Mini Guide: Cleanup Settings in DayZ

Cleanup settings decide how long items, bodies, and abandoned objects stay on your server before they’re removed. If cleanup isn’t managed well, the map can quickly fill up with clutter, hurting both performance and immersion. By fine-tuning these settings, you keep your server fresh, stable, and running smoothly for players.

Where Cleanup is Defined

Mainly in globals.xml and influenced by values in types.xml.

globals.xml → general rules (global cleanup timers).

types.xml → individual item cleanup via and.

Key Cleanup Settings in globals.xml

Example snippet:

100 120 50

Important parameters:

cleanupradius → how far around a player the cleanup runs (default ~100m).

cleanuptime → how often (in seconds) the cleanup process runs.

cleanupmaxitems → how many items can be cleaned per cycle.

Other Cleanup Controls

In types.xml →

= how long item stays before cleanup (if untouched). = how long before loot respawns after cleanup.

In globals.xml →

Vehicle wrecks, dead bodies, and abandoned items also have timers.

Dead bodies and ruined items usually despawn quickly (minutes).

Why Cleanup Helps Performance

Prevents loot economy clogging → old loot despawns so fresh loot can spawn.

Reduces persistence bloat → fewer items in storage_1 database → faster saves and restarts.

Improves FPS/server tick rate → less world data for server to track.

Stability → avoids thousands of “junk” items lying around (rags, stones, ruined gear).

Best Practices

Set short lifetimes for clutter/junk (15–30 min).

Medium for food/regular loot (1–2 hrs).

Long for storage/vehicles (days–weeks).

Keep dead player bodies short (15–30 min) to avoid corpse piles.

Adjust cleanupmaxitems high enough so cleanup keeps up with players (50–100 is safe).

Practical Example

Let’s say you want a clean, fast server:

globals.xml:

cleanuptime → 60 (run cleanup every 1 min).

cleanupmaxitems → 100 (up to 100 items removed each run).

types.xml:

Stones, sticks, ruined clothes → lifetime 900 (15 min).

Food → 3600 (1 hr).

Backpacks → 7200 (2 hrs).

Barrels/tents → 2592000 (30 days).

This way the map doesn’t flood with trash, but important player persistence stays.

Summary:

Cleanup settings keep your server running smooth by removing abandoned junk, freeing the economy for fresh loot, and preventing the persistence database from bloating. Tuning lifetimes and cleanup intervals is one of the most effective ways to improve server performance and stability.

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