Reduce lag (chunks, entities, redstone)

A server below 20 TPS (ticks per second) shows up as rubber-banding blocks, jittery mobs, and delayed actions. The lag most often comes from loaded chunks, accumulated entities, and massive redstone.

Cause / The problem

Every tick the server computes all chunks within simulation-distance, all entities, and all active redstone. The larger the area, the more the load grows exponentially.

Solution

1. Lower the distances in server.properties:

   view-distance=8
   simulation-distance=4

   view-distance controls chunks sent to the client, simulation-distance controls calculations (mobs, crops). The latter has the biggest TPS impact.
2. Switch to Paper if you’re on Spigot/Vanilla. Paper introduces major optimizations in paper-global.yml and paper-world.yml (entity-activation-range, hopper, chunk GC).
3. Limit mob caps in paper-world.yml:

   entities:
     spawning:
       monster-spawn-limit: 50
       animal-spawn-limit: 10

4. Clean up excess entities. Detect clusters with a targeted /minecraft:kill @e[type=!player,r=50], or use ClearLag to automatically purge ground items and surplus mobs.
5. Pre-generate chunks with a plugin like Chunky. New players exploring wild areas will no longer trigger generation spikes:

   /chunky world world
   /chunky radius 5000
   /chunky start

6. Spot heavy redstone farms. Large item sorters and iron/column farms generate hundreds of updates per tick. Profile them with /spark health and limit them or move them away from active areas.

Monitor TPS continuously with /spark health or the panel dashboard: a healthy server stays between 19.5 and 20 TPS.