How to Make a GTNH Server

Pick the right server pack and Java

GTNH runs on Minecraft 1.7.10, but it no longer needs the old Java 8. Download the server pack only from gtnewhorizons.com. There are two, and they are not interchangeable:

The server's Java must match the pack you downloaded, or it will not start. Players can run a different Java version on their own computer, but the pack version must be exactly the same on the server and every client.

How much RAM a GTNH server needs

The GTNH wiki gives a formula: at least 6 GB, plus about 0.5 GB for each extra player in the early game, and about 1 GB per extra player once the group reaches the UV tier. A fast processor core matters as much as memory — GTNH's heavy machines run on one main thread.

Plan for disk space too: a GTNH world is usually 1–2 GB early on and grows from there, and every backup is about the size of the world.

Set up the server

1. Unzip the server pack into an empty folder.
2. Accept the EULA. Open eula.txt and change eula=false to eula=true. The server does not start until you do.
3. Keep the world type. server.properties ships with level-type=rwg, the realistic terrain GTNH is built for. Do not change it — if the world is generated without it, changing it later does nothing unless you delete the world.
4. Add your players to the whitelist. The whitelist is on by default; from the server console, run whitelist add PlayerName for everyone who should join.
5. Start it with the included script — startserver-java9.sh (or .bat on Windows) for the Java 17–25 pack. It reserves 6 GB; raise -Xmx in the script if your machine has more. The first start takes several minutes.

Pre-generation and backups

GTNH includes ServerUtilities, which covers both:

• Pre-generate the area around spawn before people start exploring, so generating new terrain does not lag the server later. From the console: /pregen start 0 0 500 starts around the coordinates 0, 0; /pregen progress shows how far it is, and /pregen stop stops it. Larger values take much more time and disk; the command refuses values above 2000.
• Backups are on by default: every 30 minutes while players are online, keeping the last 12, in the backups folder. The settings live in serverutilities/serverutilities.cfg. Run /backup start for an extra one before risky changes.

How players join

1. Install the same version. The GTNH team recommends Prism Launcher: download the client pack for the same version as the server and drag the zip into Prism. They do not recommend the CurseForge app for GTNH.
2. Give the game enough memory in the launcher — the wiki suggests 4 GB or more for playing on a server.
3. Add the server under Multiplayer with the address and port, and make sure you are on the whitelist.

Updating later: back up the whole server, then replace the config, libraries, mods, resources and scripts folders with the new pack's, and update every player's client to the same version.

GTNH server hosting on HytHost

On HytHost modded Minecraft hosting, pick a plan with enough memory — MC Diamond for a few friends, MC Emerald for a bigger group. In our tests GTNH 2.8.4 used about 3 to 3.7 GB with nobody online, so start from 6 GB or more.

The recommended Java 17–25 server pack runs with the panel's standard start:

1. Upload GT_New_Horizons_2.8.4_Server_Java_17-25.zip to the server's main folder with the file manager or SFTP, unzip it there and delete the zip.
2. Set eula=true in eula.txt.
3. In the Startup tab, choose Java 21 or Java 25 as the Docker image.
4. Start the server. The panel recognises the pack and launches it with the pack's own arguments, so there is no jar to rename. The first start takes a few minutes.

The pack ships with white-list=true and level-type=rwg. Keep rwg, and either add your friends with /whitelist add or set white-list=false.

Servers ordered before 13 October 2026 still use the previous start command, so the Java 17–25 pack does not start on them yet: open a ticket and we update it. The Java 8 server pack works on every server: rename the Forge jar (forge-1.7.10-...-universal.jar) to server.jar and choose Java 8 in the Startup tab.

Already running GTNH elsewhere? Your world folder can be moved over as it is, as long as the pack version stays the same.