[B41] Modded Player Performance Guide (Windows/Steam Deck/Linux)

How to get the maximum amount of FPS possible as a player, and other performance fixes, for both new and old systems when using mods. This should also help a lot with modlists on the Steam deck.

Map Timeout

Zomboid has a clientside limit on how long you can take to download the map files from a server, which is 60 seconds
The server does not care how long you take, it's on your end
This means that you can change it to 99999999999999 seconds

There is a mod that does just this, however you have to manually extract this mod from your workshop folder and put it into your main Zomboid game folder
This will not kick you from servers that have Lua file mismatch kicks enabled, as it changes a Java file rather than a Lua file.

(Windows)
Step 1. Download this mod
Step 2. Go into that mod's folder in your Zomboid's workshop folder, for example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\108600\3017121049\mods\Fix Map Download\
Step 3. Copy the 'zombie' folder when inside here, and paste it in your main Zomboid game folder, for example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid\
Step 4. It will ask to overwrite a file called "WorldStreamer.class", say yes, and then it's done. Restart Zomboid if it's open, and try connecting to the server.

(Linux/Steam Deck)
Step 1. Download this mod
Step 2. Go into that mod's folder in your Zomboid's workshop folder, for example: /home/<your_username_here>/.steam/steam/steamapps/workshop/content/108600/3017121049/mods/Fix Map Download/
Step 3. Copy the 'zombie folder' when inside here, and paste it into your main Zomboid game folder, for example: /home/<your_username_here>/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/ProjectZomboid/projectzomboid/
Step 4. It will ask to overwrite a file called "WorldStreamer.class", say yes, and then it's done. Restart Zomboid if it's open, and try connecting to the server.
Notes: You have to either right click in your home folder in your file browser program and hit "Show hidden files", or manually type in '.steam' in the path to be able to navigate to it, as it's a hidden folder by default. You can also open it by hitting 'browse local files' in the Zomboid game settings in Steam.

Maximum RAM usage limit

Zomboid runs on an engine created when everyone was running Windows XP, and it was probably assumed everyone would forever run Windows XP
This means that the amount of RAM memory Zomboid gets to use is very low by default, which is fine for vanilla but when you add mods you will start to chug as the game cannot ask to use more than 2+3 gigabytes of RAM in total at any time
These steps will help out a lot with your FPS and stability with modlists/servers that use a lot of large textures or meshes, such as Brita's and many car mods, or on the Steam Deck.


Step 1. Go into your Zomboid main game folder (same as in the first section) and find the file called ProjectZomboid64.json
Step 2. Open it in a text editor like notepad or notepad++
Step 3. Find the 27th line that says "-Xmx3072m", by default 2+3GB of RAM
Change it to, for example, "-Xmx8G", for 2+8GB of RAM
Step 4. Save and restart Zomboid if it's running

You of course have to have the gigabyte amount of RAM available that you set, but I personally noticed a big difference with 5+ GB, but it doesn't seem to help at all past 8+ GB.

Ingame settings

Note: This is not entirely accurate, but should be accurate for most of them. Try these in combination with the RAM limit increase, or you may not see large changes.


Window:
Display Mode: Very low impact. Generally use fullscreen if you experience screen tearing, at full settings windowed and borderless are nearly identical. However, "windowed" will resize your game window to the selected pixel resolution, and fullscreen will stretch the selected resolution to fit your entire screen. Fullscreen stretching is generally considered 'unplayable' and 'an eyesore', only do this if you have a super ultra potato PC.

Resolution: Very low to very high impact, depending on your computer display's resolution. (a 1366x768p screen is not going to feel anything, a 1920x1080p one will feel a little, 2560x1440p will feel a lot more, 3840x2160 is a performance nightmare (what's known as 'a 4K resolution). If you are running out of performance options, try windowed mode with a smaller resolution.

Lock Framerate: None. Basically just to avoid screen tearing. Set this to what your display resolution is set to if you want to. Try the closest setting that's below the FPS number you generally get instead of above it. (Ie, use a 120fps lock and not a 160fps lock if you get 130fps)

Vertical Sync: Medium to heavy impact. Used to copy and extend 'fake frames' between real frames when you dip below your set FPS limit, or when you dip below your monitor's own display rate if you've not set an FPS limit . For example, if your Lock Framerate is set to 60 but you dip down to 55, Vsync will create smear frames from the current 55 frames to make it appear like you are getting 60. This is ironically a very heavy operation and will often be a source of strong lag itself. Causes input lag on Steam Deck / Linux with Wayland, do not use here.

Cursor
Lock Cursor to Window: No FPS impact, but keep it disabled. It makes your mouse movements very laggy and delayed.

UI
UI Offscreen Rendering: Low impact, but it can depend. Constantly renders your inventory and its icons in the background so they're always immediately up-to-date when you open it.
UI Rendering FPS:Low impact, but you can set it to 15-20 fps if you have this enabled. You won't notice a difference in practice.

Textures
Texture Compression: High impact over time _when turned off,_ It increases the amount of RAM used by loading 'raw' full-sized .png format textures, which helps cause the kind of lag that arrives "after playing for a while".
Double-sized Textures: Unsure, possibly disable this last if you're desperate.
Maximum Texture Size: Very low to extremely high impact over time, it directly affects how many megabytes of RAM each tiny little item's textures and each random zombie's bikini will occupy. 512x512 textures are generally 512KB of ram each, 1024x1024 is 1MB, 2048x2048 is 2MB. Keep in mind each mesh item has multiple textures attached to it, for example your rifle, its bayonet, and its buttpad addon each have their own texture sets that all independently follow these settings. It can add up fast on 2048x2048 thanks to mods that come included with an absurd amount of HQ textures for each item, such as Brita's Armors and Brita's Weapons.
Maximum Vehicle Texture Size: Very low to a low impact over time. The same logic as the normal Maximum Texture Size applies here, but there are way less vehicles around than other stuff, so you can generally set this way higher if you like collecting shiny cars in your base.
Simple Clothing Textures: Low to a very high impact over time _when turned off._ Set to the 'Zombies' setting if it's on a high zombie population. If you are playing on a server with lots of players in the same areas with modded clothes and weapons, set it to 'Zombie and Players'.
Simple Weapon Textures: High impact. See the "blood decals" setting below for details.

Camera
Zoom Levels: The higher you zoom out, the more has to be rendered, and thusly the more RAM you eat and the less performance you gain. This is mostly player preference, though. Lowering your zoom level (or just zooming all the way in during the trip) also helps stop you from getting your location desynced if you're in the passenger's seat of a car. The 'Enhanced Zoom' mod from Nexus Mods will help a lot with desync if you zoom all the way in, and you'll probably possibly never desync out of the car at all even on 350+ ping.

Rendering and Performance
Wind Sprite Effects: None to a tiny impact, but can cause more screen tearing to occur if you already suffer from it.
Tiered Zombie Updates:Unsure what the impact is, but it's what causes zombies in hordes further away to turn into slideshows.
Blood Decals:*EXTREME* impact. Zomboid's blood rendering is somehow the laggiest thing in the game, and it relates blood on the ground, weapons, clothes, cars. If you have serious FPS issues, I recommend either setting this to 10-20% or disabling it entirely if you can handle playing without bloodstains everywhere during horde clearing.
Corpse Shadows: Medium impact when turned on, or very high if horde clearing.
Lighting Quality: Medium impact on the highest settings, but recommended to be set to high anyways if your game runs decently because it makes the game a lot prettier.
Lighting Updates: Low impact at 15, slightly higher at 60. This just affects how often your character's light cone gets updated, ie the 'removal of darkness' to the sides when you spin in circles.
Dynamic Skybox: Low-medium impact. Same logic as lighting.
Water Quality: Medium impact. Can set this to low if you don't mind water tiles being static/boring.
Dynamic Puddles: Low-high impact depending on Puddles Quality, but only when it's raining or after it. Spawns clientside water puddles in the world and adds 'rain tappering' effects to said puddles.
Puddles Quality: Controls the rendering quality of puddles.
Environment Reflections: Very high impact. Adds specular reflection texture maps to stuff like cars, puddles, etc. Kinda stands out visually, as only a few things in the world support this effect.
Display 3D Items: Low impact, generally recommended to turn on because the 2D items look like butts
Render Rain and Snow: Medium impact, but set it to "Outdoors Only" if you still want to see rain and snow.
Fog Quality: High impact when it's foggy, try the Medium setting first because the Legacy setting also uses a different style of rendering.
Search Mode Overlay Effect: Unsure if blur has an impact. Desaturation has no impact.