Reality bubble

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This "reality bubble" you hear about so much refers to the area in which the game's world is fully simulated. This area is centered near the player character (at most 6 tiles of distance) and extends roughly 60 tiles in each of up, down, left and right. (This equates to just under three map tiles in each direction from the player's current position, or a 6-map-tile wide area centered on the player.) Currently the reality bubble only covers the current z-level, but see below for hints that this might change at some point.

Fields (such as fire, smoke, etc), creatures and some other game mechanics (for example, bombs ticking) won't be simulated outside this bubble. This can lead to cases where the player starts a fire, moves far away for months and comes back to witness the fire still raging wildly.

Some game mechanics are not simulated outside bubble, but will "catch up" when they re-enter it. For example, rain filling funnels and rotting food. Plants created using farming, regenerating fruit trees and monster evolution triggers when the relevant entity re-enters the bubble, meaning it doesn't happen around player.

Technically

The reality bubble is a square 132 tiles on the side (17424 tiles total). It is divided into 121 submaps (12x12 square areas), uniformly covering the area. The center submap contains the player.

Potential upcoming changes

It is important to note that when the Z-level beta option is enabled in recent [time of writing October 2015] experimental builds, the bubble appears to extend at least one z-level above and below the player. Your magic time-stopping basement may not be able to render you and your perishables invincible forever...

 @ : You hear a crash from above and to the east...