December 2020 / New Year 2021 Progress Update

We hope everyone had a great Holiday season and a Happy New year! With the Holidays behind us though, it’s time to get back to work, and that means a new progress update…albeit a bit late due to the hectic month we had, between the launch of Focal Engine, Continuum RT Build 13 and the Holidays…but we have a few surprises in store, and this isn’t just a progress update, so read on!

Focal Engine has been, by far, the biggest undertaking/launch in our companies history. It is the culmination of years of ideas, and 9+ months of near daily work, from both core team members and partners, and it’s only getting started! Before continuing though, if you haven’t yet heard of Focal Engine, or haven’t yet read the launch blog for it, please do so now: Focal Engine Launch Blog

Since Focal’s initial launch late last month, we have pushed a few small updates, fixing small issues, such as the inability for users to login with their account’s emails (previously only usernames worked), and adding new functionality, like the ability for advanced users to edit RT’s block.properties file if they wish. Well, today, with the launch of this blog, a more sizeable update is coming to Focal Engine…1.16 support!

Thanks to the modular nature of the engine, we managed to get 1.16 support online very quickly, and it is now available to all! Just download the latest version of Focal from your downloads page (or the free downloads section, but more on that later), install the prerequisite mods mentioned below, and enjoy!

This update also brings with it the ability for users to download and use Focal Engine without a Continuum Graphics account. You will only be able to download and update our free shaders while not logged in though, so keep that in mind. If you want to download paid and Early Access products, you will still need an active Continuum account, an internet connection, and will have to own the product in question of course. The latest version of Focal Engine will be available from the free downloads page going forward though, as well as the downloads section of the account page.

Since the Focal Engine page and accompanying tutorial page isn’t quite ready yet, here’s another tutorial for installing Focal Engine, specifically for 1.16.4 this time. If you wish to install it on 1.14.4, please reference the previous blog post: here

PSA: Focal is currently tested with the default bundled Java included with default MC installs, other versions may work, but we cannot guarantee them at this time.

Once you have your preferred version installed, launch the game and head to options > shaders > and click the ‘Continuum Products’ button in the top right. From there, you can download any of our free, public releases, or input your continuum.graphics account login credentials via the login button in the top left, and press the login button, as shown below (click to enlarge):

Once you’re logged in, you should see all your currently available Early Access/Paid products. From here you’ll be able to select from available versions, and download them, all from within the game, including Continuum RT Build 14!

Build 13 and onward specifically will only be available for download from inside of Focal Engine. Also, legacy Optifine shaders, including older versions of our own shaders, will fall back to the Optifine pipeline when using Focal, and should work as they normally would!