How to Change View Distance on Your Minecraft Server
Learn how to adjust the view distance and simulation distance on your Minecraft server to balance visuals and performance.
View distance controls how many chunks (16x16 block areas) are visible to players around them. Higher values let players see further but use significantly more server resources, while lower values improve performance at the cost of visibility. This is one of the most impactful performance settings on any Minecraft server.
Changing View Distance
Access the panel and stop your server
Go to the XGamingServer panel and stop your Minecraft server.
Open the file manager
Go to Files.
Edit the view distance
Open server.properties and change view-distance= to your desired value.
Save and start
Click Save and start your server.
The default view distance is 10 chunks, with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 32.
Recommended Values
| Player Count | View Distance | Simulation Distance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-5 Players | 10 - 14 | 8 | Small servers can handle higher values |
| 6-10 Players | 8 - 10 | 6 | Good balance for medium groups |
| 10-20 Players | 5 - 7 | 5 | Prioritize performance over visuals |
| 20+ Players | 5 | 3 - 4 | Keep both values low to maintain TPS |
| Modded Servers | 5 - 8 | 5 | Mods add per-chunk processing overhead |
View Distance vs. Simulation Distance
These two settings are often confused, but they control different things:
- View distance (
view-distance) — Controls how many chunks are sent to the client for rendering. This affects what players can see but doesn't directly impact server-side processing much (since Minecraft 1.18+). - Simulation distance (
simulation-distance) — Controls how many chunks around each player are actively processed by the server — mob spawning, redstone, crop growth, entity AI, and physics all happen within this range.
Simulation distance has a much bigger impact on server performance than view distance. Lowering simulation distance is usually more effective at reducing lag than lowering view distance.
Client-Side Render Distance Mods
Lowering server view distance doesn't have to ruin the player experience. Players can install client-side mods that render terrain beyond what the server sends:
- Distant Horizons — Renders low-detail terrain at extreme distances (hundreds of chunks). Dramatically improves the visual experience on servers with low view distance.
- Bobby — Caches chunks locally so previously visited areas remain visible even when outside server view distance.
These mods are client-side only — they don't need to be installed on the server and don't affect server performance.
💡 Tip: For detailed performance optimization beyond view distance, check our full Performance Guide which covers server software, JVM flags, and per-platform optimizations.
If you get stuck at any time, you can join our Discord.
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