Better Than Vanilla
ModpackA modpack that brings Minecraft to modern standards, through many QOL, performance, and visual upgrades.
Description

📖 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
Game Versions
Recommended Gear
AffiliateHardware and extras that pair well with this modpack.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Screenshots
Similar Modpacks
Pixelmon LG
Pixelmon Legends: An Optimized and Competitive Gaming Experience
Create Expansion - Bigger Create+ | 6.0 UPDATE!
Enjoy a new adventure surrounded by technology with this great expansion of the famous Create mod (6.0 Update)!
Vanilla Cobblemon Plus
An incredible upgrade to Cobblemon with the best add-ons.
Epic Fight Universe
Centered around Epic Fight Mod!
红石生电极速版【Redstone speed version】
An integrated package specifically for Redstone players, retaining the vanilla gameplay and greatly improving FPS!
CobbleCreate. The Cobblemon and Create combination!
A modpack containing Cobblemon mod and Create mod, with a few QOL mods on the side.
Contained Mods (68)
Polytone
Custom Block Sounds, Colors, Lightmaps, Colormaps, Post Shaders, Custom Item Models, Biome Variant Textures, Gui modifi...
Collective
🎓 Collective is a shared library with common code for all of Serilum's mods.
Concurrent Chunk Management Engine (Fabric)
A Fabric mod designed to improve the chunk performance of Minecraft.
Particle Rain
replaces the default weather with particle effects
YetAnotherConfigLib
A builder-based configuration library for Minecraft.
Fabric API
Core API library for the Fabric toolchain
[ETF] Entity Texture Features
Emissive, Random & Custom texture support for entities in resourcepacks just like Optifine but for Fabric
Essential Mod
Enhance your Minecraft with one simple mod. Host worlds for free, chat with friends, and so much more!
Not Enough Animations
Bringing first-person animations to the third-person
Shoulder Surfing Reloaded
Shoulder Surfing Reloaded is a highly configurable third person camera mod for Minecraft
Lithium (Fabric/NeoForge)
An optimization mod for Minecraft which improves server performance significantly.
Mod Menu
Adds a mod menu to view the list of mods you have installed.
Sodium Extra
Features that shouldn't be in Sodium
Resourcify
In-game resource pack, data pack and shader browser and updater
Boat Item View
See your held items as you row your boat!
Sound Physics Remastered
A Minecraft mod that provides realistic sound attenuation, reverberation, and absorption through blocks.
VeinMiner
VeinMiner
Smooth Scrolling
Customize the scrolling smoothness or speed in various places like chat, hotbar, creative screen...
Sodium
The fastest and most compatible rendering optimization mod for Minecraft. Now available for both NeoForge and Fabric!
[EMF] Entity Model Features [Fabric & Forge]
EMF is an, OptiFine format, Custom Entity Model replacement mod available for Fabric and Forge.
WorldEdit
In-game Minecraft map editor - build bigger things more quickly!
ImmediatelyFast
Speed up immediate mode rendering in Minecraft
BaguetteLib
A simple but powerful event library that gives mod developers the control they actually need.
Controlling
Adds a search bar to the Key-Bindings menu
Searchables
Searchables is a library mod that adds helper methods that allow for searching and filtering elements based on component...
Fabric Language Kotlin
Fabric language module for Kotlin
Zoomify
A zoom mod with infinite customizability.
Chat Heads
See who are you chatting with!
Superflat World No Slimes
🙅 Removes those pesky slimes when you're trying to be creative in a superflat world.
Iris Shaders
A modern shader pack loader for Minecraft intended to be compatible with existing OptiFine shader packs
Controlify (Controller support)
Adds controller support to Minecraft!
Cloth Config API (Fabric/Forge/NeoForge)
Config Screen API for Minecraft
Resource Pack Overrides
Ensures important resource packs stay always active and helps clean up the pack selection screen.
Particular ✨ Reforged
Particular is a mod that enhances Minecraft's ambience with many hand-crafted visual effects. Forge Port !
LibJF
A library for my mods
Forge Config API Port
NeoForge's & Forge's config systems provided to other modding ecosystems. Designed for a multiloader architecture.
Mouse Tweaks
Enhances inventory management by adding various functions to the mouse buttons.
Continuity
A Minecraft mod that allows for efficient connected textures
LambDynamicLights
The most feature-complete and optimized dynamic lighting mod.
Respackopts
Config menus for resource packs
Text Placeholder API
Placeholder and Text manipulation library for your Minecraft mods.
Wakes
Adds splashes and wakes while traveling on water
Miniature Shader
Extremely lightweight with shadows and reflections
Enchanted's Sodium Options
Changes Sodium's video settings screen to match the style of vanilla screens better
Programmer Art Continuation Project
A high effort continuation of Programmer Art, covering assets from 1.13-1.21+
Preferred Gamerules
Light-weight mod for changing the default values of gamerules.
Status Effect Bars
Adds customizable bars to the status effects overlay to show the remaining duration of effects.
WorldEdit CUI
WorldEdit CUI is a graphical user interface for WorldEdit, designed to assist in using WorldEdit and prevent accidental...
C418 Songs Only
A resource pack that removes all non-c418 background tracks from the game.
Shine
Adds selective bloom to Minecraft.
TickLowerPerm
Allow command blocks to run the /tick command!
Just Like Rays
Ray-like light in minecraft
Atmosfera
Adds atmospheric sounds to Minecraft!
Tightfire
Makes fire render tighter against blocks like slabs and fences
Break Free
Lets you keep breaking blocks when you switch items
Unique Dark
Dark GUI with unique textures for functional blocks. Dark mode for 78 mods
Smooth Entity Shadows
Makes the Shadows under Entities Smooth. The closest you can get without shaders and optifine!
FerriteCore
Memory usage optimizations
No Resource Pack Warnings
Disable warnings for outdated resource/data packs
Fire Rekindled
Various animated texture overhauls and additions, PBR supported!
Global Datapacks
Adds a shared datapacks folder that works across all your worlds.
ThreatenGL
Threatens Minecraft to use modern versions of OpenGL
Eating Animation
Adds animation for eating food and drinking potions
Particle Interactions
Adds particles to more interactions in the game, such as placing blocks or stripping logs. Fully configurable and client...
Cosy Critters & Creepy Crawlies
Adds adorable atmospheric animals: birds, bugs, and bothersome creatures.
NoisiumForked
Optimises worldgen performance for a better gameplay experience.
voxy
A Level of Detail rendering mod
Shinier Tools
makes tools and armor (item) look shinier and less flat