Summary
- 26.3 Snapshot 9 arrived a day early, on 17 August 2026, with new Realms customisation.
- Owners can raise render distance up to 25 chunks and set render and simulation distance separately.
- Separating the two is the important part – they cost very different amounts.
Two settings that look similar and are not. Render distance controls how far you can see. Simulation distance controls how far the world is actually running – entities moving, redstone firing, crops growing. Until this snapshot, Realms owners could not tune them independently.
Why the separation matters
Render distance is mostly a client cost. Simulation distance is a server cost, and on a Realm the server is a fixed piece of hardware shared by everyone on it.
Being able to set a high render distance with a modest simulation distance gives you a world that looks large and does not tick itself to death. That combination is what experienced server owners configure first, and Realms owners could not do it until now.
Twenty-five chunks
That is a substantial view distance for a hosted service – enough that a build is visible from meaningfully far away, which changes how a shared world feels. Landmarks become navigational, and the map stops being a corridor of loaded chunks.
The cost lands on players’ machines rather than on the Realm, which is why it can be offered at all.
What to set
If your group plays on mixed hardware, a high render distance with a lower simulation distance is the safe configuration: people with strong machines get the view, and the server keeps ticking cleanly for everyone.
If your group builds redstone or runs farms, simulation distance is the one that matters and should come first. The trade is the same one described in the server tuning guide, with fewer levers.
A snapshot that arrived early
Mojang noted this one “couldn’t wait until Tuesday” and shipped on the Monday. Small detail, and a reasonable sign of a cycle running ahead of schedule – release followed four weeks later, on time.
What render distance costs a server
Render distance is a client setting with a server bill. Every chunk in range has to be sent, kept loaded and ticked for entities, and the cost grows with the square of the distance rather than linearly.
Going from 16 to 25 chunks is not a 56 percent increase in work. It is closer to a 140 percent increase in loaded area.
Which resource this actually consumes
RAM holds the chunks; the CPU ticks what is in them. Which of those you run out of first depends on your world – a redstone-heavy base and an empty exploration world at the same render distance produce very different load.
This is the single most common misdiagnosis in server hosting, and what actually limits a Minecraft server is the piece to read before buying more of the wrong thing.
The client side of it
A higher server distance does nothing if your client cannot build the chunks fast enough, which shows up as stutter while flying rather than low frame rate standing still.
That is a distinct problem with distinct fixes, and most of the popular advice for it does not work. What actually helps with chunk loading stutter separates the two.
Recommendations
- Raise it in steps and watch tick time, not frame rate.
- Lower simulation distance before lowering render distance – it is usually the real cost.
- Exploration sessions cost far more than base sessions at the same setting.
Announced 17 August 2026 for Realms.
Render distance versus simulation distance
Render distance is what you can see. Simulation distance is what is actually running – mobs moving, crops growing, redstone ticking. They are separate settings and simulation distance is by far the more expensive of the two.
If a server is struggling, lowering simulation distance to eight and leaving render distance high gives you most of the view for a fraction of the cost. Distant chunks render as scenery, which is all most players want from them anyway.
What 25 chunks is good for
- Screenshots and build tours, where the horizon is the point.
- Elytra travel, where short distance means flying into unloaded terrain.
- Large builds seen from outside, which is how most of them are actually viewed.
It is worth much less in caves, in the Nether, and in a base you spend most of your time inside.
Context
Announced 17 August 2026, part of a summer run of Realms improvements that also included invite codes on 12 August.
One caveat before raising anything: measure first. A server that feels slow because of a chunk-loading problem on one player’s machine will feel exactly as slow after you double the render distance, and now it will cost more too. Tick time is the number that tells you what the server is doing; frame rate is the number that tells you what one client is doing. Confusing them is how people end up paying for RAM that fixes nothing.
Images: Distant Horizons project gallery on Modrinth.