A client-side performance mod by tr7zw that skips drawing mobs and block entities such as chests and signs when a wall or floor hides them, using visibility tests on a separate thread. It changes only what your own game draws, not how entities behave on the server.
Entity Culling is a client-side performance mod by tr7zw that stops Minecraft drawing mobs, chests, signs and other entities you cannot see because something solid is in the way. Vanilla already skips what is behind you. It does not skip the zombie on the far side of a wall, or the forty chests in the storage room under your feet, and that is the gap this mod fills. It helps most in bases, villages and crowded servers, and has little to do where nothing is hidden.
Games cull in two ways. Frustum culling skips whatever lies outside the camera's field of view, and Minecraft does this. Occlusion culling skips things inside the field of view that are blocked by something solid, and for entities vanilla Minecraft does not do it at all.
Sodium narrows the gap with its own "Use Entity Culling" option, but that works at the level of chunk sections: an entity inside a section Sodium already treats as hidden is skipped. Entity Culling tests visibility to the entity itself, so it also catches the mob standing in a visible chunk behind a single wall. The two run side by side, and the project's FAQ is explicit that Entity Culling still helps with Sodium's option switched on.
Block entities get the same treatment. Chests, signs, banners, beds, shulker boxes and other blocks with their own renderers are entities in all but name, and in a storage build they outnumber mobs by a wide margin.
A separate thread tests whether any line of sight from your camera reaches an entity's bounding box through the blocks around it. If none does, the entity is marked hidden and skipped when the frame is drawn. The test reruns every game tick, and in between whenever the camera moves, which keeps pop-in to a minimum as you walk around a corner.
Leaves count as see-through by default. A Solid leaves option treats them as opaque, which culls more in forests (particularly with fast leaves or a bushy leaves pack such as Better Leaves) at the risk of hiding something you could have spotted through the gaps.
Because the tests run on another core, the mod needs spare CPU capacity. The project warns that on an old machine whose processor is already maxed out, there may be no time left for them. Recent versions also gather the entity data those tests need on the main game thread, every few ticks, a change made after other mods crashed when that data was read from the background. That behaviour is the safeMode flag in config/entityculling.json, and it is on by default. The developer expects the added cost to be small and asked for reports. Setting safeMode to false moves the gathering back to the background thread, which the developer offers only for setups that do not run into those crashes.
A mistake in one direction costs frames; a mistake in the other makes a creeper invisible. The mod is built to err on the first side, and its source shows several fixed rules:
Entities pressed against a wall or ceiling may also keep rendering through it, because the mod allows for possible clipping. That is the cautious direction working as intended, not a bug.
A second feature stops hidden entities from running their client-side tick, the per-tick update your own game performs for animation and visual effects. It is on by default and has no effect on the server, where mobs keep moving, spawning and dropping items exactly as before. Farms behave the same with or without the mod.
It does matter for entities that need that client tick to look right, which is why boats, rafts, display entities, fireworks and moving Create contraptions ship on a separate tick-culling skip list. If something jumps or stutters as it comes back into view, that list is where to add it.
Magic and effect mods are the usual source of trouble, because many spawn client-side entities for their visuals, and the project's known-issues list names exactly that case. Two keybinds, both unbound by default, prove whether the mod is responsible: Debug toggle culling turns culling off and on without a restart, and Show culling boxes shows what is being tested. If the problem disappears with culling off, add the ID to Skip Entities (or Skip Blockent. for block entities) in the settings, and consider reporting it on GitHub so it can join the default list.
Keep the mod updated as well. Hotfixes tend to follow a new Minecraft version closely: the first builds for one recent release left some tick-culled entities invisible, and a fix arrived within days. Update before assuming a conflict.
The gain depends on how many entities and block entities are near you and hidden from you. A sealed storage room, a village seen from inside a house, a mob farm behind walls or a busy server spawn are good cases. An open field with a few cows is not, and the mod then simply has nothing to skip. The project says it should never make performance worse outside the maxed-out CPU case, and suggests binding the debug toggle to compare for yourself on your own worlds.
The F3 lines it adds are hidden by default in newer versions and are approximate. Shaders raise the counts, because their shadow pass renders entities a second time.
Entity Culling handles one half of the entity cost. ImmediatelyFast works on the other, making the entities you can see cheaper to draw, and More Culling applies occlusion to block faces rather than entities. Each removes work the other two leave in place, so running all three is normal.
Each loader and Minecraft version has its own Entity Culling file, and the file name tells you which is which.
Open the Entity Culling Downloads section on this page and filter it by your Minecraft version and loader. Click Download on the row that matches and you continue to that exact file on Modrinth. Current files are named like entityculling-fabric-1.11.2-mc26.3.jar: loader, mod version, then Minecraft version. One mod version is released for many game versions at once, so the part after mc is the one to check.
On Fabric you also need Fabric API for the same Minecraft version. The NeoForge and Forge files declare no dependencies. Forge support stops at an older Minecraft release than the other two, so on the newest versions the choice is Fabric or NeoForge.
mods folder.Entity Culling is marked client-required and server-unsupported. Install it in your own game. The server you join needs nothing, and nothing the server simulates changes.
Find Entity Culling in the mod list, where its config button opens the settings (on Fabric, Mod Menu provides that list). The more telling test is the debug key. Bind Debug toggle culling under Controls, stand in a room with mobs or chests on the other side of a wall, and toggle it while watching your frame rate. Show culling boxes draws what the mod is testing.
logs/latest.log names it.The licence allows modpacks on Modrinth and CurseForge to include the mod but forbids rehosting the JAR anywhere else, so take it from the official pages the table links to. If the loader itself is new to you, the mod installation guide starts there. For a crash these three do not explain, see mods that are not working.
No builds match these filters.
No. It decides what your own screen draws, so the server has nothing to do with it and Modrinth lists it as unsupported there. Each player who wants the benefit installs it in their own game.
No. It only changes what your client draws and, through tick culling, your client's own updates for hidden entities. The server keeps simulating everything, so mobs spawn, move and drop items exactly as they would without it.
It does less. Sodium skips entities in chunk sections it already considers hidden, while Entity Culling tests visibility to each entity, which also catches mobs in visible chunks that are behind a wall. The two work together, and the project says Entity Culling still helps with Sodium's option enabled.
Usually a client-side entity from another mod, or an object that renders outside its own bounding box. Bind the Debug toggle culling key to confirm the cause, then add the entity or block entity ID to the matching skip list in the settings. Also update the mod: early builds for a new Minecraft version have had invisibility bugs that hotfixes resolved.
The mod errs on the side of drawing. Glowing entities, anything beyond 128 blocks, anything with a very large hitbox and entities pressed against a wall stay visible, and nametags show through walls by default, as in vanilla.
It can when many entities or block entities near you are out of sight. With nothing hidden, it has nothing to skip. There is no fair single figure. It relies on spare CPU capacity, so a processor already at full load may see no benefit.
It stops hidden entities from running their client-side tick, saving work on your machine with no effect on the server. Entities that need that tick to look right, such as boats and Create contraptions, are on a skip list you can extend, and the feature can be switched off in the settings.
Yes, with a separate file for each. Fabric also needs Fabric API. Forge files stop at an older Minecraft release than the Fabric and NeoForge ones, and very old versions such as 1.12.2 and 1.8.9 have legacy Forge builds that are no longer updated.
It makes the mod treat leaves as opaque when testing visibility, so entities behind thick foliage are culled. That helps in forests, especially with fast leaves or a bushy leaves pack, but can hide something you would otherwise see through the gaps. It is off by default.
Sodium is a client-side optimization mod for Minecraft that replaces the game's rendering engine with a faster, modern one. It significantly improves frame rates and reduces micro-stutter without changing how the game looks or plays, and it stays compatible with a wide range of other mods.
A client-side mod by RaphiMC for the rendering work Sodium leaves alone: entities, block entities, particles, text, maps and the HUD, which Minecraft rebuilds every frame. It batches that drawing into fewer GPU calls, adds targeted fixes, and needs no other mods.
More Culling is a client-side rendering mod for Minecraft: Java Edition that changes how the game decides which block faces, leaves, framed items and paintings are worth drawing. The build you need depends on the exact Minecraft release you play rather than on one universal latest version.