A list of performance-enhancing mods for 1.18.x forge/fabric versions.
Any suggestions/complaints?
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| Name | Known Incompatibilities | Description | Author | Performance Improvement | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starlight | Unknown | Fabric mod for completely rewriting the vanilla light engine. | Spottedleaf (PaperMC) | Both | none |
| LazyDFU | Mods that remove the DFU | LazyDFU is an optimization mod that makes the initialization of DataFixerUpper "lazy" | astei | Both | none |
| Smooth Boot | Unknown | Optimize Minecraft loading performance to be smoother on low end systems and scale better on high end systems | UltimateBoomer | Both | none |
| FerriteCore | Unknown | This mod reduces the memory usage of Minecraft in a few different ways | malte0811 | Both | none |
| Clumps | Unknown | Clumps groups XP orbs together into a single entity to reduce lag when there are many in a small area. | jaredlll08 | Both | none |
| Sodium | Mods that utilize of the FRAPI⁴ | Sodium is a free and open-source rendering engine replacement for the Minecraft client that greatly improves frame rates, reduces micro-stutter, and fixes graphical issues in Minecraft | CaffeineMC | Client | Alpha(3) |
| DashLoader | Enhanced Block Entities | This mod launches minecraft faster by caching all of the content on first launch and then loading that cache on the next one | alphaqu | Client | Incompatible(2) |
| lazy-language-loader | Unknown | lazy-language-loader improves loading times when changing your language by only reloading the language instead of all the game resources! | chachylmao | Client | none |
| Canvas | Sodium | Advanced Rendering Engine for Fabric | grondag | Client | none |
| EntityCulling | None | EntityCulling using async path-tracing to skip rendering Tiles/Entities that are not visible | tr9zw | Client | none |
| FastChest | Unknown | This mod helps by removing dynamic models from chests and making them render as static chunk geometry. | fake_domi | Client | none |
| Cull Leaves | Unknown | Adds culling to leaf blocks, providing a huge performance boost over vanilla. | Motschen | Client | none |
| Better Beds | Unknown | Removes the Block Entity Renderer from the bed and replaces it with the default minecraft model renderer. | Motschen | Client | none |
| Smoke Suppresion | Unknown | This is to prevent client-side lag and general annoyance when using large numbers of campfires in farms. | supersaiyansubtlety | Client | none |
| Better Fps - Render Distance | Unknown | Better FPS Render Distance is a mod which adds a few performance improvements to increase fps. | someaddon | Client | none |
| Lithium | None | Lithium is a general-purpose optimization mod for Minecraft which works to improve a number of systems without changing any behavior | CaffeineMC | Server | none |
| Krypton | Unknown | Krypton is a Minecraft mod designed for the Fabric mod loader that implements a suite of optimizations focused on the Minecraft networking stack | astei | Server | none |
| C2ME | Tic-Tacs, + | A Fabric mod designed to improve the chunk performance of Minecraft. | YatopiaMC | Server | Corruption(3) |
| Dimensional Threading | Unknown | Minecraft mod which optimizes the processing of multiple Dimensions, by assigning them independent threads | WearBlackAllDay | Server | Incompatible(2) |
| Alternate Current | Unknown | Alternate Current is an efficient and non-locational redstone dust implementation | Space Walker | Server | none |
| Recipe Cache | FastFurnace, FastBench (?) | Caches recipe lookup for crafting and furnaces to lessen server lag caused by crafting stacks of items and large amounts of furnaces ticking | biom4st3r1 | Server | none |
| ServerCore | Unknown | A fabric mod that aims to optimize & add multiplayer features to the minecraft server. | Wesley1808 | Server | none |
| Very Many Players | Unknown | Very Many Players, or VMP for short, is a Fabric mod designed to improve general server performance at high playercount without sacrificing vanilla functionality or behavior. | ishland | Server | none |
| Name | Known Incompatibilities | Description | Author | Performance Improvement | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FerriteCore | Unknown | This mod reduces the memory usage of Minecraft in a few different ways | malte0811 | Both | none |
| Clumps | Unknown | Clumps groups XP orbs together into a single entity to reduce lag when there are many in a small area. | jaredlll08 | Both | none |
| Better Fps - Render Distance | Unknown | Better FPS Render Distance is a mod which adds a few performance improvements to increase fps. | someaddon | Client | none |
| Get It Together, Drops! | Unknown | This mod adds two configuration options to control how dropped items combine on the ground. This can significantly improve performance in areas with lots of dropped items | bl4ckscor3 | Server | none |
| AI Improvements⁵ | None | Simplified AI modification mod focused on performance and low-level modifications to AIs in the game | QueenOfMissiles | Server | none |
I'm not sure why Sodium, Alternate Current, and ServerCore are marked as dangerous. The definition of a 'dangerous' mod for me is a mod that has a non-trivial potential of destroying the world save/introducing corruptions in the world. This is different from having general bugs that can be fixed by upgrading the mod, or removing the mod, without further damage.
Sodium is client-side only, chances of breaking the world save are minuscule. There are minor visual defects, and if it doesn't work with more major visual bugs on the particular hardware combination, uninstalling the mod is harmless.
Alternate Current is absolutely safe. It is not Vanilla-parity, but most probably it is not possible to perceive the difference when building machines designed for Vanilla on a server where it is enabled (e.g., downloading Ilmango's machines). One may however unintentionally design machines that would not work on a Vanillla server (e.g., when designing on a creative world in which the mod is enabled, and unintentionally relying on deterministic update order this mod provides). This is not 'dangerous', just something to know about and consider.
I think that ServerCore is configured to have Vanilla parity by default. It does include some Paper patches that, when specifically enabled, can change Vanilla behavior. It has appeared stable to me, not sure why it is marked 'dangerous' as I have yet to hear about someone having a serious issue with it.
Overall I feel this list is missing a column to express more nuanced things, like vanilla-parity, can the mod be removed from a world without damage, is the mod stable, in addition to clearly marking mods that are DANGEROUS, that is, have a non-negligible chance of damaging the world save.