These two settings are confused constantly, and the confusion costs performance in both directions — people lower the one that was not the problem, and lose the view without gaining the ticks.
The difference
| View distance | Simulation distance | |
|---|---|---|
| Controls | How far chunks are sent to the client | How far chunks actually tick |
| Affects | Bandwidth, client memory, how far you can see | Mobs, crops, redstone, hoppers, furnaces |
| Cost is mostly | Network and chunk loading | CPU, every single tick |
| Lower it when | Joins are slow, bandwidth is high | TPS is below 20 |
Which one to lower
If your TPS is fine but joins are slow and the server uses a lot of bandwidth, view distance is your lever.
If your TPS is below 20, simulation distance is the one that matters. Ticking a chunk means running every mob, crop, hopper and redstone circuit in it, and that cost is paid twenty times a second whether anyone is looking or not.
Sensible values
- Start from what people actually notice
Most players do not notice view distance dropping from 12 to 8. Almost everyone notices it at 4, because the world visibly ends.
- Keep simulation distance at or below view distance
Simulating chunks the player cannot see is work nobody benefits from. Paper handles this sensibly, but setting simulation higher than view is pure waste.
- Try view 8 / simulation 6 on a busy server
That combination keeps the world looking normal while cutting the ticking area by more than half compared to the defaults.
- Use no-tick view distance if you want distance without cost
Paper can send chunks to the client beyond the simulation range. Players see far; the server does not tick it. This is the setting that gets you both.
Some plugins vary view distance per player based on TPS. It works, but it means your server's behaviour changes under load in ways that are hard to reason about later. Fix the underlying cost first and use dynamic distance as a safety net, not as the plan.
That is a reasonable starting point and it is also what most «lag guides» quietly assume you have changed. Check what yours actually says before concluding a setting did nothing.