Minecraft creator and glorious and revered leader to us all Notch has revealed the list of changes to Minecraft‘s latest update, Beta 1.6, which will become available sometime later this week. This is a much meatier update that Beta 1.4 or Beta 1.5, and while the biggest single change in play is the addition of Nether support to multiplayer (!!!), 1.6 also brings with it craftable maps and hatches, tall grass in some biomes, and a cornucopia of bug fixes. (N.B.: This will probably cause just about every bug- or exploit-based farming method in use right now to break.) If Notch was able to do this much in the month since 1.5 came out, who knows where the game will be on all-too-distant November 11th, when it goes out of beta?
Full change list below: (Update, 5/26: This list reflects the changes Notch listed upon initial release of Beta 1.6.)
New features:
+ Added Nether support to multiplayer
+ The client will ask minecraft.net if the current login is valid. If the server says “no”, a warning message appears in the client. You can still play the game even if this happens.
+ Added craftable maps
+ Added hatches
+ Added tall grass in some biomes
+ Mushrooms now spreads (very) slowly
+ Added server property view-distance. Sets the radius of terrain updates (in chunks) to send to the players. Range 3-15, default 10.
+ Added dead shrubs in deserts
+ Added allow-nether (set to true or false) in server.properties
+ Blocks destroyed by other players in multiplayer now shows the breaking block particle effect
+ Doors make sound for other players in multiplayer
+ The record player now supports more than 15 different songs (you can’t get the records yet, though)
+ Activated dispensers make sounds and trigger particles in multiplayer
+ Players stuck in walls will slide towards the nearest gap if there is one
Changes:
* Disabled Advanced OpenGL until we can fix some bugs with it
* It’s no longer possible to build solid blocks on the top layer of the maps (sorry!)
* Made booster tracks speedier
* Severely nerfed fire so it spread slower, and doesn’t spread infinitely
* Seeds are now found in tall grass, using a hoe on the ground no longer works
* Compressed network traffic more agressively
* Blocks that don’t change appearance when the data changes don’t send block updates when their data changes now
* Arrows shot by players can now be picked up by all players
* Nothing riding anything or being ridden by anything can enter portals
Bugfixes:
* Fixed running out of memory corrupting the current level
* Fixed the side textures of grass getting extra dark when mining them
* Fixed anaglyph 3d rendering mode having severe visual bugs
* Fixed the crash screen vanishing immediately
* Fixed not being able to target blocks when at x or z pos 1000
* Fixed the achievements screen messing up the sky color
* Fixed saving while sneaking dropping the player through the ground
* Fixed a system clock change messing up the game speed
* Fixed rain sounds not playing with fast graphics enabled
* Fixed hair and cloaks being rendered in the wrong locations on sneaking players
* Fixed the attack/swing animation not being applied to the armor layer
* Fixed player rotation not being loaded correctly when loading a saved game
* Fixed arrow physics, making them not get stuck midair when you open a door
* Fixed arrows hitting reeds, portals, and other non-solid blocks
* Fixed keybindings not getting saved properly under certain conditions
* Fixed the player not being able to sneak off lowered blocks like cacti
* Fixed a bug where the player could mine without swinging their arm
* Fixed boats placed on snow being placed too far up
* Fixed submerged boats rising very very fast
* Fixed sand dropping onto boats getting stuck in a falling animation
* Fixed a game crash when riding a vehicle or animal into the nether
* Fixed falling while riding not dealing damage to the rider
* Fixed buttons and levers too close to the player being impossible to use
* Fixed dispensers shooting through walls
* Fixed fire hurting through wall corners
* Fixed entities reaching water through wall corners
* Fixed placing doors next to cacti creating half-doors
* Fixed buttons and levers being placeable on leaves in “fast graphics” mode
* Fixed furnaces and dispensers not dropping their contents when destroyed
* Fixed dispensers biasing later slots
* Fixed farmland taking too long to dig
* Fixed tilling below some blocks being possible
* Fixed tilling the underside of blocks somehow working
* Fixed fences and stairs sometimes becoming invisible
* Fixed walking on top of fences not producing step sounds
* Fixed fire sometimes existing mid-air as an invisible block of pain
* Fixed fences and wooden stairs not being flammable
* Fixed fire effect on burning entities sometimes getting rendered in the wrong location
* Fixed fishing rod rendering being a bit lacking
* Fixed fishing rods being stackable
* Fixed mining glass hiding the clouds behind the glass
* Fixed rain falling through liquids
* Fixed items in glass blocks not getting ejected properly
* Fixed water interacting strangely with glass
* Fixed glass not blocking rain sound
* Fixed fences and signs preventing grass from growing
* Fixed rain and snow being incorrectly lit
* Fixed grass staying alive below stair blocks
* Fixed the achievement screen not pausing the game
* Fixed some screens breaking the sky tint color
* Fixed fullscreen mode switching causing mouse issues and screen closes
* Fixed chat messages surviving through game switches
* Fixed ice so it regenerates regardless of whether it’s snowing or not
* Fixed rain falling too slowly
* Fixed levers being placeable on weird locations
* Fixed floor levers sometimes not delivering a signal downwards
* Fixed floor levers sometimes not being removed when the floor is removed
* Fixed rail tiles sometimes not properly connecting to a new neighbor
* Fixed minecarts next to each other causing extreme velocities (sorry!)
* Fixed wolves not following their owner if the name has different caps
* Fixed creepers retaining charge level when they can’t see their target
* Fixed dying in the nether spawning new portals
* “Fixed” beds in the nether
* Fixed inventory acting weird when portaling by making the portal close all screens
* Fixed wooden pressure plates being mined with pickaxes
* Fixed redstone repeaters having the wrong particles
* Fixed saplings being plantable through snow onto non-grass blocks
* Fixed ore density varying per quadrant from the center of the world
* Fixed dispenser graphics being one pixel off. ONE PIXEL!!!
* Fixed mushrooms spawning everywhere during nights
* Fixed animals only spawning near light during the night
* Fixed the multiplayer join screen input field being too short
* Fixed IPv6 addresses being parsed wrongly. To connect to a specific port in IPv6, use the format [1234:567::1]:25565
* Fixed network packets being sent unbuffered, causing huge amounts of packets being sent
* Fixed entity positions going out of synch sometimes. They get re-synched every 20 seconds now.
* Fixed inventory icons not animating after being picked up in multiplayer
* Fixed mushroom soup not leaving a bowl in multiplayer
* Fixed entities above the map height limit becoming invisible
* Fixed healing not flashing the health bar in multiplayer
* Fixed arrows being animated really strangely in multiplayer
* Fixed arrows triggering too many entity move updates in multiplayer
* Fixed the compass not pointing at the spawn location in multiplayer
* Fixed fires being impossible to put out in multiplayer
* Fixed record players spawning client-side fake records in multiplayer
* Fixed records not playing for other players in multiplayer
* Fixed players spawning in the wrong location and quickly lerping to the correct location
* Fixed monsters not being visible for players with their difficulty set to peaceful
* Fixed pigs getting hit by lightning in multiplayer spawning client-side zombie pigmen
* Fixed loads of exploding tnt generating way too many particles, possibly crashing the client
* Fixed bonemeal use in multiplayer sometimes spawning fake client-side trees
* Fixed saplings sometimes spawning trees client-side in multiplayer
* Fixed weather sometimes changing client-side in multiplayer
* Fixed grasscolor.png and foliagecolor.png not being read from texture packs
* Fixed stats getting saved to different files in offline mode if the caps in the player name differ from the true spelling
* Fixed fireballs not being visible in multiplayer
* Fixed ghasts’ fireing animation not being visible in multiplayer
* Fixed receiving more items than the maximum stack size sometimes causing an oversized stack in the inventory
Update: Notch has announced the following bug fixes in the quickly-released Beta 1.6.1, 1.6.2, 1.6.3, and 1.6.4: (Update 5/31: and now, 1.6.5 and 1.6.6:)
1.6.6:
+ Added a new use for bonemeal
* Changed the material of glowstone from “glass” to “stone”. This means you need a pickaxe to get resources from it
* Made glowstone drop more loot
* Made the recipe sizes for creating cloth blocks and glowstone blocks smaller (2×2 instead of 3×3)
* Re-introduced unlimited FPS, renamed the option again
* Fixed beds not working very well at all in SMP
* Fixed destroying a boat spawning the player too low, causing them to sometimes fall through the ground
* Boats float up to the surface quicker
* Boats falling down into water lose their vertical momentum very fast
* Removed Herobrine (LOL! –Ed.)
1.6.5:
* Tweaked the connection reading code a lot. Hopefully this helps.
* Changed the “limit framerate” option to a “framerate cap” option.
* Added “Advanced OpenGL” again
* Players riding anything or sleeping in anything will stop doing so when they leave the game now
* Removed the minecraft version number from the main game window. It’s still available in the title screen
* Fixed some entities appearing to fall through the ground repeatedly in multiplayer (some might still do so)
* Fixed the server sometimes thinking the player hit a corner when walking when they didn’t
* Fixed dropped damaged items vanishing after a single use after being picked up
* Fixed dropped items not getting ejected from blocks properly
* Fixed the achievements window rendering some graphics outside the clip window
* Fixed players saving while sneaking being loaded too high up
* Fixed shift+click transferring items causing a crash when the target container is full
* Fixed lighting updates sometimes not happening correctly
* Fixed the players health appearing to be full when entering/exiting the nether
* Fixed a couple of instances where beds would act strange in multiplayer, primarily the “already occupied” bug
1.6.4:
* Fixed 1.6.3 using more CPU despite it claiming to use less
* Totally professional
1.6.3:
+ The renderer is now capped at 100 fps while there are chunks to be generated. The excess time will be spent generating chunks instead of rendering frames
+ The “limit framerate” option now limits the game to 40 fps and will spend at least 10 ms per frame sleeping
+ The “limit framerate” option has been reset to “off” for all players, enable it again if you want it
* Fixed some block updates not updating lighting properly under some circumstances by reverting the “don’t always send block data” fix in 1.6
* Fixed a major CPU load issue in the server where a very tight loop would starve all other threads
* Fixed furnaces dropping/duplicating their contents when they change state from lit to unlit or back
1.6.2:
* Fixed an ACTUAL item duplication bug while picking up some items
1.6.1:
* Fixed a visual item duplication bug when trying to pick up items while the inventory is full
Trailer for 1.6:
(via Word of Notch. Pic via cooking_fat_123.)
Published: May 24, 2011 09:06 am