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Huge Minecraft patch goes live

Craftable maps, dynamic mushrooms added.

Dark blue icons of video game controllers on a light blue background
Image credit: Eurogamer

Update 1.6 has just gone live for indie world-building sensation Minecraft, bringing with it a long list of new features, improvements and fixes.

As detailed in creator Notch's blog, new additions include craftable maps, slow-growing mushrooms, hatches and Nether support for multiplayer.

Here's the full (very long) list of changes:

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

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