promotional bannermobile promotional banner
premium banner

DynamicRenderDistance

Automatically changes your render distance based on your frame rate (FPS). Fully configurable, client-side only.

Description

JOIN OUR DISCORD

Fully client-side mod that automatically scales your view distance up or down in real-time based on your current frame rate.

It keeps your game running smoothly in heavy areas and lets you see further when performance allows it.

Features

  • 100% Client-Side: Install it only on your client. No server-side installation is required, meaning you can use it on any vanilla or modded server.
  • Smart Scaling: Automatically increases or decreases render distance to stay within your desired FPS range.
  • One-Click Presets: Apply a tuned Quality, Balanced, or Performance profile instantly from the config screen or with /drd preset. Presets only change performance settings and keep your toggles.
  • Optional On-Screen HUD: A compact overlay showing your current render distance and FPS, color-coded by status (grey = off, red = below your min FPS, green = above your max FPS, yellow = in range). Automatically hidden while the F3 debug screen is open.
  • Configurable Limits: You set the minimum and maximum chunks — it will never drop below or rise above the limits you define.
  • Anti-Oscillation Cooldowns: Includes smart cooldown timers so your screen doesn't constantly flicker between distances.
  • Rebindable Keybinds: Open the settings (default F8), toggle the mod on/off, or toggle the HUD — all rebindable in Options → Controls.
  • In-Game UI & Commands: Fully configurable via an in-game settings screen or chat commands.

Please report any bugs, errors, or feature suggestions on Discord: https://discord.gg/4XUPywnEyE

How It Works

The mod samples your current FPS every second and maintains an average window. Based on your Check Interval (default: 5 seconds), it makes a decision:

  1. FPS is too low? If your average FPS drops below your Min FPS threshold, the mod reduces your render distance.
  2. FPS is high? If your average FPS rises above your Max FPS threshold, it increases your render distance.
  3. Cooldown: After any adjustment, a cooldown timer prevents further changes to ensure stability and prevent visual jittering.

By default, the mod decreases render distance faster than it increases it. This prioritizes game stability immediately when you enter a laggy area, and gracefully restores your view distance once performance stabilizes.

Each adjustment is applied in a single step. Minecraft rebuilds chunk rendering whenever the render distance changes, so the mod never changes it gradually — that would only trigger the rebuild (and its brief flicker) several times in a row. One change = one rebuild.

Configuration & Controls

You have complete control over how aggressive or relaxed the mod should be.

Press F8 in-game (rebindable) or use the command /drd open to access the settings menu.

Available Settings

Setting Default Description
Enabled ON Toggle the mod entirely.
Show Messages ON Display a small action bar notification when render distance changes.
Show HUD OFF Show a small top-left overlay with the current render distance and FPS.
Min FPS 45 If average FPS drops below this, reduce render distance.
Max FPS 75 If average FPS rises above this, increase render distance.
Min RD 6 Minimum allowed render distance (in chunks).
Max RD 32 Maximum allowed render distance (in chunks).
Decrease Step 2 How many chunks to remove per lag spike.
Increase Step 1 How many chunks to add when performance is good.
Check Interval 5.0s How often to check the average FPS.
Cooldown 10.0s How long to wait after a change before adjusting again.

The config screen also has Quality / Balanced / Performance preset buttons that fill in all of the above at once.

Keybinds

All keybinds can be changed in Options → Controls (category Dynamic Render Distance):

  • Open config — default F8.
  • Toggle the mod on/off — unbound by default.
  • Toggle the HUD — unbound by default.

Commands

You can tweak settings directly from the chat using /dynamicrenderdistance (or /drd for short). Examples:

  • /drd status (shows current stats)
  • /drd preset performance (apply a preset)
  • /drd minFps 60
  • /drd showHud true
  • /drd cooldown 15

For Modpack Creators

Dynamic Render Distance is highly optimized for inclusion in modpacks.

  • Configuration File: All settings are saved locally to config/dynamicrenderdistance.json. You can easily pre-configure this JSON file and ship it with your modpack to provide players with a standardized "performance mode" out of the box.
  • Localization: The mod ships translated into 10 languages (en_us, ru_ru, es_es, de_de, etc.). You can override any UI string or chat message via a standard resource pack targeting assets/dynamicrenderdistance/lang/.