Two distances, two different jobs
View distance is about what players see: chunks are loaded and sent to the client so the horizon looks continuous. Simulation distance is about what the world does: mobs, crops, redstone, and block updates keep progressing inside that radius.
A player can see terrain beyond the simulation radius; it simply does not change until they move closer.
How they multiply load
Each step of view distance roughly squares the number of chunks involved, and the cost applies per player. Raising view distance from 10 to 16 does not add 60% more work — it multiplies it.
Simulation distance is the more expensive of the two because ticking chunks do work, while sent chunks are mostly data transfer.
Sensible values for small servers
On modest hardware, view distance 8–10 and simulation distance 6–8 is a good balance: players see plenty and farms near their builds still run. Lower simulation distance further if ticks are tight, and accept that distant machines pause.
Raise them only when players report a specific problem, such as mob farms stopping while they are away, rather than in pursuit of a bigger number.
Changing them without breaking farms
The classic surprise is a farm that “stopped working” after a distance change. Nothing broke — it simply sits outside the simulation radius now. Either move the farm closer to where players spend time or restore the previous value.
Change one distance at a time, restart, and play a normal session before judging. Distance effects only show up with real players moving around the map.
FAQ
Common questions
Does view distance affect client performance?
Yes. Larger view distances send far more terrain to render, which raises memory and GPU load on the player’s machine too. Lowering it helps low-end players without touching anything else.
Why do my mob farms stop when I walk away?
Because farms outside the simulation distance are no longer ticked. That is expected behaviour, and the fix is to site the farm inside the radius your players normally occupy rather than to raise simulation distance for the whole server.
