OptiFine X-Ray setup guide
OptiFine and the X-Ray resource pack are fully compatible. You do not need special builds of either; the normal OptiFine installer and the standard X-Ray .zip work together out of the box. This guide covers the exact install order, the OptiFine settings that pair well with X-Ray, and which features you can skip.
TL;DR
Install steps (full setup)
1. Download OptiFine
Head to the official OptiFine website and grab the installer matching your Minecraft version. Run the installer; it adds an OptiFine profile to your Minecraft Launcher automatically. If your OS blocks the .jar, right-click and open with Java.
2. Launch Minecraft with the OptiFine profile
Open the Minecraft Launcher, select the
OptiFine x.x.xprofile from the dropdown, and hit Play. This initializes OptiFine's config and creates the folders you need.3. Install the X-Ray resource pack
Download the pack matching your Minecraft version from the Java download page. Do not unzip it. Drop the .zip into
.minecraft/resourcepacks. On Windows that is%appdata%\.minecraft\resourcepacks; on macOS,~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/resourcepacks.4. Activate the pack
In Minecraft, open Options → Resource Packs. You'll see the X-Ray pack in the Available list. Click the arrow to move it to Selected. Place it above any other loaded pack so X-Ray's textures take priority, then click Done.
5. Tune brightness for underground visibility
Options → Video Settings → Quality → Brightness. Set it to Bright. OptiFine makes this effectively fullbright, so you will not need to edit options.txt manually. If you still want hard-coded fullbright, set
gamma=5.0inoptions.txt.
OptiFine features worth enabling with X-Ray
A handful of OptiFine features pair especially well with the X-Ray pack. These are not required, but they make mining faster.
- Zoom keybind (default C).OptiFine's scope lets you look across a huge open cave and spot ore veins 200+ blocks away. Without zoom you end up tunneling more than necessary.
- Dynamic Lights. Settings → Details → Dynamic Lights → Fast or Fancy. Your held torch now lights the area, which matters because X-Ray makes caves look pitch black when you are not holding a light source.
- Fullbright brightness. Setting Brightness to Bright gives you the fullbright visibility that caves require with transparent terrain.
- Render distance 16+.The X-Ray pack shows ores through stone but only out to your chunk-render distance. At 16 chunks you can see a quarry's worth of ores without moving.
- Anisotropic filtering OFF. Small detail: anisotropic filtering on transparent textures can cause flickering on block edges. Turn it off for cleaner visuals.
OptiFine features you can skip
Not every OptiFine feature is useful alongside X-Ray. Skip these without worry:
- Connected Textures. The X-Ray pack does not use CTM rules, so the feature is not used on X-Ray blocks. Leave it on or off, it does not matter.
- Better Grass / Better Snow. Purely cosmetic. They do not affect ore visibility.
- Random Mobs / Random Entities. Unrelated to block rendering.
OptiFine vs Sodium in 2026
OptiFine development has slowed considerably and new Minecraft versions often take weeks or months to get an OptiFine release. Sodium and Iris on Fabric update within days of each Minecraft version and outperform OptiFine on modern GPUs. If you are setting up from scratch in 2026, consider Sodium + Iris instead — see the Sodium and Iris guide.
If you already run OptiFine and have a working shader setup, there is no reason to switch. The X-Ray pack works identically on both.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Do I need OptiFine to use the X-Ray resource pack?
No. The pack works on vanilla Minecraft. OptiFine is optional. Most players install OptiFine for zoom, dynamic lights, connected textures, and shaders — not for the resource pack itself.
Does OptiFine's Connected Textures Mod feature conflict with X-Ray?
No. The X-Ray pack uses plain block textures, not CTM JSON files. Connected Textures only kicks in when a pack explicitly defines CTM rules. Since X-Ray does not, the feature is simply not used for X-Ray's textures.
Can I use OptiFine shaders with X-Ray?
Yes. The shader runs after the texture layer, so it does not affect block transparency. Some heavy shaders can dim caves — in that case switch to a lighter shader like BSL, Complementary, or Sildur's Vibrant.
Should I use OptiFine or Sodium+Iris with X-Ray in 2026?
Sodium + Iris is faster and better-maintained for modern Minecraft. OptiFine is still fine if you already know how to use it, especially for connected textures or mipmap control. Both load the X-Ray resource pack identically.
How do I turn off OptiFine fullbright to test X-Ray darkness?
OptiFine's 'Bright' brightness setting works like fullbright at max. If the pack looks too bright, lower Video Settings → Quality → Brightness to Moody. If it looks too dark, set it to Bright and the dark underground issue vanishes.