What is Simulation Distance in the Minecraft 1.19 update?

In Minecraft 1.19, players will have a few audio and video settings to play with. This inclusion is a welcome addition to the already extensive list of settings that players can change in the game.

Like every other game, Minecraft also has a detailed video settings tab from which players can alter several graphics-related settings, including Simulation Distance. Many new players who are jumping into the game for the first time might have some confusion about what Simulation Distance actually is. Fortunately, help is at hand.

When players enter the game, they will be able to see the world generate ahead of them as they move forward. Players can easily change this by tweaking the Render Distance option.

But when it comes to Simulation Distance, it essentially means whether that rendered area is "active" or not. Several things like mob spawning, random ticks, lava and water flowing, etc., can be controlled with these settings.

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Things to know about Simulation Distance setting in Minecraft 1.19

There is a difference between chunks being visible and being active. This is the main difference between Render Distance and Simulation Distance. Render Distance will make chunks visible but not active.

When players jump into Minecraft 1.19, they will be able to see far from their current position, but those far-off areas can simply load the blocks. They are inactive in terms of mob spawning, mob movements, natural calamities, weather change, liquid flow, etc. Increasing Simulation Distance will allow the game to facilitate activity when it comes to distant regions.

Since players cannot really see these details when they are far away, the Simulation Distance can be set to low to increase the overall FPS (frames per second) of the game.

Loading entities, activating ticks, simulating weather, and liquid flow can be heavy on the device; hence, if players are experiencing major lag spikes while moving around, reducing distance settings can help.

Simulation Distance description in Sodium mod video settings (Image via Minecraft 1.19)

When players go to the video settings in Minecraft 1.19, they will see the Distance Simulation setting near the render distance slider. Here, they will be able to slide and set how many active simulated chunks they want.

Also, Simulation Distance does not need to be equal to Render Distance. The Render Distance can be higher than the Simulation Distance simply because players will be looking to see the biome or terrain ahead of them rather than hunting for mobs from too far.

The Render Distance should mostly be more than the Simulation Distance.

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A couple of mods that can improve quality of Simulation Distance without affecting the FPS

Players can experience some significant FPS drops if they set this setting to high; however, they can counter this by installing some brilliant mods that are particularly made to improve video settings in the game. Mods like Sodium and Optifine are two of the most well-known mods to use if players want to use heavy distance simulation without affecting the FPS. Players can also increase the Render Distance and even use shaders to make the game look better.