Horizon is a separate game.
Here is what that changes.
It runs on Rust, loads its own mods, and asks for a Microsoft account that owns Minecraft: Java Edition. This page maps the parts: the game, 144 mods, 20 packs, 12 shaders, and the launcher that installs them.
What Horizon is
Horizon is a game built by the Horizon project and distributed from playhorizon.dev. It is not a mod loader and not a Minecraft server. You do not install it inside a Minecraft folder, and it does not read .jar files. The engine is written in Rust, and the current target for packs is 26.3.
The account rule is the first thing to know. Horizon asks for a Microsoft account that owns Minecraft: Java Edition, and the check runs inside the game. There is no offline switch here and no patch for that check. If a site offers you one, it is not selling you Horizon.
What Horizon does share with Minecraft is the shape of the world and the pace of a session: blocks, ores, crafting, nights that matter. What changes is the layer under it, and that layer is why mods behave differently.
Four kinds of add-on, one install path.
There is no Forge, Fabric, NeoForge, or OptiFine step to complete before the first mod. A Horizon add-on either compiles against the engine or is data the engine reads.
| Type | File | How it works | Count in the registry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native port | .hnmod | Rust code compiled against the engine hook API. Fast, close to the engine, and sometimes tied to one exact commit. | 133 |
| Content pack | .hmod | Blocks, items, ores, recipes. Owns a namespace; two content packs cannot share one. | 11 |
| Shader | .hshader | A shader package for the native renderer. Not an OptiFine or Iris zip. | 12 |
| Resource pack | .zip | Textures and models, installed as a file. Optional, and off by default. | 2 |
The registry holds 158 projects: 144 mods, 12 shaders, 2 resource packs. Of the 144 mods, 133 are native ports and 11 are content packs. Every pack on this site points at that registry by id, version, and SHA-256; no mod file is rehosted here.
What a pack is, and what it is not
An .hpack is a manifest. For Better+ it is 3 KB of text: mod ids, versions, and a digest for each file. The mods are downloaded from the registry at install time, then checked against the digest before they land in a profile folder.
It is not a Minecraft modpack zip, a CurseForge export, a world, or a shader bundle. Shaders and resource packs stay separate files because the engine loads them separately. A pack that shipped them anyway would install fine and do nothing.
Because a manifest is small, packs are cheap to keep current. When a mod publishes a new version, the manifest changes and the pack page shows the new hash. Your world and your configs live in the profile, not in the manifest, so an update does not move them.
Five rules this catalog follows
- One mod per job. One map, one recipe viewer, one zoom, one HUD editor. Two mods that draw the same panel are a bug, not a feature.
- Two pins at most. A pin is a native mod tied to one exact Horizon commit; three pins appear only in the kitchen-sink packs, and those say so.
- A server-safe flag on every pack. Three packs are single-player and LAN only, and the card says which.
- Licenses stay visible. Each pack page lists the license of every mod it references, including the non-commercial ones.
- No ownership bypass. No offline auth, no patched client, no session server. The Java Edition check stays where the Horizon project put it.
Where the numbers come from
The catalog is generated from the registry snapshot and the 20 pack manifests, so the counts on this site move when those files move. The 158 projects break down as 133 native ports, 11 content packs, 12 shaders, and 2 resource packs. Across the 20 packs, 104 unique mods are referenced; the other 40 are in the registry but not in a pack yet.
That gap is deliberate. A pack is a decision about what belongs together, not a mirror of everything that exists. The 20 decisions are here.
Six pages, one per question.
Horizon mods
Native ports, content packs, the four native-plus-content pairs, and why a mod can install and still not load.
144 projectsHorizon modpacks
All 20 packs in one table with mod counts, pins, hook floors and server flags, plus which one to install first.
20 packsHorizon launcher
The official client installs the game and handles sign-in. The xHorizon shell adds packs, profiles and build logs.
v0.1.4Horizon shaders
Why .hshader is not an OptiFine zip, the 12 packs in the registry, and what they cost in frames.
12 shadersHorizon servers
Which packs carry the server-safe flag, how to host for friends, and what the flag does not promise.
17 server-safeHorizon download
Three downloads from three sources: the game, the pack manifests, and the launcher preview with its SHA-256.
3 sources20 pack pages, 10 mod pages, 4 shader pages and 6 guides sit behind these six. Start with installing Horizon, adding mods or picking a first pack.
Questions this page gets
Is xHorizon the official Horizon site?
No. The game is made by the Horizon project and distributed from playhorizon.dev. xHorizon is an independent catalog and launcher: we write the 20 pack manifests and the launcher, and we are not affiliated with Mojang, Microsoft, or the Horizon project.
Do I need Minecraft: Java Edition to play Horizon?
Yes. Horizon asks for a Microsoft account that owns Java Edition, and the ownership check runs in the game. There is no offline mode in this catalog and no patch for that check.
Can I load Minecraft mods from CurseForge or Modrinth?
No. Horizon does not read .jar mods and has no Forge or Fabric layer. A Horizon mod is either a native port compiled against the engine or a content pack the engine reads as data.
Which Horizon version do these packs target?
All 20 packs target 26.3 and declare it in the manifest. A pack page also lists the minimum hook API it needs, so an older Horizon build can refuse a pack before it installs anything.
Does Horizon cost anything?
The game is distributed by the Horizon project, so its price and terms are theirs. The catalog here is free, the manifests are MIT, and the launcher is a free preview. There are no ads, paid tiers, or crypto on this site.
Start with a pack, not with a wiki.
Twenty packs, each with a mod list, a pin count and a server flag. Browsing needs no account; installing needs the game and a Microsoft account that owns Java Edition.