Entity Culling in FTB StoneBlock 4

Entity Culling is a performance mod that helps your frame rate. Minecraft already skips rendering things behind you, but it still draws entities and block entities hidden behind walls or ceilings. This mod uses asynchronous path-tracing on spare CPU threads to work out what you can actually see, then skips the draw calls and processing for everything hidden.^[1]

The pack ships Entity Culling 1.10.5, the NeoForge build for Minecraft 1.21.1.^[2]

Who it's for

It's for anyone who wants more frames, and you'll notice it most where lots of entities and block entities are around. The gain depends on how many there are and where you are in the world. It goes further than the entity culling option in Sodium, because it checks real line-of-sight instead of only which chunks are loaded.^[1]

If your computer is already struggling and the CPU is maxed out, there's no spare CPU time for the visibility calculations. Otherwise the mod shouldn't hurt performance, and at worst it does nothing when there's nothing to cull.^[1]

Safe for your farms

This is a fully client-side mod, so it doesn't need to be installed on the server. It only skips rendering, so mobs still spawn, move and drop items, and your farms keep working. Its tick culling is limited to the client-side world and doesn't touch server-side simulation.^[1]

Good to know

• You can bind a debug key in the controls menu to toggle the mod on and off on the fly. That's handy for comparing performance, or for checking whether a visibility problem comes from this mod or another one.^[1]
• Entities and block entities can be whitelisted in the config screen so they are never culled or tick-culled. Block entities that render well beyond their normal bounds need this, for example the vanilla beacon, Create pulleys and certain Botania blocks.^[1]
• Client-side entities that magic mods use for animations may not behave as expected, and whitelisting them is the fix.^[1]
• The F3 render counts are collected internally and may not match what is really drawn. The mod also errs on the side of caution, so entities very close to walls or ceilings may still render through them.^[1]

Unverified Whether the pack changes any Entity Culling config defaults, and where the mod fits in the pack's progression, could not be confirmed from the available material. The mod does not appear on the ATM Star path, and no quests involve it.

Good news: there's nothing to craft to get started with Entity Culling. It's a performance mod that works in the background. It uses spare CPU threads to work out what you can actually see, then skips rendering block entities and entities hidden behind walls or ceilings.^[1]

Unverified No in-pack recipes, quests or items for this mod could be confirmed, so there is no crafting order to follow and no recipe to show here.

What to know first

• It's fully client-side. It doesn't need to be installed on the server, so you only get its benefit on your own machine.^[1]
• It won't change gameplay. It only skips rendering, so mobs still spawn, move and drop items, and your farms keep working. Tick culling is limited to the client-side world and doesn't touch the server-side simulation.^[1]
• It works alongside Sodium's own entity culling option. Entity Culling goes further by checking actual line of sight, so it can skip entities in visible chunks that you can't really see.^[1]

Your first stop: the config screen

Every feature of the mod can be toggled on or off in its config screen. This is the only place you'll need to visit, and only if something looks wrong.^[1]

If you play with fast graphics or custom leaves, there's an option to treat leaves as solid blocks for culling purposes. That can help performance in forested areas.^[1]

If something disappears or looks odd

Client-side entities, which magic mods often use for animations, may not behave as expected. Add the relevant entities to the whitelist for entity culling and/or tick culling in the config screen.^[1]

Block entities that render well beyond their normal bounds also need whitelisting. The mod's own examples are the vanilla beacon, pulleys from Create, and certain Botania blocks.^[1]

Here's the thing you should know up front: Entity Culling has no machines, multiblocks, power, fluids or item handling. It's a purely client-side rendering optimization, so there's nothing to build or automate. What follows is how it actually works and how this pack configures it.^[1]

What it does

Vanilla Minecraft skips rendering things behind you, but it still draws things in front of you that are hidden by walls or ceilings. Entity Culling uses asynchronous path-tracing to work out what you can actually see, and skips drawing hidden entities and block entities.^[1]

• It uses spare CPU threads to calculate line-of-sight visibility, running alongside the main game thread without blocking it. Every few ticks, the data it needs is collected on the main thread.^[1]
• Visibility data updates in real time, which keeps pop-ins to a minimum.^[1]
• It runs on the CPU rather than the GPU, to reduce GPU load and avoid extra data transfers between the GPU and CPU.^[1]

Client-side only: farms and mobs are safe

The mod doesn't need to be installed on the server. It only skips rendering, so mobs keep spawning, moving and dropping items, and your farms and other gameplay mechanics are unaffected. The tick culling feature is limited to the client-side world and doesn't touch server-side simulation.^[1]

Entity tick culling

Besides skipping rendering, the mod can reduce the client-side impact of entities that aren't visible. This pack has tickCulling set to true, so that feature is on.^[1][3]

How this pack sets it up

The pack keeps the main culling features active: skipEntityCulling and skipBlockEntityCulling are both false, and blockEntityFrustumCulling is true. solidLeaves is false, so leaves are not treated as solid blocks. The mod page says that option can boost performance in forested areas when you play with fast graphics or custom leaves.^[1][3]

renderNametagsThroughWalls is true. forceDisplayCulling, debugMode and disableF3 are all false.^[3]

The pack also sets tracingDistance to 128, captureRate to 5, sleepDelay to 10 and hitboxLimit to 50.^[3]

Whitelists

Client-side entities, often used by magic mods for animations, may not behave as expected under culling. Block entities that render well beyond their normal bounds can also break. The fix is to whitelist them, so they aren't culled or tick-culled. The mod page names the vanilla beacon, Create's pulleys and certain Botania blocks as examples.^[1]

• blockEntityWhitelist in this pack includes computercraft:monitor_normal and computercraft:monitor_advanced, create:rope_pulley and create:hose_pulley, minecraft:beacon, botania:flame_ring, botania:magic_missile, botania:falling_star and betterend:eternal_pedestal.^[3]
• entityWhitelist in this pack lists botania:mana_burst, drg_flares:drg_flares and quark:soul_bead.^[3]
• tickCullingWhitelist in this pack is a much longer list. It covers vanilla boats, chest boats and rafts, the vanilla block, text and item display entities, the vanilla firework rocket, and Create contraption entities such as create:contraption, create:gantry_contraption, create:stationary_contraption and create:carriage_contraption. It also covers createbigcannons:cannon_carriage and createbigcannons:pitch_contraption, several cinematiccataclysm cutscene entities, and a few other modded entities.^[3]

Checking whether it's the cause

In the controls menu you can bind a debug key that toggles the mod on and off on the fly. Use it to compare performance, or to check whether a visibility problem comes from this mod or another one.^[1]

Some caveats: the F3 render counts are collected internally and may not match the real render counts, and active shaders push them higher because of shadow rendering. The mod also errs on the side of caution, so entities very close to walls or ceilings may still render through them in case of clipping.^[1]

On a really old computer where the CPU is already maxed out, there's no spare CPU time for the visibility calculations. Otherwise, the mod page says it should never hurt performance and at worst has no effect when there's nothing to cull.^[1]

Entity Culling hides entities and block entities you can't actually see, using path-tracing on spare CPU threads. Everything is controlled from configVersion's file, config/entityculling.json, and this pack ships it with the values below. The config version in this pack is 8.^[1][3]

Core culling settings

• tracingDistance is 128 in this pack.^[3]
• skipEntityCulling and skipBlockEntityCulling are both false, so both entities and block entities are culled. blockEntityFrustumCulling is true.^[3]
• tickCulling is true. This is the mod's entity tick optimization, which reduces client impact from entities you can't see. It has no impact on server-side simulation, farms or mob behavior.^[1][3]
• solidLeaves is false. Turning it on makes the mod treat leaves as solid blocks, which can help performance in forested areas if you use fast graphics or custom leaves.^[1][3]
• renderNametagsThroughWalls is true in this pack.^[3]
• captureRate is 5, sleepDelay is 10 and hitboxLimit is 50.^[3]
• debugMode, disableF3 and forceDisplayCulling are all false.^[3]

Whitelists

The pack uses all three whitelists to stop culling things that tend to look broken when hidden. The mod itself supports whitelisting entities and block entities from culling and from tick-culling.^[1][3]

• blockEntityWhitelist includes the ComputerCraft normal and advanced monitors, the Create rope pulley and hose pulley, the vanilla beacon, the Better End eternal pedestal, and the Botania flame ring, magic missile and falling star.^[3]
• entityWhitelist contains botania:mana_burst, drg_flares:drg_flares and quark:soul_bead.^[3]
• tickCullingWhitelist is the longest list. It covers vanilla boats and rafts (including chest versions), display entities, firework rockets, Create contraptions, the Create Big Cannons carriage and pitch contraption, Cinematic Cataclysm boss cutscene entities, Alex's Caves gum worms, and a few others such as voidscape:corrupted_pawn.^[3]

Unverified The sources don't list the mod's default values or explain what captureRate, sleepDelay and hitboxLimit do. I can't say which of the values above the pack changed from the mod default.