WildGlow

Client-side collectible effects for Valheim. Each collectible keeps a sparse vertical column alongside motion suited to its material: pollen, spores, berry glints, mineral flecks, hive loops, chest seam dust or orbiting fragments. Includes 58 styles and four detailed mote silhouettes per style.

Version 0.4.0 preview build

• Every effect retains the doubled-height column. Default density is 0.6: 38 main motes instead of 64, plus fine dust, glints and short trails.
• Daytime uses larger solid motes, quieter glints and reduced light emission. Nighttime emphasizes trails, sparkle and real area lighting. Automatic transitions follow the game clock; Appearance.VariantMode can be Auto, Day or Night.
• Mineral deposits sample their own active collider surfaces. Flecks, short fracture-vein overlays and small crystal facets cover the exposed node. The column is anchored to a sampled surface. No original ore textures are replaced.
• Close ordinary pickups share an effect within a 2.5 m maximum group diameter. Mixed groups use the most common style. Deposits retain an independent effect covering their whole node, so nearby plants cannot shift their origin.
• Fir trees, flint, Surtling cores, common wood/stone and wildlife are excluded. Loose Fir cones remain collectible. Player-built objects stay excluded by default.

The labels magic and treasure are artistic behavior choices, not official rarity tiers or drop-rate estimates. Magic covers black/molten/frost cores and Dyrnwyn fragments. Treasure covers amber, ruby, crystal and dragon eggs. Ore deposits keep geological effects, and Surtling cores remain excluded. All categories keep columns.

Installation

Install WildGlow through r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager in your Valheim profile. BepInExPack_Valheim is required. Start the game once to generate the configuration.

For a local build, use Import local mod and select Local-WildGlow-0.4.0.zip. The local package uses Local as its author label. Copying a DLL directly into the game folder does not create an entry in the manager. Manual installation is also supported: extract the included BepInEx directory into Valheim's installation directory.

Use one installation method per launch setup. Avoid an extra manual WildGlow DLL in a profile that already contains the managed copy.

Settings and previews

BepInEx creates BepInEx/config/local.valheim.wildglow.cfg. Existing config values remain in effect on upgrade. For an existing config, set Appearance.Density = 0.6 and Appearance.VariantMode = Auto to use the new default look; preserve your other preferences. The package intentionally does not overwrite your config.

Other defaults: Height = 2, Speed = 0.9, Dust = 1, TrailLength = 2, Twist = 1.45, AreaGlow = 1.2, LightRange = 3.5, LightIntensity = 2.2, MaxAreaLights = 8. Large deposits can expand the light range to cover their bounds, up to 12 m. Lights are shadowless and limited to nearby groups. Lower light/effect limits if needed.

With the game console enabled, run wildglow_preview carrot, wildglow_preview mushroom, wildglow_preview honey, wildglow_preview copper or wildglow_preview blackcore. Each creates a local demonstration for 30 seconds. Console previews have no real collectible mesh; ore surface attachments must be checked on an actual deposit. wildglow_preview stop clears the demonstration. wildglow_reload reloads configuration.

Validation and limitations

Compiled against Valheim 1.0.12, Unity 6000.0.75 and BepInEx 5.4.23.5. Build, binary API, grouping, behavior and preview parity checks pass. The 0.4.0 effects have not yet been playtested in Valheim, and the new per-effect switches still need an in-game check. Browser previews are motion studies with illustrative objects, not game captures. The WILDGLOW icon uses actual Valheim item sprites as generation references (copper ore, carrot, red mushroom and thistle). It is branded artwork, not a game screenshot.

Sampling covers exposed upward-facing ore surfaces and refreshes when collider bounds or enabled parts change. Unsupported deposits without raycastable physical surfaces are suppressed rather than displaying a floating substitute. Completely custom modded harvesting or wildlife components may need an adapter. Large-deposit sampling and the new surface overlays still need an in-game performance check.

No save, loot, networking or original game textures are modified. Remove the package through the manager to disable it in that profile.

Individual effect switches

In BepInEx/config/local.valheim.wildglow.cfg, set Enabled = false within the desired [Style.copper], [Style.mushroom], [Style.honey], or other style section. All 58 switches default to true and are listed in WildGlow-effects.cfg. [Style.fallback] controls unlisted/modded collectibles. Reload using wildglow_reload, or edit while Valheim is closed. The preview also exports your on/off selections.

Changelog

0.4.12

• Refresh the README with current features, setup and controls.

0.4.11

• Restore all old groups before assigning model glow after a merge/split, preventing nested temporary materials and destroyed-material references.
• Restore newly rebuilt mining renderers during cleanup and release unused emission materials.
• Release cached particle materials and textures when applying appearance changes.

0.4.10

• Updated README testing-status wording.

0.4.9

• Shortened the README and gave the gull a pitch specific to this mod.

0.4.8

• Rewrote the README in the voice of a Viking gull selling a well-used longship. Installation, controls and testing status remain documented.

0.4.7

• Attach Valharvest apple-tree particles and surface glow to the nine apples, with light spill originating among the fruit.
• Keep fruit-tree effects separate from nearby plants and remove them when harvested; restore them on regrowth.
• Handle the installed non-readable apple mesh without falling back to trunk colliders.

0.4.6

• New Viking gull icon artwork.
• Shorter README with GitHub and Discord links.

0.4.5

Lighting changes.

0.4.4

Lighting changes.

0.4.3

• Fixed mushroom spores bunching below a faster column: both now share full-height upward motion. Dandelion movement is unchanged.
• Smaller translucent spore flecks, shorter tails and no hard spore glints.
• Replaced all local point lights and glow patches with whole-model material emission using original texture colors and tiling.
• Preserved original shaders, foliage alpha clipping, mesh geometry and material-slot identity; original materials restore when the effect ends.
• Excluded beech/pine/fir seedlings, small/dead/shrub variants, generic shrubs and tree/log components.
• Retired LightRange, LightIntensity and MaxAreaLights controls; AreaGlow now controls model emission.

0.4.2

• Removed ore surface textures, fracture lines and added crystal geometry.
• Preserved working ore mote attachment and sparse vertical columns.
• Distributed soft glow and real illumination over model surfaces, with up to four lights per large model and a strict global light budget.
• Extended attachments to readable world-collectible meshes, with physical-surface fallback.
• Excluded all dropped ItemDrop objects even when a legacy config enables loose items.
• Updated wildglow_status to report model anchors and active surface lights.

0.4.1

• Ore fracture/inclusion texture covers the actual intact and mined 3D meshes, following live mesh rebuilds.
• Surface sampling covers all six sides; crystal facets, flecks and trails follow local surface normals.
• Vertical columns start on upper surfaces, preserving a sparse beacon above the deposit.
• Mined or hidden mesh parts lose their overlay; effect disabling removes all surface layers.
• Added wildglow_status diagnostics for loaded version and nearby ore coverage.
• Added Vassteels workshop feedback invite to package metadata and documentation.

0.4.0

• Individual Enabled switches for all 58 effect styles, including fallback items; disabled items are excluded before grouping.
• Self-contained preview entry points with independent on/off controls and config export.
• Ten motion families alongside retained vertical columns; default main mote count reduced from 64 to 38.
• Automatic day/night presentation and a manual comparison override.
• Collider-attached ore effects, fracture veins and crystal facets spread over exposed deposits.
• Independent deposit grouping and Fir Tree exclusions.
• Thunderstore-format package, dependency manifest and 256x256 icon for r2modman local imports.

0.3.0

• Doubled height, wider real lights, proximity grouping and wildlife filtering.

0.2.1

• Tuned trails/twist/glow and removed flint and Surtling core effects.