Every player loads a square of chunks around them. view-distance sets how far the server sends chunks; simulation-distance sets how far the server ticks them (mobs move, crops grow, redstone runs). Both multiply with player count.
Rules of thumb
| RAM | Players | view-distance | simulation-distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 GB | up to 8 | 6-8 | 4-5 |
| 4 GB | up to 20 | 8 | 5-6 |
| 8 GB | up to 40 | 10 | 6 |
Going from 10 to 16 view distance loads 2.5× as many chunks per player. Players rarely notice 8 versus 12; your TPS does.
Set them
server.properties → view-distance=8, simulation-distance=6, max-players=20. Restart. On Paper you can also set no-tick-view-distance behaviour per world in paper-world-defaults.yml and let players see far while the server only ticks close chunks. That is what simulation-distance already does since 1.18.
Player limit
max-players is a soft limit you choose; we do not charge per slot. Set it to what your RAM handles comfortably. A full server that lags is worse than a queue.