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Bugfunbug edited this page Apr 14, 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). This means that the previous .mca files will be deleted, 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.

Preexisting Worlds

As was just said, when a preexisting world is first launched with LinearReader, all the .mca files will be converted into .linear files automatically. So this is a reminder to back up your world before installing LinearReader.

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). 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.
  2. By default, LinearReader will (initially, see idle recompression page) compress all .linear files to the ZStd compression level of 2 (out of 22). This is what I found to be the best compromise between CPU stress and storage saved. However, if CPU stress is not an issue then the [initial] compression level may be raised by changing the value of 'compressionLevel' in the config file.

Modpacks

No mod incompatibilities are currently known for LinearReader, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. If you are using LinearReader in a modpack it may be smart to test your modpack in a test world before booting up your main world(s).

Tested Mods

The following are mods that were tested for incompatibilities (on Forge and Fabric for 1.20.1) 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
  • Chunky
  • Create
  • SmoothBoot
  • ImmersiveOptimization
  • C2ME (on Fabric and Forge (using Sinytra Connector))
  • Terralith
  • Tectonic
  • Lithosphere + Still Life
  • Axiom
  • Mekanism
  • Applied Energistics 2

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