GemRender

A GPU-driven model and animation renderer for Minecraft.

GemRender is a library mod. Mods that use it can draw detailed, animated 3D models: machines, vehicles, creatures, weapons, armour. Hundreds of copies can be on screen, using GPU instancing via flywheel.

Features

• Skinning runs on the GPU. Retained rendering with full gtlf animation channel support
• Animated models stay instanced.
• Built on Flywheel. Models get Flywheel's GPU frustum and occlusion culling for free.
• Bedrock .geo.json and GLTF ('.gltf','.glb') models through the same pipeline.
• Block entities, entities and vehicles.
• Items, armour and the first-person hand, on the same fast path.
• Liveries, camo and team colours, picked per copy. Differently painted copies still draw together.
• Animation blending: crossfades, body-part masks and additive layers.
• GPU particles: each particle is uploaded once when it spawns. Includes decals and 3D model particles.
• Ropes, cables and chains: leads, tow cables, power lines. Every rope in view is one draw.
• Dynamic point and spot lights, with shadows (1.21.1 NeoForge only as of 9th Oct 2026 ).
• Order-independent transparency that sorts correctly against water and clouds.
• KTX2 textures and BC7-compressed texture atlases to save video memory.

Supported versions

Notes

• On 26.1 vendors flywheel.
• Iris shader packs work on 1.21.1 (NeoForge and Fabric) and 1.20.1 Fabric (with Colorwheel).
• Client side only.

Licence

GPL-3.