A 1.8 fork of paper which aims to optimize, give long term support for 1.8.9 and add useful apis, Since both Paper and Spigot no longer support the version.
The most up to date, optimized 1.8.9 on the market
Since 1.8 is ~5 years old now, it has missed out on a lot of critial fixes, updates and optimizations, So we plan on offering those much needed updates to 1.8! By the end, we plan to support Java 14, Netty 4.1, allow higher player counts and still support a large number of plugins
[Spigot-0138] Branchless NibbleArray by md5
[Spigot-2380] Hitting in the air will always load the chunk at 0,0 by md_5
[SPIGOT-0097] Remove DataWatcher Locking by spottedleaf
[Paper-0044] Use UserCache for player heads
[Paper-0072] Fix Furnace cook time bug when lagging by Aikar
[Paper-0076] Optimized Light Level Comparisons by Aikar
[Paper-0083] Waving banner workaround by Gabscap
[Paper-0085] Use a Shared Random for Entities by Aikar
[Paper-0097] Don't save empty scoreboard teams to scoreboard.dat by Aikar
[Paper-0100] Avoid blocking on Network Manager creation by Aikar
[Paper-0102] Faster redstone torch rapid clock removal by Martin Panzer.
[Paper-0112] Reduce IO ops opening a new region file by Antony Riley
[Paper-0122] Don't let fishinghooks use portals by Zach Brown
[Paper-0125] Optimize World.isLoaded(BlockPosition)Z by Aikar
[Paper-0125] Improve Maps (in item frames) performance and bug fixes by Aikar
[Paper-0141] Do not let armorstands drown
[Paper-0144] Improve Minecraft Hopper Performance by Aikar
[Paper-0152] Disable ticking of snow blocks by killme
[Paper-0164] [MC-117075] TE Unload Lag Spike by mezz
[Paper-0168] Cache user authenticator threads by vemacs
[Paper-0207] Shame on you Mojang moves chunk loading off https thread by Aikar
[Paper-0249] Improve BlockPosition inlining by Techcable
[Paper-0254] Don't blindly send unlit chunks when lighting updates are allowed by Shane Freeder
[Paper-0266] [MC-99321] Dont check for blocked double chest for hoppers
[Paper-0302] Don't load chunks for villager door checks by Aikar
[Paper-0313] Optimize World Time Updates by Aikar
[Paper-0321] Cleanup allocated favicon ByteBuf by Shane Freeder
[Paper-0342] Always process chunk removal in removeEntity by Aikar 2018
[Paper-0344] [MC-111480] Start Entity ID's at 1
[Paper-0346] [MC-135506] Experience should save as Integers
[Paper-0347] don't go below 0 for pickupDelay, breaks picking up items by Aikar
[Paper-0350] start - use a Queue for Queueing Commands by Aikar
[Paper-0352] Optimize BlockPosition helper methods by Spottedleaf
[Paper-0353] Send nearby packets from world player list not server list by Mystiflow
[Paper-0389] performance improvement for Chunk.getEntities by wea_ondara
[Paper-0539] Optimize NetworkManager Exception Handling by Andrew Steinborn
[Paper-0451] Reduce memory footprint of NBTTagCompound by spottedleaf
[Nacho-0001] Remove stream usage when counting entities
[Nacho-0002] Check if the fuel is coal first before checking others
[Nacho-0003] Disable Snooper
[Nacho-0004] Do not repeatily allocate EnumDirection
[Nacho-0005] Do not reallocate enums via values
[Nacho-0006] Use Caffeine instead of Guava for player heads
[Nacho-0007] Add timings for packets
[Nacho-0008] Upgrade Netty version to 4.1.50 and support java 14
[Nacho-0009] Remove an extra file io call within world credit bob7l
[Nacho-0010] Use jchambers' FAST UUID methods
[Nacho-0011] Optimize weather update loops
[Nacho-0012] Don't load chunks for physics
[Nacho-0013] Use less resources for collisions
[Nacho-0014] stop timings crashing the server but still print the error
[Nacho-0015] Remove the usage of BlockPosition from getCubes
[Nacho-0016] faster getHighestBlockYAt function
[Nacho-0017] tiny winy optimization for async lighting
[Nacho-0018] more tiny winy optimization to lighting
[Nacho-0019] Avoid lock every packet send
[Nacho-0020] Packet Listener Api
[Nacho-0021] Add setMaxPlayers within Bukkit.getServer() and SetMaxSlot Command
[Nacho-0022] Stop raytracing loading chunks
[Nacho-0023] Optimize EntityTracker for the chunk updater
[Nacho-0024] Do not create new BlockPosition when loading chunk
[Nacho-0025] Disable random tickSpeed being modified (Every call it had to convert String into int via a string key which is costly)
[Nacho-0026] Optimize packet Split by Velocity
[Nacho-0027] Netty IP_TOS 0x18
[Nacho-0028] only fire InventoryCloseEvent if inventory is open
[Nacho-0029] add leash api
[Nacho-0030] add a ChunkPreLoadEvent
[Nacho-0031] remove unused vars
[Nacho-0033] Faster Operator search method
[YAPFA-0030] Don't save Fireworks and Arrows by tr7zw (Arrows and firework Entities, eg stuck arrows in the ground)
[Akarin-0001] Avoid double I/O operation on load player file by tsao chi
[Tuinity-????] Skip updating entity tracker without players
[Tuinity-0017] Allow controlled flushing for network manager by Spottedleaf
[Tuinity-0018] Consolidate flush calls for entity tracker packets
[SportPaper-0043] get blocks in chunk api
[SportPaper-0162] Fix PlayerInteractEvent not cancelling properly
[Nacho-0022] Sync is maintained higher up and is causing issues
Henry Lanier (MILDJELLYo#9091)