Create a void world on your Minecraft server

A void world has no terrain. The Overworld is empty sky and a small starting platform, which suits skyblock-style maps, minigame arenas and builds that start from nothing. The vanilla game can make one with the Superflat generator and the "The Void" preset, so you do not need a plugin or a mod.

Checked against Minecraft 26.3, October 2026.

What you get

The Superflat preset called "The Void" uses a single layer of air and the minecraft:the_void biome. That biome generates the void start platform. Minecraft's wiki describes it as a 33 by 33 square of stone with one block of cobblestone in the middle. Players spawn on it, and it is the only ground in the Overworld. The Nether and the End still generate as normal.

Like every world type, this is applied when a world is created. A world that already exists keeps its terrain, so the steps use a new world folder.

The line you need

This is the game's own definition of the preset, copied from the Minecraft 26.3 server file the_void.json. Copy all of it.

generator-settings={"biome":"minecraft:the_void","features":true,"lakes":false,"layers":[{"block":"minecraft:air","height":1}],"structure_overrides":[]}

Create the void world

1. Open the Backups tab and press Create backup. How to create and restore backups has the steps.
2. Open the Console tab and press Stop.
3. Open the Config Editor under Content. If it says server.properties does not exist yet, press Start once, stop the server again and return.
4. Under World, set World folder to a name you have not used, such as voidworld. Changing it starts a new world and leaves the old folder on disk.
5. Set World type to Superflat and press Save changes. You do not need the Config Editor again for the next steps.
6. Open the File Manager and click server.properties.
7. Find the line that starts generator-settings= and replace the whole line with the one above. On a new server its value is {}.
8. Press Save in the editor.
9. Go to the Console and press Start.

Check it and build

Join the server. You should stand on the stone platform with nothing else around. Beyond it is only sky, and the ground under the platform is void.

• The platform sits near the bottom of the world, with its cobblestone block at Y=-61 and you spawning at Y=-60, according to the wiki. Plan builds upwards from there.
• The Nether and the End generate as normal, so a portal still leads to them.

Other ways to get a void world

• Upload a ready-made one. If you have a void map as a .zip, use the World Import tab or the File Manager. Upload your singleplayer Minecraft world walks through it.
• Plain flat instead. For a world with a normal flat ground, follow Create a flat or superflat Minecraft world.

If the world is not empty

• There is normal terrain. The old world folder was still in use, or the server was not restarted. Check that World folder holds a new name and that the folder did not exist before.
• You fall and cannot find the platform. The line in server.properties is different from the one above. Compare them, and note that the_void is the biome name.
• You want the old world back. Put World folder and World type back to what they were and restart. The old folder was not touched.