[DRD] Dynamic Render Distance

One big base, a crowded village or a storm of mobs is enough to drag your FPS down. The usual fix is to lower your render distance for the whole game, or to stop and move the slider every time.

Dynamic Render Distance does it for you. When FPS drop below your target, it shortens what the game renders. When FPS come back, it brings the distance back up to your own setting. Nothing reloads, nothing flashes.

What it does

• Keeps your target FPS: you choose the FPS you want (60 by default). If VSync or your Max Framerate is lower, that cap is used instead.
• Reacts to how bad it is: the drop follows how far FPS are below the target, about 1 chunk per 7%, up to 8 chunks at once. It slides one chunk at a time so it stays smooth.
• Comes back on its own: the distance goes up again once FPS reach 97% of your target.
• Leaves your setting alone: your Render Distance slider and options.txt are never changed. Your setting is the ceiling, and the mod only works below it.
• Reloads nothing: a distance change rebuilds no chunks, with or without Sodium.
• Waits when you are away: it pauses while the window is minimized, unfocused or AFK-limited.

Works with

• Sodium and Embeddium: optional. Without them the mod works the same way.
• Bobby: the limit also applies to Bobby's chunks, on servers too.
• Distant Horizons: far LODs follow the same limit, through the Distant Horizons API. Its own settings are not changed.
• Servers and ServerCore: a distance changed from outside no longer reloads your chunks. In singleplayer, ServerCore no longer overwrites your slider. On a dedicated server, ServerCore keeps all its features.

Settings

In Options > Video Settings. On Fabric, also in a Dynamic RD tab with Sodium, and in Mod Menu.

Advanced values are in config/dynamic-render-distance.json: checkIntervalTicks (100), cooldownTicks (200) and increaseStep (1).

Compatibility

• Fabric: Minecraft 1.18.2 to 26.3. Requires Fabric Loader 0.16.14 or newer.
• Forge: Minecraft 1.18.2 to 26.3.
• NeoForge: Minecraft 1.20.2 to 26.3. On 1.20.1, use the Forge file: it runs on NeoForge too.
• Install it on the client only. A server does not need it.

Used in the Legends Reborn: Medieval modpack.