How to Change View Distance on Your Minecraft Server
Adjust view distance and simulation distance on your Minecraft Java server for the best balance of visibility and performance.
View distance controls how many chunks are sent to each player. Simulation distance controls how far game logic runs (mob spawning, redstone, crops, water flow). These are the two biggest performance levers on a Minecraft server.
The Two Settings
| Setting | Default | Range | What It Does |
|---|---|---|---|
view-distance | 10 | 4–32 | Chunks rendered for each player. Higher = more visual range |
simulation-distance | 10 | 4–32 | Chunks where mobs spawn, redstone runs, crops grow, water flows |
Change View Distance
Open Startup
In the XGamingServer Panel, click Startup in the sidebar.
Set the values
Find the View Distance and Simulation Distance variables and adjust them.
Restart
Restart from Console to apply.
Open server.properties
Click Files in the sidebar and open server.properties.
Set the values
view-distance=8
simulation-distance=6Performance Impact
| View Distance | Chunks per Player | Performance Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | ~64 | Minimal — emergency mode for very slow servers |
| 6 | ~144 | Low — best for busy servers |
| 8 | ~256 | Moderate — recommended for most |
| 10 | ~400 | Default — good for small/medium servers |
| 12 | ~576 | High — needs decent CPU |
| 16 | ~1024 | Very high — only for high-end hardware |
| 32 | ~4096 | Extreme — solo testing only |
Recommendations by Server Type
| Server Type | view-distance | simulation-distance |
|---|---|---|
| Large public (50+ players) | 6 | 4 |
| Public (20–50 players) | 6–8 | 6 |
| Medium (10–20 players) | 8 | 6 |
| Small (5–10 players) | 10 | 8 |
| Private (2–5 players) | 12 | 10 |
| Solo / testing | 16 | 10 |
| Modpack (5–15 players) | 8 | 6 |
Tip: Reducing simulation-distance has a bigger performance impact than view-distance because it controls mob spawning and entity processing. View distance only affects chunk loading, not active gameplay.
Why View Distance Matters So Much
Each chunk a server sends to a player consumes:
- CPU (chunk packet preparation)
- Network bandwidth (the chunk data)
- RAM (storing loaded chunks)
- Disk I/O (reading chunks from world data)
With 20 players × view-distance 12, the server has to track and transmit ~11,000 chunks. With view-distance 8, that drops to ~5,000 chunks — over 2x lighter.
Per-World Override (Paper)
If you're running Paper, you can set view distance per world via paper-world-defaults.yml:
chunks:
player-max-chunk-send-rate: 75
chunk-system:
io-threads: -1And in paper-world.yml per world:
view-distance: 8
simulation-distance: 6This lets you give your spawn world more view distance while keeping resource-intensive worlds at lower values.
Per-Player View Distance (Plugins)
Plugins like EssentialsX or PerPlayerViewDistance let you give individual players different view distances — useful for VIP perks or solving lag complaints.
Related Guides
How is this guide?
