The Benefits of Preloading Chunks with Chunky

Today, we’re going to delve into a fascinating aspect of Minecraft server chunk preloading. Now, you might be wondering why you would want to preload chunks, and that is a fair question. In short, preloading chunks will result in smoother gameplay.

In this blog post, we will go over the basics of why you should preload chunks. However, if you are ready to immediately begin the process of preloading chunks, you might want to read our How to preload your Minecraft server chunks guide in our Documentation hub.

Specifically, we will be exploring the advantages that Chunky, the powerful Bukkit plugin, brings to the table. So, grab your pickaxe and join us on this journey as we uncover the benefits of preloading chunks in Minecraft.

Better Performance

One of the most significant advantages of chunk preloading with Chunky is the improved gameplay performance it offers. By preloading chunks, you ensure that the game loads and renders only the necessary sections of the Minecraft world, reducing the strain on system resources.

This leads to smoother gameplay, reduced lag, and an overall enhanced gaming experience. When starting a new Minecraft world, chunk preloading can significantly streamline the world generation process. Chunky allows you to preload specific sections of the world before you even set foot in them.

Preloading chunks are especially helpful for servers where you have multiple people playing and exploring at the same time. If chunks are loaded in real time, it would cause the server to load chunks for each player if they move in separate directions.

Full Control

If you’re running a Minecraft server, Chunky’s chunk preloading feature can be a game-changer for both you and your players. Chunky offers easy access and full control of settings that will let you optimize the server for a better overall gameplay experience.

Using Chunky on your server is done by executing commands in the server console on the dashboard. You can also execute these commands in-game by pressing T to access the chat. This gives you the ability to execute commands on the fly without having to access the server console.

However, we recommend that you run these commands from the server console in the dashboard as it will provide a lot more information compared to the in-game chat. Executing the commands in-game would require you to be a server operator, or you would need a management plugin such as LuckPerms. Should that be of interest you can take a look at our guide How to install and use LuckPerms.

Below you will find a list of commands to be used with Chunky.

Command	Description
/chunky start	Starts a new chunk generation task from the current selection
/chunky pause	Pauses the current chunk generation tasks, and saves progress
/chunky continue	Continues running current or saved chunk generation tasks
/chunky cancel	Stops the current chunk generation tasks, and cancels progress
/chunky world [world]	Sets the currently selected world
/chunky shape [shape]	Set the shape to generate
/chunky center [<x> <z>]	Sets the current center block location
/chunky radius <radius>	Sets the current radius
/chunky worldborder	Set the center and radius to match the vanilla world border in the selected world
/chunky spawn	Set the center to the spawn point
/chunky corners <x1> <z1> <x2> <z2>	Set the selection by corner coordinates
/chunky pattern <pattern>	Set the preferred generation pattern
/chunky selection	Display the current selection
/chunky silent	Toggle displaying update messages
/chunky quiet <interval>	Set the quiet interval in seconds for update messages
/chunky progress	Display pre-generation progress in-game for all tasks
/chunky reload	Reloads the configuration
/chunky trim	Delete chunks outside selection

These are all the commands available to be used with Chunky. Even though we have included a description to each command, you might want to know more about how to use them effectively. For that, the Chunky Wiki is great, as it will go into all the details of every aspect.

Conclusion

There you have it, folks. A short introduction to how you can preload chunks with Chunky. As you can see, it is a very powerful plugin and pretty much a must if you have a server with multiple players playing simultaneously.

We could have written a lot more on this subject, but we like to keep our blog post to a certain limit, so it will be easier for our readers to digest. Thank you for taking the time and reading this far. Have a great day!