ValheimScalability

ValheimScalability is a client-side performance mod for Valheim focused on improving rendering performance in large builds, dense settlements, and heavily populated world areas.

The mod reduces the number of individual objects that need to be rendered by grouping compatible static meshes into larger render batches. It includes safeguards for animated, interactive, destructible, modded, physics-driven, and wind-affected objects so they can remain independent when needed.

Let Valheim render more without requiring players to build less.

Features

Sector Mesh Clustering

ValheimScalability groups compatible static meshes within loaded world sectors into larger combined meshes.

This can significantly reduce renderer and draw-call overhead in areas containing large numbers of:

• Building pieces
• Walls
• Floors
• Roof pieces
• Static decorations
• Rocks and other compatible world geometry
• Other static meshes added by mods

Original gameplay objects remain loaded and functional. ValheimScalability changes how compatible geometry is rendered; it does not remove the underlying Piece, WearNTear, ZNetView, physics, collider, or other gameplay components.

Adaptive Rendering

In Adaptive mode, distant cells use clustered rendering while nearby visible cells return to their original renderers.

This provides a compatibility-oriented balance between normal interaction and lower draw-call overhead.

Full Cluster Rendering

FullCluster keeps compatible geometry clustered regardless of player distance.

This generally provides the strongest draw-call reduction and is especially useful for benchmarking and extremely large builds.

Easy A/B Performance Testing

Set:

Mode = Off

to restore normal object rendering without uninstalling the mod.

This makes it easy to compare the same location with clustering enabled and disabled.

Rendering Modes

Installation

Install ValheimScalability like a normal BepInEx Valheim mod.

Thunderstore / Mod Manager

Install the mod through your preferred Thunderstore-compatible mod manager.

Manual Installation

Copy the ValheimScalability plugin into your Valheim BepInEx plugins directory:

Valheim/
└── BepInEx/
    └── plugins/
        └── ValheimScalability/

Launch the game once to generate the configuration file under:

BepInEx/config/

Client-Side Mod

ValheimScalability is a client-side rendering optimization.

It does not change:

• World data
• Building placement
• Damage values
• Networking ownership
• Saved objects
• Server-authoritative gameplay state

Dedicated servers do not need to run the rendering system. Each player can configure the rendering behavior for their own client.

Recommended Profiles

CellDivisionsPerSector = 1 is the default because it produced the strongest real-world gains during testing. Higher values trade batching efficiency for finer Adaptive-mode proximity and culling granularity.

Configuration Reference

Sector Clustering

Section:

[Rendering.SectorClustering]

Cell Division Tradeoff

For most users, leave this at 1. Increase it only if you specifically prefer finer Adaptive transitions or culling granularity and are willing to trade some batching efficiency.

Object, Layer, Material, and Shader Filters

Section:

[Rendering.SectorClustering.Filters]

Name filters are case-insensitive substring matches. Regex lists use semicolons so regular expressions can contain commas.

For troubleshooting only player/build pieces, a useful temporary filter is:

IncludedLayers = piece

Warm Zone Cache

Section:

[Rendering.SectorClustering.Cache]

ValheimScalability uses a bounded warm-zone cache so sailing or exploring across a large world does not retain generated cluster meshes forever.

Active zones are not constrained by the warm-cache limits. The limits apply only after a zone leaves the active area.

The lifecycle is approximately:

ACTIVE
  current/nearby zone
       ↓
WARM
  recent/frequent inactive zone
  bounded by memory + count + retention
       ↓
COLD
  generated cluster data destroyed

Players with large amounts of RAM can raise the limits if they frequently teleport between very large builds.

Trees, Vegetation, and Experimental GPU Instancing

Vegetation requires special handling because many tree and plant shaders use per-object data for wind movement.

Naively combining multiple trees into one mesh can make the entire group sway as one object, so wind-affected objects are not forced through normal static mesh combining.

Section:

[Rendering.SectorClustering.Instancing]

With experimental instancing disabled, detected wind/vegetation objects remain normally rendered rather than being incorrectly mesh-combined.

Destructible Objects

ValheimScalability tracks damage to optimized objects.

When an optimized destructible object is damaged:

1. The affected rendering cell temporarily returns to normal rendering.
2. The damaged object is excluded from future clustering for that loaded sector lifetime.
3. Repeated damage extends the cooldown rather than rebuilding on every hit.
4. Remaining compatible geometry can rebuild after the area has been quiet long enough.

This allows destructible static geometry to remain interactive without rebuilding combined meshes on every damage event.

Compatibility Matrix

ValheimScalability is intentionally conservative. If an object cannot be safely represented by a shared static cluster mesh, it should remain on its original renderer.

Why Rigidbody Internals Are Not Combined

A combined mesh created by ValheimScalability represents static world-space geometry for a sector/cell.

If the source hierarchy is driven by a non-kinematic Rigidbody, combining its internal renderers into a static sector mesh would separate the visuals from the physics object as soon as it moved.

For this reason, ValheimScalability rejects roots that have a non-kinematic Rigidbody in their parent hierarchy.

This is particularly important for ships, vehicles, physics contraptions, and moving bases.

ValheimRAFT

ValheimRAFT is a special case because it already manages optimization of pieces attached to its moving vehicle hierarchy.

ValheimScalability focuses on world-sector rendering, while ValheimRAFT handles vehicle-local rendering. ValheimScalability therefore does not need to mesh-batch the internal pieces of a moving ValheimRAFT vehicle.

Troubleshooting

An object disappears or looks incorrect

Add part of its object name to ExcludedObjectNames, or exclude its material/shader if the entire rendering type is affected.

A modded animated object becomes static

Exclude the object, material, or shader. Some mods animate meshes using systems that cannot be generically detected.

Trees move strangely

Keep experimental instancing disabled and make sure vegetation is not being forced through static mesh combining:

[Rendering.SectorClustering.Instancing]
Enabled = false

Performance becomes worse

Start with:

Mode = FullCluster
CellDivisionsPerSector = 1

For building-only testing:

IncludedLayers = piece

Then compare the same location against:

Mode = Off

Old config options are still visible

BepInEx does not automatically remove obsolete config entries.

Older versions may have created settings such as:

Enabled
PresentationMode
NearPlayerSectorRadius
VisibilityUpdateInterval

Delete the ValheimScalability config file and relaunch if you want a clean regenerated configuration.

Performance Notes

ValheimScalability primarily targets rendering overhead.

It can reduce the cost of rendering thousands of individual static objects, but it does not remove the underlying gameplay objects.

Systems such as:

• Piece
• WearNTear
• ZNetView
• Physics
• Colliders
• Structural support calculations
• AI
• Scripts from other mods

can still consume CPU time even when their visible meshes are combined.

As a result, performance improvements depend on whether the area is rendering-limited or simulation-limited.

Real-World Performance Benchmarks

The results below are from actual in-game testing and show the type of improvement ValheimScalability can provide in rendering-heavy areas.

Performance will vary with build density, visible pieces, materials/shaders, other mods, view distance, render resolution, and CPU/GPU limits.

Test System

The display supports 7680x2160, but the exact in-game render resolution used for these benchmark passes was not recorded.

Dense Settlement / Large Build

This test used an existing save containing a heavily populated player-built area with a large number of building pieces.

The measured FullCluster result represents roughly a 2.6x to 4.3x increase in frame rate compared with the ~14 FPS baseline in this specific test.

Light Meadow / Small Build

A near-empty Meadows area with a small wooden structure was also used while tuning cluster granularity.

This was not a clean vanilla-vs-mod benchmark. It demonstrates that excessive cluster subdivision can create enough additional render batches and management overhead to reduce the benefit of mesh combining.

Reproducing the Benchmark

For a useful comparison:

1. Stand in the same location and face the same direction.
2. Wait several seconds for the area to finish loading.
3. Record FPS with Mode = Off.
4. Record FPS with Mode = FullCluster and CellDivisionsPerSector = 1.
5. Optionally compare Mode = Adaptive.

For Adaptive results, also report PlayerUnclusterRadius, RequireCameraVisibilityToUncluster, and CellDivisionsPerSector.

Reporting Problems

When reporting a rendering compatibility issue, please include:

• ValheimScalability version
• Valheim version
• Affected prefab/object name
• Mod that added the object, if applicable
• Your Rendering.SectorClustering configuration
• Screenshots showing the problem
• Whether the problem disappears with Mode = Off

For performance reports, include FPS from the same location with both Mode = Off and Mode = FullCluster.

Other recommended performance mods

https://thunderstore.io/c/valheim/p/Skarif/ValheimPerformanceOverhaul/ this mod can be used alongside ValheimScalability. It will likely do more to improve FPS in low-density areas, while ValheimScalability is focused on high-density areas / pieces.

GitHub

This project can be found at:

https://github.com/zolantris/ValheimMods/tree/main/src/ValheimScalability

License

See the repository license for details.