[Guide] Installing Fabric Mods [1.17.x]

This guide is outdated. You should be installing Quilt instead -- their installation guides are pretty good! Also check out the newcomers' guide.

This is going to be the first in a series of 3 or 4 guides focused on Fabric modifications. These can also be used for singleplayer/other servers, however this will be focused mainly on EMC specifically. I will not be making a guide for Forge, as Fabric is better for our use cases. A helpful guide written by me4502 about whether you should use Fabric or Forge here.

This guide is focused to work on 1.17.x, but also works with any version (including snapshots) since 1.14.

To start off with the basics: to installing them!

For this tutorial, I am going to simply be using the plain, default Minecraft launcher.

STEP 1: Installing the Fabric Loader

Our first step will be to install the Fabric Loader. This is essentially the "stepping stone" of mods; this is what makes everything else work.

You will have to go to https://fabricmc.net/use/?page=installer and click either the JAR installer (works on most/all OSes) or the EXE installer (recommended, but only for Windows).

Go ahead and run that file. This window should pop up:



I personally will be choosing MC version 1.17.1, as this is the version EMC is currently on.

When that's done, there should be a new profile in the Minecraft Launcher named "fabric-loader-<MC version>". If not, go into Installations > New > select "release fabric-loader-<fabric version>-<MC version>" as the version. Now, you should be able to run the game under Fabric! For the time being, you don't have any mods installed, but that's fine.



If all has gone well, the bottom right should say "Minecraft <version>/Fabric (Modded)". Congratulations, Fabric is installed!

STEP 2: Installing Fabric Mods

The final step! Yes, there are only two steps. This guide used to be longer, but then the process got simplified! Now, you can get to installing the sweet, sweet mods themselves.

Before you go installing mods, you'll need the Fabric API (this is a mod too). A good portion of mods used also require Fabric API to be used. It acts as a bridge between the Loader and the mods themselves. You can find it here.

!!! IMPORTANT !!!

Remember to download the correct version for every mod! If you're downloading from Modrinth, click the Versions button and make sure you download the right and latest version.



Once that's in your downloads folder, you'll want to cut or copy the fabric-api-<version>.jar file, and then paste it into your Minecraft mods folder. If you don't know how to navigate to said folder, press Win + R on Windows and type in "%appdata%\.minecraft\mods". On Mac, it's located at ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/mods, and it's usually located at ~/.minecraft/mods on Linux.

The procedure is exactly the same for every other mod. Find the download link from https://mods.emc.gs or https://wiki.emc.gs/conditionally-approved-mods, download it, and put it into your mods folder. Boom, you're done.

Don't want to pick out your own mods to use? Use my modpack! https://emc.gs/t/83816

STEP 3: Play Minecraft!

So now, you should have all of the tools you need to play Minecraft, modded using Fabric! Yippee!

Remember that when on EMC, all mods installed must be approved. See a list of currently approved mods at https://mods.emc.gs or https://wiki.emc.gs/conditionally-approved-mods. If you want to suggest a mod be approved, PM chickeneer on the forums at https://pm.emc.gs/chickeneer.

STEP 4: Fixing Performance

Getting low FPS, or laggy game? Go to https://emc.gs/t/83393 for more info on maximizing your performance

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Just so you know, you'll probably bump into a few issues here and there. PM me on the forums or on Discord (Emmaffle#1787) and I can try to help you resolve them.

If anyone wants to add anything, point out inaccuracies, or just want to comment, feel free to reply to this thread, or PM me on forums/Discord!

Happy Modding!

Maybe I'll have to ditch Forge...

do it
Fabric is sooooooo much better. Easier to use, much less intensive on computer resources, wider selection of mods...just do it.

So here's a conundrum. Fate installs fabric and the easier crafting to his laptop. It works perfectly fine so he packs that up in a folder, puts it on a usb drive and then installs the fabric mod onto my laptop. Then when I go to load up Minecraft my game crashes before I can even get to the main menu. Thoughts?

Three questions:

1. Did you also install the Fabric Loader itself on to your own laptop?

2. Is it an issue with Minecraft or Fabric Loader?

3. If it's an issue with Fabric Loader, take a screenshot of what happens when you try to load up. If it's an issue with Minecraft, are you able to upload a crash log? These can be found by doing Win + R and typing "%appdata%\.minecraft\crash-reports".

Watch out for viruses

Well, you shouldn't be getting any anyway if you're only downloading from the links at https://mods.emc.gs and https://wiki.emc.gs/conditionally-approved-mods But yes, this is true for mods used outside of EMC. Modrinth is my personal source for Fabric mods.

for example installing 5zig there is a ton of fake ads that say donlowded here there is many mods like that like have their own website and they use adfly and stuff make sure to press the skip button and if you do get a file that your not sure of DO NOT OPEN it because there is alot of files that aren't legit

Ahh that's true. That's why I recommend uBlock Origin; blocks all those nasty things

Looks like Optifine's reckoning has come. It shall remain in the hearts of those who remember it as "the one" mod to increase performance for many years.

Great guide! 😁

Huh, what's wrong with Optifine? There seem to be new versions, even up to 1.16.3.

Optifine is now outdated and will (probably) not be supported forever. In fact, it's not even compatible with Fabric without OptiFabric. Not only that but the trio of Sodium, Phosphorus and Lithium provide performance increases that Optifine can only fathom of achieving. --- They're simply more optimized than Optifine.

The only thing Optifine is good for, currently, is for shaders. You get better performance increases with the trio I just mentioned.

It has three main issues:

• Compatibility: it's becoming more and more difficult to use it in conjunction with anything else
• Focus: OptiFine certainly does help with performance. However, being both closed-source and up to the will of only a one person, it's also focused a good bit on non-performance-enhancing features, such as zoom or dynamic lighting.
• A majority of the features OptiFine provides are now available in open-source Fabric mods that don't break other things, and actually do the job better than OptiFine would. See: LambDynamicLights, OkZoomer, and the queen of them all, Sodium.

However, lots of people still seem reluctant to switch because it doesn't support shaders. That's not a bad thing! For those people who only use OptiFine without any other mods, and it works for them, yippee! I recommend reading this tweet chain about the differences, pros, and cons from an OptiFine user: https://twitter.com/optifinenews/status/1288309910308962310

That alternative Java thing that you talked about in your other thread piqued my interest! If you install it, do you need to uninstall regular Java, or do they run alongside each other (for non-minecraft things)?

Interesting, thanks!
1: I'm still on 1.15.2, and on there, I've connected it just fine with all of my other mods. I'm not sure yet about 1.16, but I'd be surprised if it suddenly won't work.
2: Hmm, that just depends on the user, I really like those extra features. Thst tweet chain was very interesting. I especially like this quote, in the picture in tweet 7:
"Things like zoom and connected textures are a nice to have, but not a dealbreaker"
They are dealbreakers to me! I can't live without zoom, and connected textures is also a favourite of me (especially for glass). I also use the screenshot size increaser.
And, I'm not sure on this one, but Sodium and friends are also from just one person, right? (If not, it doesn't matter to me, but meh )
3: Ah, interesting. I guess that's just up to whatever you want! I'm quite comfortable with what Optifine gives me, and don't need advanceder features for most things, especially not if they mean I'm dependent on more different mods.

According to Optifine's author in the twitter thread linked by waffle, they don't get a performance benefit from using Sodium and friends, so it clearly differs per system.

It's also good for the other things I mentioned above.

OkZoomer: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/ok-zoomer --- Your zoom tool.

Lambdynamiclights: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/lambdynamiclights --- Dynamic lights

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Seriously, all Optifine is really good for these days is just shaders. Even then, talks of a Fabric shaders mod is circulating. Soon enough, Optifine will be a thing of the past, especially since it's becoming increasingly more difficult to keep it "up-to-date" and compatible with more recent versions of Minecraft. Fabric on the other hand...

(Not all mods work with Optifine, whereas Fabric has a much higher compatibility rate.)

Either way is fine. It can either entirely replace your normal installation of Java, or it can be exclusively used for Minecraft.

Well, as with every MC:Java update, it breaks *something*. In this case, OptiFabric was just having so many conflicts in its beta testing that it would be basically impossible to maintain. I assume you use Fabric (for things such as Litematica), in which case Fabric is now incompatible with OptiFine. If you use Forge (or no mod loader at all), well, then none of this applies to you.

There are a lot more features planned for future versions of Sodium; this is why Sodium is still only 1.16.1 and not 1.16.3. They want to iron out the major issues, as well as add support for a few different things. I believe there is a connected textures mod that's compatible with Sodium/Fabric, though I don't know if it's approved or not.

Managed yes, entirely controlled no. Being open-source, anyone can merge their changes into Sodium, and anyone can make their own changes for personal use. It even says on that very page that there are 5 other "main" contributors, that also develop the mod along side Jellysquid.
edit: Also see this: https://github.com/jellysquid3/sodium-fabric/blob/1.16.x/dev/CONTRIBUTING.md

That's true. It's all personal choice. This guide, and my other one, are focused entirely on Fabric, and OptiFine isn't compatible with Fabric on 1.16+, period. Sodium, and its several companion mods, are the closest you'll be able to get.

Ok Zoomer sounds fun, but I don't care much about dynamic lights (and didn't ask for them?) and am still missing connected textures and the screenshot size increaser. I'm also missing everything being in one mod, 1 mods versus 6 sounds much better to me. So Optifine is clearly still good for some things!

"Fabric has a much higher compatibility rate"
Yeah of course, as Fabric is just a modloader, like Litematica Liteloader used to be and Forge, while Optifine is just a mod.

Cool, thanks!

Hmm, according to this site - https://www.google.com/amp/www.9minecraft.net/optifabric-mod/amp/ - Optifabric still works on 1.16(.3).

I indeed use Fabric, for some mods and Litematica. I have a separate MultiMC instance for Forge for worlddownloader. (so convenient... >.> )

Okay, question because I'm not great at tech-y stuff.
Does Fabric have a world edit mod like Forge does? I've been using it a lot in my solo world for designing and it'd be a pain to not have it.