Recently started playing Valheim and experienced some issues? Here in this guide we will cover the most common bugs and issues players encounter in Valheim.
TL;DR: The Valheim performance is most likely due to issues with the game, rather than the host. The developers are working on this, but with no ETA when it will be fixed. You could try a few fixes on your own in the meantime if you want. Read more below.
First and foremost, the performance issues can depend on different factors and it can be hard to troubleshoot on where exactly the issue comes from. In this guide we’ll try to cover as many common issues as possible, you can test any of these temporary solutions described below if you want. However, there is no guarantee that the below fixes will work, it may make things worse depending on which ones you apply, so proceed at your own risk. You can always revert from the changes you’ve made, though.
There is a Valheim Public Bug Tracker available here. There you can find and see the most common issues as of now, as well as report your own issues.
Multiplayer Sync Issues
UPDATE 2021-03-23
A new patch was released which addressed this issue and should make the performance better. Therefore our suggested fix is no longer recommended.
Better network bandwidth handling (should work better on low bandwidth connections & also use higher data rate if possible)
Patch notes 0.148.6, 2021-03-23, Valheim. Link here.
One of the biggest issues with Valheim as of now, is that some of the game logic is being handled by the players computers and not on the server itself. Which means that if many players are in the same area and one of them has performance issues, it will affect everyone. Hopefully there will be a patch released related to this issue soon, one of the developers of Valheim is explaining it a bit more in-depth here in a Steam thread.
A common misconception is that the game uses some kind of P2P network. It does not, all data is sent between client <> server and never between clients. However game logic is somewhat distributed and run on the game clients rather then on the server. If player-A is alone in an area all creatures and objects will be controlled by that player and synced to the server. If player-B walks over to player-A, player-A will still control the game logic of most objects in that area. If however player-A leaves the area, player-B will take control of the objects and so on.
This system allows us to do a lot of heavy physics on the client side and without overloading the server and so on. It is however pretty sensitive to one player having a bad connection. If player-A is controlling the monsters in the area has high ping to the server then player-B will also notice this, even though player-B has a perfectly fine connection to the server. I have some ideas of how to improve the system, but its pretty complicated and not something that can be fixed easily.
Richard, Valheim Developer, in a Steam thread comment
There have been several discussions regarding the data rate limit in Valheim, which is set to a default of 60KB/s. You could try to raise this limit server side, which some users found success in improving the multiplayer performance. Our recommendation would be to raise these in smaller steps to see which setting would eventually help the performance of your server. It is also possible to raise this limit client side, but usually it will help starting off by raising it server side to increase the multiplayer performance.
An easy way to increase the data rate limit is by installing the mod Valheim Plus on your server and edit the config accordingly. You could also edit the assembly_valheim.dll file but that is a bit more complicated to do.
If you’re hosting your server at DatHost
Go to Edit → Settings
Tick the box ‘Enable Valheim Plus + BepInEx’
Go to File Manager → /BepInEx/config/valheim_plus.cfg
Search for dataRate (Ctrl+F) and raise the number. It’s recommended to do these in smaller steps and see if it helps, it depends on how many players you’re on the server.
If you’re not hosting your server at DatHost, or doing it locally, you would have to locate these config files in that folder. The steps on how you do it is identical.
If you don’t want to install Valheim Plus on your computer(s)
With Valheim Plus enabled, by default you would have to install this on all computers joining the server. If you only want to use the mod for the potential performance gain, you could edit the config to allow for that. In the same config as mentioned above, you’ll search for enforceMod and change the value from true to false.
The developers are continuously working on solutions to this issue, in the meantime you could try these potential fixes mentioned which could help boost the multiplayer performance.
Low FPS issues
Many users have been complaining about getting low FPS in the game. There are some suggested tips that could potentially increase your FPS that you could try out.
- Go to /steamapps/common/Valheim/Valheim_Data on your computer
- Open the file boot.config
- Add the following two lines at the top:
gfx-enable-gfx-jobs=1
gfx-enable-native-gfx-jobs=1What this does is increasing the CPU and GPU usage of your computer and as a result should increase the FPS.
Another issue for some users is that the game isn’t entering true fullscreen, suggested fix for this is to add the following command to the Steam Launch Parameter (Right click the game in Steam → Properties → Launch options) of the game:
-window-mode exclusive -screen-fullscreenBy enabling this, you ensure that the game will launch in fullscreen mode and not in a windowed mode that can have a negative impact on performance.
FPS Drops when Terraforming the World
There have been several users reporting heavy negative impact on the FPS when terraforming the world in Valheim. Whenever you modify the world in your Valheim server, with tools like the pickaxe or hoe, this will create a new GameObject (similar to a tree or a building). So you can imagine that when you start to modify your world and base a lot, this will add up significantly and therefore negatively impact your performance. Reddit user AlexXander1123 goes in-depth on this issue here, if you want to read more about the issue.
Unfortunately, due to how the game is built, there aren’t any solutions to this issue. Until an update addresses this issue, we would just recommend you to not terraform the world more than absolutely necessary.
UPDATE 2021-04-19
A new patch was released which addressed the performance issues when terraforming the world. This should make the experience better when having modified the terrain a lot in the world. All new terrain modifications will use the new system, however the existing areas will remain on the old system. To convert the old terrain modifications to the new system, type “optterrain” in the console.
This patch has been taking extra long time to develop due to the new terrain-modification system. The new terrain modification system is made to reduce the number of network instances and make loading faster and smoother. Technically it’s a pretty big change but hopefully you should not notice that much of a difference except some minor behaviour changes to the hoe and pickaxe and of course much smoother loading of areas with a lot of terrain modifications.
All terrain modifications after this patch (using the hoe, pickaxe or cultivator) will automatically use the new modification system. For existing areas where heavy terrain modifications have been made before this patch we have added a special console command “optterrain” that basically converts all the old terrain modifications in the nearby area to the new system. To use the “optterrain” console command, you first need to enable the ingame console by adding “-console” as a launch argument for the game.
Patch notes 0.150.3, 2021-04-19, Valheim. Link here.
Random Crashes
Some users experience random game crashes from time to time, which can be devastating and make you lose your progress (and mind). This could vary depending on which hardware you’re using, and it can be due to a number or reasons.
What some users found success in doing is to disable V-sync in the graphic settings as well as run the game in true full screen as mentioned above. Also it could help by increasing the dataRate limit as mentioned, as it is still unclear what exactly causes the crashing and it varies a lot case to case. Also just to generally lower the in-game settings could help.
The developers are continuously working on solutions to this issue, in the meantime you could try these potential fixes mentioned which could help in some cases.
World Save Issues
For some users there are problems with the world and character progress not being saved correctly when leaving the server. Valheim saves the character (and world if you don’t have a dedicated server host) in folders located at C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim. If you were to have any software or anti-virus on your computer interfering with and preventing these files from being created and/or edited, that could cause issues with the progress being saved.
Recommended solution is to always make sure to close the client correctly. That means when you leave the server, to open the menu and log out and then shut down the game. If you’re just unplugging your computer the save might get corrupted.
There are some other minor issues and bugs that affect some users, in this guide we tried to cover the more common ones that many users experience. Hopefully by following some of these solutions you could gain some performance and have a better experience playing Valheim.
Finally one last note is that Valheim is still in Early Access and the developers are continuously working on updates that makes the game run smoother. Bugs and issues like this will probably be common for a while until the game is more optimized.
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