Java Edition hard limits

This page documents historical hard limits of mainly earlier versions of Java Edition. These are defined as boundaries which exist due to the game's code and data types, as opposed to limits which have been implemented intentionally (see World boundary) or effects due to precision loss (see Java Edition distance effects).

Precision loss errors (X/Z: >0)
There have been a large variety of precision loss errors throughout the game's history. There are generally very few in modern versions, although more can be found in earlier versions. These can be loosely defined as hard limits due to being limitations of the floating point data type itself. However, due to their variety, they are not included here.

It is certain that double-precision floating point precision loss issues will run rampant at excessive distances. However, these distances are yet to be explored in detail and would require extensive modding to even see.

Lighting breakdown (X/Z: ±33,554,432)
Beyond 2 blocks, lighting outright stops existing. All blocks appear completely black and are unaffected by sky and block light (light-emitting blocks may create a local area of light in its block space, but this cannot extend). As a result, hostile mob spawning is extremely common and mushrooms can spawn naturally. It is effectively mandatory to use the night vision effect to facilitate any reasonable exploration beyond this point.

When teleporting far distances, it is possible to find regions of full light. These will cause dark regions when blocks are updated.

Village generation limit (X/Z: ±1,073,741,824)
Beyond this point, villages seem to stop generating correctly at all. The only part which generates is the very center, sometimes with accompanying villagers - every other part is missing.

It has been sighted in some superflat worlds that strange phantom villages composed solely of block light can generate.

The reasoning for this happening remains unknown and it is not known if this is tied to jigsaw blocks.

32-bit limit (X/Z: >±2,147,483,647)
A hard limit exists at X/Z: ±2,147,483,647&mdash;the mathematical limit of a signed 32-bit integer&mdash;and attempting to travel or load chunks beyond here simply causes the game to crash. It is advisable to set the world border to at least several hundred blocks before this limit and make sure not to teleport past this.

Attempts have been made to exceed this limit and allow terrain and the game to work further out. However, no publicly accessible mods to do this currently exist, and creating such a mod would require refactoring an unfathomable amount of vanilla code anyway.

Lighting breakdown (Y: ±2,048)
Like with above, lighting will stop working at 2,048 blocks. The effects may be slightly different in this case however, as full light has been noticed at negative coordinates.

Spawn chunk glitch (X/Z: ±524,288–X/Z: ±1,073,741,824)
From Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 to Beta 1.7.3 inclusive, if the player moves to 524,288 on only one axis and keeps their position along the other axis near zero, the player can allow the chunk they originally spawned in to re-appear. If done enough times, once the player reaches X/Z: 33,554,432, trees and entities can reappear inside the Far Lands, even though vegetation and entities are not supposed to generate out this far because of the block limit at X/Z: 32,000,000. However, because of the block render limit at X/Z: 2,147,483,519, the maximum distance that trees and entities can spawn at is X/Z: 1,073,741,824. If the player does happen to generate natural terrain beyond X/Z: 32,000,000, then any trees or other entities that spawn begin to decay but the image remains frozen in place. For example: a flower generated in the fake chunks drops the flower item as if it has decayed, but the flower still appears in place, unable to be removed. It does this infinitely and causes countless entities to begin spawning, causing lag spikes.

32-bit limit (X/Z: >±2,147,483,647)
At X/Z: ±2,147,483,519, blocks are no longer rendered, giving way to an empty sky. At X/Z: ±2,147,483,647 (maximum 32-bit integer), the game is likely to crash or the player gets stuck. However, chunks still generate along with clouds. Fast graphics clouds are however insanely stretched. It is very dangerous to reach X/Z ±4,294,967,296 or higher, as the chances of crashing (assuming the player has 64-bit Java) are extremely high, and get higher the further the player goes.

Cloud render limit (X/Z: ±25,769,803,000–±25,769,804,000)
Between X/Z: ±25,769,803,000 and X/Z: ±25,769,804,000 clouds stop rendering (Varies between maps, but they disappear somewhere in between these distances. Does not apply for fast graphics clouds). Beyond here, only the sky, sun, moon and void remain.

Chunk overwrite limit (X/Z: >±34,359,738,368)
If one makes it to X/Z: ±34,359,738,368 (235), away from spawn, chunks start getting overwritten. As a result, this is the end of chunk generation in Minecraft. As soon as this limit is approached, the game freezes and crashes, resulting in an Out of memory screen. However, in some cases, the player may be able to move past this limit for a few seconds before Minecraft crashes. A chunk is 16 × 16 blocks, and 34,359,738,368 = 2,147,483,648 × 16, so the chunk coordinates are 32-bit integers as well.

64-bit integer limit (X/Z: >±9,223,372,036,854,775,807)
The highest signed value for 64-bit machines is X/Z ±9,223,372,036,854,775,807. However, despite this being the limit any machine can go, it may not be possible (through in-game methods) to go near this point, since the vast majority of people experience instant client freeze, followed by the client crashing. In some cases, it is possible to teleport to it however this is difficult. The only way that this can work with a high consistency is if one uses Cheat Engine to edit a players position to be at this limit. If one manages to make it this far, the only things that exist are the Sun, Moon and the sky, as shown by one user that managed to actually be out this far.

Previously, there was a theory that at this distance there would be no sun or moon, the sky would be pitch black and the clouds would glow oddly. This has since been debunked as false, as clouds would disappear long before this coordinate would be reached.

>64-bit floating point limit (X/Z: >±1.797693134862315907729305190789&times;10 )
On August 1, 2018, a YouTube user named "Aura Gunner" made a video showing the player teleporting to 1.797693134862315907729305190789 x 10^308 (past 21024) on the X-axis. Because 1.797693134862315907729305190789 x 10^308 is the maximum 64-bit floating-point integer, it caused the player's X coordinate to roll over to read "Infinity". It is impossible to go further since this is the physical limit at which Java can render, and the game always crashes at this distance. It is possible to get this far, however, Cheat Engine must be used to edit the coordinates in a way that allows continuous teleportation.

(Y: <&minus;2,147,483,647)
In Beta 1.7.3, as the player falls below Y=&minus;2,147,483,647, the darkness of being in the void disappears. Instead of darkness, the void now looks like an empty world. It has a sky, a sun, and a moon, and they are all visible depending on the time of day. Despite this, the player still receives damage from the void.

Map editors
When viewing the Far Lands in a 3D Minecraft map editor, the player encounters errors. In MCEdit, the selection cubes start to distort and the map distorts when viewing. In addition, when the player rotates their view around a selected area, blocks are not lined up right and change how poorly lined up they are at random, making the whole world seem to shake.