Zima's Vanilla+ (Steam Deck Optimized)

STEAM DECK USERS: Refer to the Steam Deck Setup section for setup instructions and performance adjustments.

Zima's Vanilla+ is a compact modpack designed to enhance performance and bring minor QoL improvements to the vanilla Minecraft experience. Unlike other vanilla modpacks, Zima's Vanilla+ uses as few mods as possible to minimize impact on performance.

⚠️ A note about the NeoForge variant

This modpack is now based on Fabulously Optimized, which means the NeoForge variant is no longer being maintained.

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QoL Overview

This modpack introduces a change to tree farming with the FallingTree mod. When players chop down a tree with an axe, the entire trunk will break instantly into logs. The number of logs broken will still affect the axe's durability. If the player's axe breaks while chopping a tree, the entire tree will still fall. FallingTree will not interfere with vanilla servers, and you can leave it enabled when joining them.

Along with FallingTree, this modpack brings additional QoL improvements, including:

• Native controller support, including Steam Deck.
• A minimap and world map.
• Sound mods, including post-processing and UI sounds.
• A better first-person experience.
• Improvements to the inventory UI and UX.

A complete list of mods I have curated for this pack, excluding those already found in Fabulously Optimized:

Mod	Customized options, if any
Controlify	Disabled enhanced Steam Deck driver due to a bug.
Distant Horizons	Configured to use the "Low" preset, and distance is set to 32 chunks.
Dynamic Crosshair
FallingTree
First Person Model
Inventory Profiles Next	No first run notification, continuous crafting is disabled, and some non-enchanted items are allowed to break.
Jade
JourneyMap	Configured to be in the lower-right hand side of the screen, which keeps it out of the way of controller button tooltips.
Presence Footsteps
Shoulder Surfing Reloaded
Simple Voice Chat
Sounds
Sound Physics Remastered

Preconfigured Settings

By default, the game comes with the Super Duper Vanilla shaderpack enabled, and a capped framerate of 30 FPS. This is to prevent overheating on laptop devices or low-end machines. Desktop players may want to adjust their framerate cap on first launch. Players with low-performance machines may want to consider switching to the MakeUp Ultra Fast shaderpack or disabling shaders altogether.

Steam Deck Setup

Unfortunately, there's no way for this modpack to set everything up for you automatically. But you only have to do this once, and it will get you the best experience when playing on your Steam Deck.

First, install Prism Launcher from the Discover app in Desktop Mode. Then, read the sections below to learn how to configure your hardware, download the pack, setup your controller config, and adjust video settings.

DO NOT FORGET TO ADD PRISM LAUNCHER TO YOUR STEAM LIBRARY. This is required for controller support to work.

Configuring the Controller

Before launching Prism, you'll want to configure controller input.

1. In Game Mode, navigate to Prism Launcher. Open the page for it, but don't launch it yet.
2. Find and select the controller icon. This should open the controller configuration page.
3. If the current button layout is not already set to "Gamepad With Joystick Trackpad", change the button layout to this template.
4. Once the template is selected, navigate to Edit Layout -> Trackpads.
5. From here, change the right trackpad's behavior to "As Mouse" and set its click behavior to "Left Mouse Click". Leave the touch behavior unconfigured.
6. If you'd like, you may want to create a virtual menu attached to the left trackpad to bind keyboard buttons, like M for opening Xaero's World Map.

Installing the Modpack

If you're a pro: install the modpack from Modrinth in Prism and skip this section.

If possible, you may want to use a keyboard and mouse through this section. If that is not an option, you can open the keyboard by holding the [STEAM] button and pressing X.

1. Switch to Game Mode and open Prism Launcher.
2. When prompted, select Java version 21 and configure your maximum memory allocation to 8192 MiB. Do not exceed this maximum, especially if your VRAM is set to 4 GiB.
3. The rest of the wizard should be self explanatory.
4. Once you've finished the wizard, you'll want to sign in to your Minecraft account. Click the icon at the top-right corner of the screen, then select Manage Accounts... and sign in to your account.
5. Once you're signed in, return to the main screen. You may have to close the settings window.
6. Click the Add Instance button at the top-left corner of the screen. Then, select "Modrinth" from the list and search for "Zima". The list of modpacks will filter down; select "Zima's Vanilla+" from the list.
7. Before clicking OK, make sure you've selected the version you wish to install. You can choose between the NeoForge and Fabric versions. You may also with to install an older version if you wish. Once you've selected a version, click OK.

Controller Configuration

Start with the template called "Gamepad with Joystick Trackpad" and make the following changes at minimum:

1. Change the right trackpad's behavior to function as a mouse
2. Set the right trackpad's click to perform a mouse left click

Optionally, you can create a virtual menu for the left trackpad. My virtual menu is configured with the following entries:

• Open the map with the M key
• Create a waypoint with the B key
• Reload shaders with the R key (useful for debugging)

In-game Configuration

Once you've configured your controls, launch the game. Controlify will prompt you to download a support library. You absolutely want to do this.

After downloading the library, head over to Options -> Controls -> Controller Settings and select the Settings button for the Steam Deck. From there, go to the Advanced tab and enable "Mixed Input". This will allow you to use the mouse while playing and prevent the Steam Deck's input from being disabled when using the mouse.

Recommended Performance Configurations

Zima's Vanilla+ has a balanced preset configured out of the box, and you do not have to adjust any Steam Deck Performance settings to benefit from them. However, you may find the following changes beneficial depending on how you game:

Setting	Value	Description
Use per-game profile	On	This goes without saying, but you'll want to turn this on as to not change your performance settings globally.
Disable Frame Limit	On	Turn this off to decrease latency, as we're using the game's built-in frame limiter.
Allow Tearing	On	For the same reasons as above.
TDP Limit	8-9 Watts	Not required, but I build and test this pack at 8 watts. Setting this to 8-9 watts will reduce heat and conserve some additional battery power. Highly recommended if you choose to play without a framerate cap + VSync disabled.