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I am wondering if anyone has discovered a way to increase the view distance to a much larger range. The highest setting is not very far and I can see strange blocks in the distance floating on the edge of what is visible. Ever played Mario Galaxy or Sunshine? Stuff in the distance sooo far away was still rendered. I think the PC could do this no problem, just need a way to tweak the client.

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    Most games render things far away with separate lower-polygon models, and lower-resolution textures, which I don't think minecraft (being developed by one person, from scratch) does. Also, figuring out what NOT to render is inherently more difficult in minecraft - in, for instance, Mario Galaxy, the answer to that question can be precomputed when making the map, while it obviously can't in minecraft. Because of this, it might not run as well as you think it should.
    – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
    Oct 10, 2010 at 6:17
  • I've seen them do it though but it was outdated. And it yo usay it 'obviously can't in minecraft' but that just means 'as it is now' because they could always change the code.. I'm not sure how you're coming up with this limitation. Really we just need the client to request more data from the map or map server, it may require the generation of more tiles when traveling, but I am hard pressed to think that this engine cannot be optimized to pre-render much more terrain.
    – MetaGuru
    Oct 12, 2010 at 14:10
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    I'm afraid my first instinct was to reply "Squint!".
    – Stu Pegg
    Jan 16, 2011 at 2:03

4 Answers 4

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+100

Another way you can edit your render distance without tampering with class files yourself is to download a mod that does it for you. This mod has a 2x render distance and a 1.5x render distance version. Additionally, it offers the Better Cloud Mod.

Here is an image the author of the mod posted while using his mod:

enter image description here

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    why are the clouds considered better? the are so fluffy, not blocky anymore...
    – Zommuter
    Apr 14, 2011 at 6:24
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    I guess they consider 'realistic' synonymous with 'better'... though one then has to wonder why they're messing around with Minecraft of all things.
    – Rushyo
    Apr 15, 2011 at 15:26
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Yup, you can edit your class files (an advanced mod, for sure) and make the distance beyond 512 blocks, the current value for "far".

...and there's a tutorial on world of minecraft for doing just that.

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    Unfortunately, that tutorial refers to an older version of minecraft. Since then the obfuscated class names have changed.
    – yatima2975
    Oct 11, 2010 at 9:38
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    There's a thread going around on the mapping & modding forums that is attempting to track the current contents of the class files, even though they'll change again soon. Either way, just greping for '512' should narrow it down to a file or two.
    – authenticgeek
    Oct 12, 2010 at 0:18
  • I did that, and I think you may also want to look at class fr, and the number 400...
    – yatima2975
    Oct 12, 2010 at 10:35
  • @yatima did you have luck with this? I grepped for 400 and did not find it in the fr.class, can you add more details?
    – MetaGuru
    Oct 12, 2010 at 15:38
  • He may mean line 400, I think the default 'far' distance is 512.
    – authenticgeek
    Oct 12, 2010 at 15:44
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Since this question has been asked and answered, the state of Minecraft mods has moved on. The current gold standard in graphic improvement mods is Optifine, which is featureful, customisable, easy to install, regularly updated to address bugs and maintain compatibility with the latest version of Minecraft, and widely compatible with other mods.

Among its many features is an improved rendering engine which improves performance, and an improved draw distance that takes advantage of the rendering cycles that are saved by the improved renderer. The highest setting is now Extreme, which doubles the draw distance of the original Far, and it can be adjusted even more, in 1-chunk increments, so that you can find the perfect balance of distant visibility and performance.

The new Video Settings menu with Optifine installed. The render distance is set to "Far +80"

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You go to your options, go to video options, and you'll see 'Render Distance'. Yours is probably on 'tiny', so click it until it gets to 'far'.

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    I'm quite sure the person asking the question has already looked at the options - "The highest setting is not very far"
    – Private Pansy
    Feb 25, 2013 at 0:00

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