Reducing Lag with Polytone's Particle Rate Limits and Async Ticking

guide

Polytone gives pack authors and players several switches for cutting the cost of custom particle effects, from per-emitter rate caps to moving particle logic off the main thread. All of these live in the Polytone Packs Configs screen.

Finding the Config Screen

The Polytone Packs Configs screen is where every setting below lives. If you would rather reach it straight from the resource pack list, turn on Show Config Button, which adds a Polytone config button to the resource pack selection screen.

Capping Particle Output

Auto Particle Rate Limit puts a ceiling on how much any single emitter defined by a Polytone pack is allowed to produce. Once an emitter hits that ceiling, its output is restricted: it settles into a steady trickle of two particles per tick, or, if it fires in a burst, a maximum of four hundred particles across any five-second window. This is the first thing to reach for when a pack's particles are overwhelming your frame rate, because it limits the source rather than the result.

Throttling Spawns

Particle Spawn Throttle works differently. Instead of capping an emitter, it scales down how many custom particles actually get spawned, so lowering the value makes each one less likely to appear. Treat this as a last resort: it changes how the pack looks rather than just how efficiently it runs, and it is meant for packs that were never optimized in the first place. Under normal circumstances you should leave it alone.

Moving Particle Logic Off the Main Thread

Async Custom Particles shifts the tick logic for custom particles onto a separate thread. The setting is described as rough and experimental, and its effect is uncertain: it may help your performance, or it may not. Try it and measure the result rather than assuming a gain.

Lenient Pack Loading tries to load packs that contain errors. It is not guaranteed to succeed, and pack creators should leave it off.
Legacy Formats Parse attempts to convert formats used by other mods so they can be read as Polytone files. This matters for custom colors and colormaps.
Held Items Occlude Post Shaders delays when post shaders are applied so that held items can occlude them. Experimental.
A separate option lets resource packs have blocks, entities, and dropped items cast colored light into the world. It needs the Veil mod and carries a performance cost while those lights are visible.

Reading Error Messages

If something goes wrong while loading, Polytone reports it through on-screen messages. load fail means the pack contains errors and you should check the logs. lazy load fail indicates the late resource reload did not complete, and early load fail indicates the early resource reload did not complete. A fabulous warning appears when Fabulous Graphics is active, since some Polytone features may misbehave with it turned on.

If You Need More Help

The config screen also offers an Open Nautilus Studio entry, which requires the Nautilus Studio editor mod, plus a bubble prompt inviting you to try the visual editor. For support there is a community link, documentation and format reference, and donation options if you want to support development.