Continuity | Connected & Emissive Textures Mod

You line the front of your base with glass, step back, and every single block shows its own border. Instead of one clean sheet, you get a grid of frames. Continuity is a client-side mod built to fix exactly that. It lets resource packs that use the connected textures, emissive textures, and custom block layers formats run on their own, no separate all-in-one graphics mod required. With roughly 80 million downloads, it's one of the most installed client-side mods around, and it ships with two built-in resource packs so your glass, sandstone, and bookshelves connect the moment it's in.

Built-In Connected Textures for Glass, Sandstone, and Bookshelves

The first built-in pack is called Default Connected Textures. It adds connected textures for glass, sandstone, and bookshelves, similar to the built-in connected textures you get from the classic graphics mod. In practice, connected textures make adjacent blocks blend together. A glass wall reads as one smooth surface instead of a grid of squares. Sandstone joins up cleanly for desert builds, and bookshelves connect so a library wall looks like continuous shelving rather than the same block stamped over and over.

Because this pack comes built into the mod, it works even if you play with the default textures. There's no extra download and no pack hunting.

The Glass Pane Culling Fix

The second built-in pack targets glass panes. When you stack panes vertically, the faces between them normally still render, so a tall window made of panes shows a line at every joint. The Glass Pane Culling Fix pack culls those faces between vertically stacked panes. Build a floor-to-ceiling window and the whole column reads as one continuous sheet instead of a stack of separate pieces.

Paired with connected textures, this is what turns a patched-together window into one that looks deliberate. If you build with glass often, this fix alone earns the mod a spot in your mods folder.

Emissive Textures and Custom Block Layers

Beyond the built-in packs, the mod's core job is making three texture formats work without extra software. The connected textures format is the one most players notice first. The emissive textures format applies to blocks and item models, letting pack authors make parts of a texture render as if they give off light. The custom block layers format gives pack authors control over the rendering layer a block is drawn in.

Formally, Continuity implements its own connected textures, emissive textures, and custom block layers specifications. Each one extends the corresponding classic format, and all three were created to give resource pack authors more features to work with. If a pack you like advertises glowing windows or intricate connected patterns, chances are this mod is what makes it run. The specifications are documented on the project's wiki, and the whole thing is open source.

How to Install Continuity

Continuity runs on Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, and Quilt. It's developed as a Fabric mod, and that's the setup the developer recommends. On Forge and NeoForge it works through the Connector and Forgified Fabric API compatibility layers, and the releases marked for those loaders already list them as dependencies.

1. Install the Fabric loader if you don't have it yet. This is the environment Continuity is built for.
2. Download Continuity from the official project page.
3. On Forge or NeoForge, grab the release marked for your loader and install Connector and Forgified Fabric API alongside it.
4. Drop the jar file into your mods folder.
5. Launch the game and check your resource pack screen for the two built-in packs.

One last bit of housekeeping. If you only kept OptiFine around for connected textures, emissive textures, or custom block layers, you don't need it for those features anymore. Continuity covers all three formats by itself, and it's client-side only, so your server doesn't need anything installed.

Continuity FAQ

Is Continuity client-side or server-side?

Client-side only. The server neither needs it nor supports it. In multiplayer, everyone who wants the effects installs it on their own client. Players without the mod simply see the standard textures on their screens.

Does Continuity work with any resource pack?

It works with packs that use the connected textures, emissive textures, or custom block layers formats. Packs built for the classic graphics mod usually rely on those formats for their texture tricks. Packs that don't use them still run fine, they just don't gain anything extra.

Does Continuity affect FPS?

No official performance numbers are published. The mod only changes how certain textures render on your client, so in practice the impact depends on the packs you pair it with. If you're cautious, test with and without the built-in packs and compare.

Is Continuity still maintained?

Yes. The latest update shipped in September 2026, and development is active. The code is open source too, so nothing about how it works is hidden.

If you're putting together a modded instance from scratch, our guide to installing Minecraft mods covers the full process, and our walkthrough for the loader Continuity is built for takes you from a clean install to a running game. From there, load any pack that uses connected textures and enjoy glass walls that finally look like single panes.