Minecraft

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!

Windows Operating System

My tips for running Minecraft on Windows machines.

• Update video driver
• Update Java software at Java website
• Allocate more memory only if you get "out of memory errors"

Allocate More Memory to Minecraft

Thought I'd share my success at memory allocation changes with those who are interested.

Note: I only changed my memory allocations on my machine due to in-game memory crashes every 90 to 120 seconds when exploring outside. Once I allocated 768m I haven't had a memory crash. This memory allocation started happening to my machine since 1.7 beta.

I was trying various configurations to allocate memory but my command window would open up then immediately close or Java Virtual Machine (JVM) would not launch, etc.

I have Win7 Ultimate 64-bit, 12 GB RAM, with current version of Java installed.

I created a batch file & updated my PATH variable with directory of current Java version.

Batch file contains (use your own c:\path2minecraft.exe here):

javaw -Xms768m -jar "c:\minecraft\Minecraft.exe"

Added this to PATH (don't forget the semi-colon to separate this path from previous one):

;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin

Add to PATH steps: For Win7 Ultimate I right click Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Advanced Tab > Environmental Variables > System Variables > highlight PATH then click EDIT. Add semi-colon then PATH to current version of Java then press Okay.

Side Note: The same machine runs minecraft flawless in Fedora Core 15 & 16 without memory modifications. Only the lack of Ventrilo support on Linux causes me to use Windows to run minecraft.

I've read about other people starting minecraft.exe with -Xmx parameter but I could not get various options to work, even though I have 12 GB RAM.

How-to Minecraft Guides

How-to setup Minecraft server on Windows OS

How-to edit server.properties file on Linux

Backing up your Minecraft world

This guide is written for:

• Linux operating systems
• uses /minecraft for Minecraft's root directory
• starts and ends with Minecraft server running
• connected to Linux server via SSH
• connected to Minecraft server console
• using byobu open source text-based window manager and terminal multiplexer
• using Linux user anon with permissions on /minecraft and sub-directories and files
• backups are stored in /minecraft/backups
• removing old backups

Backup steps:

1. Check no players are connected. Command: /list
2. Save Minecraft world files. Command: /save-all
3. Stop Minecraft server app. Command: /stop
4. Switch to alternate terminal. Across the top of the SSH session, you will see 0:-* for single terminal or 0:-* 1:-- for multiple terminals (the # represents each terminal, there can be many). The * indicates the terminal you are viewing. If single terminal, press F2 to create and switch to a new terminal. If multiple terminals, press F4 to move forward one terminal (F3 to move backward).
5. Verify you are using anon user. Prompt should start with anon@ on Ubuntu Linux. You can also type whoami and the return should be anon.
6. Switch to Minecraft root directory. Command: cd /minecraft
7. Show Minecraft worlds by listing directories and files in current directory. Command: ls -l
8. Backup each world separately.
   1. We will backup a world called realms in this example. Note: You will use the world name that is applicable to your current backup, don't always use realms.
   2. You should see a realms directory from the previous command output.
   3. This command will archive (create single file) and compress simultaneously so each world backup will be of a single file.
   4. Use same command with different file names for each world backup.
   5. Command template: tar -cvzf newFileNameYYYYMMDD.tar.gz fileOrDirectoryToArchiveAndCompress/ where newFileName=worldName, fileOrDirectoryToArchiveAndCompress=realms, YYYY=2022, MM=01, and DD=03 if current date is January 3, 2022.
   6. Command example: tar -cvzf realms20220103.tar.gz realms/
   7. The command should output the archival process and return to prompt when no errors are encountered.
9. Validate new backup exists.
   1. Command: ls -l
   2. Verify a file exists matching your new file name, or realms20220103.tar.gz in our example.
10. Do the archive and compress command for each Minecraft world you want to backup.
11. Move backups to /minecraft/backups. Command: mv ./*.tar.gz ./backups/
12. Validate backups are in /minecraft/backups. Command: ls -l ./backups
    1. You should see the backups you created in the output plus any pre-existing backups.
13. Remove older backups when you have more than 3 of each world to save storage space.
    1. Only backup worlds that have been played on since last backup.
    2. Remove old backups. Command: rm backups/water_world20220202.tar.gz Copy and paste the file name after you type rm backups/ (highlight to copy and press middle mouse to paste should work) or use autocomplete (tab).
14. Switch to Minecraft terminal. F3 to move backward or F4 to move forward.
15. Start up Minecraft world like normal.

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