Search for Sodium Extra and you will quickly run into Reese's Sodium Options. Both come from the same developer, both sit on top of Sodium, and both touch the video settings screen. They do different jobs, though, and knowing the difference saves you from installing something you do not need.
The short answer
| Sodium Extra | Reese's Sodium Options | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Adds new settings Sodium does not include | Provides an alternative layout for the options menu |
| Changes what you can control | Yes | Mostly no; it changes how options are presented |
| Depends on Sodium | Yes | Yes |
What Sodium Extra adds
Sodium focuses on rendering performance and deliberately keeps its settings list short. Sodium Extra fills the gap with options the Sodium team chose not to include. Depending on the version, these are grouped into pages such as:
- Animations – turn individual texture animations like water, lava or fire on and off.
- Particles – disable particles entirely or only certain types.
- Details – hide sky elements such as stars or the sun and moon, and control some weather and color details.
- Render – fog behaviour and certain entity or block entity visuals.
- Extras – quality-of-life items such as an FPS overlay, cloud height and toast notifications.
The settings guide covers these pages in more depth.
What Reese's Sodium Options changes
Reese's Sodium Options is described by its developer as an alternative options menu for Sodium. It reorganises the video settings screen into a different layout. It is about navigation and presentation; it is not the mod that gives you the extra toggles listed above.
Recent versions of Sodium have reworked their own settings screen, so how Reese's Sodium Options looks and behaves can vary between game versions. Read the release notes of the build you are considering.
Do you need both?
No. Sodium Extra works without Reese's Sodium Options, and you can try Sodium Extra on its own first. Install Reese's Sodium Options only if you prefer its menu layout. Some modpacks include both for convenience, which is why the names often appear together.
Keeping them in sync
Because both mods hook into Sodium's options screen, they are sensitive to Sodium updates. If you run both, update them together and pick builds that list the same Minecraft and Sodium versions. A mismatch between any of the three is a common cause of a crash when opening Video Settings; see crash fixes if that happens.