4. Per-Mob Path Cache
When a mob completes a path to a target, that path is cached. If the same mob pathfinds to the same target again within 30 seconds, the cached path is returned instantly. The cache key is (dimension, mobId, target). Villagers re-pathfind to their workstation or bed all the time, same source, same destination. On a cache hit, createPath returns early without running A*. This saves 1–5ms per repeated pathfind, which is common in villages where villagers follow daily routines.
5. Search Depth Limiter
Caps the maximum nodes A* can visit per pathfind (default 400). Vanilla computes node budget as followRange × 16 × maxVisitedNodesMultiplier. If that exceeds the configured cap, Pathfinder clamps maxVisitedNodesMultiplier so the effective budget equals the cap. This happens in createPath HEAD before A* starts, most successful villager paths complete in 200–300 nodes. Failed paths can visit 800+. Capping at 400 makes failures fail about 2x faster with minimal impact on success rate.
6. Recomputation Cooldown
After a failed pathfind, wait longer before retrying. Default 60 ticks, vanilla is 20. In recomputePath HEAD, if this.path is null (previous path failed) and gameTime - timeLastRecompute < cooldownTicks, the recompute is cancelled. Vanilla retries failed pathfinds every second. If a villager can’t reach a bed because a door is closed, retrying every second is wasted CPU.
7. Pathfinding Throttle
Limits how many path computations can run per server tick. Default 4. A static counter (PathThrottle.pathfindsThisTick) increments on each pathfind attempt. If it exceeds the limit, createPath returns null and the pathfind is deferred to the next tick. The counter resets every server tick via ServerTickEvent.Post. At dawn, when 20 villagers all pathfind to their workstations at once, the server thread can stall for many milliseconds. The throttle spreads this across 5 ticks and keeps TPS stable.
8. Brain Tick Reduction
Skips Brain.tick for idle mobs every 4th tick. That’s a 75% reduction. Navigation is unaffected, mobs still move. A mixin injects at Brain.tick HEAD. SimpleTickReducer.shouldSkipTick checks: is the feature enabled? Is the mob urgent? Is mob.tickCount % 4 != 0? Is the activity IDLE or REST? If all pass, the brain tick is cancelled. Brain.tick runs memory expiry, sensor updates, and behavior scheduling. For idle villagers, most of this produces no visible change. Skipping 3 of every 4 ticks saves real CPU.
9. Urgency Bypass
Mobs in combat (have a target, or were recently hurt) skip every other optimization. Full-rate pathfinding, full-rate brain ticks, no throttle, no depth cap. LODManager.isUrgent checks two fields: mob.getTarget() and mob.getLastHurtByMob(). That’s cheaper than checking Activity (which needs a brain lookup), and more correct. A WORK-activity mob that just got attacked should still pathfind at full rate.
What does this all mean?: well vanilla pathfinding cores are preserved meaning this mod should not break vanilla and other modded entities, and as for the optimization part these changes tackles mostly the "worse" ticks pathfinding can create, in terms of fps for example this means overall fps might not see a huge gain, most cases just 2-4 fps increase, but in the lowest percentile of the lowest drops the 99% percentile there is a big difference in real scenarios like a modded village with bad terrain generation and lots of villagers and guard villagers compared to vanilla the 99% fps can get a difference of +10-15fps so instead of huge raw fps and TPS increase there is a smoother more stable experience with better MSPT and less villager ticking overall.
Credits
Three main features of this mod took heavy inspiration from Pathwright, a recent pathfinding optimization for Minecraft 26.1.2 mod, specifically the Path Result Caching, Urgency Bypass and Pathfinding LOD which are also implemented here.
