BetterView

BetterView is a high-performance solution for Minecraft servers running on Paper and Fabric platforms. This plugin significantly extends the standard server view distance while employing advanced optimization techniques to maintain server performance.

Key Features

Through its unique processing architecture, BetterView provides:

• Asynchronous player processing in networking threads for fast updates
• Direct chunk reading from disk without full memory loading
• Optimized chunk state tracking and chunk iteration
• Configurable chunk data caching for fast access
• Flexible limitations on chunk sending and generation
• Individual settings for each dimension
• Support for both local and dedicated Fabric servers
• Lightweight anti-Xray protection for extended chunks

Performance Example

The screenshot below demonstrates performance when loading with a view distance of 127 chunks. The shot was taken at coordinates 0 2250 0 in the End dimension with fog disabled. On an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor, all visible chunks were transmitted to the client in approximately 12 seconds with a cold cache and about 9 seconds with a warm cache.

Compatibility

For Fabric installation, this mod requires Moonrise to function.

Installation and Usage

For Paper servers, place the JAR file in the plugins folder and restart the server. For Fabric servers or clients, place the JAR file in the mods directory and restart. By default, BetterView configures a view distance of 32 chunks for each dimension.

Configuration

On first launch, the plugin automatically creates a configuration file. On Paper it will be located at plugins/BetterView/config.yml, on Fabric - as betterview.yml within the world directory. Available settings include:

• config-version: do not modify this option
• integrated-server-render-distance: relevant only for singleplayer worlds (default: -1, disabled)
• Global settings (enable/disable, chunk generation and sending limits)
• Settings for specific dimensions with fine-tuning options for view distance, queue sizes, cache duration, and anti-Xray parameters

When using the anti-Xray feature, note that the plugin implements a simplified version that doesn't check if blocks are exposed to air. This means that all modes other than HIDE might not appear perfectly natural.

Cache duration should be adjusted based on server type: static lobby servers can use longer caching durations than dynamic SMP servers.