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Render distance in Minecraft Realms for 1.18

From what I have seen on the internet, the render distance in Realms is locked to 10-12 chunks to lower the load on servers. While this render distance is currently playable on 1.17, it will greatly take away from the new massive caves and mountain ranges.

The new update is rumored to increase the height of the Minecraft world by 64 blocks. To compensate for this there will likely be an upgrade to the servers to compensate for the additional memory requirement. It would also make sense to, in this upgrade acquire the required hardware to allow for, change of the maximum render distance to 20-24 chunks so the players can appreciate the grandeur of the new mountain ranges and caves instead of seeing a blue or black backdrop. As it currently stands in realms a player can only see about 200 meters in front of them. More people will switch from Realms to Third-party server hosts to appreciate the update and the work of the developers, which doesn't seem right. I have a small group of friends that really enjoy our realms service but with the 1.18 update we have decided to get a third party hosted server only so we can change the render distance.

Thank you for your time and I hope to continue being a subscriber to the Realms service in the future.

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  • 20
    Registered User commented
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    While this is a good idea, I think that you might underestimate how much 12 chunks really is. Each chunk is a 16*16 "chunk" (hence the name) of blocks. So, from one direction away from the player, there would be 12 times 16 blocks. This is 192 blocks in each direction from the player. Now, yes, you can definitely go for more, but if you think about it, that's nearly 0.2 kilometers. That might not sound like much, but believe me when i say that you can see pretty far.

    That being said, Realms is a premium service, with premium-pricing. You can get very similar performance for a much lower monthly price elsewhere. Realms has many benefits over these other hosting providers, such as being invite-only so unwanted individuals can't get on. It also comes with many fun minigames. However, these other hosting providers can utilize the whitelist feature built in to mojang's dedicated server software. And, they don't limit your render distance. (However, raise the limit on render distance at your own risk to additional server lag.) 

    So, while 12 chunks certainly isn't a small amount, it can be improved upon, and for a service that costs $8/month with recurring subscription (that also limits other things like playercount), there is certainly room for improvement.

  • 39
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    I really wish that Microsoft and Mojang would improve the render distance for realms to at least 16 chunks, it's so annoying to build huge towns, cities, or structures and not be able to see them fully without downloading the world. Sometimes I think about switching my realm to a real server just for the render distance, so I really want them to improve the render distance. It would be so amazing and would get a ton of new realms subscribers. I would be fine with paying a little extra for more render distance, just make it an option.

  • 15
    Registered User commented
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    I fully agree with this. Even just going up to render distance 14 (That's the default for Minecraft, right? Realms should, as an absolute minimum, handle the default render distance.)

  • 3
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    Servers cost money to run, and costs should be averaged based on the average amount of time realms are left running (crap deal for people who only play a little, bargain for no-lifers). At least an option to increase the realm render distance for an added cost would do.

  • 10
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    Right. I've had my realm since 2014, I believe. As far as I know, the render distance has been the same for all those seven years. If my monthly cost was enough for that render distance back then, with the cheaper computing available now, it should most certainly be possible to increase render distance a few chunks now. But yes, as someone pointed out, increasing render distance increases server load exponentially. If the render distance is 10, then a 20x20=400 chunk area is visible. Increasing the render distance to 20 would mean that a 40x40=1600 chunk area is visible. So, doubling the render distance quadruples the server load. But, say, at least a 50% increase in render distance should be feasible.

  • 22
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    I was playing on 1.17 without any fog, enjoying the scapes and buildings... and now with 1.18, I have an annoying fog that occludes what I would be able to see before the update. This is a joykill!

  • 14
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    Yes, the Realms render distance was way too small to begin with, and now it's been downgraded with a stupid fog effect, that would work fine if the render distance was at least 18. Now it only serves to make the game less enjoyable by putting graphics over playability. At least let us turn the fog off.

  • 12
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    Mojang definitely need to change this now 1.18 is here. I don’t want to sound harsh but it unquestionably ruins the experience for players, and all the hard work the developers have put into the fantastic new generation.

    Everyone on our Realm were going through seeds looking for a new one for this update. I found one with a gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains and forested valleys. I play between a render distance of 16-20, at this you can see the entire lake (it’s not that big) and all of the mountains on each side.

    We ended up choosing that world for our Realm, loaded in and travelled there, and you can’t even see the edges of the lake, let alone the mountains around it. So it may as well just be any other lake instead of this beautiful piece of unique terrain generation.

    I’m not expecting them to increase it to 20+. But at the level it currently is, the game experience of adventuring and building is really suffering. If they could at least hit 16 that would be wonderful.

  • 7
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    I have cancelled my realms subscription until they fix this. It makes the game borderline unplayable, especially if you're a fan of megabuilds or nice views. It was tolerable before, but it severely takes away from this update just due to the nature of this update - it's about going big. Not much fun if you can only see half of whatever awesome thing is being rendered.

  • 4
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    After 1.18, the render distance has actually decreased by a lot. It almost seems like the render distance is less than half the original render distance, which is irritating because I can't see things more than 100 or so blocks away. This is making larger builds very difficult because I can't see more than a small portion at once. Please at least revert the render distance to the 1.17 distance so we can continue to enjoy the sights. Note I am on Java edition.

  • 8
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    Hi, I had no idea about this and I went to start my Realms today with my fiance and we both noticed this. We tried messing with the entity load and chunks but nothing changed and we were very confused. Glad I stumbled upon this thread and some posts on r/Minecraft about this.

    I am immensely disappointed. I'm now paying $8/mo for a severely game inhibiting experience. It looks downright ugly. When I'm on top of a mountain, I can't even see below me and it looks so odd. Same in caves, I can't see the ends of caves anymore. My PC can't handle the full chunk distance, but it can handle about 16 chunks, and it's really disappointing that they made this change.

    Minecraft is the best selling game to have ever existed, not to mention it's owned by Microsoft. I don't think there's any excuse for server load/space/whatnot when it comes to Realms. Unfortunately, when my Realms expires next month I will be moving my world to a different server hosting platform until this issue is fixed.

  • 3
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    I just started using a Realm in the past month in 1.17 and I really do like the service. I love the convenience of just inviting players and even the way the world runs more like a shared singleplayer world with how it's not just running 24/7. But this update has really put me off from the service. You can't appreciate the new terrain at all with this render distance, and for the relatively premium price this is extremely frustrating. I would have expected a first party service to try to deliver the best possible experience for it's users, at least offering a higher end option. The fact that there is no way at all to improve the render distance on realms is leading to me not renewing the subscription and just renting a server from someone else. I'd miss some of the conveniences and having first party support but this has gone from being a little annoying in 1.17 to a constant frustration with 1.18.

  • 0
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    al momento la mia render distance per il realm plus ps4 È SOLO DI 4! UNO SCANDALO!!!

  • 8
    Registered User commented
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    Yeah I just opened up my realm today and the render distance is terrible! Whats the point of all this cool terrain if you can't even see it? 

  • 3
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    I just bought a realm for the first time to play with friends on the new update, did not know about this until I logged on. I definitely won't be buying another month for this reason, this is unplayable.

  • 2
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    Played on a Realm with friends (owned by someone else) for 1.16/1.17, and enjoyed it a lot. Now that 1.18 is out, I was setting up a new realm and was extremely disappointed with the render distance. I guess its lucky that this was my free trial, it may well be a dealbreaker for us, and I might well bite the bullet and get a third party server for this and plugins.

    I just did direct comparisons in Realms and Single Player, same seed, same locations, and I'd actually estimate the render distance of Realms as 8 chunks, not 12. Which..... strikes me as honestly unacceptable really.

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    Similar to a lot of other comments below. Feel a bit scammed as I had no idea the render distance was only 12 chunks.

    Definitely won't be buying another month unless this changes - let us players decide if performance is good/bad enough, don't limit it for us.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    About 1 year waiting for the update and it tells me that in the realms the distance is much smaller nor can I see the landscapes, raise it a little or I think I am going to cancel my subscription

  • 0
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    I literally just bought my realm today on bedrock. I wanted to build at y:200 and I can't see the bottom of the mountain! I can't imagine what'll look like if I build at the max build height. This is ridiculous

  • 1
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    We are really thinking about deactivating our realms subscription, it's just not worth it if you can only see such a small distance. you can't adventure, build or even mine properly sometimes with such a short render distance.  

  • 1
    Registered User commented
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    With the addition of simulated chunk distance, we should be able to have a larger render distance on Realms, agreed.

  • 1
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    I certainly hope Mojang reads these threads. I will never spend another cent on a realm if they don't add the option to change the render distance for a realm, or if they don't revert it to what it was before. I've seen other people say it here, but it almost ruins the game. Until this changes, I will never touch realms again.

  • 2
    Registered User commented
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    I would play with my friends on a custom server but you don't let us do that on console.  Can't we have a premium option that costs more and gives up to 32 chunks? I'd pay extra, take my money!

  • 3
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    I'm glad I'm not the only one bothered by this. We also cancelled our realms subscription and will be moving to another server hosting service because of this.

  • 2
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    Very disappointed in the render distance now. I've been working hard for months now on a very large world and I can't continue to work on it with settings like this. I know it will take longer to load being able to see further, but I'd take that over the short distance and the fog.

  • 1
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    I just started playing again only to discover I cannot see half of the beautiful world I spent years building and designing. What a freaking buzzkill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • 1
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    Knowing how performance works on Minecraft servers, it would be better to lock it at around 12-20 chuncks. Ideally it would operate at 16 chuncks most of the time.

  • 1
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    I subscribed to Realms Plus to host a server for friends who were getting back into the game for 1.18. After seeing the extremely limited view distance, I immediately cancelled my subscription. This is a game breaking restriction as far as I’m concerned, as you can’t even see the top of a structure built to the maximum world height from the ground.

    I was willing to pay $8 a month for simple cross platform play and to avoid the hassle of hosting my own dedicated server, but this bizarre limitation is an instant dealbreaker.

  • 1
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    Agreed. The render distance is absurdly small. It doesn't make sense to provide an aesthetic update like this and then half the distance you can actually see. Not to mention how much harder the render cap has made playing in the nether - trying to find fortresses is nigh-on impossible, just spent two hours looking for one with no luck because I can't see anything!

  • 1
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    Just tried Realms and found the render distance to be utterly disappointing. Not coming back until the Realms catches up with Minecraft proper and 60+ chunks render distance are standard.