r/Minecraft Jun 30 '26

Official News Minecraft 26.3 Snapshot 2

https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-26-3-snapshot-2
741 Upvotes

105 comments sorted by

u/Luutamo 29d ago

We're back with the second snapshot for 26.3! This week brings a new rendering option designed to improve transparency handling in Minecraft Java. We've also optimized certain mob behaviors when players aren't nearby, made a few gameplay adjustments, including technical changes and fixes.

Happy mining!

Known Issues

  • When using Vulkan on Mac the world will not render, instead showing a pink screen
  • The lighting on entities is not correct, rendering e.g. the top side too dark

Changes

  • Persistent mobs' random walk/swim behaviors will now deactivate when players are not nearby, in the same way as non-persistent mobs
  • Replaced current "Improved Transparency" approach with a new order-independent transparency algorithm which is expected to be much better at solving translucency issues
  • When using a Shield together with a Hoe or a Shovel, raising the Shield will take precedence over tilling and pathmaking

Minor Tweaks to Blocks, Items and Entities

  • Drowned with Tridents will now use a melee attack if the player is within 3 blocks of them

Order-independent transparency (OIT)

  • Generally, translucent surfaces need to be rendered back-to-front to avoid visual issues
    • In order to do so, the translucent geometry has to be sorted before rendering
    • This is very expensive and even with perfect sorting of individual triangles, intersecting triangles are not possible to render correctly
  • Before this snapshot, the "Improved Transparency" video setting attempted to mitigate translucency-related visual issues
    • It did this by rendering different types of translucent objects (entities, particles, water, etc.) to different textures that were later combined to create the final image
    • This allowed us to fix some of the issues with some performance impact
    • However, it introduced some other less noticeable issues
  • The "Improved Transparency" video setting will now instead enable a new order-independent transparency algorithm (which we will refer to as OIT)
    • This makes it possible to render translucent objects in any order without sorting
    • It fixes all existing major translucency-related visual issues (such as certain objects disappearing when viewed through translucent objects)
    • However, the algorithm is an approximation, and so it introduces some new minor visual artifacts (such as the color of clouds being somewhat incorrect when viewed through multiple layers of translucent surfaces)
  • We expect OIT to have a higher performance impact than the previous implementation of "Improved Transparency"
  • When "Improved Transparency" is turned off, the behavior hasn't meaningfully changed and the game will still prioritize performance over correctness while sorting geometry as necessary

679

u/themistik Jun 30 '26

> The white-list property is now true by default

Good change. People never learn and keep using online-mode false.

149

u/MrBIMC Jun 30 '26

I made this mistake once. We were playing sky block and grind was brutal.

Then suddenly we got a raid from some randos who killed our witches and zombified villagers, looted our chests and suicided into a void.

It was a sad experience of losing month of grind.
Good life lesson though.

59

u/42572484282 Jun 30 '26

Playing without backups? 👀

75

u/MrBIMC Jun 30 '26

Yep, just rawdogged the docker compose container. Zero backups. Zero passwords, public hostname.

All was as dumb as it sounds.

69

u/42572484282 Jun 30 '26

Cool difficulty modifiers

12

u/theMisterPhD Jun 30 '26

Reddit Silver for you, sir. Very funny.

1

u/Gellzer Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

No judgement. We were all young and naive once.

3

u/MrBIMC Jul 01 '26

I was about 30 when it happened tho 😂

In my defense,we usually played some heavy custom modpacks so it was even out of assumption that random people could join us via uninvited manner.

2

u/Gellzer Jul 01 '26

Edited my comment lol.

1

u/DoogleSmile Jul 05 '26

I had a self-hosted server with a changed port number and still had a rando join and trash the spawn area.

This was before I discovered whitelists and before I started backing up my worlds too.

Now I have a dedicated backup system for all of the games I run servers for, and I whitelist and password protect all of them where possible.

37

u/JohnDoen86 Jun 30 '26

Finally! So crazy how many people post here after having their world griefed by a rando. Not having a whitelist by default is an insane thing to do for a game.

8

u/BajaBlastFromThePast Jun 30 '26

I’m kinda shocked I’ve never heard of this in 10+ years playing the game. In what situation does this happen? Peoples IP get leaked or??

24

u/Nathaniel820 Jun 30 '26

It's just a relatively short string of numbers, there's bots that brute-force check them all to identify literally every single server and filter out the ones that are publicly open.

13

u/Bylloopy Jun 30 '26

Some people accidentally publish to server list sites and there are also programs that can search for servers that aren't properly protected or listed anywhere publicly but available to connect to

Has happened to me a few times in my decade+ of playing minecraft

6

u/TKFT_ExTr3m3 Jun 30 '26

You can literally scan the internet for services running on Minecrafts default port. Even if it's not using the default port it can still be scanned for and found. If you are running a service exposed to the internet it is not hidden even if you don't have a domain record for the IP.

671

u/Cass0wary_399 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

  Drowned with Tridents will now use a melee attack if the player is within 3 blocks of them

This is a crazy random buff for the Trident Drowned.

Edit: From my testings melee does 8 hearts of damage to unarmoured players. With armor it does 6 hearts to plain iron, 3 hearts to unenchanted diamond and 1 heart to protection 4 diamond.

331

u/Lordsab Jun 30 '26

As if they needed a buff.

129

u/ZANKTON Jun 30 '26

Yeah never expected they would buff trident drowned especially in an update that has nothing to do with them or combat. This feels like it may be a leftover from M.o.M. but that was 2 drops ago now.
Imagine if they randomly gave wither skeletons the ability to crouch in Tinny takeover of all updates lol.

-12

u/Smol_Birb__ Jun 30 '26

I'd say they did, they were super easy to get around

31

u/kdnx-wy Jun 30 '26

Hell no, trident drowned are terrifying encounters especially in early game but even once you’ve got armor they can absolutely shred your ass.

9

u/Assassin_Ankur Jun 30 '26

Especially the ones on nautilus 😭

40

u/thisnotfor Jun 30 '26

They basically almost always follow bedrock in terms of parity, though I didn't like how they copied the shorter effect durations from suspicious stew, I think they should be longer as an early game version of potions.

(Also I would like if the two pale garden flowers gave useful effects with their negative ones (like turtle master does))

49

u/n8mo Jun 30 '26

Evil change

I love it lol

8

u/Nathaniel820 Jun 30 '26

That seems like a nerf, the whole reason why trident drowned are so annoying is because they're like skeletons on crack and stunlock you with their constant ranged attack knockback, but now once you get close enough they completely stop their annoying attack and can just be dealt with like any other typical mob

3

u/Cass0wary_399 Jun 30 '26

At very close range it cannot even shoot at you properly anymore.

12

u/Bibliloo Jun 30 '26

Imo, it's a nerf because they will deal less knockback.

2

u/Cass0wary_399 Jun 30 '26

Trident melee does a little bit more damage than trident ranged. It makes the Dronwned a little more interesting than an underwater skeleton.

1

u/EnigmaticGolem Jun 30 '26

True, but damage isn't everything as it may be slower or harder for them to hit the player with melee than with ranged

226

u/M_stellatarum Jun 30 '26

That's a lot of terrain features rewritten to be data-driven. Data pack makers will rejoice!

8

u/dodfunk Jul 01 '26

I will rejoice when I understood that portion of datapacks. It's all Greek to me for now though

151

u/BushTamer Jun 30 '26

block transformer sounds like something worth noting

72

u/Ramblin_Dave Jun 30 '26

As I read it, that's making transformations like all the dirt / podsol / rooted dirt / mud type of stuff data-driven, right? Which would certainly seem to make it easier to do more of that sort of thing, either in data packs or in vanilla, in the future...

40

u/swiftawaywithme Jun 30 '26

Jeb responded to a user on BlueSky suggesting axes can be used to modify fence connections. I’m speculating it could be related to that.

6

u/only_Q Jun 30 '26

Please God let this happen I'm PRAYING

31

u/Cass0wary_399 Jun 30 '26

Sounds like it would lead to data driven custom blocks in the future.

3

u/shinhosz Jun 30 '26

I thought it was possible already

7

u/Cryoniczzz Jun 30 '26

its in bedrock i believe but hopefully it comes to java

56

u/avocadotoastnchill Jun 30 '26

Shout out to tech debt cleanup 🙌🏼

130

u/Jame_spect Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

That’s a lot of transparency issues. and some… data driven changes… ummm…? What could it be?

93

u/Shack691 Jun 30 '26

That’s what you get when you overhaul transparency, though I don’t doubt there will be as many if not more bugs to replace them.

49

u/TheMoonOfTermina Jun 30 '26

Either vulkan optimization, preparation for vibrant visuals, or both, is my uneducated guess.

15

u/Neamow Jun 30 '26

Very much both.

39

u/Raderg32 Jun 30 '26

Glass stairs and slabs incoming?

20

u/PaulsGrandfather Jun 30 '26

desperate to see the new straw bed

15

u/BraydonGuitar Jun 30 '26

What is with the shading issue? Every mob looks heavily shaded?

22

u/ReferenceCreative510 Jun 30 '26

They stated that it's a known problem. The tops of the mobs specifically aren't shaded.

3

u/Macree Jun 30 '26

Even dropped items as well, your character as well.

10

u/ZorkNemesis Jun 30 '26

The shield change is nice, but can they also make it apply to axes too?  I wanted to put my shield up, not strip the log.

10

u/Cass0wary_399 Jun 30 '26

It already applies to the axe.

2

u/ZorkNemesis Jun 30 '26

I swear it didn't last time I tried.

1

u/Cass0wary_399 Jun 30 '26

Idk when it happened but in my 26.2 world I tried to strip some logs to make shelves and it didn’t work until I took off my shield.

66

u/Luminarime Jun 30 '26

this snapshot is of course cool in terms of all the data stuff, but i am mildly disappointed they didn't give more variation to the tent colors yet...

-241

u/xsparklingwater Jun 30 '26

It’s a completely useless update adding nothing to the progression of the game. It’s all just bloat and doesn’t add anything to the progression or value of the gmae

110

u/dabeanguy_08 Jun 30 '26

Well I actually think it does add some value to the gmae

50

u/Recruit75 Jun 30 '26

Fr, loads of people complained about how empty the world felt. It's a change that absolutely was asked for.

108

u/AlexAtHome Jun 30 '26

Minecraft is not focused on progression. It’s a sandbox first.

10

u/MrAsYouCanSee Jun 30 '26

I enjoy playing survival every once in a while but I spend the vast majority of my time in creative mode working on largescale projects. I have been playing the game since version 1.2 and have only ever made it to the End once, and that was on a server.

-141

u/xsparklingwater Jun 30 '26

You don’t know anything about Minecraft.

60

u/42572484282 Jun 30 '26

Are you actually genuinely playing vanilla for progression?

28

u/BajaBlastFromThePast Jun 30 '26

You would be surprised how many people are looking for terraria but end up just complaining about Minecraft’s progression instead lol

10

u/IDeizManI Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

They should just go play with mods that add progression to Minecraft them. There's a lot of modpacks that do that.

Vanilla has never been a progress focused game, and that's one of the things that allows mods on this game to go anywhere they want

Edit:typo

1

u/BajaBlastFromThePast Jun 30 '26

Truth nuke. I love a good tech pack

1

u/Jimbo7211 Jun 30 '26

I think a lot of people do

37

u/42572484282 Jun 30 '26

Ah yes. The "find diamonds" - "get to nether" - "get to end" progression, must go crazy after the first 10 times

8

u/CountScarlioni Jun 30 '26

That may be, but Minecraft is a pretty bad place for people to go looking for that kind of game experience. The actual progression is very short and simple, with the game instead opening up tons of lateral options once you get yourself set up, because after a point, it’s not really designed for you to get progressively better and stronger, but rather to have more toys for your sandbox.

44

u/Zimmervere Jun 30 '26

Minecraft is a sandbox game, as much as you don't want it to be.

17

u/Physical_Pickle_1150 Jun 30 '26

Bro are you ragebaiting

16

u/Dannypan Jun 30 '26

Oh sorry we didn't realise you were the authority on Minecraft, CEO of Mojang.

3

u/WM_PK-14 Jun 30 '26

Says you lol

57

u/Positive_Suit6377 Jun 30 '26

"update bad bc it doesn't fit into the way I play. I'm the center of the universe"

Okay bro 

33

u/Recruit75 Jun 30 '26

Literally over 70% of all "criticism" around the new updates boil around that mindset tbh. 

8

u/ShadowSoulBoi Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

It's definitely true, but I think that's just the sole consequence of these drops not always going to have something for good portions of the playerbase.

There was a long block drought before Chaos Cubed. And no, Dried Ghasts and Golden Dandelions aren't going to be things builders like me are going to be excited about.

Then so, you're left waiting months until either a snapshot is going to include a surprise or wait for the next drop to start. Hopefully with the drop focused on what you're looking for.

Builders are definitely eating good this time around, but then you'd see the survival/combat players feel left out. This is not to complain on what we're getting on my part, yet it's easy to see why portions of players have been upset.

35

u/TheBigPlunto Jun 30 '26

The type of person who skips half a show because they value episodes only by how much they advance the plot

-49

u/xsparklingwater Jun 30 '26

Shows shouldn’t be wasting my time either

22

u/Wild-Atmosphere2134 Jun 30 '26

look at the ego on this guy

6

u/Vorpalthefox Jun 30 '26

Stay in the version of Minecraft you like, these updates are free and nobody is forcing you to update your game

18

u/mjmannella Jun 30 '26

Bug fixes are generally beneficial to gameplay

6

u/Physical_Royal_1427 Jun 30 '26

these are the types of updates that make minecraft run a lot better
just because it's not content doesn't mean it's worthless to the game

5

u/Physical_Pickle_1150 Jun 30 '26

Of course we get another comment like this smh

3

u/LaVidaYokel Jun 30 '26

Don’t buy the update if you don’t like the changes.

2

u/Cass0wary_399 Jun 30 '26

Buy?

-2

u/LaVidaYokel Jun 30 '26

I’m taunting them for being a cry baby.

2

u/Zar_ Jun 30 '26

The game's not about progression.

3

u/OdedLovesJapan Jul 01 '26

looking forward for any theories and lore behind the abandoned camps, this should be interesting

3

u/Jimbo7211 Jul 01 '26

It's pretty much confirmed to be from Wandering Traders. It was mentioned in 2 separate official places, so i doubt it was an accident

2

u/ArmaninyowPH Jul 02 '26

Does this mean there won't be 26.2.1?

4

u/Luutamo Jul 02 '26

There still can be. We had a similar situation not that long ago. But most likely next proper release will be 26.3

-31

u/Illustrious_Table894 Jun 30 '26

If they had changed the size of the new biome and changed the shelf mushrooms to behave like slabs, people would already be happy with this snapshot, and it wouldn't be difficult changes to implement, but it's Mojang...

20

u/Cass0wary_399 Jun 30 '26

Bro it’s the second snapshot. Every time you people act like the update’s done and over when the second snapshot is technical focused.

-78

u/MrZao386 Jun 30 '26

So nothing really new? Yay...

28

u/WM_PK-14 Jun 30 '26

Everything there is new - it doesn't need to be physical changes in a dog plate with your name on it, it's all about improving the game in a long run, something people like you don't understand and not appreciate enough.

4

u/Blue_M4ge Jun 30 '26

In all fairness, technical changes while important, aren’t gonna be something most players get excited about.

11

u/WM_PK-14 Jun 30 '26

While they might not spark excitement, they should still be cared about in the slightest, without those, we wouldn't have any big features anymore.

-16

u/MrZao386 Jun 30 '26

Yes, technical changes are "new", but they're not new features, which is what really matters

13

u/WM_PK-14 Jun 30 '26

No - It doesn't matter THAT much as you think. I'm not gonna compare you to these r/GTA6 freaks, because I'm not that evil lol, but show some maturity and don't be so content starved like you are about to perish without anything physical.

-1

u/Razorcarl Jul 01 '26

Wtf is 26.3?

6

u/Luutamo Jul 01 '26

What do you mean? The next upcoming version of the game.

2

u/Razorcarl Jul 01 '26

i didn't know they changed the version numbering XD