View distance vs simulation distance: what each one costs

Two lines in server.properties decide more about how hard a Minecraft server works than anything else: view-distance and simulation-distance. Both are measured in chunks — columns of the world 16 blocks wide — counted outwards from each player. They sound alike, but they control different things, and the cost of each grows much faster than the number suggests.

View distance: what players can see

view-distance is how far the server sends terrain to players. Chunks inside it are loaded and visible, but nothing has to happen in them — they are scenery. The default is 10.

A player’s own Render Distance setting can only lower what they see, never raise it past the server’s value. Recent versions send each player whichever of the two is smaller, so someone on a weak laptop with render distance 6 costs the server less than someone on 12.

Simulation distance: where the game runs

simulation-distance is how far from each player the world is actually alive. Inside it, mobs move and spawn, crops grow, furnaces smelt, redstone runs and dropped items despawn. Outside it — even inside view distance — everything is frozen in place until someone comes closer. The default is also 10; it was split out from view distance in Minecraft 1.18.

This is the one that costs CPU every tick. A loaded-but-frozen chunk is mostly memory; a simulated chunk is work, twenty times a second.

Why each step costs more than the last

The area around a player is a square with the player in the middle, so the chunk count is (2 × distance + 1)²:

• Distance 4 — 81 chunks per player.
• Distance 6 — 169 chunks.
• Distance 8 — 289 chunks.
• Distance 10 (the default) — 441 chunks.
• Distance 16 — 1,089 chunks.
• Distance 32 (the maximum) — 4,225 chunks.

Going from 6 to 10 is not “a bit more” — it is 2.6 times the chunks, per player. Ten players spread out across the world at distance 10 can keep over 4,000 chunks loaded. Players standing together share chunks, which is why a group building one base is far cheaper than the same group exploring in different directions.

What lowering simulation distance changes in game

Lowering simulation distance is the cheapest performance win there is, but players can notice it:

• Farms need you nearby. A farm only works while it is within simulation distance of a player. At distance 6 that is 96 blocks — an AFK spot has to be closer than it would on a default server.
• Mob spawning moves closer. Mobs only spawn in simulated chunks. Vanilla scales the overall mob cap with the number of chunks being simulated, so a smaller distance means fewer mobs in total, not the same number packed tighter.
• Crops and trees grow only nearby. Random ticks — crop growth, leaf decay, ice melting — only happen in simulated chunks.
• Redstone further away freezes. A long contraption that crosses the edge of the simulated area stops halfway. This catches out minecart systems and long item lines.

None of this breaks a world. Things outside the area just wait, and carry on when a player comes back.

Good values

• Small survival server, a few friends — view distance 8 to 10, simulation distance 6. Players see far, the server only runs what is near them.
• Modpack — view 6 to 8, simulation 4 to 6. Modded chunks hold machines and tile entities, and each one is heavier.
• Lots of players spread out — keep simulation distance at 4 to 6 and lower view distance before you lower anything else.
• Simulation distance above view distance is pointless — you cannot simulate what is not loaded. Keep it equal to or below view distance.

On a Cobbly free server

Both settings are capped at 6 on the free tier, and Cobbly resets them on every start, so an edit in server.properties does not stick. Free servers share machines, and one server at distance 32 would slow down everyone else on the same hardware. At 6, a 3 GB server comfortably holds ten players, and farms work if you stay within about 96 blocks. More on what the free tier sets for you is in server.properties explained.

If the server still lags

Distance is the biggest lever, but not the only one. Dropped items, mob farms and villager halls run inside the simulated area whatever its size — see Entity lag: farms, items and mobs. And if lag spikes whenever someone explores, the fix is pre-generating the world rather than a lower distance.