View Distance vs Simulation Distance (and How They Affect TPS)

View distance controls how far players can see, simulation distance controls how far the world actually stays active and ticking, and both directly affect your server's TPS because each step outward adds more chunks for the server to process.

2 min read · Updated Sep 24, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team

What each setting does

• View distance: how many chunks (16-block-wide squares of the world) the server sends to each player. Higher means players see farther, but the server has to load and stream more terrain to everyone.
• Simulation distance: how far out the world stays "alive". Inside this range mobs move, crops grow, redstone runs, and physics happen. Outside it, chunks are loaded but frozen.

The key point is that simulation distance is usually the more expensive of the two, because an active chunk costs far more than a merely visible one.

Why they hit TPS

TPS (ticks per second) is how many times per second your server updates the world. A healthy server runs at 20 TPS. Every active chunk adds work to each tick, and because the active area grows roughly with the square of the distance, going from 8 to 10 is a much bigger jump than it looks. If your server cannot finish a tick in time, TPS drops and the whole world feels sluggish.

Sensible starting values

There is no single correct number, but these ranges work well for most community servers:

• Busy or modded servers: view distance around 6 to 8, simulation distance around 4 to 6.
• Small friends-and-family servers with RAM to spare: you can push view distance higher for the scenery.
• If TPS is already struggling: bring simulation distance down first, since it does the most work.

How to change them

1. On a Minecraft server, open Server properties under Minecraft tools in the server menu. (You can also edit server.properties on the Files tab. On other games these settings live in the game's config file or under Startup settings on the Settings tab.)
2. Set View distance (chunks) and Simulation distance (chunks), which are view-distance and simulation-distance in the file, to your chosen numbers.
3. Click Save changes.
4. Press Restart at the top of the server page so the new values load.

A useful multiplayer trick

You can set a lower simulation distance and a slightly higher view distance. Players still see a big, open landscape, but the server only has to actively simulate the area close to them. This keeps the world looking large while cutting the tick cost dramatically.

Test the change

After a restart, check your TPS with /tps on Paper or Spigot, or watch the Console for tick warnings. If TPS climbs back toward 20 and MSPT falls, your distance settings were part of the problem. If nothing improves, the bottleneck is somewhere else, such as RAM, entities, or a heavy plugin.

Before you experiment, it is worth taking a snapshot on the Backups page so you can restore your config instantly if a value causes trouble.

Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.

• view-distance
• simulation-distance
• tps
• minecraft

Host a Minecraft Java server From $3.99/mo, with instant setup and DDoS protection.

Still need help? Our team is online 24/7 to answer questions.

Contact support