How do they function with multiplayer? Which is best for performance? Shaders? Here’s what I could figure out, summarized. [You’re welcome,](https://twitter.com/yungnickyoung/status/1523435908145778688?lang=en) u/yungnickyoung. ^(thank) ~~^(god)~~ ^(yung for yung mods.)
# Which is best for multiplayer?
It seems like **all 3 have the same limitation** of not being able to load chunks **outside of the server’s view distance** ***at first***, although **Bobby** has a workaround.
>**Distant Horizons:**
>
>Q: Is there multiplayer support? A: Yes, and LOD chunks will save between sessions.However, currently the mod is only client side so you have to explore chunks for Distant Horizons to save them.
>
>**Bobby:**
>
>It accomplishes this goal by recording and storing (in .minecraft/.bobby) all chunks sent by the server which it then can load and display at a later point when the chunk is outside the server’s view-distance.
>
>Optionally, it can also use an existing single player world to load in chunks which the server has never sent before. To make use of this feature, simply rename the world folder (not the name of the world! the name of its folder!) to “bobby-fallback”.
>
>**Farsight:**
>
>Farsight is a client-side util which lets you see farther on servers than the servers view distance.Â
>
>It works by having the client keep the chunk data, even when the server unloads that chunk up to a max distance of 32 chunks (configurable).
Note that **Bobby & Distant Horizons cache all the chunks you load to disk. This takes up significant disk space.** If you disconnect from the server or restart your game, the cached chunks will still be there. [Farsight](https://www.reddit.com/r/ModdedMinecraft/comments/s67wga/farsight_vs_bobby_which_is_best_non_server_sided/) unloads chunks when they’re outside the client-side view distance; It **doesn’t cache them.** If you go disconnect from the server, when you reconnect they will no longer be there.
The tradeoff is, “**\[Farsight\] is more lightweight**/simpler \[than Bobby\] and does not do any disk saving/loading which is more complex and has its own issues” ([x](https://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeast/comments/o4tpja/comment/h2je082/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)). This is corroborated by poll results [here](https://github.com/Fabulously-Optimized/fabulously-optimized/issues/46).
**For Multiplayer, Distant Horizons is best overall as a client-side mod.\*\*** It should be less resource-intensive (vs Bobby) and allows you to actually see the chunks (vs Farsight). Bobby caches chunks at full scale and Distant Horizons will cache them and display them as LOD ([x](https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/render-distance.308808/)).
**\*\***Jury is still out on **Farsight** combined with high server render distances and server-side mods [Dynamic View](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/dynamic-view)/[Limited Chunkloading](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/limited-chunkloading). This may actually **overcome the limitation of server view distance and allow unexplored, far away chunks to be viewed.** The addition of Dynamic View/Limited Chunkloading is necessary, as if the server view distance is set too high, server performance is significantly affected & clients can time-out. Comment if you’ve tried this!!
# Forge or Fabric?
* **Farsight: Both Forge & Fabric** in separate .jar
* **Distant Horizons: Both Forge & Fabric** in the same .jar
* **Bobby: Fabric only**
# Versions (as of 9/30/2023):
* **Farsight: 1.12.2!!**, 1.16.5 to 1.20.1
* **Distant Horizons:** 1.16.5 to 1.19.4
* **Bobby:** 1.16.5 to 1.20.2
# Bonus Info:
* [**Shaders**](https://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeast/comments/14z2j7g/farsight_vs_bobby/) work with all 3 but are more reliable with Bobby/Farsight. Distant Horizons does not officially support shaders, but Complimentary works with it.
* Farsight is closed-source & by the same creator of Performant (also closed-source).
# Similar solutions:
* Tuinity allows for per-player render distances on the server side and [nonticking vs ticking chunks,](https://www.reddit.com/r/admincraft/comments/fel14u/tuinity_new_nonticking_chunks_feature_and_why_you/) but is a **Paper** fork only
* Fartherviewdistance plugin for **Spigot** sends chunks slower to clients to prevent timing out ([x](https://www.reddit.com/r/admincraft/comments/s2yqyw/greater_render_distance_client_side_options/))
* Distant Horizons is more optimized than Farplanetwo ([x](https://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeast/comments/ytt9tj/which_is_the_better_mod_for_lowend_pcs_distant/))
​
Let me know what y’all think! I’m hoping Reddit will do its magic and correct anything I got wrong.
by ryenaut