Acoustic Shaders

A shader-pack-style environmental acoustics framework for Minecraft 1.12.2 + Forge

Acoustic Shaders is an open environmental-acoustics framework for Minecraft 1.12.2 + Forge. It treats sound like a shader pipeline: the selected Acoustic Shader Pack decides how sound propagates through blocks, rooms, fluids, and open space, while Resource Packs can describe acoustic materials, propagation media, and source profiles.

The bundled Reference Acoustic Shader models frequency-dependent occlusion/transmission, diffraction, multi-bounce reflections, early reflections + late reverb, finite speed-of-sound delay, low-frequency modal/FDTD behavior, and AIR/WATER/LAVA propagation. It can run on CUDA, OpenCL, multicore CPU, or safe fallbacks.

What you hear differently

• Occlusion and transmission depend on the blocks between you and the sound.
• Diffraction and reflections let geometry shape how sound reaches you around corners and inside rooms.
• Finite propagation time delays eligible positional one-shots by their physical acoustic path instead of making every first arrival instantaneous.
• AIR / WATER / LAVA / modded media can have different density, sound speed, attenuation, and impedance behavior.
• Explosions, projectiles, impacts, footsteps, machines, weather, and other sources can use dedicated source profiles.

Acoustic Shader Packs

Acoustic Shaders separates algorithms from world data. Acoustic Shader Packs define the processing pipeline, while normal Resource Packs can provide acoustic material, volume-medium, and source-profile data. Invalid hot-reloads keep the last-good runtime instead of breaking audio.

The bundled Reference Acoustic Shader includes six presets: POTATO, LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, ULTRA, and MAXIMUM

Performance

• CUDA — NVIDIA Driver API + NVRTC for geometric rays and FDTD
• OpenCL — vendor-neutral GPU ray/FDTD backend
• Multicore CPU and scalar CPU safe fallbacks
• AUTO chooses an appropriate backend and validates GPU results against CPU references before trusting them

Requirements

1. Minecraft 1.12.2
2. Forge 14.23.5.2864
3. MixinBooter 11.15
4. Forgelin-Continuous 2.4.0.0+
   Do not install original Forgelin alongside Forgelin-Continuous.
5. Put the Acoustic Shaders JAR in mods/

The bundled Reference Acoustic Shader is selected automatically on first configuration. You can switch it from Options → Music & Sounds → Acoustic Shaders…

0.3.0 highlights

• Reference Acoustic Shader with POTATO → MAXIMUM profiles
• AIR/WATER/LAVA and modded propagation media with density, speed of sound, and eight-band attenuation
• Exact partial-block geometry for slabs, stairs, fences, panes, bars, doors, and compatible modded shapes
• Diffraction, multi-bounce rays, early reflections, late reverb, modal/FDTD wave simulation, and hybrid RIR
• Finite medium-aware first-arrival delay for eligible positional one-shots
• CUDA / OpenCL / multicore CPU execution with fail-safe validation and fallback
• Projectile, explosion, impact, footstep, machine, and weather source profiles
• Transactional shader-pack hot reload plus Resource Pack acoustic overlays

Scope

Version 0.3.0 supports Minecraft 1.12.2 / Forge 14.23.5.2864 only Newer Minecraft versions are not claimed compatible by this release