Smart Particles Mod Wiki & Guide

Open the mod's config screen from the Mods list and check that the culling toggles are enabled, then walk into a particle-heavy area like a Nether portal or a rainstorm and watch your frame rate. If your FPS climbs noticeably while particles still appear near you, the mod is working.

It decides which particles are worth rendering each frame, keeping the ones closest to you and removing distant ones you wouldn't notice. This happens continuously, so the particle count on screen stays low without you manually deleting anything.

Camera culling specifically removes particles that fall outside your current view, like anything behind you or off to the side of your screen. Regular culling handles distance, so the two systems work together to cut down on wasted rendering.

Your culling settings are probably too aggressive, which usually means the distance threshold is set very low or camera culling is removing too much. Open the config and raise the particle distance or loosen the culling strength until particles near you reappear.