Sodium in FTB Skies 2: Aero

Sodium is a rendering engine replacement for Minecraft. It greatly improves your frame rate, reduces micro-stutter and fixes a number of graphical issues, all without changing how the game looks. It's a client-side optimization mod, so it only touches how the game is drawn, not how the world or the other mods behave.^[1]

This pack ships Sodium 0.8.13 for Minecraft 1.21.1 (the NeoForge build), and it has been in the pack since version 1.0.3 or earlier. The June 2026 news on the mod's page about Sodium 0.9.x and early Vulkan support is about a newer release for a different Minecraft version, so it doesn't describe what you're running here.^[1][2]

Using it

You don't need to set anything up. By default Sodium enables every optimization your system supports, and the mod's authors say you should only touch the performance and advanced video settings if you run into problems. To check it's working, open the Video Settings screen. It should show Sodium's own settings interface.^[1]

The official hardware target is a desktop graphics card with up-to-date drivers that support OpenGL 4.5 or newer. Most cards from the past 12 years qualify. Nearly any card that runs Minecraft (OpenGL 3.3) should also work, but that isn't officially supported. If you hit crashes or rendering bugs, update your graphics drivers first, since outdated drivers cause most of them.^[1]

In the quest book

The quest text available for this section doesn't include any quest for the Sodium mod itself, so I can't point you to a chapter for it. If you see "Sodium" in the Mekanism chapter, that's the chemical: the Chemical Infuser quest uses an Electrolytic Separator to split Brine into Sodium and Chlorine. It has nothing to do with this mod.^[3]

Same as in the FTB StoneBlock 4 1.21.0 guide

Sodium is a bit different from the other mods in this guide. It adds no machines, items or crafting steps. It is a rendering engine replacement for Minecraft that improves your frame rate and reduces micro-stutter. So there is nothing to craft and no quest to finish here. Your first steps are about making sure it is working for you.^[1]

Step by step

1. Open the Video Settings screen in Minecraft. If Sodium is running, you will see its new user interface for changing settings there.^[1]
2. Leave the settings alone to begin with. By default, Sodium enables every optimization your system supports, which gives you the best experience it can.^[1]
3. Only change the performance and advanced video settings if you run into problems.^[1]

Check your hardware

Sodium officially supports desktop graphics cards with up-to-date drivers that support OpenGL 4.5 or newer. Most cards released in the past 12 years qualify. The mod's page gives these examples: Intel HD Graphics 500 Series (Skylake) or newer, NVIDIA GeForce 400 Series (Fermi) or newer, and AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series (GCN 1) or newer.^[1]

Older cards that already run Minecraft (which needs OpenGL 3.3) should also work with Sodium. The team says it cannot ensure compatibility or give support for them, and they may stop working with future versions.^[1]

Same as in the All the Mods 10 8.1 guide

Sodium doesn't have machines, multiblocks, power, fluids or item automation. It's a rendering engine replacement for the Minecraft client. It's there to raise your frame rate and cut micro-stutter, and it also fixes many graphical issues in the base game.^[1]

What Sodium actually changes

By design, Sodium only optimizes Minecraft's rendering code. Other parts of the game, like world logic, aren't touched by this mod. Its developers point to their separate mods for that, such as Lithium.^[1]

It's built to stay compatible with the wider modding ecosystem without changing how the game looks, so you keep the normal block game feel.^[1]

Settings and defaults

By default, Sodium enables all optimizations your system supports, so you usually don't need to configure anything. The project page suggests changing performance-related or advanced video settings only if you run into problems.^[1]

To check that it's working, open the Video Settings screen in Minecraft. With Sodium installed, it shows Sodium's own redesigned interface for changing settings.^[1]

Hardware requirements

Sodium's official support covers desktop graphics cards with up-to-date drivers that support OpenGL 4.5 or newer. Nearly all desktop cards that already run Minecraft (which needs OpenGL 3.3) should also work, but the team doesn't guarantee support for older cards and they may stop working in future versions.^[1]

Unverified The project page's news item describes Sodium 0.9.x for a newer Minecraft version, including early Vulkan support. Which Sodium build this pack uses, and whether Vulkan applies here, can't be confirmed from the available sources.

Unverified There is no confirmed progression path or tier breakdown for Sodium in this pack. The material available for this section has no tiers, upgrade steps or recipes for the mod's items, so nothing is listed here.

One thing that can trip you up when searching the quest book: the Mekanism chapter does mention "Sodium", but that is a chemical, not the rendering mod. In that chapter, the Electrolytic Separator breaks the Brine from your Thermal Evaporation Tower into Sodium and Chlorine, and the Chlorine is then combined with Hydrogen in a Chemical Infuser to make Hydrogen Chloride for better ore processing.^[3]

Good news and bad news: Sodium is a client-side performance mod, and the quest data I have for this pack doesn't include any quest for it. The only chapter I could check is the Mekanism chapter (group Tech Mods, chapter 27 of 31 in the book, 50 quests). None of its tasks ask for an item from the sodium namespace.^[3]

The word Sodium does show up in that chapter, but it's the chemical, not the mod. In "The Chemical Infuser" quest, you split Brine in an Electrolytic Separator into Sodium and Chlorine, then combine the Chlorine with Hydrogen in a Chemical Infuser to make Hydrogen Chloride. That has nothing to do with the rendering mod, so don't go hunting for it in your quest book.^[3]

FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.10.0 ships Sodium 0.8.13 for Minecraft 1.21.1, using the file sodium-neoforge-0.8.13+mc1.21.1.jar. Sodium has been in the pack since 1.0.3 or earlier.^[2]

0.8.12: the backport

Sodium 0.8.12 is a backport of modern Sodium 0.8 to Minecraft 1.21.1. This is the big one, and the changelog highlights these changes:^[4]

• World rendering performance is significantly improved, by up to +115% on some computers.^[4]
• Transparent objects with complex models render much better, especially when submerged in water.^[4]
• The Video Settings menu got lots of user experience improvements.^[4]
• There is less latency and micro-stutter when chunks update in the world.^[4]
• Entity rendering is slightly faster, especially for transparent mobs and particles.^[4]
• It includes the backport of Sodium's Config API, which is meant to make it easier for mods to interact with Sodium across multiple versions.^[4]

The 0.8.12 changelog also lists mods that work with it: Create Aeronautics as of 1.3.0, Sable as of 2.0.0, Veil as of 4.1.2 and Iris as of 1.8.13. It is not compatible with any version of "Sodium Options API", or mods that depend on it. That is the Sodium team's own compatibility list, not a statement about what this pack contains.^[4]

0.8.13: the version in this pack

Sodium 0.8.13 fixes potential minor bugs and improves the crash log message, so unrelated errors are less likely to be blamed on Sodium when NeoForge keeps loading despite severe errors. It went through two betas first: the first beta had the fixes below, and the second added the Config API change.^[5][6][7]

• The crash log message is clearer when the game crashes because of a missing mod config. The changelog says this basically only happens when NeoForge loads the game despite having hit a severe error.^[5]
• Fixed a buffer overflow in Kernel32.getModuleFileName.^[5]
• NativeBuffer.ALLOCATED now uses the correct atomic operations.^[5]
• clearenv() is now used to delete an environment variable.^[5]
• Override/overlay priority is now implemented in the graphics options Config API.^[5][6]

Unverified No pack changelog entries about Sodium were available, so which pack releases changed Sodium's version between 1.0.3 and 1.10.0 is unverified.