Please help an old man with Minecraft...

[silentbogo]

Hey, guys...
I'm having a bit of a problem with this horrid thing.
My friend asked to help setting it up on her son's laptop, and it gives me nightmares. It's Minecraft Java Edition, and it's running like shit regardless of the rig it's running at.
Tried it on his laptop (i5-4300M/8G DDR3/Radeon HD8750M), and on my desktop (R5-1600X/16G DDR4/RTX2060Super), tried many "optimized" JVM args, but the result is always the same - around 1-2FPS.
Both systems run W10 Pro x64 with latest JRE. Client version 1.16.3, though even before updates it was the same crap on all 1.16.xx versions.
I'm not sure what's going on, but I suspect it only uses 1 core and does not even utilize the GPU, since in Task Manager I rarely see usage above 20% even when it tries to generate a new world for single-player, and GPU never even pretends to do anything(0-0.5% usage).
I know we have some minecraft experts here, maybe you can point me in the right direction?

 

[8BitZ80]

No idea what the issue might be, but I can throw some screenshots up that could be useful for comparison.
The latest Minecraft Java Edition 1.16.3 runs pretty good on my machine, I get a good 60fps with no problems.

I'm running Java 8 version 241. It would be worth double-checking if you're currently running Java 8, because your Java installations might be giving you strife:

Software Requirements:

• Minecraft Release 1.6 or newer. Older versions will need to be updated to current versions
• Please note that some users experience issues playing Minecraft while using a mismatched version of Java for their operating system (32 or 64 bit), while using certain versions of Java 7, or while multiple versions of Java are installed
• Starting from Minecraft 1.12, Java 8 will be required to run Minecraft. If you don't know whether you have Java 8, don't worry - our installers supply Minecraft with its own version of Java by default.

My JVM arguments from the installation settings might also be useful:
-Xmx2G -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:G1NewSizePercent=20 -XX:G1ReservePercent=20 -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=50 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=32M

 

[silentbogo]

I'm running Java 8 version 241. It would be worth double-checking if you're currently running Java 8, because your Java installations might be giving you strife:

Thx, dude! That was the culprit. I only had a 32-bit version installed on both systems, and I have no idea why I haven't checked it earlier....
Downloaded v1.8.0_261 x64 and now everything is working like it supposed to!
Gotta tell a little guy some good news

 

[8BitZ80]

Thx, dude! That was the culprit. I only had a 32-bit version installed on both systems, and I have no idea why I haven't checked it earlier....
Downloaded v1.8.0_261 x64 and now everything is working like it supposed to!
Gotta tell a little guy some good news

Nice!! Glad to help get it sorted out. Now to enjoy the Minecraft goodness lol

 

[Assimilator]

How a terrible unoptimised POS like Minecraft got so popular is beyond me.

 

[kayjay010101]

How a terrible unoptimised POS like Minecraft got so popular is beyond me.

Because it's extremely fun, relatively cheap and caters to all ages? And while unoptimized as hell, it's not exactly a twitch shooter so as long as you've got ~20FPS, it's playable. I played it in 2011 on a single-core laptop and still had fun with the game.

 

[silkstone]

Because it's extremely fun, relatively cheap and caters to all ages? And while unoptimized as hell, it's not exactly a twitch shooter so as long as you've got ~20FPS, it's playable. I played it in 2011 on a single-core laptop and still had fun with the game.

I agree completely. I got my kids into gaming via multiplayer Minecraft with them, much to my wife's distain.
I also found it fun to play alone. A lot like the attraction of Lego.

 

[silentbogo]

How a terrible unoptimised POS like Minecraft got so popular is beyond me.

It's not my cup of tea either, but I get the appeal: it's a true open-world, it's kinda fun, players can run their own servers with their own rules and trinkets, and the cost of entry is very low (hardware-wise, and it's very important right now).

 

[Assimilator]

It's not my cup of tea either, but I get the appeal: it's a true open-world, it's kinda fun, players can run their own servers with their own rules and trinkets, and the cost of entry is very low (hardware-wise, and it's very important right now).

My point is that it requires installing JREs and tweaking JVM arguments to even get a playable framerate out-of-the-box. That's a terrible user experience.

 

[kayjay010101]

My point is that it requires installing JREs and tweaking JVM arguments to even get a playable framerate out-of-the-box. That's a terrible user experience.

It really doesn't. In OP's case they were just running an outdated (and 32-bit) version of Java. JVM argument tweaking is only necessary for modded gameplay and as standard the game uses upto 8GB of RAM.
I never had to tweak JVM arguments until I started using mods, and still don't when I play vanilla. And I've used anything from that single-core laptop with a bunch of malware on it as I mentioned all the way up to the computer I have today, and it's always been playable.

And as for installing JREs, it's quite straight forward... maybe not for today's kids, but they're mostly playing Roblox/Fortnite AFAIK, it's mostly the older kids (13+) that are playing Minecraft these days, and they're able to read and follow the very easy-to-follow instructions Minecraft gives you if Java isn't already installed. The kids under ~13 playing Minecraft are on console where neither JVM arguments nor installing JRE's are necessary nor possible.

 

[bug]

My point is that it requires installing JREs and tweaking JVM arguments to even get a playable framerate out-of-the-box. That's a terrible user experience.

I don't think it does. A suitable JRE should be included with the default installer.
It's not like you've never installed something that needed a particular VC or .Net version.

Though it would have been nice if Minecraft leveraged Java's module system and simply included a JRE11 in the game itself, instead of requiring a separate install.