Is game world affected by the draw distance? (SMP)

For example, spawning of mobs, dissapearing of items, minecarts going by themselves, is any of that affected by the draw distance?

For example, obvisouly, the mobs do not spawn in the whole world (which is unlimited I guess), but only in some radius around you. Is that radius set statically, or does it depend on your render distance graphics setting?

Solution 1:

It is static -- no closer than 24 meters from the user, no farther than 144 meters.

To be crystal clear:

. 8×4 meters area eligible for spawning
X Your position

....................................
....................................
....................................
....................................
....................................
....................................
.................. .................
..............         .............
.............           ............
............      X      ...........
.............           ............
..............         .............
.................. .................
....................................
....................................
....................................
....................................
....................................

I got the above, sans X, with

x = [["." if (i**2+j**2)>24**2 else " " for j in range(-72,72,4)]
                                        for i in range(-72,72,8)]
print "\n".join("".join(line) for line in x)