Helion and Arkea 0.1 are out
The first public versions of Helion and Arkea are out for Minecraft 26.3 on NeoForge: Vulkan native graphics and a redesigned interface.
Helion and Arkea have their first public release. Both are client-side mods for Minecraft 26.3 on NeoForge and need Java 25. This is an alpha: it is ready to try, and every report helps shape the next version.
Helion 0.1
Helion is a graphics mod built natively on Minecraft's Vulkan renderer instead of wrapping the old OpenGL pipeline. With every effect off, it draws the world identical to vanilla; turn effects on and you get:
- Ambient occlusion (including a visibility bitmask mode), bloom that adapts to day, night and caves, Neutral and Filmic tone mapping, and sharpening
- Experimental HDR lighting, temporal anti-aliasing, a physical sky with matching fog, and sun and moon shadows
- A settings window built with Arkea, with presets, search, previews and a GPU impact meter
- Safety first: Helion steps aside on OpenGL, with Sodium or Iris, or after a rendering error, and the H key switches between Helion and vanilla at any time
Helion needs Arkea 0.1 or newer and the Prefer Vulkan graphics option.
- CurseForge · Modrinth · GitHub · Release notes · Wiki
Arkea 0.1
Arkea redesigns Minecraft's interface: animated title, options, world, server, loading, pause and death screens, custom video or GIF menu backgrounds, a Ctrl+K command palette, Arkea style tooltips and chat, and four HUD styles (Vanilla, Compact, Classic+ and Minimal) with a target card, pickup feed, damage arcs and more. It is also a UI library: other mods' settings open in an Arkea window.
- CurseForge · Modrinth · GitHub · Release notes · Wiki
Where to get them
Both mods are out on CurseForge now. The Modrinth pages go live as soon as Modrinth finishes its review. This site never hosts jar files; every download button takes you to one of the two.
Something wrong?
- Game crashed? Paste the log into the crash helper to see known fixes, and open a ticket from there in one click.
- Wondering whether a mod, shader or resource pack works alongside them? Check the compatibility lists for Helion and Arkea, and add what you tried.
- Bugs and ideas go to support or the GitHub issue trackers.
Thanks for trying the first version.