Sodium is a Minecraft performance optimization project that replaces the default rendering engine to increase frame rates and reduce stutter. It functions as a game rendering modification that applies runtime patches to the engine to change how graphics are displayed.
The project provides a customizable settings registry, allowing for the addition of new configuration options to the video menu so other extensions can integrate their own visual settings.
The rendering system implements chunk-based culling logic and buffer-based geometry caching to minimize draw calls and reduce CPU overhead. It utilizes bytecode-level engine patching and direct memory access to manipulate GPU memory and replace default rendering logic.
