View distance vs simulation distance, tuning for player count

The two most commonly misunderstood settings in server.properties. Most defaults are wrong for most servers, and the difference between the two settings is genuine, not cosmetic.

What each one actually controls

View distance is how many chunks around a player are loaded and sent to their client. It controls what they can see. Higher view distance means players see farther, but also means the server is sending more data and tracking more chunks.

Simulation distance is how many chunks around a player are actively ticked. It controls what runs. Mobs spawn and move, water flows, crops grow, redstone activates, only in simulation-distance chunks. Outside simulation distance, chunks are loaded (so players can see them) but frozen.

Simulation distance is always less than or equal to view distance. The default since 1.18 is view distance 10, simulation distance 10. This is fine for vanilla solo, often wrong for multiplayer servers.

The geometry, top-down

With view 12 / sim 6, this player loads 625 chunks total but only ticks 169 of them. That is roughly 62% less tick work than the old "view = sim" model.

Why this split exists

Pre-1.18, Minecraft had only "view distance," which did both jobs. That meant a player with high view distance was both seeing more (network cost) and forcing more simulation (CPU cost). The two were tied.

The split lets you give players longer sight lines without paying full CPU cost. You can run view distance 12 (players see far) with simulation distance 6 (server only ticks close in). Mobs spawn only near players, redstone works only near players, but distant landscapes are still visible.

This is a huge win for multiplayer servers.

Cost analysis

Each chunk costs:

• Memory: a few hundred KB to a few MB depending on what's in it.
• Network: bandwidth when initially sent and on changes.
• CPU (if simulated): tick time for mobs, redstone, fluids, block updates.

A player at view distance 10, simulation distance 10:

• Loads 21x21 = 441 chunks.
• Ticks 441 chunks.

A player at view distance 12, simulation distance 6:

• Loads 25x25 = 625 chunks (more memory and network).
• Ticks 13x13 = 169 chunks (less CPU).

That's roughly 62 percent less tick work for somewhat longer sight lines. The memory cost is the trade.

view / sim	Loaded	Ticked	Visual feel	CPU per player
8 / 4	289	81	Short	Low
10 / 6	441	169	Standard	Medium (sweet spot)
12 / 6	625	169	Generous	Medium
12 / 10	625	441	Generous	High
16 / 16	1,089	1,089	Pretty	Extreme (will hurt)

Recommended settings by scenario

Small vanilla server (1 to 5 players), generous host:

• View distance: 12
• Simulation distance: 8

Players see far, server is comfortable.

Medium SMP (5 to 15 players), midsize host:

• View distance: 10
• Simulation distance: 6

The sweet spot for most paid hosting. Looks fine, feels great.

Large server (15 to 30 players), beefy host:

• View distance: 8
• Simulation distance: 6

Memory consumption per player adds up. Lower view distance keeps total chunk count manageable.

Public server / dropping in regularly (30+ players):

• View distance: 6 to 8
• Simulation distance: 4 to 6

You're now optimizing for fitting many players, not for any one player's vista.

Modded server (any size):

• View distance: 8
• Simulation distance: 4 to 6

Modded chunks have more entities and block entities. Each ticked chunk costs more.

Per-player limits (Paper / Purpur)

Paper and its forks let you set view distance and simulation distance per world and even per player. This is more useful than people realize.

paper-world-defaults.yml:

chunks:
  view-distance: 10
  simulation-distance: 6

You can also expose commands to let players reduce their own view distance during lag. Useful for events and for laptop players.

A useful pattern: higher view distance for the spawn world, lower for the survival world. Spawn looks pretty, survival is performance-tuned.

The "no-tick chunks" trick

Pre-1.18, server admins faked this split with plugins that distinguished "loaded" from "ticked" chunks. Those plugins are largely obsolete now that vanilla supports the split natively. Don't install one if your Minecraft version is 1.18+.

How to choose, empirically

Common mistakes

Setting both very high "for nicer gameplay." This is the most common mistake. View 16 / sim 16 with 10 players will absolutely shred your tick budget.

Setting them very low and being confused why mob spawners don't work. Many farms rely on mobs spawning in distant chunks. With sim distance 4, only a tiny radius spawns mobs. Below 6, many vanilla farm designs break.

Forgetting the per-world / per-dimension settings. Nether and End have their own view and simulation distances. They often need to be lower than the Overworld because of their entity density.

Conclusion

The vanilla defaults are not "best." They are "safe." For any non-trivial multiplayer server, the right answer is almost always view distance equal to or higher than simulation distance, with simulation distance tuned to fit your tick budget. Start at 10/6, measure TPS, adjust.

The split is a real performance lever. Use it.