Chest Items Hover Display
Look at a chest. See what's in it. That's the whole mod.
When your crosshair lands on any container, a compact panel slides up under the crosshair showing every item in its actual grid slot — same icons, same stack counts, same layout as the chest UI itself. No interaction, no menu, no opening required.
Features
- One-glance preview. Hover a chest, the panel appears. Look away, it disappears.
- Mirrors the chest exactly. A 4×2 chest shows as 4×2, an 8×4 reinforced chest shows as 8×4. Items appear in their real grid positions, not a re-sorted list.
- Live updates. Stacks change in real time as a teammate puts items in or pulls them out — no need to re-hover.
- Chest name on top. The localized chest name (Wood Chest, Iron Chest, Black Metal Chest, etc.) is shown above the grid.
- Respects private chests. Chests claimed by another player stay hidden.
- Respects wards. A chest inside a ward you are not permitted in stays hidden. Hovering will not trigger the ward shield effect.
- Optional hold key. Configure a key (e.g.
LeftAlt) that must be held for the panel to appear, if you find it too "always-on."
- Tunable position and cell size. Move the panel up/down on screen, change cell pixel size.
- Empty-chest aware. Hide the panel completely when the chest is empty (configurable).
Multiplayer
- Fully client-side. Nothing is synced or transmitted.
- Server does not need the mod. Only the player who wants the preview needs it installed.
- Reads ZDO state directly the same way the vanilla chest UI does — no RPCs, no extra network traffic.
- No gameplay impact. Cannot be used to "see through" walls or read chests beyond the normal hover range — if Valheim shows you the chest's hover prompt, the preview shows; otherwise nothing.
Installation
With a mod manager (recommended)
- Install r2modman or use the Thunderstore Mod Manager.
- Search for ChestItemsHoverDisplay and click Install.
- Launch the game through the mod manager.
Manual
- Install BepInExPack Valheim.
- Drop
CDEV.ChestItemsHoverDisplay.dll into <Valheim>/BepInEx/plugins/.
Configuration
Edit BepInEx/config/cdev.valheim.chestitemshoverdisplay.cfg (created on first launch) or use a config manager mod.
| Key |
Default |
Description |
Enabled |
true |
Master toggle. |
CellSize |
40 |
Pixel size of each grid cell (24–96). |
HideWhenEmpty |
true |
Hide the panel when the chest has no items. |
RespectPrivateChests |
true |
Hide the panel for private chests and chests inside wards you are not permitted in. |
HoldKeyToShow |
None |
Optional key that must be held for the panel to appear. None = always show while hovering. |
VerticalOffset |
-80 |
Pixel offset from screen center. Negative = below crosshair. |
Compatibility
- Valheim current stable (Ashlands / Deep North branches tested).
- Requires BepInEx 5.4.x (Valheim's standard).
- Works with Jotunn-based mods. Does not modify any vanilla prefab, recipe, ZDO, or RPC.
- Does not interfere with chest sorting, auto-pickup, or inventory management mods.
Known limitations
- Custom chests added by other mods will display correctly as long as they extend Valheim's
Container component. If a mod uses a fully custom inventory class, the panel will simply not show.
- Item tooltips, durability bars, and quality stars are intentionally not rendered — this is a quick-glance preview, not a second inventory window.
Source / issues
If something breaks, open an issue with:
- Your
BepInEx/LogOutput.log (or the relevant section)
- The chest type you were hovering
- Whether other mods that touch UI / Hud / Container are installed
