When spectatorsGenerateChunks is set to false, spectators won't load chunks that are not currently loaded

Updated issue MC-167228 which is linked to this report, because it fits better with my issue than this one.

My issue, which I commented in MC-167228:

This happens with 1.15 too. After dying in hardcore and respawning in spectator game mode the world is not visible. F3 shows message "Waiting for chunk...".

Also game doesn't generate area where you spawned or saved your bed point.

It's the same issue: Chunks don't render in spectator mode unless they are loaded in by another player. If you're in singleplayer, there are no other players that could load the world for you.

Hi Violine and thank you for making it clear for me 🙂

It's very clear from the code that this is the behaviour:

If the gamerule is false, then spectators do not add player tickets to chunks. This means that there is no attempt to load the chunks around the player, whether or not they are generated.

If the gamerule is true, then spectators do add player tickets to chunks, like how normal players do.

Forceloaded chunks will still be sent to the player, as the gamerule does not affect whether chunks are sent to the player, or how.

That is, there is NO ATTEMPT to try and load already generated chunks if the gamerule is false. I suspect the actual issue is with the naming of the gamerule.

how do we set the gamerule spectatorsGenerateChunks to true?

@@unknown /gamerule spectatorsGenerateChunks true

@Spottedleaf Thanks, that explains a lot.

I prefer having the old behaviour back, but a naming correction is also good.

Can confirm for 21w15a.

I really doubt this is intended. The ingame description for this gamerule is:
"Allow spectators to generate terrain",
"Generate" being the operative word.

This seems like a feature request to me unless this wasn't an issue in old versions. MC-118963 should be reopened instead.

It's not a feature request. See my comments above. Behaviour in previous versions was in fact different, albeit even more buggy (see MC-138053).

Can confirm this "bug" in 1.17.1

Still an issue with 1.18.

My goal is to retain a viewable archive of our older worlds by forcing spectator mode, while preventing the generation of new chunks via disabling `spectatorsGenerateChunks`. This should not prevent spectators from loading existing chunks.

Affects 1.18.2.

Because of this bug one must be careful not to log out of a singleplayer world in spectator mode with spectatorsGenerateChunks set to false, otherwise they won't be able to load the world again without using an NBT editor to fix things (see MC-248926).

In 1.19 and 1.19.1 Pre-Release 1.

How do I fix this issue when one of my worlds is corrupted in this way? Is there any way to get it back?

(can confirm its still a problem in 1.19)

That'd be MC-248926, and only way is editing level.dat with an NBT editor, or replacing it.

Still happening to me on 1.19, and now I'm permanently locked out of my hardcore world. Are there any updates on resolving this issue? If it's a feature, it seems like a pretty bad one... 

Please Mojang, consider fixing this very very old issue with spectator and the gamerule!  Many servers could then get rid of the whitelist and just set the default gamemode to spectator!

So the situation now is:

When spectatorsGenerateChunks=false:

• not existing chunks are not generated

• existing chunks are not loaded (in any state)

• previously loaded chunks are (slowly) unloaded until nothing is loaded (exept spawn region / other players / portals)
  => Hence, spectator can only stay in previously loaded regions (for limited time), or in the spawn area, or go along with another player
  => But spectator cannot go around and see the world! And cannot even disconnect and reconnect outside of the spawning chunks because the world wont load and render --> account is trapped! (even worce in hardcore mode)

When spectatorsGenerateChunks=true:

• world is generated when spectator goes into unknown lands

• existing chunks are loaded with full functionality (entity processing)
  => Here, spectator acts like a survival player, loading and generating the world, possibly causing increase of the world size (on disk) and causing server lag due to entity processing (e.g. visiting a Mob-Switch)

So please consider here my suggestion for a change:

gamerule: spectatorsGenerateChunks=false:

• not yet existing chunks are not generated (as is)

• but earlier generated chunks are loaded in a non-redstone-processing, and non-entity-processing state

— could be like the 3rd ring of chunks around an active portal loader where nothing is processed (which should then actually also be rendered, unlike now!)

— but unlike the portal, mobs loaded by spectator must not count towards the mob-cap
— also mobs or items must not despawn due to spectator presence

• previously loaded chunks are unloaded when spectator leaves the area (same as survival player)
  => Hence, spectator can go around the world but not damage it by any means. And can disconnect and reconnect whenever he wants.

gamerule: spectatorsGenerateChunks=true:

• leave the behaviour as is, it's the least change effort.

• Or, to make it more consistent, introduce an additional gamerule: spectatorsLoadWorld where the loading of existing chunks goes to.

So the optional additional gamerule might maybe look like:

spectatorsLoadWorld:

• if true: spectators load world like survival players 

— but only generate new chunks if also spectatorsGenerateChunks=true

• if false: spectators load world non-redstone- + non-entities-processing + no mobcap counts.

— and also generate new chunks and load them as non-processing if spectatorsGenerateChunks=true

(mho: spectators not loading existing chunks at all makes just no sense at all.)

Cheers and Thanks!

Since MC-248926 is fixed, does this still happen?

Just tried it in 1.19.3 and it still happens.

When I'm the only player in the area, as soon as I become a spectator all the chunks are unloaded and I can't even move around.

When there is another player I can move around the chunks they loaded, but I can't load any myself.

This issue is still happening in 1.19.4 and the latest snapshot (1.20 pre-5), I cannot look at previously generated chunks outside of spawn on my hardcore world.