Minecraft Realms Plus brings a much-needed feature to multiplayer

Like many games, Minecraft feels better when played with friends, and one way of enjoying it with others is getting the Realms subscription. This gives players their private server, allowing them to add 10 players, all exploring the game's blocky world. But with a new addition, Mojang has made multiplayer more enjoyable.

On April 24, 2024, the studio announced the render distance in Realms will now be changed to 20 chunks. This opens many new gameplay possibilities and makes Minecraft even more interesting.

Here’s everything about the increased rendered distance and new features added to Realms Plus.

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Minecraft Realms Plus gets an upgrade

The old rendering in Realms (Image via Mojang Studios)

For those unaware, render distance is the number of blocks the game loads for the players to see. So, if the render distance is set to 30 blocks, players can see only 30 blocks away. Beyond that point, things become a hazy blur.

One chunk in Minecraft is 16 x 16 blocks. Now that the render distance of the world in Realms Plus has been upgraded to 20 chunks, players will be able to see 320 blocks in any direction from their position.

This opens many avenues as increased visibility means players can find new locations, routes, incoming dangers, and escape routes while playing the game with friends. Since playing with friends usually includes player vs player mode, seeing further gives an advantage to all players. They can find escape routes to run away and look in the distance to spot other players.

The new rendering makes Realms a better experience (Image via Mojang Studios)

Do note that all of this comes with the Realms Plus subscription, which brings other perks as well. Apart from getting a private server to play the game, subscribers get access to over 150 items in Minecraft Marketplace Pass and three permanent world slots.

Another interesting feature added to Realms Plus is the Realms Stories, a social hub for all things Minecraft. This feature lets players share pictures of the gameplay, interact with other players on the server, and communicate with them via an in-game portal. Seeing this feature being added finally is a great relief as many players needed it.

The developers are working to completely change the game for the good. Minecraft's 1.21 update is one of the largest patches the game has seen, and it seems that the developers want to improve all its facets.