Skip to content

Getting Started

Jump to bottom
Bugfunbug edited this page Aug 10, 2026 · 12 revisions

LinearReader primarily operates in the background, but there are certain things LinearReader does that should be understood when first installing LinearReader, especially if it is on a preexisting world.

.mca Conversion

If LinearReader is installed on a world with preexisting chunk files, it will convert them to .linear files automatically when that world is first launched (or on a server: when the server is first started).

Caution

This means that the original .mca files will eventually be deleted after successful conversion, so make a backup of your region, poi, and entities folders (found in your world's save folder) before installing LinearReader.

Depending on the size of the world, the conversion from .mca to .linear may take some time. LinearReader logs the conversion process, so check the logs for the conversion's current status.

After Conversion/New Worlds

LinearReader mostly works in the background and automatically compresses chunk data to .linear. However, there are certain aspects of LinearReader which you may want to adjust:

  1. By default, LinearReader will create backup files of all the .linear files (.bak files), and will automatically update them over time based on region activity. These will be used in the event that a .linear file gets corrupted. However, these .bak files take up space, as they are pretty much the same size as the normal .linear files. Therefore, backup file creation is toggle-able in the LinearReader-server config files (located in the config folder) by switching backupEnabled from true to false. Backup files are stored in backups folders inside each of the poi, entities, and region folders.
  2. By default, LinearReader will (initially, see here for more info) compress all .linear files to the ZStd compression level of 4 (out of 22). This is what was found to be the best compromise between CPU usage and storage saved. However, if CPU usage is not an issue then the (initial) compression level may be raised by changing the value of 'compressionLevel' in the config file. During heavy activity, LinearReader may temporarily use a lower compression level to improve performance. The data will get recompressed later if the system is idle.

Modpacks

Very few mod incompatibilities are currently known for LinearReader, but that doesn't mean there aren't any others. If you are using LinearReader in a modpack it is recommended to try out your modpack in a test world before booting up your main world(s).

Warning

Mods or external tools that directly manipulate or read .mca region files will very likely not function correctly while LinearReader is installed, as they probably cannot read .linear files.

Tested Mods

The following are mods that were tested for incompatibilities (on Forge and Fabric for 1.20.1, unless otherwise stated) and were found to work with no noticeable issues:

  • Sodium/Embeddium
  • ImmediatelyFast
  • Lithium/Radium/Canary
  • FastAsyncWorldSave
  • SmoothChunkSave
  • Starlight
  • FerriteCore
  • ModernFix
  • Xaero's World Map/Minimap
  • Distant Horizons (see Pregen Mode entry)
  • Voxy (only for Fabric 1.21.11-26.2, and only on LinearReader version 1.2.1+) (see voxy-compat command)
  • Chunky (see Pregen Mode entry)
  • Create
  • Valkyrien Skies
  • SmoothBoot
  • ImmersiveOptimization
  • C2ME (on Fabric and Forge (using Sinytra Connector))
  • Terralith
  • Tectonic
  • Lithosphere + Still Life
  • Axiom
  • Mekanism
  • Applied Energistics 2

Incompatible mods (that are not planned to be supported):

  • OpenCL (reportedly it causes issues, though I am unable to test it as I don't own a computer that supports it)

Clone this wiki locally