Lag
"is anyone else getting lag i cant even break shit to make my penis" -
nachabs22
"Lag is a figment of your imagination" -
TheGriffinLord
"the server lags because not enough souls have been fed into the soul reactor" -
Scampi_
"The lag is a defense mechanism to tiktokers who have an attention span of 0.1 milliseconds" -
HZombieMan
MinecraftOnline is very laggy, with the current primary reason behind the lag being the server's unoptimized software. The server runs custom plugins using Sponge, which need to be updated by volunteer developers. As such, not every plugin gets the time needed to fully optimize them, leading to performance issues over time.
History of lag
The server has always been fairly laggy for most of it's life, with its most infamous period of lag occurring during it's 1.7.10 era. During this time, the lag was considered by many to be unplayable, with even basic actions like eating, placing blocks, and mining taking several seconds and attempts just to process. This was primarly due to the server using a deprecated plugin API software, Canary, that was no longer being updated. This prompted an API change on top of updating to a newer version, leading to the 1.12.2 update.
While the server was finally updated to 1.12.2 on April 3rd, 2021, the infamous lag still remained, although in a diminished way. Initially, it was arguably worse than it was during 1.7.10 due to the increased player count the server got, as well as due to new chunks being generated due to the border expanding. Additionally, various server plugins and software were still getting ported, updated, or polished up, so optimizations took some time post-update to go through. Eventually, the average started getting better as more code optimizations were done, as well as an eventual hardware upgrade. The average TPS has generally improved since the 1.12.2 update, with the average often being around 6-10 TPS, if not a little higher sometimes.
What causes lag
As briefly stated before, the general primary cause of lag is the server's software.
Unoptimized or buggy plugins tend to be the common culprit when it's a software issue, usually with an overlooked mechanic causing the TPS to drop or a culmination of mechanics building up. CraftBook is often considered a good example of this, particularly since a good chunk of its functionality is undocumented and because its used often in builds, sometimes to the point of creating lag. Despite this, great strides have been made to optimize the plugin and it is considerably less laggier than previous version.
The server's plugin modding API (Sponge) can also cause some lag as well. Unlike other modding APIs for servers, such as Paper, Sponge does not come with as many performance fixes, trading off better performance for more freedom to the devs using its API. This can be helpful, as many issues are fairly patchable, but it can also lead to unique and hard to find issues that most other APIs would have already patched. MCO is also running on a deprecated version of Sponge (7.3) that is also modified to fit MCO needs. Once the server updates past 1.12.2, this shouldn't be as much of a cause for lag due to many of the performance issues being fixed.
However, lag is not limited to the server's software. During a stretch of 2023, the server hardware (specifically the SSDs) were wearing down and failing, causing excess lag, disconnect issues, and server crashes. This was later fixed after the migration to Resolute, but the server's hardware could become a problem again if neglected.
There are many other sources of lag, such as Minecraft memory leaks or even player traffic. Below is a brief general list of what else causes lag:
- Player count - Increase of players on the server causes an increase of chunks being loaded, making the server laggier the more players are on and the more spread out they are.
- Redstone contraptions - Many older builds use antiquated redstone techniques that cause more lag when scaled up. This is often seen with builds using excess redstone dust or redstone lamps, especially when they are coupled with a clock that turns them on and off repeatedly, generating block updates that cause lag.
- Unoptimized farms - Farms that create entities can end up creating too many or causing a buildup of them, creating several thousand in the worst cases. Better optimized designs have made some of them less laggy, as well as the server's lower entity activation and render distance range, but caution should still be had when making a larger farm.
- Memory leaks or lack of restarts - Due to problems in 1.12.2, the server needs to be restarted at least every couple of days (1-2) to avoid the lag from building up. Waiting too long can often make the server crawl, even at longer player counts.
Effects of lag
The most direct effect of lag is the delay of in-game processes, with the game being slow to respond to player input. These are affected by the TPS, ticks per second, of the server. The TPS should ideally be at 20 TPS, in which case Minecraft runs as it should. If it goes any lower than that it starts experiencing delays or weird behavior.
During 1.7.10, these effects were their most severe, with processes taking a few seconds at best and not happening at all at worst. Block lag used to be the most annoying effect felt, in which the blocks being broken or placed would lag back, undoing any progress done. This was circumvented by using the /sit command, significantly reducing the block lag. This is not longer an issue, with block rollbacks only really happening during rollbacks from crashes.
Below is a general list of what can happen when there is lag
- Item desyncing - Items can refuse to be crafted, to be stored, be moved, or be collected. Often requiring the client to reconnect to fix it.
- Contraption hangup - Redstone or craftbook contraptions can break or function slower than usual. More noticeable for contraptions in farms that deal with entities or require specific timing.
- Ghost blocks - Blocks appear broken to the client but are not broken on the server. Client mods exist to reload these, but reconnecting also fixes this. More common when using haste to mine.
- Delayed damage - Sometimes damage is delayed for a period, almost always with fall damage. This allows the player to initially walk around normally, only for them to then get flung off and then take the damage.
- Chunks loading - Not as common, but under extreme loads the server won't load chunks.
- Server crashes - Usually there is a point where the server just gives up and restarts from the lag.
How to deal with the lag
While annoying, the lag nowadays usually doesn't hinder gameplay enough to for the player to have to do a workaround. If what you are doing it being affected by lag signicifcantly enough, such as farming dungeon mobs, its best to just wait for better TPS and do something else in the mean time, like exploring or building.
Using the best gear allows for an easier to when killing mobs, avoiding spending too much time getting in hits on them. It also avoid any possible block lag from using lesser tools (though, this is less of an issue now).
Restarting the server tends to bring up the TPS for a good while, though this is only temporary and typically only gets done every other day.
The best and most permanent way to deal with lag is helping the dev team by coding optimizations or updating plugins.
How to prevent lag
The easiest way to prevent lag is by not building laggy farms or contraptions. Making sure your farm is optimized, such as by having a more technical member double check your work, will reduce the load they might put on the server. Letting others know they have a build that causes lag and how to fix it will also help with this, just be sure you are knowledgeable about such subjects before giving advise, or you will look like an idiot.
If farms or contraptions do cause lag, staff members may teleport accounts away from the machine to reduce lag. Admins may also disable or remove them without notice. Repeated attempts to build these farm or contraptions, or purposefully creating some machine to cause lag will almost certainly result in a ban.
Logging out when afking also reduces the lag, especially if when not afking at Spawn.
The most effective and permanent way to prevent lag is, again, helping out the dev team.