Loading more than six chunks at once

Question

I’m making the Infinite IKEA (SCP-3008, look it up, it’s pretty cool), except that’s it’s a square kilometer in area (1000 blocks by 1000 blocks) instead of being infinite. Now, in the IKEA, the day/night cycle is simulated through the lights shutting on and off. Considering my ceiling (and the cannon ceiling, probably) is at build height, using lanterns is a no-go. Therefore, I have opted for command blocks that simply alternate between a glass and iron ceiling. I say blocks plural, because each command block manages a sector of a hundred square meters. When one activates, a chain command block activated the next module, and so on.

Now here is the problem. If the command block is manipulating blocks that are out of view, you will get an error message saying that “blocks outside the world cannot be accessed”. Therefore, I need a way to load every chunk at once. Ticking areas will not work, as they cover at most sixteen hundred square meters, and you only have 10. I’ve tried altering my render distance through the game files, but to no avail. Is there a program that can either increase the ticking area’s power or force load many thousands of blocks? (A bit over a million).

Preferably, I would want this solution to be accessible to mobile, but if this is not possible, then that is fine.

Answer 1

While in the shower thinking about how to best implement a function, I stumbled across a possible solution for your problem: have many smaller command block chains that command a couple chunks around them. You could probably testfor a player and then set the blocks accordingly. The SCP you referenced will likely not have super large rooms, so you'd probably be able to get away with this system.

I'm going to keep my other answer up, because other Googlers will end up here, and because it will work in the future, but for now we're stuck with Vanilla mechanics.

Answer 2

In order for that to work, Minecraft would need to have a strong modding community.

Luckily for you Minecraft has one of the biggest modding communities. The mod you are looking for is called FTB Utilities. (There are other mods, but this one is closest what you want, I think). You will need a mod launcher, and this mod has a chunkloader utility that keeps chunks loaded. All these things should be easy to Google and set up, but if you need more guidance ask and I'll add to my answer.

One caveat: You will have to use the Java version of Minecraft, as that is the version that is modable. The Bedrock modding community is getting close, but not quite there yet. One interesting project to follow is https://nukkitx.com, perhaps you could ask their forums to see the plausibly or even solution of a chunkloader plugin at their stage.

Your save file will be compatible with Vanilla Minecraft if you switch back, but the chunks won't be auto-loaded anymore.