Editing Minecraft (section)

== Minecraft server view-distance and lag notes ==

If your processor, network connection, and RAM are sufficient then the bottle neck for performance is very likely server storage (hard drive or SSD) speed. You reduce server storage input/output (I/O) by reducing view-distance. View-distance determines how much of the Minecraft world a player sees (the fog in the distance is the cut off of view-distance). Raise view-distance and all players see farther (clients can reduce their view-distance in video options). Lower view-distange see closer. View-distance is used in the calculation of mob spawns, higher means increased mob numbers, lower produces less mob spawns. This section of information is about elimination of lag, skipping ticks, system time change, and server overload issues. Read on for more details.

Minecraft software: '''Minecraft server jar version 1.8.9 Vanilla (no mods)'''

Server operating system: Linux Fedora Core Release 23 64-bit

Server hardware specs:
* CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.3 GHz
* Mobo: SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1
* RAM: 32GB (4x8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000)
* Video: Built-in Intel
* Drive: Samsung 950Pro SSD
* PSU: Coolmaster GX 750W


''The key to this setup is the very fast Samsung Pro 950 SSD (M.2 form factor using NVMe).''


I've been hosting a private friends / family vanilla Minecraft server since 2010. The server routinely supports 8 to 10 simultaneous connected users. Users are connected via Gigabit LAN and Gigabit WAN (Google Fiber 1Gbps synchronous).


The server jar file is launched with -Xmx1g -Xms1g arguments.


Operating system: Fedora Core Release 23 (use Linux based OS as server storage I/O is superior than Windows based OS).


After many hours of play testing / changing view-distance over the years with different server storage below are the settings that clients would experience zero lag.


* The server originally had a 7200 RPM hard disk drive. '''''view-distance set to 6 to avoid lag issues.'''''
* Switched to SATA connected SSD. '''''The view-distance set to 8 to avoid lag issues.'''''
* Switched to M.2 form NVMe SSD (Samsung Pro950). '''''The view-distance set to 16. No lag issues.'''''


Note that the above systems never had CPU or RAM issues.


To take advantage of OS having faster storage I/O and Minecraft server software I upgraded to Z170 chipset that supports booting to M.2 form factor SSD using NVMe (the Samsung Pro 950 256GB). The Minecraft directories and files are on the same partition as the OS (previous versions I used separate drives for OS and Minecraft).


I haven't tried a view-distance above 16 because everyone is really pleased with the results with one exception. The number of mob spawns is 2 to 3 times worse than before so nobody wants to have a higher view-distance for fear of even more mob spawning. Attacking pig man zombies with this hardware and software setup is very dangerous!