GapCloser

Fixes and speed-ups for Valheim and the mods I play with: a faster hammer menu and inventory near many chests, occlusion culling and merged buildings for big bases, fast portals, a rock support view for ore deposits, a Wishbone warning before a forge upgrade destroys an item, smoke off for more FPS, other mods' errors guarded.

Fixes for other mods check the code they rely on, not the version number. A new version of the other mod keeps the fix on while that code is unchanged, otherwise the fix stays off and the log names the changed method. Fixes of the game check the game code they rely on the same way (checked on game 1.0.20 and 1.0.21). ForceOnUntestedVersions turns them on anyway. Made for my own modpack, more fixes may come.

Smoke is off by default for more FPS. For the game's smoke, set Smoke = Normal in the 2 - Options section of the config.

All fixes

The game

• Fast portals. A 0.25 s fade, and you arrive as soon as the destination is loaded (the game waits at least 8 s). 0.5 s between trips instead of 2.
• Occlusion culling. Building pieces the walls fully hide are not drawn, their shadows stay. On by default on DirectX 11.
• Hidden lights. Fires, torches and lamps of buildings whose light the walls fully hide go dark until they can be seen.
• Merged distant buildings. Pieces farther than 48 m are drawn as a few merged meshes per area, far fewer draw calls.
• Smoother loading near big bases. Objects near you are made within 4 ms a frame, nearest first, instead of up to 100 in one frame.
• Unchanged chests are not rebuilt when their open flag changes or the ship under them moves.
• Building effects pause off screen. Fires, ovens and portals no camera sees stop simulating and catch up when seen.
• Light flicker pauses for lights whose light reaches nothing in view.
• Rock support view. Each part of a mine rock you look at is tinted by what breaking it does. Blue holds others, green drops, red is held from outside, and yellow is held by other parts. Shift+O toggles the tint, and the tooltip shows your configured key. Range, linger time, and refresh interval are configurable.
• Wishbone forge warning. With the Wishbone equipped, the Forge of Potential warns you when the next attempt on the selected item would destroy it. The Wishbone pings once a second (its own effect, only you see it, sound at 30%), the refine button glows, and hovering it shows the warning. While such an upgrade runs, the bar pulses about three times a second, so you can still cancel. Checking does not use up an attempt, and a missing pulse does not guarantee a safe attempt. WishboneForgeWarning in 2 - Options switches it off.
• Smoke off by default. No smoke from fires, kilns and smelters: much less physics near many fires, and no Smoked debuff. Fires, kilns and smelters work as before. Smoke = Normal brings the game's smoke back.
• Recipe learning check once a frame instead of on every inventory change.
• No warning spam from stakes and other damage areas.
• Sun shadow culling (optional, off by default): pieces hidden from the sun stop casting sun shadows.

Other mods (checked versions named, newer ones keep the fix while the code it relies on is unchanged)

• AzuCraftyBoxes 1.8.19: faster hammer menu near many chests (each material is counted once, not again for every piece), faster inventory and crafting (chest counts kept until a chest changes, chest names kept), the Forge of Potential no longer teaches every recipe, gapcloser_fixrecipes removes the recipes it taught, its fermenter error guarded.
• ValheimPlus 0.10.3.0 and 10.4.0: chest counts for crafting from chests without garbage, its tame hover error guarded (and its breeding error on 0.10.3.0, 10.4.0 fixed it itself), and its spawn protection range also reaches the workbench, forge and artisan table, not only the stonecutter.
• ExtraSlots 1.2.21: slot lookups without garbage, its Bows Before Hoes count skipped while that mod is not installed.
• ValheimCommunityPatch 0.36.1 to 0.40.0: the smoother loading also works inside its spawn queue.

Measured at my castle (about 6,000 pieces)

• All parts together (final test, no diagnostics): looking at the castle from outside 70 to 83 fps (+19 %, 2.3 ms a frame), inside 84 to 87 fps (+3 %, 0.3 ms). Smoke off adds about 5 % (0.7 ms).
• Hammer menu with AzuCraftyBoxes: the slowest frame from 230 to 101 ms, the chest counting in it from 182 to about 5 ms.
• Garbage with the inventory open: from 12.2 to 3.9 MB a second.
• Portals: 0.25 s between floors, 2 to 6 s to bases that were not loaded.
• Rock support: 95 of 95 hits dropped exactly the predicted parts.
• Self-checks against the game and AzuCraftyBoxes found no difference in 580 skipped chest rebuilds and 1,566 hammer checks.

Commands

• gapcloser_fixrecipes lists the recipes a character could not have learned, gapcloser_fixrecipes apply backs up the character and removes them. Runs by itself on entering a world when AzuCraftyBoxes is installed. In chat, type it with a slash.
• gapcloser_rocksupport switches the rock support view.

Config

BepInEx/config/onononoki.GapCloser.cfg. Every fix can be switched off on its own. Sections: 1 - General, 2 - Options (Smoke, Off by default, and WishboneForgeWarning, on by default), 3 - Fixes, 4 - Rock Support (colors, key, range, linger time, refresh interval), 9 - Debug (logs, self-checks, and the benchmark keys: Home switches occlusion culling to compare, Shift+End measures every part and writes BepInEx/GapCloser_benchmarks.txt). Settings from older versions move to the new sections by themselves.

Rock support settings

These settings are in 4 - Rock Support.

Setting	Default	Effect
MaxDistance	25	Maximum distance in meters from your character to the aimed rock surface.
ShowSeconds	5	How long the tint stays after looking away. Set 0 for immediate hiding, or use a longer value such as 10 or 30.
RefreshSeconds	1	Seconds between normal support calculations. Set 0.5 for faster updates.
ToggleKey	O + LeftShift	Shows or hides the tint. The tooltip displays your binding and the current action.

The range still applies while the tint lingers. Targeting reuses the game's hover ray, which reaches 50 meters from the camera. Support colors refresh at the configured interval, and normal support calculations pause while the tint is hidden. The optional hit diagnostics can calculate outside that interval when RockSupportLogChecks is enabled in 9 - Debug.

Compatibility

• Client side. Nothing to install on the server, other players do not need it.
• AzuCraftyBoxes, ValheimPlus, ExtraSlots and ValheimCommunityPatch are optional. Made to run next to ValheimCommunityPatch.
• Occlusion culling, hidden lights and sun shadow culling need DirectX 11 for now.
• Occlusion culling and hidden lights leave out pieces that are not buildings, such as PlantEverything plants, saplings and debris, so they never flicker.
• After a game update a game fix stays on while the game code it relies on is unchanged. A fix whose code changed stays off until a new GapCloser checks it, or until you turn on ForceOnUntestedVersions, and the log names the changed method.
• At the main menu and after spawning, the log names other mods that patch the same methods as GapCloser (ConflictScan lines). These lines only inform, no fix turns off because of them.
• The Wishbone forge warning was checked on game 1.0.21. It stays off when the game's upgrade code differs from the checked code or another mod patches the upgrade roll, and the log says why. ForceOnUntestedVersions does not turn it on.

The following combination was tested in game with GapCloser 1.3.0 on Valheim 1.0.20. These are the tested versions, not a claim about every future release.

Mod	Tested version	How it runs alongside GapCloser
ValheimCommunityPatch	0.37.0	GapCloser's nearby object budget also runs inside its spawn queue.
ValheimOptimized	1.1.1	Works alongside GapCloser. Its own loop handles distant spawning, so GapCloser's distant object budget does not run there. The nearby budget still runs through ValheimCommunityPatch's queue when present.
Balrond Core Optimizer	0.2.5	Works alongside GapCloser with its default Conservative Mode. It covers different parts of the game and delegates overlapping work to ValheimCommunityPatch.

ValheimOptimized and Balrond Core Optimizer are not made obsolete by GapCloser. With ValheimOptimized loaded, ValheimCommunityPatch steps aside for four overlapping fixes, including hotbar keys and terrain work. Its hotbar stand-down warning is expected in that tested combination. The logs showed no exceptions or errors. Compatibility test details.

Read offline on 28 Oct 2026, without an in-game test. Balrond Core Optimizer 0.2.7 adds no new overlap, and ValheimCommunityPatch 0.39.0 changes only a log line in the code it shares with GapCloser.

Dedicated teleport timing mods

GapCloser automatically skips only its FastTeleport patches when OdinPlus QuickTeleport or Muindor QuickTeleport is loaded. The other mod takes priority for teleport timing. Other GapCloser features remain active, and ValheimCommunityPatch alone does not disable FastTeleport.

Detection runs once after plugin creation and matches plugin IDs, not every mod that touches a teleport method. The FastTeleportOtherModIDs setting in 3 - Fixes defaults to elg.QuickTeleport,muindor.QuickTeleport. Add a comma-separated plugin ID for another dedicated teleport timing mod. Clear the list to disable automatic detection, or set FastTeleport = false to disable GapCloser's teleport changes manually. Restart after changing the list or installed mods.

The saved FastTeleport value is left unchanged. Removing the other timing mod lets GapCloser's version run again on the next start if that setting is true. QuickTeleport detection was checked offline, and QuickTeleport 2.0.7's code was read on 28 Oct 2026. It changes the same teleport steps, so the step-aside is needed. Teleporting with QuickTeleport installed has not been tested in game.

Credits

• The rock support view's idea is from Ore Support by JereKuusela. The code follows the game's own support rule.
• Hidden lights and building merging were inspired by ValheimBuildOptimization by RockBreaker (Dracoalias). No code was copied.

Feedback

Found a bug, or a gap in another mod that GapCloser could close? Open an issue on GitHub.