What Sunrise can do
The highlights: what Sunrise adds to vanilla, how its new mod system works, and what it does not do. Each section links to the full page.
On this page
Highlights for players
- Light and fast. It starts quickly, uses little memory and draws efficiently. Performance says what is measured.
- Distant terrain. See far past your render distance with LOD. Settings
- Controllers. PlayStation, Xbox, Switch Pro and the Steam Deck work out of the box. Settings
- Graphics presets. Performance, Balanced, Quality or Ultra, each setting with its cost. Settings
- Play with friends. Share your world with an invite code, no server needed. Multiplayer
- A server without Java. Host one from the launcher or the command line. Host a server
- Optional extras. Dynamic lights, zoom, a minimap and more, all off by default. Settings
Checked against vanilla
Sunrise is tested against the real game, automatically.
- A harness is a test that gives the same inputs to Sunrise and to Minecraft 26.3, then compares the results.
- There are 281 of them, from world generation to mobs, redstone and commands.
- Passing them does not prove that nothing else differs. Players still find differences, and those are bugs.
The status table shows what the harnesses covered when the project started.
The new mod system
This is the biggest change Sunrise brings. It comes from Ari's mod API.
One mod is one file. Every mod ships as a single .hmod file, whatever it holds:
- Data: blocks, items, recipes, loot tables, tags, models, textures and names.
- Code: Rust that hooks into the game, such as a HUD, a command or a new behaviour.
- Both at once, in the same folder, with one manifest.
How this differs from the old system:
| Before | Now |
|---|---|
| Data and code were two separate files | One .hmod holds both |
| Two manifests, two tools | One horizon-mod.toml, one tool: cargo horizon-mod |
| Code patched into the game by hand-written helpers | Typed hooks: the compiler checks what your code may call |
How a mod works explains the new system. Old mods are covered under Legacy.
What Sunrise is not
- Not Minecraft itself. It contains no Minecraft code, assets or data, and never downloads them. You need your own copy of Minecraft: Java Edition 26.3.
- Not a Java mod loader. Forge, NeoForge, Fabric and Quilt jars do not run, and neither do Mixins. The launcher can carry over some Java mods' data. See Mods and Modpacks.
- Not for other versions. It plays 26.3. Worlds from 1.8 to 26.2 are upgraded the way vanilla upgrades them.
- Not official. It is not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft.
Supported systems
| System | What you need |
|---|---|
| Linux | x86-64, a graphics card with Vulkan drivers, Ubuntu 22.04 or newer |
| macOS | Apple Silicon or Intel, macOS 12 or later |
| Windows | x64 or ARM64, Vulkan or DirectX 12 |
- On Windows, Sunrise switches to DirectX 12 by itself when Vulkan does not work. On ARM64 PCs (Snapdragon) it picks DirectX 12 first.
- There is no build for 32-bit systems or ARM Linux. The server can be built from source on other systems.
Next: install Sunrise.
Spotted something wrong? Open an issue .