Minecraft Snapshot 20w45a

Good things come to those who wait, and we've believe you've waited long enough. The first Caves & Cliffs snapshot is finally here and ready to enter the Java Edition of Minecraft! We hope that you're as excited about this as we are, because this snapshot brings you a variety of features, some changes to existing features, and a few technical changes. All of it is listed in this blog post, and we can't wait to see you experiment with it all.

Happy mining!

New Features in 20w45a

• Added bundles!
• Added candles!
• Added lava cauldrons!
• Added Copper!
• Added Amethyst!
• Added Lightning Rod!
• Added the Spyglass!
• Added Tinted Glass!
• A Shulker hitting a Shulker with a Shulker Bullet can make a new Shulker.

Amethysts

Amethyst Blocks

• Amethyst comes in block form inside the geodes in two ways: Block of Amethyst and Budding Amethyst
• All types of Amethyst blocks (clusters included) create beautiful sounds when you walk on them, break them, place them, or hit them with a projectile - go make some music!

Amethyst Clusters

• Amethyst Clusters grow from Budding Amethyst, which can be found inside geodes
• Clusters have 4 growth stages: Small Amethyst Bud, Medium Amethyst Bud, Large Amethyst Bud, and Amethyst Cluster
• Clusters can only grow when they are placed on Budding Amethyst blocks
• Fully-grown Amethyst Clusters drop 4 Amethyst Shards (or more with Fortune) when an Iron Pickaxe or higher is used, and drop nothing otherwise when broken
• Clusters can be Silk Touched at any stage

Amethyst Geodes

• These huge geodes can be found anywhere underground in the overworld
• Amethyst geodes have an outer layer of a new stone called Tuff
• Amethyst geodes have a second layer of another new block called Calcite
• Amethyst geodes have an inner layer of various Amethyst blocks

Amethyst Shards

• Amethyst Clusters drop 4 Amethyst Shards (or more with Fortune)

Budding Amethyst

• On any side of a Budding Amethyst block where there is air, or a water source block, a Small Amethyst Bud will eventually grow
• Amethyst Buds can only grow when attached to Budding Amethyst, and will grow until they become Amethyst Clusters

Bundles

• Bundles are items that hold other items.
• A bundle can hold a mixture of items, but only one stack’s worth. For example, a bundle could fit:
  • 64 dirt
  • 32 dirt + 32 stone
  • 32 dirt + 8 ender pearls
  • 1 of every color of wool, concrete, carpet and terracotta (64 blocks in total)
  • Or 1 diamond helmet
• Use right click to put an item into a bundle.
• Right-click a bundle to empty it.
• Wrap a present in a bundle and give it to your friend!

Candles

• Candles come in all 16 colors + 1 uncolored variant
• Up to 4 can be placed in one block
• Candles allow you to properly wish someone a happy birthday
• Waterloggable! (But you cannot light them underwater, silly)
• Wish anybody a happy birthday with a candle cake!

Cauldrons

• Cauldrons can now be filled with buckets of lava!
• Filled lava cauldrons give off a redstone signal of strength 1

Copper

Copper blocks

• Craft 9 copper ingots to a copper block
• Craft cut copper, cut copper stairs and cut copper slabs
• Use honeycomb to craft waxed copper blocks

Copper ore

• Copper ore can be found in ore blobs across Overworld, similar to iron and coal (this is not the final generation for copper…)
• Smelt copper ore to get a copper ingot

Lightning Rod

• The Lightning Rod is crafted from three copper ingots
• Keep your builds safe (well, as long as the closest area around the lightning rod is fire proof) during thunderstorms!
• The lightning rod will protect an area of 4 * 16 blocks around it from the, sometimes devastating, lightning strikes!
• Lightning rods give off a redstone signal when struck by lightning

Oxidation

• Copper will oxidize over time
• There are for stages: copper, lightly weathered copper, semi-weathered copper and weathered copper
• It takes 50 - 82 Minecraft days (in loaded chunks) for a copper block to oxidize one stage
• Waxed copper blocks will not oxidize
• You can wax any oxidation stage - how lovely that means you can keep that pretty lightly weathered copper block in it’s lightly weathered stage forever!

Spyglass

• You can use your spyglass to see faraway things
• Pretend to be a sea captain, or catch your neighbor in the act as they dye your sheep lime green
• The spyglass is crafted from two copper ingots and one amethyst shard

Tinted Glass

• Tinted Glass is a type of glass that does not allow light to pass through
• Tinted Glass is crafted by putting a Glass block in the middle of 4 Amethyst Shards
• Tinted Glass can be obtained without silk touch; it does not shatter like normal glass

Changes in 20w45a

• Experience orbs now sometimes merge when in large quantities to improve performance. This does not change the rate at which the player can absorb them, it simply limits the amount of separate orbs floating around in the world. Orbs that merge will gain the lifetime of the most recently created one.
• Simple firework rockets with 1 gunpowder can now be crafted using the recipe book
• Dirt paths (formerly grass path) can now be made by using a shovel on dirt, podzol, mycelium or course dirt (as well as grass)
• Minecarts and rails work in water
• Particles now appear when pistons break blocks

Minecarts

Minecarts and rails now work in water

• All rails can be waterlogged (works with a dispenser & water bucket too)
• Flowing water doesn’t break rails
• Minecarts can pass through water, but get slowed down more than usual

Technical Changes in 20w45a

• Entities are now saved separately from terrain chunks.
• Added loot table function set_banner_pattern
• Pack format in version.json has been split into data and resource versions
• Servers can now require custom resource packs to be accepted

Custom server resource packs

A dedicated server can enforce custom resource packs by setting require-resource-pack in server.properties. When this option is used, players will be prompted for a response and will be disconnected if they decline the required pack.

Entity storage

Entities have been extracted from main (terrain) chunks and are now stored in separate entities directory (similar to POI storage). Those new files are still region files with NBT.

Loot tables

New functions

set_banner_pattern

Sets tags needed for banner patterns. Parameters:

• patterns - list of pattern objects:
  • pattern - name of pattern (square_bottom_left, bricks, etc.)
  • color - name of color (light_gray, etc.)
• append - if true, new elements will be appended to existing ones instead of replacing

Fixed bugs in 20w45a

• MC-98219 Experience orbs follow dead players
• MC-108469 Chunk-wise entity lists often don't get updated correctly (Entities disappear)
• MC-112147 Lava burning items or XP orbs sound muted when "Friendly Creatures" slider is turned off
• MC-127201 /replaceitem makes quite an obnoxious sound, which is not heard by the person whose items are being replaced.
• MC-127692 Experience build up in furnace when using a hopper which can cause severe lag
• MC-130449 Cartographer villager freezes or crashes the game when unlocking explorer maps
• MC-130584 When a structure loads, water sources in the structure spread into waterloggable blocks
• MC-133691 Blocks can't be placed normally on a full cauldron
• MC-135552 Dead Entities are saved to chunk
• MC-136497 XP orbs causing severe lag
• MC-141034 taiga_fisher_cottage_1 is filled with water
• MC-169900 Incorrect jigsaw setting in snowy_small_house_8
• MC-169945 Skeletons don't burn in minecarts while being exposed to daylight
• MC-171852 Putting item in a spectator's hand plays sound "Gear equips" for other players
• MC-174685 Drowned arm texture is reversed by the model
• MC-175959 One door is open in taiga_shepherds_house_1
• MC-177622 One log in taiga_butcher_shop_1 seems to be misrotated causing the side roof to look asymmetrical
• MC-177624 Entrance in snowy_medium_house_2 is asymmetrical
• MC-181889 Equipping sound plays when mobs picking up non-armor items
• MC-185357 Removing a plant from a flower pot still plays generic armor equipping sound/shows Gear equips in subtitles
• MC-185359 Using a bucket in Survival mode still plays generic armor equipping sound/shows Gear equips in subtitles
• MC-185360 Milking a mooshroom for stew still plays armor equip sound/shows Gear equips subtitle
• MC-189565 Some entities do not render inside of spawners and producing error log spam in console, potentially causing lag
• MC-190896 Lag when opening a shipwreck chest containing buried treasure map
• MC-192594 plains_stable_1 misplaced blocks
• MC-192629 plains_stable_2 misplaced blocks
• MC-192876 Misplaced trapdoor on taiga_decoration_6
• MC-192879 Wall incorrectly placed on certain taiga houses
• MC-192930 Zombies picking up items play the gear equipping sound and subtitle
• MC-193071 Eating food items that return empty containers still play gear equipping sound
• MC-195125 plains_animal_pen_1 misplaced block
• MC-195126 plains_animal_pen_3 misplaced blocks
• MC-195351 Comparator in compare mode can schedule unneeded tileticks
• MC-196542 Small cleanup for skylight propagation code
• MC-197009 Referencing empty item tag in recipe can crash client
• MC-197140 Jack o'Lantern doesn't come after Carved Pumpkin in Creative Inventory
• MC-197179 Baby piglins that pick up leather don't despawn, cluttering the Nether with unnecessary baby piglins
• MC-197524 Border chunks do not enforce neighbors to be loaded, causing light updates to get stuck
• MC-198129 ReplaceBlobsFeature changed from 1.16.1 to 1.16.2, affecting Basalt Delta generation
• MC-198414 if the angle in /spawnpoint is set to +-infinity, and the player dies, it will kick the player, and upon rejoin will crash the game
• MC-198807 Making piglins and piglin brutes angry at certain entities (like dropped items) crashes the game
• MC-202246 Drowned navigation causes memory leak/performance degredation