Customizing Pixelmon Graphics and Display Settings

The Graphics section controls how Pixelmon displays Pokémon, battles, effects, nameplates, tutorials, render modes, and other visual elements. These options can improve visibility, change the game's appearance, or reduce demanding effects on player devices.

Pixelmon Graphics and Display Settings

The settings below are listed in the same order as they appear in graphics.yml. They include Boolean toggles, distances, multipliers, render modes, and a Pokédex generation list. The Setting column shows a reader-friendly name first, followed by the matching graphics.yml key for reference.

Setting and Config Key	Default and Accepted Values	Description
Render Distance Multiplier render-distance-weight	Default: 2.0 Values: decimal number	Multiplies Pixelmon's default render distance of 64 blocks to determine how far Pokémon and related objects are rendered.
Pokémon Nameplate Range name-plate-range	Default: 1 Values: 1, 2, or 3	Controls how far away wild Pokémon names and levels can be displayed outside battle. 1 is the closest range, 2 is farther, and 3 is the furthest. This option is client-side.
Show Wild Pokémon Levels render-wild-levels	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether a wild Pokémon's level appears above it.
Show Wild Pokémon Names show-wild-names	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether wild Pokémon nameplates are displayed.
Scale Pokémon Models Up scale-models-up	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether Pokémon models are rendered 30% larger than their normal scale.
Show Current Attack Target show-current-attack-target	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether the current attack target is shown. The default key for selecting or viewing this target is F.
Draw Pokémon Health Bars draw-health-bars	Default: false Values: true or false	Controls whether health bars are displayed above Pokémon.
Limit Attack Effects to Battlers only-show-attack-effects-to-battlers	Default: false Values: true or false	Controls whether battle attack effects are shown only to participating players and spectators.
Show Advanced Battle Information advanced-battle-information	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether advanced battle details, including an opponent's remaining HP percentage, are displayed.
Attack Animation Display Range range-to-display-attack-animations	Default: 40 Values: whole number of blocks	Sets the maximum distance from a battle at which attack animations are displayed.
Enable Emissive Textures emissive-textures	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether supported Pokémon textures can glow. This effect can cause a significant performance penalty on player devices.
Emissive Texture Render Distance emissive-textures-distance	Default: 32 Values: whole number of blocks	Sets how far away emissive Pokémon textures are rendered.
Poké Ball Hand Render Mode override-poke-balls3-d-in-hand-mode	Default: auto Values: auto, smooth, blocky, or sprite	Sets how Poké Balls are rendered while held. Auto follows the global Pokémon render type.
Enable Global Wireframe Mode global-wire-frame	Default: false Values: true or false	Controls whether Pokémon models are displayed as wireframes.
Show Pokémon Bones show-bones	Default: false Values: true or false	Controls whether the model bones used by Pokémon animations are displayed.
Enable Global Pokémon Animations global-animation-toggle	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether Pokémon model animations are enabled globally.
Enable Global Vertex Mode global-vertex-toggle	Default: false Values: true or false	Controls the global vertex display mode for Pokémon models.
Enable Global Emissive Mode global-emissive-toggle	Default: false Values: true or false	Controls whether Pokémon are rendered at maximum brightness through the global emissive mode.
Battle Spectator Range spectator-range-blocks	Default: 10.0 Values: decimal number of blocks	Sets how close a player must be to a battle to spectate it.
Render Other Pokémon During Battle should-render-pokemon-outside-battle	Default: false Values: true or false	Controls whether Pokémon that are not participating in the current battle remain visible during battle.
Show Tutorial Toasts should-send-toasts	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether Pixelmon tutorial notifications appear as toast messages.
Show Pixelmon Potion Particles potion-particles-visible	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether particles from Pixelmon potion effects are visible.
Enable Dropped Item Beams dropped-item-beams-enabled	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether dropped Pixelmon items display beams and whether dropped Poké Balls show a shadow.
Enable Pokémon Editor Extra Colors pokemon-editor-extra-color-mode-enabled	Default: true Values: true or false	Controls whether extra text colors are shown in the Pokémon Editor. Players can use F1 to toggle the mode temporarily.
Global Pokémon Render Type global-render-type	Default: smooth Values: smooth, blocky, or sprite	Sets the default rendering style for Pokémon. Individual Pokémon render settings override this value, and players can cycle the global mode with F3 + R.
Pokédex TM Generations pokedex-t-m-generations	Default: [9] Values: list of generation numbers	Sets which generations of TM information are displayed in the Pokédex. The default list includes Generation 9 only.

Important Graphics Setting Notes

Client-Side Display Behavior

The name-plate-range option is specifically identified as client-side. Many other settings also change what players see rather than altering Pokémon mechanics, so test visual changes from a player client before applying them broadly.

Performance-Heavy Effects

Emissive textures add a glow effect to some Pokémon but carry a significant performance penalty. Render distance, animation distance, model scale, and emissive texture distance can also affect how much visual work a player's device performs.

Render Modes and Diagnostic Overlays

Poké Ball hand rendering supports auto, smooth, blocky, and sprite modes.
The global render type supports smooth, blocky, and sprite modes.
Wireframe, bones, vertex, and global emissive toggles are specialized visual or diagnostic modes.

Final Thoughts

Pixelmon's graphics settings offer a lot of control, from small interface details to major rendering changes. Test performance-sensitive options on representative player hardware and adjust one group at a time so visual improvements do not turn into a frame-rate scavenger hunt.

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