Summary

  • Minecraft's upcoming Vibrant Visuals update brings distinct fog effects, color grading, and atmospheric visuals to different biomes and dimensions.
  • The graphical upgrade is optional, focusing on lighting enhancements and atmospherics without impacting gameplay mechanics.
  • Vibrant Visuals is currently available in experimental builds for Bedrock Edition, with plans to expand to Java Edition in the future.

A new preview version is now live for Minecraft, with further improvements to the game's upcoming Vibrant Visuals graphical update bringing distinct fog effects, color grading, and atmospheric visuals to several of the game's biomes and dimensions. These are some visual improvements that many Minecraft fans have been hoping to see for years, with the goal of these enhancements being to further enrich the many distinct environments that exist within the game's endless fantasy world.

Announced earlier in the year during the annual Minecraft LIVE event, Vibrant Visuals is essentially an entire graphical overhaul for the game that's planned to make its official debut later in the year. It will be a completely optional graphical setting for players, so fans can choose whether they want to enjoy a fresh look to Minecraft, or stick with its classic aesthetic. This upcoming visual upgrade will totally overhaul the game's lighting system, focusing largely on elements such as volumetric lighting and fog, pixel-aligned shadows and reflections, water reflectivity and caustics, and more. As a purely graphical upgrade with no impact on gameplay mechanics, players won't need to worry about Vibrant Visuals messing with delicate contraptions such as mob farms or systems using daylight sensors, for example.

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Minecraft's upcoming Vibrant Visuals upgrade also seeks to add more life to the game's world wherever possible, whether that be through the addition of ominous supernovae in the End dimension, or a more potent glow in the eyes of the spider mob. New changes made in the game's latest preview version for Bedrock Edition take things even further, with Vibrant Visuals now bringing unique atmospheric fog effects and color grading to many of the game's distinct biomes. A clip shared by a beta player known as Just-Guarantee7808 shows an example of these graphical upgrades in action, demonstrating how transitioning into the eerie pale garden biome causes the surrounding world to turn dark and colorless.

These kinds of environmental touches are something that Minecraft fans have been hoping to see for years, especially after the game's Wild Update teased several conceptual biome updates, which fans felt would have brought a lot of much-needed flavor to exploration as well as the game in general. However, this feature is still in active development, and some atmospheric effects unique to certain biomes may not currently be working as intended.

Minecraft's gorgeous Vibrant Visuals are currently only accessible in experimental builds of the game on Bedrock Edition, although the feature is planned to come to Java Edition in the future as well. Further, Vibrant Visuals is planned to be available on most platforms that support the game, with Mojang focusing on minimizing Vibrant Visuals' impact on game performance to ensure that it can run smoothly across different platforms.

Minecraft Beta & Preview - 1.21.90.26

Ambient Weather Sounds

  • the_end_light_flash sound effect now triggers when the light flashes in The End dimension in Vibrant Visuals

Blocks

  • Fixed issue with Dried Ghast Block where replacing a Dried Ghast Block in the same location would keep the random tick of the old, removed block, causing it to age faster than expected
  • Beacon now renders from any loaded chunk in worlds versioned 1.21.90 and higher

Commands

  • The camera default command will now properly reset third person camera view offset values
  • The /controlscheme command no longer requires the "Experimental Creator Camera" toggle

Editor

  • Added 'Export' button for Vibrant Visuals Settings pane
  • Added a "Save & Exit" option to the Editor File menu
  • Added visibility persistence for scripted panes with unique ids
  • Added an action bar menu item for Deferred Lighting settings
  • Added missing toolips
  • Updated Fill to log a warning message (similar to Selection Tool) when attempting to Fill when no lines or points exist in the world
  • Updated the Block Picker Modal to use the currently selected block as the new block by default
  • Updated the size of the drop down action selector to be a bit wider
  • Updated structures list to more clearly indicate which item is selected
  • Updated Menu Bar items
  • Updated numerous strings for consistency and completeness
  • Updated setBrushshapeOffsets to no longer double the distance being offset for brushes
  • Update 'RestrictSmartFillToSelection' to false by default
  • Updated shortcuts for 'Marquee' mode in Selection tool
    • Left Mouse Button + SHIFT now creates a volume from the previous origin to the mouse click
    • Left Mouse Button + CTRL now adds a new 1x1x1 volume at mouse click

  • Updated Pan directions (still has an issue with smoothness)
  • Updated Paste Preview to default to 'Face' Target mode instead of 'Block'
  • Updated Time of Day and Weather settings to persist when exiting and re-entering a Project
  • Updated UI Settings to be consolidated into a single Settings panel and removed its menu item
  • Updated clicking "Restore All Defaults" in the Keyboard Settings with changed keybinds no longer crashes the game in some builds
  • Updated the Line Tool to support undo/redo
  • Fixed a bug where banners did not copy specific colors or patterns, but copy the default color instead
  • Fixed a bug where the rotation of added blocks didn't align with selected block for Extrude expand mode
  • Fixed flashing selected blocks when selecting different target positions using the smart fill tool
  • Fixed a bug that caused Cancel button in Block Picker to not work
  • Fixed an exception when switching modes to/from Crosshair
  • Fixed Void and Flat world images for create new project
  • Removed Disable Achievement screens for Editor

Gameplay

  • Fixed a bug where entities that should not be moving were moving slightly

General

  • Reenabling Overworld Chunk Blending which was disabled in the last preview

Graphical

  • Customized atmospherics, color grading, fog and lighting for the End, the Nether, the Overworld dimensions and a variety of biomes in Vibrant Visuals
    • Some issues exist with atmospherics in End and Nether dimensions.

  • Recalibrated all emissive values in MERS textures in Vibrant Visuals
  • Update shadow configurations for "Favors Performance" targets on all Xbox platforms in Vibrant Visuals mode
  • Update Volumetric configs for "Prefers Performance" targets on Xbox One and Xbox One X in Vibrant Visuals mode
  • Reduced ghosting of waterfalls from camera movement when volumetric fog is enabled in Vibrant Visuals. (MCPE-204062)
  • Reduced the intensity and speed of the caustics animation in Vibrant Visuals
  • The Night Vision effect now brightens the scene more consistantly across brightness settings with Vibrant Visuals enabled (MCPE-201809)
  • Volumetric fog no longer becomes suddenly bright when the player moves towards a block light in Vibrant Visuals (MCPE-201984)
  • The back faces of transparent items held in hand, like stained glass, are no longer visible in Vibrant Visuals
  • Clouds no longer have a pink or yellow tint, during sunrise and sunset respectively, in Vibrant Visuals
  • Fixed an issue where the screen would render black on Xclipse GPUs running Android 15 with Vibrant Visuals (MCPE-203972)
  • Increased emissive intensity and adjusted tone mapping parameters in Vibrant Visuals
  • Added henyey_greenstein_g settings to the fog json files.
    • New section henyey_greenstein_g allows specifying value for both air and water
    • Example: 

{
 "format_version": "1.21.90", 
 "minecraft:fog_settings": {
 "description": {
 "identifier": "minecraft:test_henyey_greenstein_g"
 },
 "volumetric": {
 "henyey_greenstein_g": {
 "air": {
 "henyey_greenstein_g": 0.5
 }
 }
 }
 }
}
  • Updated the clouds texture
  • Items equiped in off-hand will no longer be displaced when the game is paused. (MCPE-190716)
  • Fix inconsistent cloud rendering during split-screen gameplay (MCPE-188934)
  • Fixed an issue with 0 being incorrectly discarded on the g and a values of on_fire_color inside render controllers. This caused entities like the Ghast's fireballs to be tinted green. (MCPE-218297)

Items

  • The size of the Blaze and Breeze spawn eggs has been reduced to better match the mobs’ in-game size (MCPE-217634)
  • Fixed inconsistent pixels on the Pale Oak Boat and Pale Oak Boat with Chest items to match other boat items
  • The Green Harness item no longer uses the Gray Harness texture when Vibrant Visuals is enabled

Leashing Updates

Sounds

  • Leashing, unleashing, collecting leashed mobs, and leashing mobs to other mobs now play custom sounds
  • Fence knots now play a sound when destroyed, either by being punched or when all their leashed entities are gone (MCPE-68841)

Mobs

  • The visual size of the Happy Ghast has been slightly reduced to prevent z-fighting with water and other adjacent blocks
    • This change is purely visual and does not affect the Happy Ghast's collision

  • Happy Ghast and Ghastlings no longer z-fight with adjacent blocks
  • Mobs and players no longer float above their rides (MCPE-172657)
  • Mobs' and players' legs are now positioned more horizontally when riding, reducing clipping into the ridden entity
  • Ghastlings are no longer rotated sideways when riding Boats or Chest Boats
  • Happy Ghast and Ghast shadows are no longer cast on their tentacles when Fancy Graphics are enabled
  • Ropes wrapping a Happy Ghast are now rendered when certain entities are attached to it and it is harnessed
  • Cows and Mooshrooms no longer render with four ropes when leashed to a Happy Ghast
  • The size of a harnessed Happy Ghast (including the harness) now matches that of an unharnessed one (MCPE-218740)
  • Happy Ghast now immediately loses its ability to collide with entities upon death
  • Ghasts can no longer spawn in areas that are too small, preventing suffocation on spawn
  • The Wandering Trader now properly hold leashes between its hands (MCPE-219598)
  • The Ghastling model is now slightly smaller than before and closer in size to its collision box, though the two still differ
    • The model is intentionally smaller than the collision to prevent z-fighting
    • This is intentionally not in parity with Java, which doesn't require this workaround

  • Spiders and Cave Spiders can once again spawn with a Stray rider in cold biomes (MCPE-89549)
  • Spiders and Cave Spiders can once again spawn with a Wither Skeleton rider in the Nether (MCPE-89549)
  • Horses, Donkeys, and Mules can now be fed carrots to heal, grow, and improve their temper
  • Large entities attached by a Leash to the Happy Ghast now properly render with four leashes when using simple graphics

Music

  • Music will now fade normally when leaving a world if game pause is disabled. (MCPE-212932)

Projectiles

  • Projectiles now have a tolerance margin that changes over time (MCPE-201608)
    • Previously, all projectiles had a fixed 0.3 blocks tolerance margin added to the collision
    • Now, all projectiles start with no margin for the first two ticks of their flight
    • After that, the target margin will expand by 0.05 blocks per tick until it reaches the target margin of 0.3 blocks
    • This allows for more precise collision on targets close to the shooting player or entity, while still allowing for some collision leeway for targets further away

Realms

  • Realm owners can now choose to require members to opt into the Timeline in order to play on the Realm
    • To turn this feature on, go to Realms Stories --> Settings and enable "Require opt in to Timeline"
      • The feature can be turned on and off at will

    • While the feature is on, Realm members who have not opted in will remain members of the Realm, but will not be able to play until they opt in
      • If a Realm member who previously opted in chooses to opt out, they will not be able to play on the Realm until they opt in again

    • Realm owners will be able to play on the Realm regardless of whether they have opted in

Saddles Updates

Removing Saddles and Equipment

  • Removing saddles, horse armor, harnesses, and carpets using shears now plays custom sounds

User Interface

  • Player Dots on the Locator Bar now move smoothly when there is a large distance between Players (MCPE-217551)
  • The Player Dot now correctly decreases to the smallest size for the stationary Player when another Player moves linearly away from them
  • The animated up and down arrows on the Locator Bar have been repositioned to be closer to the Player Dot
  • Closing an Anvil or an Enchanting Table now results in the Experience Bar being shown for 5 seconds instead of the Locator Bar
  • Fixed an issue where some on-screen UI elements would let the user interact with the world under them
  • While using the "Joystick & tap to interact" touch mode, the "Joystick Visibility Option" is now forced into "Visible Joystick" while using the player_relative_strafe or camera_relative_strafe control scheme
  • Storage settings page is now scrollable (MCPE-187962)
  • Fixed a bug where keyboard button hints would be shown on the death screen (MCPE-218652)

Vanilla Parity

Mobs

  • Boats are now able to be pulled out of water using a lead

Technical Updates

API

@minecraft/server

  • Added localizationKey read only property to Dimension, which is the key for localization of a dimension's name used in language files.
  • Added EntityHungerComponent, EntitySaturationComponent, EntityExhaustionComponent that allows read and write access to Hunger, Saturation, and Exhaustion values on player objects
  • Added totalArmor and totalToughness read only properties to EntityEquippableComponent
  • BlockMovableComponent APIs have been added to beta
    • BlockMovableComponent::movementType
    • BlockMovableComponent::stickyType

  • Renamed CameraEaseOptions to just EaseOptions to for V2.0 scripting
  • Fixed a bug where the includeLiquidBlocks property on BlockRaycastOptions would not correctly result in hits on Flowing water This affects the following API methods in all versions:
    • entity.getBlockFromViewDirection, dimension.getBlockFromRay,
    • dimension.getBlockBelow & dimension.getBlockAbove.

  • Improved the naming used for the name property of several custom error classes
  • Block custom component event beforeOnPlayerPlace is now called when an item using replace_block_item is set to true for V2.0.0 and higher custom components
    • In 2.0.0, when using setCurrentValue of an EntityAttributeComponent, the desired value is checked against the effectiveMin and effectiveMax. If the value is out of bounds, an error is thrown.

  • Enabled Player.applyImpulse and Player.clearVelocity in beta, which no longer throw errors

@minecraft/server-admin

  • Updated transferPlayer to support NetherNet transfers. It now takes either a hostname/port combination or a NetherNet ID.

Dedicated Server

  • Exposed a new parameter for dedicated server to disallow usage of Vibrant Visuals while connected

Graphics, User Interface

  • Add warning pop-up for some android devices when switching to vibrant visuals graphics mode
  • Added a toggle to Video Settings to enable In Game Graphics Mode Switching. Enabling In Game Graphics Mode Switching may impact texture quality

GUI

  • Fixed a crash when adding or changing priority of resource packs in the Create New World screen

Molang

  • Added the query.is_riding_any_entity_of_type Molang query, which checks whether an entity is riding another entity of any specified type

Experimental Features

World Generation

  • Terrain Matching Jigsaw Template pools will no longer create floating islands
  • Namespaces can now be used in Template Pool element location and Jigsaw Block identifiers

Blocks

  • Added minecraft:movable component under the Upcoming Creator Features toggle. This allows for blocks to configure how they should react when moved by a piston
    • "movement_type" (Required): Specifies how the block should react when moved by a piston
      • "push_pull": Will allow a block to be pushed by a piston/sticky piston and pulled by a sticky piston (e.g. Grass)
      • "push": Will allow a block to be pushed by a piston/sticky piston (e.g. Glazed Terra Cotta)
      • "immovable": Will not allow a block to be pushed or pulled by a piston/sticky piston (e.g. Bedrock)
      • "popped": Will pop a block when pushed by a piston/sticky piston (e.g. Leaves)

    • "sticky" (Optional): Specifies how the block should handle adjacent blocks when moved by a piston
      • "none": Default. Will not add any additional behavior
      • "same": Will move adjacent blocks along with it when moved by a piston. It will not move different blocks with "sticky": "same" (e.g. A Honey Block can move another Honey Block but not a Slime Block.)
        • NOTE: This field only works when used with "movement_type": "push_pull" "format_version": "1.21.90", "minecraft:movable": { "movement_type": "push_pull", "sticky": "same"

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Minecraft Tag Page Cover Art

Minecraft
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Sandbox
Survival
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Systems
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Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 84%
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Released
November 18, 2011
ESRB
E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence
Developer(s)
Mojang
Publisher(s)
Mojang
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Minecraft In Game Screenshot 6
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Minecraft is a game made up of blocks, creatures, and community. You can survive the night or build a work of art – the choice is all yours. But if the thought of exploring a vast new world all on your own feels overwhelming, then fear not!

Minecraft has no set goal and can be played however you’d like! This is why it’s sometimes called a “sandbox game” – there are lots of things for you to do, and lots of ways that you can play. If you like being creative, then you can use the blocks to build things from your imagination. If you’re feeling brave, you can explore the world and face daring challenges. Blocks can be broken, crafted, placed to reshape the landscape, or used to build fantastical creations. 

Creatures can be battled or befriended, depending on how you play. The world of Minecraft allows for epic adventures, quiet meditations, and everything in between. You can even share your creations with other players, or play in community worlds!

Engine
LWJGL, PROPRIETARY ENGINE
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
Franchise
Minecraft
Number of Players
1-4
Split Screen Orientation
Vertical or Horizontal
Genre(s)
Sandbox, Survival
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
129 Hours
X|S Optimized
No
File Size Xbox Series
1.42 GB (August 2024)