> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.onelitefeather.net/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.onelitefeather.net/falco/explanation/choosing-between-falcoinstance-and-instancecontainer.md).

# Choosing between FalcoInstance and InstanceContainer

Whether `falco-instance` is worth adopting, and where `InstanceContainer` remains the right choice.

Take it if any of these apply:

* **You unregister worlds while the server runs.** `InstanceManager#unregisterInstance` unloads chunks only for an `InstanceContainer`; every chunk, tick partition and entity of any other instance is left behind. This is the reason the module exists.
* **You want the light engine to keep a chunk up to date without a listener of your own.** `ChunkLightScheduler#supplier()` produces `FalcoChunk`s, and since `1.0.0` those carry Falco's light *and* Falco's lifecycle on one class. Before `1.0.0` this combination did not work at all.
* **Empty sections cost you.** A chunk that allocates its sections on demand retains 25 objects and 840 bytes where Minestom's retains 192 and 6 848, and on a generated overworld 62.24 % of sections hold nothing. The tables and what they do *not* say are in [Counted](/falco/reference/measured-results.md#counted).

Keep using `InstanceContainer` if you need `SharedInstance` views onto the world you are building — see [Shared worlds](/falco/explanation/why-falco-instance-exists.md) for what is and is not possible — or if you are relying on any of the four Minestom sites that branch on `instanceof InstanceContainer`.

**No speed claim.** Nothing here is faster, no benchmark in this repository says it is, and the memory figures above are counts rather than timings. The distinction is spelled out in [No speed gain is claimed](/falco/explanation/why-falco-instance-exists.md#no-speed-gain-is-claimed).

## What the chunk does differently

`FalcoChunk extends Chunk` and holds a `BlockStorage`. Sections are created on the first write into them; every section that holds nothing shares one instance. The read-only accessors that avoid materialising a section are in [How-to Use FalcoInstance instead of InstanceContainer](/falco/how-to-guides/use-falcoinstance-instead-of-instancecontainer.md).

The counts per operation — a `setBlock` at y = 64 materialises ten sections, all of them the heightmap descent rather than the write — are in [Reference Measured results](/falco/reference/measured-results.md).

## Sources

* [Why falco-instance exists](/falco/explanation/why-falco-instance-exists.md) — why the module exists, the four places a foreign instance behaves differently, and what it refuses to attempt
* [Counted](/falco/reference/measured-results.md#counted) — the object and byte figures quoted above, with what they do not say
* [Research: Instance Container](/falco/project-record/instance-container.md) — the investigation that preceded it
* [Project Status](/falco/project-record/project-status.md#instance) — the working record, including what is still open

Related: [Explanation Why falco-instance exists](/falco/explanation/why-falco-instance-exists.md) · [Explanation Scope and non-goals](/falco/explanation/scope-and-non-goals.md) · [How-to Use FalcoInstance instead of InstanceContainer](/falco/how-to-guides/use-falcoinstance-instead-of-instancecontainer.md)


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