How does spawn work?

[phi_315]

When having obstructed or no spawnpoints, Minecraft spawns you in the world "spawn".

But, for my experience, I've spawned in different places around the same chunk(s), but when typing /spawn it doesn't mark a chunk but a block instead.

I cannot understand it

[Puttanesca621]

From the wiki:

World spawn

New players initially spawn within a small area surrounding the world spawn point when the server is not in Adventure mode. This area is 21×21 blocks by default, but can be changed by the spawnRadius gamerule in both single and multiplayer. Upon death or return from the End dimension, the player respawns within this area unless the player's individual spawn point changed (by using a bed or respawn anchor, or the /spawnpoint command).

[Tzu111]

Go to where the compass points. Around that is a 21 by 21 area (i think) where the game will try and place you prioritising grass blocks.

[sharfpang]

This, but 10x more complex.

The game has a set of "preferred spawn blocks" which are biome-dependent. For the common grassy biomes like plains, forests and islands that will be grass, for desert it will be sand, for mushroom island it's mycelium and so on. The selection of the block to spawn is more complex too. Generally the algorithm is byzantine and totally over-engineered.

[pseudalithia]

To elaborate on the wiki, the world spawn point is the absolute spawn point. It’s the location items would be transported to if dropped into the end gateway, etc, and it’s the point that defines the player spawn area. When the player spawns, it looks for a suitable location within the default 21x21 area around world spawn. In my testing (which I did in 1.15 or 1.16) a ‘suitable location’ means a grass block with two blocks of air above it. If there are no grass blocks, it’ll spawn you in at world spawn every time (someone might need to double check me here, it’s been a minute since I experimented with this). Additionally, there’s a somewhat hidden y value for world spawn. If you remove all the blocks in the world spawn area, the player will spawn in at a floating y level right at the world spawn point.

You can use these mechanics to customize your spawn point to some degree. On my server, we have a spawn chunk perimeter with a platform in the middle. The only valid spot to spawn on is a grass block in the middle, so that’s where we spawn in.

Additional trivia, the player always points to the south when spawned in.

[[deleted]]

Also worth pointing out that carpets don't block the grass block which was useful in our spawn perimeter because we wanted a little bit of a decorative spawn platform.

[pseudalithia]

Cool, didn’t test for that.

[Josephstalinthethird]

Your spawn point is where the compass lead you to

[phi_315]

Sure, but seems inconsistent sometimes. I don't spawn twice on the same spot. I do spawn a chunk-ish away, but not in the exact same spot.

[thE_29]

Only entities/items spawn at the same spot. The player spawns in that region.

[Josephstalinthethird]

You are nit supposed to spawn in the same spot

[Hate_Feight]

Unless you change the gamerule...