to our Continuum Early Access program, Continuum 2.1 is currently available for free to all via our Focal Engine.
Previous Releases
Continuum 2.0
Much like Continuum 2.1 is the natural evolution of Continuum 2.0, 2.0 is the natural evolution of 1.3. It boasts a completely new codebase, marking the first time a Continuum shader was not based on SEUS code. It was a landmark release for Continuum Graphics, and while it has its issues, it will always be special to us.
Continuum 1.3
Continuum 1.3 was the pinnacle of what the Continuum team could do within the bounds of old SEUS O3 shader code, and despite it being fairly outdated by modern Minecraft shader standards, is still a favorite of many of our fans to this day. It will live on in spirit and overall feel, but be brought into the modern age with the release of Continuum Legacy.
Officially Sanctioned Edits
As many of you know, we here at Continuum got our start in the shader community by editing early versions of SEUS, which culminated with the release of Continuum 1.3 (previously called SEUS Complete), with Sonic Ethers blessing and permission. This sparked the passion our team carried forward into the fully bespoke releases you know today, and gave us our namesake.
This is all to say; we understand the value of unique / bespoke shader edits, and the reach they can have.
Continuum 2.0 Redux, by Uvraj
This is the first official Continuum edit we've allowed / endorsed, created by longtime friend and dev tester, Uvraj. Continuum 2.0 Redux is a stylized reimagining of Continuum 2.0.5, featuring enhanced colored lighting, reworked water & clouds, plus a variety of other visual refinements.
It is also the first Continuum shader to officially support Iris, and the (at the time of release), new LOD mod: Voxy.
You can find downloads for all of our free releases of Continuum on the downloads page below