Optimizing Chunk Loading

Chunk loading is the heavy lifter of any Minecraft server. Every time a player flies across your map with an Elytra, your CPU is working overtime to generate new terrain. If you want a smooth experience even at high speeds, you need to optimize how your server handles chunks.

1. The "Secret Weapon": Simulation Distance

In modern Minecraft (1.18+), you can separate what players see from what the server simulates:

View Distance: How far you can see the landscape. (Heavy on RAM and your Internet connection).
Simulation Distance: How far away things like crops grow or mobs move. (Heavy on your CPU).

Distance	The Vibe	The Performance
10+	Beautiful, huge vistas.	Can cause major lag spikes on mid-tier servers.
8	The classic Minecraft feel.	Recommended for most survival communities.
4-6	A bit "foggy".	Best if you have 50+ players active at once.

2. Moving the Math (Async Chunks)

If you’re running Paper, make sure "Asynchronous Chunk Loading" is enabled. It’s a fancy way of saying the server moves the work of terrain generation to other CPU cores so the main game loop doesn't freeze. It’s a massive win for stability.

3. Speeding Up Exploration

When players explore as fast as they can, the server often can't keep up. The best fix for this is Chunk Pre-Generation. If the world is already saved on our high-speed SSDs, the server just has to "read" it instead of "inventing" it, which is much, much faster.

4. The "No-Tick" Trick

Paper has a legendary setting called "No-Tick View Distance." It allows you to let players see far away (e.g., 10 chunks) without the server having to process entities in those distant areas.

Set your view-distance to 6.
Set your no-tick-view-distance to 10.
Result: Players get the big view, but your CPU only works on a small area. Everyone wins.

Combined with our Optimized Settings Guide, these tweaks can literally double your server's player capacity.