What config to change

Cull Leaves to be opt-in, aka disabled by default

Why should it be changed

Pros:

• Performance improvement
• Some might like the aesthetic

Cons:

• Aesthetics - people may turn away from FO for this alone
• Might not be needed for performance anymore (for most people)
• Claimingly it is also opt-in in Optifine

Category

Mod config option

Additional details

It used to be opt-in in FO but that changed in 2.1.0-alpha.3 because the performance was poor. Things might have changed now.

Either way I currently do not intend to remove the mod altogether.

i think it should be off; it looks much better without and i can confirm that it's opt-in in optifine

Cull leaves looks awful imo. You can clearly see the culling. Maybe you could still cut the faces rendered in half by just rendering the sides facing you (only when there are adjacent leaves) which might improve the look. Could be a suggestion for the mod dev.

Though on the curseforge page, it shows a smart leaves resource pack that looks good?

The resource pack should also be enabled in FO right now (according to options.txt), but I haven't verified the difference for a while.
Sodium also planned to introduce something similar at some point, though I don't know what the current state of it is.

For reference;

Cull Leaves + Smart Leaves

Cull Leaves

Vanilla fancy leaves

Vanilla fast leaves

The two cull leaves are really too transparent

I agree, it should be opt-in. For the longest time I thought tree leaves were just ugly by default.

I might be able to create an improved mod with a "thickness" setting where leaves are only culled if they are 2 deep into a tree.

Or maybe, instead of culling why not make the inside leaves fast leaves instead of culling.

I might be able to create an improved mod with a "thickness" setting where leaves are only culled if they are 2 deep into a tree.

Or maybe, instead of culling why not make the inside leaves fast leaves instead of culling.

Interesting.
I think I'll still disable the culling by default as people seem to prefer that, but if you make the mod, you could also improve its findability, e.g. hijack into Sodium's leaf settings to add an option "Smart" (which would enable this mod and set leaves to fancy). Also add a toggle to vanilla graphics settings for people without Sodium.

(This would also need a descriptive tooltip to prevent people asking Sodium for support. Or maybe just a toggle below leaf settings in Sodium as well...)

Actually, the problem with Cull Leaves is Sodium setting called "Use Block Face Culling"
(you need to reload chunks for change to apply)

Cull Leaves + Smart Leaves; with "Use Block Face Culling" disabled:

Cull Leaves + Smart Leaves; with "Use Block Face Culling" enabled:

From another angle:

I thought I had disabled that, but guess not... well, what do the contributors here think of that option? Would this be a good default, or would you still prefer to have it disabled (+ fast graphics)?

Block face culling seems like a performance thing.

What it cull leaves had some code that could bypass sodium block face culling.
So block face culling could still be on in sodium but cull leaves would have a setting under it like "disable for leaves".

https://discord.com/channels/859124104644788234/969981731883085925/969991782798622740
Cull leaves seems to create problems

So, I've decided that Xander's CullLessLeaves defaults are a better alternative:
Basically just shows two layers of leaves before culling them out. Has better integration with Sodium as well, including a toggle directly in video settings.
If you have any objections (e.g. still preferring to disable them entirely), tell them now.

Did not make it opt in, instead replaced Cull Leaves with Cull Less Leaves.