PomPom — real 3D, no shader pack required

Bumpy 3D blocks with depth and moving shadows — for a fraction of a shader pack's cost.

No shaderpacks required. PomPom bakes LabPBR pack depth straight into terrain at a low cost. It hooks into how Minecraft (or Sodium) draws the world and adds the 3D look on top. It isn't free — you'll give up a few frames — but nowhere near what a full shader pack asks of your GPU. (And if you do run a shader pack, PomPom automatically deactivates when one is activated!)

Honest note: PomPom is "matte by design", doing 3D and normal mapping, but it does not give the wet or shiny look like a true shader. This tradeoff is crucial for keeping the mod light, and lets you say "wow, that's 3D!" without "why is my game at 20fps?"

Why PomPom is special

Before PomPom, there were primarily only 2 ways of getting true 3D, and both dunked on performance:

Why?

• Vanilla + LabPBR pack — you have SO much fancy information (depth, roughness, etc.) that just won't show up because vanilla Minecraft doesn't read or use it.
• Vanilla + a 3D resource pack (JSON block models) — actual 3D models = lag, because giving all blocks extra mesh data just tanks your frames.
• A shader pack (Iris) + LabPBR pack — real 3D depth + gorgeous visuals, but you *should know by now what shaders do to your performance.
• PomPom + LabPBR pack — 3D depth no geometry bloat and heavy shader pipeline. It costs a few frames but FAR less than the 2 other methods; that's why it exists after all.

Do I need a special resource pack?

No — PomPom works on any texture pack, even vanilla. It has two modes and picks automatically:

• With a LabPBR resource pack → respects the authored 3D data and delivers it, giving you real 3D like a shaderpack.
• With any other pack (or vanilla) → it generates depth on its own from block textures and shades it.

So you can install it and immediately see a difference, then add a LabPBR pack later for the best results.

Quickstart

1. Install Fabric and Fabric API.
2. Drop PomPom into your mods folder.
3. (Optional but recommended) add Sodium for the best FPS, and a LabPBR resource pack for authored 3D.
4. (Optional) add Mod Menu + YACL to open in-game settings and toggle features

That's it — launch and look at some stone.

Requirements & compatibility

⚠️ This is a beta

First public release! Working LabPBR POM is expected, but artifacting and glitches are possible. If you hit something weird, please report it — screenshots and your setup (pack, Sodium on/off, config) help a ton.

License

PomPom is All Rights Reserved, with one explicit exception:

✅ You may include an unmodified copy of PomPom in a modpack — but only if that modpack is distributed exclusively on Modrinth.

That means:

• ✅ Allowed: bundling PomPom, unchanged, in a Modrinth-hosted modpack.
• ❌ Not allowed: distributing it on any other platform, redistributing it as a standalone download, or including a modified version.

If you want to use PomPom in any other way, please ask first.