IdleBeasts

A base full of tame animals costs the game less: animals with nothing to do rest instead of wandering, and tame animals far from every player get fewer updates.

Every loaded animal normally thinks and moves 20 to 50 times a second, even when it's just standing in a pen. With dozens of animals that adds up and lowers your frame rate. IdleBeasts lets them rest while nobody is near and wakes them the moment anything happens.

What it does

• Resting animals: a tame animal that has had nothing to do for 5 seconds, with every player more than 20 m away and no enemy within 30 m, stops wandering and rests. It stands still, and its thinking and body update about once a second instead of 20 to 50 times.
• They wake at once when a player comes within 20 m, an enemy shows up, they're hurt, ridden or told to follow, or they go for food. Eating and breeding work as usual.
• Far creatures: tame creatures more than 50 m from every player, and not fighting, hunting or following anyone, think and move with fewer updates. Nobody is close enough to see the difference.
• Wild creatures are left alone by default. Turn off Tamed only to slow far wild creatures too.
• Bosses are never touched, and every creature has its own setting (Default, Never, RestOnly or FarOnly).

Check that it works

Press F5 for the console and type idlebeasts test near your animals. It runs 13 seconds with the mod off and 25 seconds with it on, then prints the time the game spent on creature updates and your frame rate for both. The result also goes into BepInEx/LogOutput.log and a report file.

Turn on Show stats to see the numbers live in the bottom right corner: how many creatures rest or are slowed, and the time spent on creature updates per frame.

Console	What it does
idlebeasts	The current numbers and the last test
idlebeasts test	Measures with the mod off and on
idlebeasts report	Writes BepInEx/config/anwo.IdleBeasts.report.txt with every loaded creature
idlebeasts on / off	Turns the mod on or off while you play
idlebeasts wake	Wakes every resting animal

Settings (anwo.IdleBeasts.cfg)

Setting	Default	What it does
1 - General
Enabled	true	Turns the mod on or off (idlebeasts on/off does it while you play)
Tamed only	true	Only tame animals are touched; off also slows far wild creatures
2 - Resting animals
Rest when idle	true	Idle tame animals rest
Wake distance	20	Animals rest only while every player is further away than this (m); coming this close wakes them
Enemy distance	30	An enemy this close (m) wakes resting animals
Idle seconds	5	How long an animal must have nothing to do before it settles
Only in pens	false	Only animals inside a PenPosts pen rest
Resting turn every	1	Seconds between a resting animal's checks for food and danger
3 - Far creatures
Slow far creatures	true	Creatures far from every player get fewer updates
Far distance	50	Metres from the nearest player
Far AI every	0.25	Seconds between a far creature's thinking (normal: 0.05)
Far physics every Nth step	2	A far creature's body moves on every Nth physics step
Far details every Nth frame	2	Footsteps, feet, tails and smoothing of far creatures every Nth frame
4 - Look (each player)
Resting animation	Frozen	Frozen (cheapest), Slow (a few updates a second) or Normal
Slow animation rate	5	Animation updates a second when Resting animation is Slow
5 - Creatures	Default	One setting for every creature in the game: Default, Never, RestOnly or FarOnly. Bosses are Never
6 - Diagnostics (each player)
Show stats	false	The live numbers in the bottom right corner

Multiplayer

The settings (except the look and stats) are set by the server admin and synced to everyone. Each player's game only slows the animals it runs itself. A player without the mod can still join; players with it need the same version.

Compatibility

Works with LetMeTameYou, PenPosts (Only in pens) and PackBeasts. Don't use it together with Valheim Performance Overhaul, which changes the same creature updates; IdleBeasts warns in the log if both are installed.

About this mod

Written with Claude (Anthropic's AI model) for a two-player server, and tagged AI Generated on Thunderstore. Built for Valheim 1.0.17 (Deep North), BepInEx 5.4.2351 and Jotunn.

Found a bug or a clash with another mod? Report it on the mod's Thunderstore page and include your BepInEx/LogOutput.log.