Distant Horizons Crashes on Startup: Version and Mod Checklist
Startup crashes are usually caused by a version mismatch or a rendering-mod conflict. Isolate the setup with a clean profile first, then add performance and shader mods back one at a time.
Common symptoms
- Minecraft closes during loading
- a crash report mentions DH, Iris, or Sodium
- the title screen never appears
- the crash started after updating one mod
Step-by-step fix
Match every version
Confirm Minecraft, the loader, Distant Horizons, and every rendering dependency target the same game version. Do not assume a nearby patch version is compatible.
Test a clean profile
Create a temporary instance with only the loader, its required API, and Distant Horizons. If it launches, add Sodium/Embeddium and shaders back one at a time.
Remove OptiFine from the test
Do not combine OptiFine with a modern Iris/Sodium DH troubleshooting profile. Use one rendering stack at a time so the crash cause is identifiable.
Check Java and the crash report
Use the Java runtime required by your Minecraft version. The first DH, loader, or mixin error in the crash report is more useful than the final generic exit message.
Record the working combination
Write down the exact versions that launch successfully before adding resource packs, shader packs, or the rest of a modpack.
Still stuck?
Record your Minecraft version, DH version, loader, shader pack, GPU, and crash log before asking the community. That information makes compatibility problems much easier to diagnose.