In this tutorial, we'll talk about the view-distance setting of your Minecraft server. This setting allows you to change the viewing distance on the server-side; it determines the radius in which the player can see the world. With a high value, your players will see further, at the expense of performance (RAM / CPU).

The challenge is to adjust the value of this parameter for your servers properly. It may depend on the power of your Minecraft server, the available RAM, and the number of plugins you use on your server.

That can be particularly useful on a server with many constructions in remote locations on the map. Decreasing the viewing distance will significantly increase the performance of your server.

How to update view-distance

To edit the viewing distance of players, follow this procedure:

  1. Go to your Minecraft control panel.
  2. Click on My Server -> Configuration.
  3. Click on View distance and update value.
    Default value is 10. The value must be between 3 and 10.
    view-distance=10

  4. Reboot your Minecraft server.

If your server has performance issues, you can try to lower the value gradually.

Depending on your server, its configuration, the number of players, mods & plugins, we recommend a value between 4 and 8.

You can track CPU and RAM consumption from your panel, in the Performance menu, try to have the smoothest curves possible. These are the momentary drops that players feel: the lags.

How to check if my server is optimized

We provide a simple tool to check the configuration of your Minecraft server (with Paper ou Spigot).

Recommended values aim to provide the best from your server without compromising the gameplay.

Go to Minecraft Server Optimizer.