EcoCityCraft/Spigot — pull request #18 by aikar (2013-02-27 05:59:50+00:00)
Title: Entity Tracking Ranges

This will let you configure how far to track entities in range from players, so that the entity does not render on the client if out of this range.
This has multiple benefits:

1) Less bandwidth. Not sending update packets for entities that are not even close to a player, or even close enough to clearly see.
2) Less lag by maps in item frames - Default range is 160 blocks... Many players can track that item frame and cause lag and not even see it.
3) Less lag in general - Less work for the server to do
4) Less client lag - Not trying to render distant item frames and paintings and entities will reduce entity count on the client, which is major for shop/town worlds which may use tons of item frames.