GLSL Shaders Mod 1.12.21.11.2 adds shaders to Minecraft and add multiple draw buffers, shadow map, normal map, specular map.
These things can be used to change appearance of Minecraft world.
How it looks depends on selected shaderpack and some user settings.
There are very few mods that stand out from the other, however even the mods that do can be topped by even more extraordinary ones.
Very few mods will continually be loathed forever by the entire userplayer community of minecraft, and when this happens;
the mod itself will continue to grow player, and feature wise.