ChestItemsHoverDisplay

Chest Items Hover Display

Look at a chest, a cart or an armor stand. See what's in it. That's the whole mod.

When your crosshair lands on a 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.
• Carts. Hover a cart — its cargo or its body — to see what it carries.
• Armor stands. Hover an armor stand to see what hangs on it, in one row: helmet, chest, legs, cape, utility, then weapons and shields.
• Live updates. Stacks change in real time as a teammate puts items in or pulls them out — no need to re-hover.
• Name on top. The localized name (Wood Chest, Iron Chest, Cart, Armor stand, etc.) is shown above the grid.
• Respects private chests. Chests claimed by another player stay hidden.
• Respects wards. A chest, cart or armor stand 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 Mod Manager.
• Search for ChestItemsHoverDisplay and click Install.
• Launch the game through the mod manager.

Manual

• Install BepInExPack Valheim.
• Drop CDEV.ChestItemsHoverDisplay.dll into /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, cart or armor stand 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 1.0 (built and tested against 1.0.7).
• 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.
• Armor stand items from a mod you do not have installed are skipped in the preview.
• 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 hov