Deep North Snowfall

Deep North Snowfall is a small BepInEx Valheim mod that makes Deep North ground snow look fresh again after players sleep.

It restores missing ground snow from footprints, walked paths, and shovel-cleared snow back toward the area's normal generated snow depth. It does not create continuous snowfall, weather simulation, or gradual buildup.

Install

Install on the dedicated server and on clients that visit the Deep North:

BepInEx/plugins/DeepNorthSnowfall.dll

For hosted dedicated servers, client installation is important. Many hosted servers do not keep terrain objects loaded, so the server creates the restore event and modded clients apply it to the Deep North terrain they actually load.

What It Does

• After a successful sleep, starts one Deep North snow refresh.
• Adds the admin command snowrestore for manual testing or manual refreshes.
• Syncs restore events from the server to modded clients.
• Restores loaded Deep North zones immediately when possible.
• Restores other Deep North zones once later, when a modded client loads them.
• Saves restored snow through Valheim's normal terrain save/sync system.

What It Does Not Do

• Does not change terrain height.
• Does not flatten, dig, raise, or reset terrain.
• Does not touch buildings, structures, vegetation, items, or creatures.
• Does not pile snow higher than the area's generated natural snow value.
• Does not run continuous snow regeneration in the background.

Command

Run from the server console or from an admin client with the mod installed:

snowrestore

The command starts a pending Deep North snow refresh on the server and broadcasts it to modded clients. It does not matter where the admin is standing. Only Deep North ground snow paint can be changed.

Config

BepInEx creates the config after the mod runs once:

BepInEx/config/com.teamgrimgoren.valheim.deepnorthsnowfall.cfg

Useful settings:

• RestoreAfterSleep: enable or disable automatic restore after sleep.
• PostEventScanSeconds: how long the mod keeps actively rechecking for newly loaded terrain immediately after sleep or snowrestore. Default: 30.
• PostEventScanIntervalSeconds: how often those short checks run.
• VerboseZoneLogs: log each touched zone.

PostEventScanSeconds is only the short immediate retry window. It is not the lifetime of the pending snow refresh. Deep North zones can still restore later when a modded client loads them.

The mod also creates a small state file:

BepInEx/config/com.teamgrimgoren.valheim.deepnorthsnowfall.state

That file tracks the current restore cycle and which Deep North zones have already been restored for it.

Compatibility

Deep North Snowfall should be compatible with mods that leave Valheim's normal terrain paint/save systems intact.

It may conflict with mods that replace terrain saving, repurpose Deep North snow paint data, or directly reset/rewrite the same terrain paint values.

Safety

This mod was built to be conservative. It restores only the Deep North terrain paint value used for ground snow depth, then asks Valheim to save the terrain component normally.

It does not write to terrain height, level, smooth, flatten, raise, or dig data.

Changelog

1.0.8

Documentation cleanup.

• Rebuilt the changelog into a complete, readable version history from 1.0.0 onward.
• Restored older release notes where available.
• Rewrote the README to reduce repetition and better explain install, behavior, safety, config, and compatibility.
• Updated README wording from "sleep/night skip" to "successful sleep".
• Clarified that PostEventScanSeconds is only the short immediate retry window, not the lifetime of the pending restore.
• Replaced specific third-party mod references with general compatibility guidance.
• Bumped the plugin/package version for this documentation-only release.

1.0.7

Server/client sync support.

• Added Valheim routed RPC synchronization for snow restore events.
• Dedicated servers now create the sleep/manual restore event and broadcast it to modded clients.
• Modded clients restore the Deep North terrain they actually have loaded.
• Avoids risky direct editing of serialized terrain/ZDO data on hosted servers where TerrainComp instances are not loaded server-side.
• snowrestore now queues the restore on the server and broadcasts it to modded clients.

1.0.6

Post-event retry window.

• Added a short loaded-terrain retry window after sleep or snowrestore.
• Helps hosted dedicated servers catch Deep North terrain that becomes available just after the sleep/command event.
• Safety rules are unchanged: only Deep North snow paint data is modified.

1.0.5

Package consistency fixes.

• Fixed consistency between the manifest, changelog, DLL name, plugin display name, and internal plugin version.
• Standardized the packaged DLL name as DeepNorthSnowfall.dll.
• Standardized generated config/state files under com.teamgrimgoren.valheim.deepnorthsnowfall.
• No snow restoration behavior changes.

1.0.4

File naming cleanup.

• Corrected the packaged file name.

1.0.3

Public mod identity cleanup.

• Renamed generated config/state files away from older personal/internal naming.
• Standardized new generated files on com.teamgrimgoren.valheim.deepnorthsnowfall.
• Scrubbed older placeholder changelog/package references for the public Deep North Snowfall release.
• No snow restoration behavior changes.

1.0.2

Pending restore behavior.

• Changed sleep restoration to start one pending Deep North snow refresh regardless of where players slept.
• Sleep restoration now immediately processes any currently loaded Deep North terrain, then restores unloaded Deep North zones later when Valheim loads them.
• Improved dedicated-server player detection for the manual snowrestore command by also checking server player list and connected peer positions.
• Clarified README/config wording around immediate restores, pending restores, and RadiusZones.
• Renamed the packaged DLL/display name to Deep North Snowfall.

1.0.1

Safety and persistence refinements.

• Saved restored snow through Valheim's normal terrain save/sync system.
• Confirmed the mod avoids terrain height, flattening, digging, raised ground, structures, vegetation, and items.

1.0.0

Initial release.

• Restores missing Deep North ground snow toward the area's generated natural snow value.
• Adds the snowrestore admin command.