Advanced Shadows
by KCLucas
Advanced Shadows overlays colored markers on the ground in the Overworld, showing how much sky light reaches each walkable surface.
What it does
Colored squares appear over solid blocks, tree leaves and water surfaces wherever a player can walk, including the canopy of a forest or the surface of a lake. Each square is tinted by its sky light level: red for spots with no sky exposure, orange for heavy shadow at levels 1 to 7, and yellow for partial shadow at levels 8 to 14. Full sky exposure receives no tint.
The overlay can be toggled with F7, a key that can be rebound in the controls menu. Its render radius runs from 1 to 256 blocks and its vertical range from 1 to 64, both set with commands. The overlay is limited to the Overworld, and it is switched off automatically in the Nether and the End. Settings are saved and persist across sessions.
Advanced Shadows is a clientside mod: it runs on Fabric, requires Fabric Loader and Fabric API, and targets 1.21.11 only. Sodium, Iris and other rendering mods can run next to it without conflict, and since only the client loads it, multiplayer servers can host players using it with no server-side install. The code is open source under the MIT License, and the latest Fabric file is 2.1.4, published 2026-07-20.
Key features
Sky light overlay
Walkable ground, leaves and water are tinted by the sky light level reaching them.
Color-coded shadow bands
Red marks no sky exposure, orange heavy shadow from levels 1 to 7, and yellow partial shadow from 8 to 14.
Toggle key
Pressing F7 shows or hides the overlay, and the key can be changed in the controls menu.
Adjustable render area
A radius from 1 to 256 and a vertical range from 1 to 64 are set with commands, and settings persist.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Finding hidden bases
Players hunting for skybases on survival or PvP servers can see at a glance which areas are shadowed enough to conceal a build.
Planning builds
A player choosing where to place a farm or base can check how much sky light each area receives.
Who it’s for: Players on survival and PvP servers who want to spot areas hidden from the sky, and builders who want to check light exposure before placing a structure.
Questions
Does Advanced Shadows need to be installed on the server?
Which loader and version does Advanced Shadows target?
Does the overlay work in the Nether or the End?
More from KCLucas
What the author says
AdvancedShadows is a lightweight clientside mod that overlays colored carpets on the ground showing sky light levels — like a light level overlay, but for skylight. Perfect for hunting down skybase locations on survival or PvP servers. The overlay also renders on tree leaves and water surfaces, so you can walk…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/advanced-shadows
- Owner
- KCLucas
- Published
- 2026-06-24
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-07-20
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15