Chest Items Hover Display

Look at a chest, a cart or an armor stand. See what's in it. That's the whole mod.

When your crosshair lands on a container, a compact panel slides up under the crosshair showing every item in its actual grid slot — same icons, same stack counts, same layout as the chest UI itself. No interaction, no menu, no opening required.

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Features

• One-glance preview. Hover a chest, the panel appears. Look away, it disappears.
• Mirrors the chest exactly. A 4×2 chest shows as 4×2, an 8×4 reinforced chest shows as 8×4. Items appear in their real grid positions, not a re-sorted list.
• Carts. Hover a cart — its cargo or its body — to see what it carries.
• Armor stands. Hover an armor stand to see what hangs on it, in one row: helmet, chest, legs, cape, utility, then weapons and shields.
• Live updates. Stacks change in real time as a teammate puts items in or pulls them out — no need to re-hover.
• Name on top. The localized name (Wood Chest, Iron Chest, Cart, Armor stand, etc.) is shown above the grid.
• Respects private chests. Chests claimed by another player stay hidden.
• Respects wards. A chest, cart or armor stand inside a ward you are not permitted in stays hidden. Hovering will not trigger the ward shield effect.
• Optional hold key. Configure a key (e.g. LeftAlt) that must be held for the panel to appear, if you find it too "always-on."
• Tunable position and cell size. Move the panel up/down on screen, change cell pixel size.
• Empty-chest aware. Hide the panel completely when the chest is empty (configurable).

Multiplayer

• Fully client-side. Nothing is synced or transmitted.
• Server does not need the mod. Only the player who wants the preview needs it installed.
• Reads ZDO state directly the same way the vanilla chest UI does — no RPCs, no extra network traffic.
• No gameplay impact. Cannot be used to "see through" walls or read chests beyond the normal hover range — if Valheim shows you the chest's hover prompt, the preview shows; otherwise nothing.

Installation

With a mod manager (recommended)

1. Install r2modman or use the Thunderstore Mod Manager.
2. Search for ChestItemsHoverDisplay and click Install.
3. Launch the game through the mod manager.

Manual

1. Install BepInExPack Valheim.
2. Drop CDEV.ChestItemsHoverDisplay.dll into <Valheim>/BepInEx/plugins/.

Configuration

Edit BepInEx/config/cdev.valheim.chestitemshoverdisplay.cfg (created on first launch) or use a config manager mod.

Key	Default	Description
Enabled	true	Master toggle.
CellSize	40	Pixel size of each grid cell (24–96).
HideWhenEmpty	true	Hide the panel when the chest, cart or armor stand has no items.
RespectPrivateChests	true	Hide the panel for private chests and chests inside wards you are not permitted in.
HoldKeyToShow	None	Optional key that must be held for the panel to appear. None = always show while hovering.
VerticalOffset	-80	Pixel offset from screen center. Negative = below crosshair.

Compatibility

• Valheim 1.0 (built and tested against 1.0.7).
• Requires BepInEx 5.4.x (Valheim's standard).
• Works with Jotunn-based mods. Does not modify any vanilla prefab, recipe, ZDO, or RPC.
• Does not interfere with chest sorting, auto-pickup, or inventory management mods.

Known limitations

• Custom chests added by other mods will display correctly as long as they extend Valheim's Container component. If a mod uses a fully custom inventory class, the panel will simply not show.
• Armor stand items from a mod you do not have installed are skipped in the preview.
• Item tooltips, durability bars, and quality stars are intentionally not rendered — this is a quick-glance preview, not a second inventory window.

Source / issues

If something breaks, open an issue with:

• Your BepInEx/LogOutput.log (or the relevant section)
• The chest type you were hovering
• Whether other mods that touch UI / Hud / Container are installed