Modscraper Modscraper Minecraft
Better Than Vanilla logo

Better Than Vanilla

Modpack

A modpack that brings Minecraft to modern standards, through many QOL, performance, and visual upgrades.

Type

Modpack

Modrinth Downloads

3,412

Modrinth ID

WPj1lra6

Last Updated

Jul 29, 2026

Description

The JAG's Essentials logo.

📖 About 📖

JAG's Essentials, as described by the tagline, is a modpack that brings Minecraft to modern standards, through many QOL, performance, and visual upgrades, by featuring my own personal essential mods. It enhances the core Minecraft experience without straying from its original charm, making the game feel more performant, and generally higher quality, while keeping it very vanilla. From better performance and improved lighting to controller support and dynamic sound, every change is designed to feel like a natural upgrade rather than a complete overhaul. Whether you're exploring, building, or playing with friends, JAG's Essentials provides a polished, enjoyable experience for both new and old players.

🛠️ Features 🛠️

  • Better performance, with Sodium, Lithium, C2ME, Noisium, and FerriteCore
  • More particles for stuff like breaking and placing blocks, plus water splashes and other stuff
  • Improved sound physics so there's reverb in caves
  • Pixelated shadows and lighting with Miniature Shader, that fits perfectly within the vanilla aesthetic
  • VanillaTweaks resource pack that fixes and changes a ton of stuff
  • Controller support for both Xbox and PlayStation controllers
  • Dynamic lighting from torches and other light sources
  • The ability to install resource and shader packs in game
  • Full rotation in third person so it doesn't feel as clunky
  • Other miscellaneous QOL features

📝 Credits 📝

This modpack is licensed under an All Rights Reserved license. While I created the modpack, the included mods and resource packs are the property of their respective creators. All credit goes to these talented developers, and any usage rights or restrictions are determined by them. Please refer to the individual mod pages for detailed information on permissions and usage policies.

Special mention: The Vanilla Tweaks resource pack included in this modpack was created on the VanillaTweaks website.

Compatibility

Mod Loaders

Fabric

Game Versions

1.21.4 1.21.5 1.21.8 1.21.11 26.1.2 26.2

Recommended Gear

Affiliate

Hardware and extras that pair well with this modpack.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Screenshots

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[EMF] Entity Model Features [Fabric & Forge]

[EMF] Entity Model Features [Fabric & Forge]

EMF is an, OptiFine format, Custom Entity Model replacement mod available for Fabric and Forge.

Mod 254,557,865
[ETF] Entity Texture Features

[ETF] Entity Texture Features

Emissive, Random & Custom texture support for entities in resourcepacks just like Optifine but for Fabric

Mod 110,167,872
Atmosfera

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Adds atmospheric sounds to Minecraft!

Mod 1,282,149
BaguetteLib

BaguetteLib

A simple but powerful event library that gives mod developers the control they actually need.

Mod 38,910,290 291.7K this week
Boat Item View

Boat Item View

See your held items as you row your boat!

Mod 31,805,517
Break Free

Break Free

Lets you keep breaking blocks when you switch items

Mod 1,525,252
C418 Songs Only

C418 Songs Only

A resource pack that removes all non-c418 background tracks from the game.

Resource Pack 867,742
Chat Heads

Chat Heads

See who are you chatting with!

Mod 173,378,069
Cloth Config API (Fabric/Forge/NeoForge)

Cloth Config API (Fabric/Forge/NeoForge)

Config Screen API for Minecraft

Mod 570,608,694
Collective

Collective

🎓 Collective is a shared library with common code for all of Serilum's mods.

Mod 345,101,012
Concurrent Chunk Management Engine (Fabric)

Concurrent Chunk Management Engine (Fabric)

A Fabric mod designed to improve the chunk performance of Minecraft.

Mod 40,984,529
Continuity

Continuity

A Minecraft mod that allows for efficient connected textures

Mod 145,553,178
Controlify (Controller support)

Controlify (Controller support)

Adds controller support to Minecraft!

Mod 33,679,530
Controlling

Controlling

Adds a search bar to the Key-Bindings menu

Mod 442,969,405
Cosy Critters & Creepy Crawlies

Cosy Critters & Creepy Crawlies

Adds adorable atmospheric animals: birds, bugs, and bothersome creatures.

Mod 1,983,074
Eating Animation

Eating Animation

Adds animation for eating food and drinking potions

Resource Pack 177,186
Enchanted's Sodium Options

Enchanted's Sodium Options

Changes Sodium's video settings screen to match the style of vanilla screens better

Mod 74,112
Essential Mod

Essential Mod

Enhance your Minecraft with one simple mod. Host worlds for free, chat with friends, and so much more!

Mod 48,096,394
Fabric API

Fabric API

Core API library for the Fabric toolchain

Mod 525,171,075
Fabric Language Kotlin

Fabric Language Kotlin

Fabric language module for Kotlin

Mod 217,487,902
FerriteCore

FerriteCore

Memory usage optimizations

Mod 165,209,837
Fire Rekindled

Fire Rekindled

Various animated texture overhauls and additions, PBR supported!

Resource Pack 1,429,693
Forge Config API Port

Forge Config API Port

NeoForge's & Forge's config systems provided to other modding ecosystems. Designed for a multiloader architecture.

Mod 155,990,048
Global Datapacks

Global Datapacks

Adds a shared datapacks folder that works across all your worlds.

Mod 381,450 3K this week
ImmediatelyFast

ImmediatelyFast

Speed up immediate mode rendering in Minecraft

Mod 331,976,895
Iris Shaders

Iris Shaders

A modern shader pack loader for Minecraft intended to be compatible with existing OptiFine shader packs

Mod 192,724,990
Just Like Rays

Just Like Rays

Ray-like light in minecraft

Mod 15,342
LambDynamicLights

LambDynamicLights

The most feature-complete and optimized dynamic lighting mod.

Mod 110,968,355
LibJF

LibJF

A library for my mods

Mod 22,210,984
Lithium (Fabric/NeoForge)

Lithium (Fabric/NeoForge)

An optimization mod for Minecraft which improves server performance significantly.

Mod 243,302,314
Miniature Shader

Miniature Shader

Extremely lightweight with shadows and reflections

Shader 9,465,577
Mod Menu

Mod Menu

Adds a mod menu to view the list of mods you have installed.

Mod 243,768,149
Mouse Tweaks

Mouse Tweaks

Enhances inventory management by adding various functions to the mouse buttons.

Mod 550,150,519
No Resource Pack Warnings

No Resource Pack Warnings

Disable warnings for outdated resource/data packs

Mod 17,005,130
NoisiumForked

NoisiumForked

Optimises worldgen performance for a better gameplay experience.

Mod 5,307,683
Not Enough Animations

Not Enough Animations

Bringing first-person animations to the third-person

Mod 264,083,358
Particle Interactions

Particle Interactions

Adds particles to more interactions in the game, such as placing blocks or stripping logs. Fully configurable and client...

Mod 3,495,800
Particle Rain

Particle Rain

replaces the default weather with particle effects

Mod 43,399,000
Particular ✨ Reforged

Particular ✨ Reforged

Particular is a mod that enhances Minecraft's ambience with many hand-crafted visual effects. Forge Port !

Mod 40,196,479 57.8K this week
Polytone

Polytone

Custom Block Sounds, Colors, Lightmaps, Colormaps, Post Shaders, Custom Item Models, Biome Variant Textures, Gui modifi...

Mod 30,115,238
Preferred Gamerules

Preferred Gamerules

Light-weight mod for changing the default values of gamerules.

Mod 769,071
Programmer Art Continuation Project

Programmer Art Continuation Project

A high effort continuation of Programmer Art, covering assets from 1.13-1.21+

Resource Pack 859,445
Resource Pack Overrides

Resource Pack Overrides

Ensures important resource packs stay always active and helps clean up the pack selection screen.

Mod 74,943,650
Resourcify

Resourcify

In-game resource pack, data pack and shader browser and updater

Mod 17,478,238
Respackopts

Respackopts

Config menus for resource packs

Mod 16,706,379
Searchables

Searchables

Searchables is a library mod that adds helper methods that allow for searching and filtering elements based on component...

Mod 222,627,089
Shine

Shine

Adds selective bloom to Minecraft.

Mod 839,636
Shinier Tools

Shinier Tools

makes tools and armor (item) look shinier and less flat

Resource Pack 14,350
Shoulder Surfing Reloaded

Shoulder Surfing Reloaded

Shoulder Surfing Reloaded is a highly configurable third person camera mod for Minecraft

Mod 80,246,321 90.5K this week
Smooth Entity Shadows

Smooth Entity Shadows

Makes the Shadows under Entities Smooth. The closest you can get without shaders and optifine!

Resource Pack 56,574
Smooth Scrolling

Smooth Scrolling

Customize the scrolling smoothness or speed in various places like chat, hotbar, creative screen...

Mod 13,191,271
Sodium

Sodium

The fastest and most compatible rendering optimization mod for Minecraft. Now available for both NeoForge and Fabric!

Mod 411,868,794
Sodium Extra

Sodium Extra

Features that shouldn't be in Sodium

Mod 181,734,636
Sound Physics Remastered

Sound Physics Remastered

A Minecraft mod that provides realistic sound attenuation, reverberation, and absorption through blocks.

Mod 212,024,746
Status Effect Bars

Status Effect Bars

Adds customizable bars to the status effects overlay to show the remaining duration of effects.

Mod 11,968,139
Superflat World No Slimes

Superflat World No Slimes

🙅 Removes those pesky slimes when you're trying to be creative in a superflat world.

Mod 6,553,229
Text Placeholder API

Text Placeholder API

Placeholder and Text manipulation library for your Minecraft mods.

Mod 74,024,632
ThreatenGL

ThreatenGL

Threatens Minecraft to use modern versions of OpenGL

Mod 928,794
TickLowerPerm

TickLowerPerm

Allow command blocks to run the /tick command!

Mod 6,136
Tightfire

Tightfire

Makes fire render tighter against blocks like slabs and fences

Mod 1,579,239
Unique Dark

Unique Dark

Dark GUI with unique textures for functional blocks. Dark mode for 78 mods

Resource Pack 3,933,573
VeinMiner

VeinMiner

VeinMiner

Mod 120,750,328
voxy

voxy

A Level of Detail rendering mod

Mod 7,576,369
Wakes

Wakes

Adds splashes and wakes while traveling on water

Mod 9,930,498
WorldEdit

WorldEdit

In-game Minecraft map editor - build bigger things more quickly!

Mod 78,585,163
WorldEdit CUI

WorldEdit CUI

WorldEdit CUI is a graphical user interface for WorldEdit, designed to assist in using WorldEdit and prevent accidental...

Mod 786,941
YetAnotherConfigLib

YetAnotherConfigLib

A builder-based configuration library for Minecraft.

Mod 268,383,411
Zoomify

Zoomify

A zoom mod with infinite customizability.

Mod 115,983,938

External Resources