ValheimVisuals
Valheim Visuals: a set of graphics settings I like, made into a mod — water tessellation, reflections, normal maps and AO turned up within the game's own declared ranges.ValheimVisuals
A set of graphics settings I like, made into a mod.
Valheim's own shaders support more than the game uses: its water supports tessellation and refraction but is set to 4 of a possible 32 and 0.01, building normal maps are applied at intensity 1.0, and snow and rain are lit as flat sprites. This mod turns those up. It adds no assets and replaces no shaders: every value it changes is one the game's artists exposed, kept within the range they declared.
What it changes
| Vanilla | Default here | |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow distance | 150 m | 300 m |
| Shadow resolution | High | Very High, cascades weighted towards the player |
| Anisotropic filtering | level unset | 16× |
| Ambient occlusion | G-buffer only, 10 samples | Medium with downsampling, from depth so grass and leaves are occluded too; intensity 0.1 |
| Screen space reflections | off | on, High resolution, 128 ray steps, intensity ×2 |
| Depth of field | game's switch only | blur size, focus, aperture and quality controls |
| Reflection probe cubemaps | ~128 px | 512 px |
| Water tessellation | 4 of 32 | 16 |
| Water refraction | 0.01 | 0.05 |
| Water metallic | 0 | 0.8 |
| Water detail distance | 120 m | 400 m |
| Normal map intensity | ×1 | ×1.4 on every material that has one |
| Particle lighting by facing | 0 | 0.5: snow and rain catch firelight |
| Grass radius | 140 m | 200 m |
Colour grading, exposure, fog and draw distance are left as the game ships them, and nothing that affects gameplay is touched (torch shadows, which the stealth system reads, stay as they are).
Requirements and install
- BepInEx for Valheim. Configuration Manager is optional but recommended.
- Install with a mod manager, or put
ValheimVisuals.dllintoBepInEx/plugins. Client-side: the server neither needs nor notices it.
Settings
Every value applies live. The config is grouped by module (Shadows, Surfaces, PostFx, DoF, Vegetation,
Reflections, Materials, Water, Particles), each with an Enabled switch; a switch turned off hands the value
back to the game rather than writing a remembered one. Preset = Off, or the Right Arrow key, restores everything
the mod changed, for a before-and-after comparison.
Performance
The extra effects cost GPU time. On a Ryzen 5 5600X and RTX 4070 SUPER at 2560×1440, screen-space reflections were
the largest cost and ambient occlusion the next; the defaults (128 SSR steps, Medium downsampled AO) are the cheaper
settings measured, and PostFx.ScreenSpaceReflections = false is the first thing to turn off for headroom.
Measured on one machine, so results elsewhere will vary.
Compatibility
Works alongside texture replacement mods (normal-map intensity is re-applied to materials they create later). Do not combine it with a mod that replaces the water shader outright.
More
The FAQ covers what to switch off when something looks wrong, the depth-of-field controls, and texture packs.
Problems and feedback
Write to me on Discord: https://discord.com/users/683075123816824940. Attach BepInEx/LogOutput.log from the game folder, or from the profile folder with a mod manager (r2modman: Settings → Browse profile folder), and say what you did when it happened. A screenshot with the Right Arrow comparison (the game's own values
against the mod's) helps with anything visual.
