"Doors and fences now come in all wood type variants," reads one of the patch notes for Minecraft's 1.8: The Bountiful Update, proving that this release is a pretty big deal. Other, less game-changing improvements include new enemies, new blocks, client-side optimisation and other 'under-the-hood' changes. And rabbits. The patch, which officially goes live on Tuesday, 2 September, can now be downloaded in pre-release form by enabling development versions in the Minecraft launcher.
"These changes consist of both new features, and large game structure changes," writes Mojang's Jens Bergensten , "such as replacing the hard-coded “block renderer” with a system that is able to read block shapes from data files, or performance enhancements such as multi-threading the client-side chunk rendering."
You can find Mojang's patch notes below.
- Added Granite, Andesite, and Diorite stone blocks, with smooth versions
- Added Slime Block
- Added Iron Trapdoor
- Added Prismarine and Sea Lantern blocks
- Added the Ocean Monument
- Added Red Sandstone
- Added Banners
- Added Armor Stands
- Added Coarse Dirt (dirt where grass won't grow)
- Added Guardian mobs, with item drops
- Added Endermite mob
- Added Rabbits, with item drops
- Added Mutton and Cooked Mutton
- Villagers will harvest crops and plant new ones
- Mossy Cobblestone and Mossy Stone Bricks are now craftable
- Chiseled Stone Bricks are now craftable
- Doors and fences now come in all wood type variants
- Sponge block has regained its water-absorbing ability and becomes wet
- Added a spectator game mode (game mode 3)
- Added one new achievement
- Added “Customized” world type
- Added hidden “Debug Mode” world type
- Worlds can now have a world barrier
- Added @e target selector for Command Blocks
- Added /blockdata command
- Added /clone command
- Added /execute command
- Added /fill command
- Added /particle command
- Added /testforblocks command
- Added /title command
- Added /trigger command
- Added /worldborder command
- Added /stats command
- Containers can be locked in custom maps by using the “Lock” data tag
- Added logAdminCommands, showDeathMessages, reducedDebugInfo, sendCommandFeedback, and randomTickSpeed game rules
- Added three new statistics
- Player skins can now have double layers across the whole model, and left/right arms/legs can be edited independently
- Added a new player model with smaller arms, and a new player skin called Alex?
- Added options for configuring what pieces of the skin that are visible
- Blocks can now have custom visual variations in the resource packs
- Minecraft Realms now has an activity chart, so you can see who has been online
- Minecraft Realms now lets you upload your maps
- Difficulty setting is saved per world, and can be locked if wanted
- Enchanting has been redone, now costs lapis lazuli in addition to enchantment levels
- Villager trading has been rebalanced
- Anvil repairing has been rebalanced
- Considerable faster client-side performance
- Max render distance has been increased to 32 chunks (512 blocks)
- Adventure mode now prevents you from destroying blocks, unless your items have the CanDestroy data tag
- Resource packs can now also define the shape of blocks and items, and not just their textures
- Scoreboards have been given a lot of new features
- Tweaked the F3 debug screen
- Block ID numbers (such as 1 for stone), are being replaced by ID names (such as minecraft:stone)
- Server list has been improved
- A few minor changes to village and temple generation
- Mob heads for players now show both skin layers
- Buttons can now be placed on the ceiling
- Lots and lots of other changes
- LOTS AND LOTS of other changes
- Removed Herobrine
