Minecraft Locator Bar Range: Transmit, Receive, and Icon Distances

The real Minecraft Locator Bar range numbers: the waypoint_transmit_range and waypoint_receive_range attributes, the 120 degree window, icon thresholds.

最近更新: 2026-07-23

The short answer to "what is the Minecraft Locator Bar range" is that there is no meaningful limit by default. In Java Edition every player has a base transmit range and a base receive range of 60,000,000 blocks, which is the maximum the attribute allows and far beyond the size of any world you will play in. If you can see nothing on your Locator Bar, distance is almost never the cause.

The interesting part is that the range is fully configurable, per entity, with a normal command. That is what makes the Locator Bar usable for survival multiplayer servers, minigames, and manhunt-style games where an unlimited-range player tracker would ruin the point.

The two attributes that control range

Java Edition 1.21.6 added two attributes alongside the Locator Bar:

waypoint_transmit_range — the distance at which an entity displays as a waypoint on other players' Locator Bars.

Default: 0.0
Minimum: 0.0
Maximum: 60000000.0
Player base value: 60,000,000

waypoint_receive_range — the maximum distance from a player to a waypoint at which that waypoint is drawn on their own Locator Bar. Only players have this attribute.

Default: 0.0
Minimum: 0.0
Maximum: 60000000.0
Player base value: 60,000,000

The attribute default of 0.0 and the player base value of 60,000,000 are both correct and are not a contradiction: 0.0 is the fallback for entity types that do not define the attribute, while players ship with the base value already set to the maximum. In plain terms, every player transmits to everyone and receives from everyone until you change it.

Mobs are the reverse. A mob's transmit range starts at 0, which is exactly why mobs do not appear on the bar. Give a mob a transmit range above zero and it starts broadcasting waypoint packets to nearby receivers within that range.

Setting the range with commands

The official 25w17a changelog gives these four examples, which are still the canonical way to do it:

/attribute @s minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range base set 0

Prevents a player from transmitting — this hides them from everyone.

/attribute @s minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range base set 80

Lets a player transmit up to 80 blocks, hiding them from players further away than that.

/attribute @s minecraft:waypoint_receive_range base set 0

Prevents a player from receiving, which effectively turns off their own Locator Bar without touching anyone else's.

/attribute @s minecraft:waypoint_receive_range base set 120

Lets a player see only Locator Bar dots within 120 blocks.

To restore the default on a player, set the value back to the maximum:

/attribute @s minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range base set 60000000
/attribute @s minecraft:waypoint_receive_range base set 60000000

Both attributes take an entity selector, so you can apply them to everyone at once with @a, or bake them into a repeating command block for a persistent server rule.

A worked example: a 150-block radar server

If you want the Locator Bar to behave like a short-range radar rather than a global tracker, set both sides on every player as they join:

/attribute @a minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range base set 150
/attribute @a minecraft:waypoint_receive_range base set 150

Both sides matter. Transmission and reception are checked independently: a player only appears on your bar if their transmit range covers the distance between you and your receive range covers it too. The effective visibility distance is therefore the smaller of the two.

Range is not the only gate: the 120 degree window

Range decides whether a waypoint exists for you. The bar itself only draws waypoints that fall within 120 degrees of the camera's facing direction — roughly the forward arc. Anything behind you exists but is not drawn.

Vertical position is handled separately. If a waypoint sits above or below your camera pitch, the indicator gains a small up or down arrow rather than disappearing. On Bedrock, the vertical threshold started at 30 degrees above or below the viewport and was later changed to follow the player's field-of-view setting.

Icon size thresholds: how far away that dot is

The Locator Bar tells you distance through the icon itself. The icon shrinks in four steps as the target gets further away. The Minecraft Wiki documents the observed thresholds as:

Square: 0 to 179 blocks
Circle: 179 to 230 blocks
Small square: 230 to 281 blocks
Small circle: 281 blocks and beyond

Those thresholds come from the default waypoint style, whose official definition is:

{
  "near_distance": 128,
  "far_distance": 332,
  "sprites": [
    "minecraft:default_0",
    "minecraft:default_1",
    "minecraft:default_2",
    "minecraft:default_3"
  ]
}

near_distance and far_distance are optional and default to 128 and 332; far_distance must be greater than near_distance. The four observed thresholds are evenly spaced inside that window — 51 blocks apart, starting from 128 — which is why the numbers 179, 230 and 281 look arbitrary until you see the style file.

A resource pack can define its own style in the waypoint_style/ asset directory with different distances and sprites, and an operator can assign it per entity with /waypoint modify <waypoint> style set <style>. That is the only supported way to change the distances at which the icon changes size. The full command reference is on the Minecraft waypoint command page, and the waypoint command generator will assemble the style and color lines for you.

At long range the icon is a small dot, which is exactly when two similar colors become impossible to separate. If your server runs with generous ranges, it is worth putting your regulars through the locator bar color checker once and reassigning any pair that collides.

What zeroes the range without you asking

Several vanilla mechanics work by multiplying waypoint_transmit_range by zero through attribute modifiers, rather than by a separate visibility flag. Knowing this explains a lot of "the locator bar range seems broken" reports:

Sneaking applies minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range_crouch, an add_multiplied_total modifier of -1.0 — the range collapses to zero while crouched and returns when you stand.
Invisibility applies minecraft:effect.waypoint_transmit_range_hide, also add_multiplied_total at -1.0.
Head-slot items apply minecraft:waypoint_transmit_range_hide through the item's attribute modifiers. The qualifying items are the carved pumpkin, skeleton skull, wither skeleton skull, player head, zombie head, creeper head, dragon head, and piglin head.
Spectator mode is handled separately: spectators are only visible to other spectators.

Because these are multiplicative modifiers on the same attribute, they beat any base value you set. Setting a transmit range of 60,000,000 on a sneaking player still hides them.

How the range check actually works

The Locator Bar is not a client-side overlay reading nearby entities. Mojang describes it as a server-authoritative waypoint broadcasting system: waypoints are received by players, and the connections between waypoints and players are managed by the multiplayer server.

That has three practical consequences for range:

Transmission is push-based. An entity with a transmission range above zero sends waypoint packets to nearby receivers within that range. An entity with a range of zero sends nothing, so there is no client work to do and no way for a client mod to recover the position.
Reception is a second, independent filter. Receivers only receive waypoints inside their receive range, and receive nothing at all when that range is zero.
Tracking is separate from drawing. An entity is tracked when its transmit range is greater than zero, or when its waypoint color was explicitly set this session. Tracked entities show in /waypoint list; only ones actually in range and in front of you are drawn on the bar.

Because both filters are server-side, setting waypoint_receive_range to 0 is a genuine privacy measure and not just a UI toggle — the client is never told where anyone is.

Version timeline for the range attributes

Snapshot 25w15a (Java 1.21.6 development) — waypoint_transmit_range and waypoint_receive_range added, behind the Locator Bar experimental data pack.
Snapshot 25w17a — both attributes leave the experiment and the documented defaults settle at 0.0 minimum, 60000000.0 maximum, with players at a base value of 60,000,000.
Java Edition 1.21.6, released 17 June 2025 — first full release containing them.
No later Java release has changed either attribute's range semantics. The 26.2 changes to color arguments affect /waypoint modify ... color, not the attributes.

Range on Bedrock Edition

Bedrock has the Locator Bar but not the attributes. There is no waypoint_transmit_range or waypoint_receive_range to tune, and no /attribute route to a per-player radar radius. Bedrock's controls are the playerWaypoints game rule, which is all-or-nothing, and the scripting API for add-on authors.

One range-adjacent Bedrock fix is worth knowing: in Preview 1.21.80.21, player dots on the Locator Bar were changed to show correctly regardless of simulation distance. If you are on an old Bedrock build and dots vanish at range, that is the bug you are hitting. The rest of the Bedrock picture is on the Minecraft Locator Bar Bedrock page.

Undocumented behaviour, stated honestly

Two things are genuinely not documented in the wiki or in any official changelog we could find, so treat any confident claim about them with suspicion:

Cross-dimension behaviour. Neither the wiki nor Mojang's changelogs state whether a waypoint is filtered when the transmitter and receiver are in different dimensions. Test it on your own server rather than trusting a number you read somewhere.
Interaction with server view distance and entity tracking range. The waypoint system is described as server-authoritative and independent of the normal entity tracker, but no official source gives an interaction rule with view-distance.

Frequently asked questions

What is the maximum Locator Bar range in Minecraft? 60,000,000 blocks, which is the maximum value both waypoint attributes accept and the base value players already have.

How do I limit the Locator Bar to a certain number of blocks? Set waypoint_transmit_range (how far you broadcast) and waypoint_receive_range (how far you can see) with /attribute. The effective distance between any two players is the smaller of the two.

How do I turn off just my own Locator Bar without affecting anyone else? /attribute @s minecraft:waypoint_receive_range base set 0. This is different from the gamerule, which clears waypoints for everyone in the world.

Does the Locator Bar range depend on render distance or simulation distance? Not in Java, where it is governed by the two attributes. On Bedrock, a bug tied to simulation distance was fixed in Preview 1.21.80.21.

Why do mobs never appear no matter how close they are? Their waypoint_transmit_range is 0 by default. Set it above zero and they will transmit like a player.

Can I tell distance from the bar itself? Yes, roughly, from the icon size — the four steps break at 179, 230 and 281 blocks under the default style.

Does the bar show players behind me? No. Only waypoints within 120 degrees of your camera facing are drawn, though they still exist and reappear as you turn.