[MCM-1220] Chunk render distance is set to less than 16 regardless of user's settings.

Partner Rank: 1

Partner Team Reporting: Razzleberries

Verification builds: beta 1.16.200.53 Minecraft-Publish_UWP_DX11_x64_4941996. Windows 10 (see beta stamp in screenshots for full specifications)

Summary:

On opening a world, chunk render distance is set to less than the minimum slider option of 16, regardless of the user's render distance setting.

Impact: Breaks the main mechanic of our upcoming game which releases November 17th. The game generates terrain roughly 10 chunks ahead of the player. As the lowest render distance players can choose is 16 chunks, this was deemed a safe distance away from the player to modify a world. This impacts sales, reviews and brand trust.

Repro Steps:

Create a new world using beta 1.16.200.53 Minecraft-Publish_UWP_DX11_x64_4941996 or open an existing world.
Locate a point in the distance that's almost completely obscured by distance fog (see screenshot 179).
Look all around you to make sure the chunks around you are loaded and run the command
```
/testforblock ~256 256 ~ air
```
This will return "Cannot test for block outside of the world."

Go to Settings -> Video -> Render distance and set the slider to 16. If the slider was already at 16, drag it to another number, then set it back to 16.
Close your settings and observe your world. Your reference points will no longer be obscured by distance fog (see screenshot 180).
Look all around you to make sure the chunks around you are loaded and run the command from step 3. It will return either "successfully found the block at..." or "the block at ... is ... (expected air)", showing that the block is now loaded.
Saving and quitting the world and re-opening it (even without restarting Minecraft) will set the render distance back to <16 and these steps can be repeated.

Repro Rate: 10/10

Observed Results:

When opening a world in the beta, the render distance set by the player's settings is ignored and a value lower than the minimum 16 chunks is applied to the world.

Expected results:

The player's render distance slider setting should be used to determine the render distance for the world and it should never be lower than 16 chunks. If their render distance slider is set to 64 chunks for example, they should be able to see far into the distance as soon as the world loads.

Screenshots/Videos attached: Yes

Regression Builds:

This bug does not appear in the fully released version of Minecraft. I have not tested earlier builds of the beta.

Notes:

I'm extremely anxious about this bug and hope it's at least an easy fix. Please contact me on Slack as Miles "Sparks" Fletcher if you need anything. I need to know whether this will be fixed before release or whether we need to pull our game from next week's releases as it cannot be released when players render distance is lower than the minimum amount they would normally be able to choose.

Edit: fixed typo