The world of Minecraft is made up of an unending supply of blocks and resources. Such blocks are further classified into units called Chunks. The Minecraft engine works on these specific chunks and loads them according to the player’s movements.
A chunk will de-load when the distance between the player and that specific chunk increases a certain threshold. A normal chunk hides a lot of interesting info beneath it. You must load such chunks to keep your state-of-the-art machines running for as long as possible.
Attach a self-fixing chunk loader module to keep a chunk loaded. Building a successful chunk loader will keep your farms and machines automated for as long as possible.
Before building a chunk loader, let’s look at how Chunks function in Minecraft as a whole.
Chunks in Minecraft
A chunk is a procedurally generated segment of 16 x 16 portions that start from the bedrock to a staggering height of 256 blocks. Doing the math, a chunk consists of somewhere around 65,536 blocks. The Minecraft game engine loads and unloads such chunks as needed. If this baffles you, wait until you look at how many blocks there are in Minecraft! We’ve done the math, and the answer is quite staggering.
An entire map isn’t loaded forever since your computers are not fast enough to support it, and even if they do, it is a huge waste of resources. These chunks dictate the spawn of certain monsters and plants. They are also responsible for enabling and disabling automatic mechanics such as end gates and nether portals.
What is Spawn Chunks in Minecraft?
These are unique chunks that are first to load whenever you are spawned in a world. By specifying your spawn location, you tell the game engine to load that chunk before anything else.
There is a lot more technical jitter jagger on this. However, it is unnecessary to keep track of it since everything is automatic.
How To Create A Minecraft Chunk Loader
A chunk loader is a blocking mechanism that lets you load a single chunk for an indefinite amount of time. By pressing F3 + G on your keyboard, you can see the visible borders of the chunks in real time.
This contraption will load any chunk built on top of it along with the ones around it in a 3 by 3 configuration. A bigger 5 x 5 grid can also be loaded, albeit with limited functionality. Therefore, optimizing your mechanisms before using the chunk loader on them is better.
How Does a Chunk Loader Work?
The main mechanic behind this loader is the nether portal. Whenever an item or an object is tossed through the nether portal, the game engine loads that chunk in a 5 by 5-grid. Everything works in the inner 3 x 3, while the outer 2 edges can load everything except entities.
One item toss will keep the chunk loaded for 15 seconds. Therefore, it is also essential to have a module on the nether side to circulate the process for as long as possible.
How to Fix the Unloading Issue
If an item fails to indicate that the Chunk loader has failed, the configuration will automatically form and add another item into the mix to keep it running. This can happen for several reasons.
For example, you could log out while an item is thrown at the portal, causing it to vanish before reaching the other end and vice versa.
How to Make a Chunk Loader
To get started, here is all the material you will need to build this contraption:
- 10x Redstone Dust: Can be found on Jungle Temple traps or by breaking down the Redstone ores underground. Alternatively, you can add one block of Redstone in a 3×3 crafting grid.
- 6x Redstone Comparator: This can be crafted by adding three stacks of Redstone Torch with a Nether Quartz on top of three Stone blocks.
- 2x Redstone Repeater: The crafting recipe includes two Redstone torches with Redstone dust in between under three blocks of stone.
- 6x Dropper: Requires 7x cobblestone blocks to be laid on the edges with Redstone dust on the bottom middle.
- 1x Redstone Torch: Add Redstone dust to a wooden stick on the crafting table.
- 20x Obsidian: This block is mostly found in the ruined portals. It can also be artificially created by forcefully pouring a lava bucket over a water body and vice versa,
- 9x Stacks Stone Brick: A stone brick can be crafted from basic stone. Alternatively, they can be mined with a pickaxe in the following terrains:
| Stone Bricks | Strongholds |
| Cracked Stone Bricks | Igloo Basements |
| Mossy Stone Bricks | Jungle Temples and Ocean Runes |
| Chiseled Stone Bricks | Ruined Portals |
| Smooth Stone Bricks (Bedrock Exclusive) | Cannot be found naturally |
- 2x Hoppers: This item can be crafted from 5 iron ingots with a chest in between.
- 10x Glass: This can be obtained through smelting, trading, and crafting. It can be smelted with sand or red sand placed over any fuel ingredient. Alternatively, you can buy 4 glass from Journeyman-level librarian villagers for 1 emerald.
- 1x Flint and Steel: Nether Fortress and Ruined Portals have a 19% and 46.4% chance of dropping a flint and steel. You can also repair two damaged flint and steels in the crafting table. Otherwise, it can be built with an Iron Ingot and Flint.
With that said, here’s how you can build it:
Redstone is a wild card when it comes to playmaking in-game. It’s the prime example to turn to when it comes to the creative potential of Minecraft by using basic components to build something truly fascinating.
Ultimately, you can keep your in-game farms and other mechanical contraptions alive by attaching a Chunk Loader to them. The Minecraft engine runs mainly on a chunk-based system where every chunk is separate.
Therefore, you can use Redstone to crack that system to get what you want.