What is simulation distance in Minecraft?

Minecraft has a ton of settings that can be confusing for those not elbow-deep in knowledge about the game's engine or how it works, and simulation distance is one of them.

The Game Changing New Minecraft 1.18 Setting

Modifying the Render Distance and Simulation Distance Settings on Your Minecraft Server - Xgamingserver

So I'm playing on 1.18 on the realm I own, my render distance is set to 25 and the simulation distance is set to 20 but this looks like my render distance

Simulation distance minecraft

FartherViewDistance-Archive SpigotMC - High Performance Minecraft

Realms Render Distance [Bedrock] – Minecraft Feedback

So I wanted to build a vertical bamboo/kelp farm that goes to max height but I'm worried that excessive lag might be a problem. Im on PS4 and have simulation distance at

Wat is simulation distance in minecraft

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