Convert Figma logo to code with AI

CaffeineMC logosodium

A Minecraft mod designed to improve frame rates and reduce micro-stutter

4,959
827
4,959
203
View on GitHub

Top Related Projects

CaffeineMC's avatar

lithium

1,965

A Fabric mod designed to improve the general performance of Minecraft without breaking things

PaperMC's avatar

Paper

10,924

The most widely used, high performance Minecraft server that aims to fix gameplay and mechanics inconsistencies

Quick Overview

Sodium is a free and open-source optimization mod for Minecraft that significantly improves performance and reduces visual artifacts. It achieves this by rewriting large portions of the game's rendering engine, resulting in better frame rates and smoother gameplay, especially on lower-end hardware.

Pros

  • Dramatically improves Minecraft's performance, often doubling or tripling frame rates
  • Reduces visual glitches and improves overall graphical quality
  • Compatible with many other popular Minecraft mods
  • Actively maintained and regularly updated

Cons

  • Only available for the Fabric mod loader, not Forge
  • May cause compatibility issues with some shaders or resource packs
  • Requires a separate installation process, which might be challenging for less tech-savvy users
  • Some features from vanilla Minecraft may be altered or removed for performance reasons

Getting Started

To install Sodium:

  1. Download and install the Fabric mod loader for your Minecraft version.
  2. Download the Sodium mod file from the official CurseForge or Modrinth page.
  3. Place the downloaded Sodium .jar file in your Minecraft mods folder.
  4. Launch Minecraft using the Fabric profile.
# Sodium Installation Steps

1. Install Fabric mod loader: https://fabricmc.net/use/
2. Download Sodium: https://modrinth.com/mod/sodium
3. Move Sodium .jar to `.minecraft/mods/` folder
4. Launch Minecraft with Fabric profile

Note: Ensure you're using a compatible version of Sodium for your Minecraft version and Fabric loader.

Competitor Comparisons

CaffeineMC logo

lithium

1,965

A Fabric mod designed to improve the general performance of Minecraft without breaking things

Pros of Lithium

  • Focuses on game logic optimizations, improving server-side performance
  • Compatible with a wider range of mods and plugins
  • Can be used alongside other optimization mods for enhanced performance

Cons of Lithium

  • Less impact on client-side rendering performance
  • May not provide as significant FPS improvements as Sodium
  • Requires more careful configuration to avoid conflicts with other mods

Code Comparison

Lithium (entity collision optimization):

public boolean collidesWith(Entity other) {
    return this.getBoundingBox().intersects(other.getBoundingBox());
}

Sodium (chunk rendering optimization):

private void rebuildMesh(ChunkRenderData data) {
    this.mesh = this.meshBuilder.build(data);
    this.lastRebuildTime = System.nanoTime();
}

Both Lithium and Sodium are performance optimization mods for Minecraft, developed by CaffeineMC. Lithium focuses on improving game logic and server-side performance, while Sodium primarily enhances client-side rendering and FPS. Lithium is more versatile in terms of compatibility with other mods and can be used alongside Sodium for comprehensive performance improvements. However, Sodium generally provides more significant FPS boosts on its own. The code examples demonstrate their different focus areas, with Lithium optimizing entity collisions and Sodium improving chunk rendering efficiency.

PaperMC logo

Paper

10,924

The most widely used, high performance Minecraft server that aims to fix gameplay and mechanics inconsistencies

Pros of Paper

  • Comprehensive server-side optimization for Minecraft servers
  • Extensive plugin support and API enhancements
  • Regular updates and active community support

Cons of Paper

  • Primarily focused on server-side improvements, not client-side
  • May introduce compatibility issues with some vanilla Minecraft features
  • Larger codebase and potentially more complex setup compared to Sodium

Code Comparison

Paper (server-side optimization):

public class ChunkTaskManager {
    public CompletableFuture<Either<IChunkAccess, ChunkHolder.ChunkLoadingFailure>> getChunkRangeFuture(
            ChunkPos centerChunk, int radius, IntFunction<ChunkStatus> statusRetriever) {
        // Server-side chunk loading optimization
    }
}

Sodium (client-side rendering optimization):

public class ChunkRenderRebuildTask implements Runnable {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        // Client-side chunk rendering optimization
    }
}

Summary

Paper focuses on server-side optimizations and plugin support, while Sodium primarily targets client-side rendering improvements. Paper offers broader server functionality but may have more complexity, whereas Sodium provides targeted performance enhancements for the client. The choice between them depends on whether you're optimizing a server or improving client-side performance.

Convert Figma logo designs to code with AI

Visual Copilot

Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.

Try Visual Copilot

README

Sodium

Sodium is a powerful rendering engine and optimization mod for the Minecraft client which improves frame rates and reduces micro-stutter, while fixing many graphical issues in Minecraft.

This mod is the result of thousands of hours of development, and is made possible thanks to players like you. If you would like to show a token of your appreciation for my work, and help support the development of Sodium in the process, then consider buying me a coffee.

📥 Downloads

Stable builds

The latest stable release of Sodium can be downloaded from our official Modrinth and CurseForge pages.

Nightly builds (for developers)

We also provide bleeding-edge builds ("nightlies") which are useful for testing the very latest changes before they're packaged into a release. These builds are only provided for other mod developers and users with expert skills, and do not come with any support or warranty. It is often the case they have issues and lack compatibility with other mods.

The latest nightly build for each current branch of development can be downloaded below.

🖥️ Installation

Since the release of Sodium 0.6.0, both the Fabric and NeoForge mod loaders are supported. We generally recommend that new users prefer to use the Fabric mod loader, since it is more lightweight and stable (for the time being.)

For more information about downloading and installing the mod, please refer to our Installation Guide.

🙇 Getting Help

For technical support (including help with mod installation problems and game crashes), please use our official Discord server.

📬 Reporting Issues

If you do not need technical support and would like to report an issue (bug, crash, etc.) or otherwise request changes (for mod compatibility, new features, etc.), then we encourage you to open an issue on the project issue tracker.

Please note that while the issue tracker is open to feature requests, development is primarily focused on improving compatibility, performance, and finishing any unimplemented features necessary for parity with the vanilla renderer.

💬 Join the Community

We have an official Discord community for all of our projects. By joining, you can:

  • Get installation help and technical support for all of our mods
  • Get the latest updates about development and community events
  • Talk with and collaborate with the rest of our team
  • ... and just hang out with the rest of our community.

✅ Hardware Compatibility

We only provide official support for graphics cards which have up-to-date drivers that are compatible with OpenGL 4.5 or newer. Most graphics cards released in the past 12 years will meet these requirements, including the following:

  • AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series (GCN 1) or newer
  • NVIDIA GeForce 400 Series (Fermi) or newer
  • Intel HD Graphics 500 Series (Skylake) or newer

Nearly all graphics cards that are already compatible with Minecraft (which requires OpenGL 3.3) should also work with Sodium. But our team cannot ensure compatibility or provide support for older graphics cards, and they may not work with future versions of Sodium.

OpenGL Compatibility Layers

Devices which need to use OpenGL translation layers (such as GL4ES, ANGLE, etc) are not supported and will very likely not work with Sodium. These translation layers do not implement required functionality and they suffer from underlying driver bugs which cannot be worked around.

🛠️ Building from sources

Sodium uses the Gradle build tool and can be built with the gradle build command. The build artifacts (production binaries and their source bundles) can be found in the build/mods directory.

The Gradle wrapper is provided for ease of use and will automatically download and install the appropriate version of Gradle for the project build. To use the Gradle wrapper, substitute gradle in build commands with ./gradlew.bat (Windows) or ./gradlew (macOS and Linux).

Build Requirements

  • OpenJDK 21
    • We recommend using the Eclipse Temurin distribution as it's regularly tested by our developers and known to be of high quality.
  • Gradle 8.10.x
    • Typically, newer versions of Gradle will work without issues, but the build script is only tested against the version used by the wrapper script.

📜 License

Except where otherwise stated (see third-party license notices), the content of this repository is provided under the Polyform Shield 1.0.0 license by JellySquid.