Configuration

Configuration

the config lives at .minecraft/config/helium.json. you can also edit everything through the in-game UI at Options > Video Settings > Helium (Sodium's menu), or via the ModMenu shortcut if you have that installed.

every feature has a safe fallback. if something fails to initialize it disables itself and logs a warning. nothing will crash because of a bad config value.

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general

option	default	what it does
modEnabled	true	master switch, turns off all Helium features at once
devMode	false	enables dev-mode logging and extra diagnostics, not useful in normal play

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rendering

option	default	what it does
entityCulling	true	skip rendering entities beyond the cull distance
entityCullDistance	64	block distance beyond which entities are not rendered
blockEntityCulling	true	skip rendering block entities beyond the cull distance
blockEntityCullDistance	48	block distance for block entity culling
particleCulling	true	skip particles beyond the cull distance
particleCullDistance	32	block distance for particle culling
particleLimiting	true	enforce a hard cap on simultaneous particles
maxParticles	1000	max simultaneous particles before the priority system kicks in
particlePriority	true	keep combat particles, drop decorative ones when at the cap
particleBatching	true	batch particle submissions instead of one at a time
particleLOD	false	reduce particle detail at distance
particleLODDistance	16.0	distance at which particle LOD kicks in
particleLODReduction	0.3	how much particle detail is reduced in the LOD zone (0.0 to 1.0)
leafCullingMode	"FAST"	leaf culling mode: OFF, FAST, VERTICAL, STATE, CHECK, GAP, DEPTH, RANDOM
leafCullingDepth	2	depth used by GAP and DEPTH modes (1 to 4)
leafCullingRandomRejection	0.2	rejection probability for RANDOM mode
leafCullingMangroveRoots	false	apply leaf culling logic to mangrove roots
animationThrottling	true	reduce texture animation updates for blocks not in view
glStateCache	false	skip redundant OpenGL state calls (auto-disabled with ImmediatelyFast)
renderPipelining	false	adaptive frame pacing and rolling frame time smoothing
fastFramebufferBlit	true	optimized framebuffer blit operations
modelCache	true	cache baked block models to avoid repeated re-baking
modelCacheMaxMb	64	max size of the model cache in MB
temporalReprojection	false	experimental: skip re-rendering distant entities on alternating frames
shaderUniformCache	true	cache uniform locations and skip unchanged glUniform calls
directStateAccess	true	use DSA to modify GPU objects without binding (requires GL 4.5 or ARB_DSA)
fastBambooLight	true	faster light calculation for bamboo blocks
optimizedLightEngine	true	throttle and batch light updates through the async light engine
asyncLightUpdates	true	process light updates on a background thread pool
framebufferCleaner	true	clean up unused framebuffers to reduce VRAM waste over time
fastAnimations	false	reduce animation update frequency for entities not in direct view
cachedEnumValues	false	cache enum value arrays to avoid repeated array allocations
suppressOpenGLErrors	true	suppress non-critical OpenGL error polling
screenshotLeakFix	true	fix a vanilla memory leak when taking screenshots
signTextCulling	true	skip sign text rendering beyond view
rainCulling	true	skip rain geometry when the player can't see it
beaconBeamCulling	true	skip beacon beam rendering out of range
paintingCulling	true	distance-cull painting entities
itemFrameCulling	true	distance-cull item frame entities
itemFrameLOD	false	switch item frames to a simplified render at range
itemFrameLODRange	128	distance at which item frame LOD activates
poseStackPooling	true	pool PoseStack objects to reduce GC pressure

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math

option	default	what it does
fastMath	true	LUT-based sin/cos, fast atan2, fast inverseSqrt, branchless int math
simdMath	true	batch math operations, uses JVM Vector API if available
jomlFastMath	true	set joml.fastmath=true JVM property for JOML matrix library
fastRandom	true	faster random number generation in hot paths

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memory

option	default	what it does
memoryOptimizations	true	enables object pool (BlockPos.Mutable, Vector3f)
nativeMemory	true	enables direct ByteBuffer pooling
nativeMemoryPoolMb	64	max total native memory pool size in MB
reducedAllocations	true	reduce allocation rate in hot render paths
objectDeduplication	true	deduplicate strings, quad arrays, and Identifiers

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GPU

option	default	what it does
nvidiaOptimizations	true	enable NVIDIA-specific tweaks (parallel shader compile)
amdOptimizations	true	enable AMD-specific tweaks (buffer alignment, pinned memory)
intelOptimizations	true	enable Intel-specific tweaks (aggressive GL state caching)
adaptiveSync	false	detect G-Sync/FreeSync and adjust frame target accordingly
displaySyncRefreshRate	-1	override display sync rate manually (-1 = auto-detect)
glContextUpgrade	true	request a higher OpenGL context version if supported
renderbufferDepth	false	use renderbuffer instead of texture for depth attachment

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threading

option	default	what it does
threadOptimizations	true	set render thread to MAX_PRIORITY, init startup thread pool
fastStartup	true	parallelize startup tasks across a thread pool

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network

option	default	what it does
networkOptimizations	true	enables background resource processor
packetBatching	true	buffer outgoing packets before flushing
fastServerPing	true	ping all servers in the list concurrently
fastIpPing	true	optimize IP-based server pings
preserveScrollOnRefresh	true	keep your scroll position when refreshing the server list
directConnectPreview	true	show server info preview in the direct connect screen

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frame timing / reflex

option	default	what it does
enableReflex	true	GPU timer query-based CPU-GPU sync to reduce input latency
reflexOffsetNs	0	manual nanosecond offset for the reflex wait calculation
reflexDebug	false	log reflex timing data each frame

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idle / inactive

option	default	what it does
reduceFpsWhenInactive	false	drop frame rate when the window loses focus
inactiveFpsLimit	10	FPS limit while inactive
reduceRenderDistanceWhenInactive	false	reduce render distance while inactive
inactiveRenderDistance	4	render distance while inactive
autoPauseOnIdle	false	pause more aggressively when idle
idleTimeoutSeconds	60	seconds of inactivity before idle mode activates
idleFpsLimit	5	FPS limit in idle mode
menuFramerateLimit	0	cap FPS on menu screens (0 = no cap)

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UI / tweaks

option	default	what it does
fpsOverlay	true	show the FPS overlay
overlayShowFps	true	show FPS in the overlay
overlayShowFpsMinMaxAvg	false	show min/max/avg FPS in the overlay
overlayShowMemory	false	show memory usage in the overlay
overlayShowParticles	false	show active particle count in the overlay
overlayShowCoordinates	false	show player coordinates in the overlay
overlayShowBiome	false	show current biome in the overlay
overlayPosition	"TOP_LEFT"	overlay position: TOP_LEFT, TOP_RIGHT, BOTTOM_LEFT, BOTTOM_RIGHT
overlayTransparency	60	overlay background transparency (0-100)
overlayBackgroundColor	"#000000"	overlay background color as hex
overlayTextColor	"#FFFFFF"	overlay text color as hex
smoothScrolling	true	smoother scroll animations in list screens
windowStyle	true	apply Windows 11 DWM styling to the game window
windowMaterial	"TABBED"	window backdrop material: TABBED, ACRYLIC, MICA, NONE
windowCorner	"ROUND"	window corner style: ROUND, ROUND_SMALL, SQUARE, DEFAULT
hotbarOptimizer	true	reduce hotbar rendering overhead
hotbarMultiSwitch	false	allow switching multiple hotbar slots at once
smoothHotbar	true	smooth hotbar slot switching animation
forceSkinParts	true	force all skin parts to always be visible
fullbright	false	enable fullbright (gamma override)
fullbrightStrength	10	fullbright intensity (1-10)
instantLanguageChange	true	apply language changes without a full reload
asyncPackReload	true	reload resource packs on a background thread
acceleratedText	false	enable glyph cache for text rendering
oneClickCrafting	false	craft items with a single click
fastWorldLoading	true	reduce world loading overhead

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tips

if you're on a potato PC, the biggest wins in order are:

1. entityCullDistance - bring it down to 32 if you're in high-entity areas
2. blockEntityCullDistance - 32 is fine for most people
3. leafCullingMode - set to CHECK or DEPTH if you play in forests
4. particleLimiting + maxParticles - lower max particles if you're CPU-bottlenecked
5. reduceFpsWhenInactive - free performance whenever you alt-tab

if you're on a high-end machine and want lower input latency specifically:

1. make sure enableReflex is on
2. set adaptiveSync to true if you have a G-Sync or FreeSync monitor
3. renderPipelining helps with frame time consistency at high FPS