What you need to know
- Minecraft 1.20 is the next major content update for the game, with four of its features already revealed.
- On Wednesday, Mojang Studios began rolling out Minecraft Preview 1.19.50.21 to begin testing these features.
- The pre-release build also includes Minecraft’s seven new default characters for players to enjoy.
- Minecraft: Java Edition players can also test Minecraft 1.20 features in a snapshot released earlier today.
Minecraft Live 2022 was resplendent with news and announcements for the entire Minecraft franchise, but many players were only there to witness the first reveal of Minecraft’s highly-anticipated 1.20 update. Mojang Studios delivered the first look, along with a promise that players would only have to wait mere days to get their hands on the initial feature set. On Wednesday, the studio made good on its promise.
Following a Minecraft: Java Edition snapshot released earlier today, a new Minecraft Preview build rolling out to players on all platforms includes an experimental toggle to enable the first four features revealed as a part of Minecraft 1.20. Players will be able to test these features and submit feedback, giving Mojang Studios plenty of time to iterate and make changes before the full update arrives sometime in 2023.
This change to how Minecraft updates are handled is part of Mojang Studios’ renewed commitment to transparency announced during Minecraft Live 2022. From now on, the company is intent on only announcing features when they’re far along in development and ready to be in the hands of players — not when they’re only conceptual and in the early design phases. This means smaller reveals and fewer big features at a time, but it does mean that updates should more closely align with expectations and should be more closely developed with the community.
Minecraft Preview players can now begin testing the latest pre-release build, which tests a host of new features, changes, and fixes for one of Xbox’s best games. Alongside the new Minecraft 1.20 additions, players will also be able to test and play as Minecraft’s seven new default characters for the very first time.
The full changelog for Minecraft Preview 1.19.50.21 includes:
Minecraft 1.20 experimental features
General
- Introducing the next major update experimental toggle. Help us try out and develop the new next major update content!
- Please remember worlds that have used Experimental toggles will always be flagged as Experimental
- We recommend keeping these Experimental worlds as separate copies from your main saves
Bamboo wood types
- Added new base blocks for Bamboo Wood types
- Added recipes for Bamboo Wood types
- Added Bamboo Flooring block variants
- Added Bamboo Raft and Raft with Chest
Camels
- Added Camel base mob functionality
- Added two-seat rider functionality to Camel
- Add Dashing ability to Camel
- Camels randomly sit down for a short amount of time
- Camels can spawn in desert villages
- Camel is a tall animal and the rider is high enough in the air that melee mobs can’t reach them
Chiseled bookshelves
- A new, chiseled variation of the Bookshelf
- Crafted with 6 Planks and 3 Wooden Slabs
- Can store Books, Book and Quills, and Enchanted Books
- Holds up to 6 Books
- Keeps the stories and lore of your world safe
- Comparators can detect the last book placed / removed
- Perfect for hiding secrets in your spooky library
Hanging sign
- Added Hanging Signs, which can be placed beneath and on the side of a block
- Added Hanging Sign of all wood types and recipes
- Hanging Signs can be placed under narrow blocks with center support
- Hanging Signs have their own specific UI when writing text on the sign
Features & bug fixes
Dressing room
- Added 7 new friends for Steve & Alex to the cast: Ari, Efe, Zuri, Sunny, Makena, Kai, and Noor
- Added a new first-time modal to the dressing room introducing the cast
- Updated the “create character” process in the dressing room to select a default cast member as your base character
- Added each cast members clothing pieces into the character creator
Gameplay
- Temporarily reverted the fix for effects being inherited by bred mobs, while a related issue is addressed first
Touch controls
- Removed the action delay from Attack and Interact buttons
- When the joystick is unlocked, the draggable range has been changed to be the same as the when the joystick is locked
- In both modes, if auto-sprinting is enabled, it will start when the joystick is dragged slightly above the background
- The auto-sprint will disengage if the joystick control is subsequently moved back into the joystick background area
- A tap gesture will now fire a charged Crossbow. Previously it was necessary to hold the gesture for 400ms before the bolt would fire
- Fixed an issue where players couldn’t drag/drop in the Anvil screen
User interface
- You can now bind the copy coordinate keys with full keyboard gameplay turned on
World & dimensions
- Fixed a bug that could cause players to get stuck on the “Building Terrain” screen when changing dimensions
Vanilla parity
Blocks
- Wooden Doors, Iron Doors, Wooden Trapdoors, Iron Trapdoors, and Fence Gates now use the same opening and closing sound effects as Java Edition
- Updated Pressure Plates to have different pitches based on their behaviour to match Java Edition
- Added unique button click sound for Wooden Buttons to match Java Edition
- Crimson and Warped block sets now have a unique set of sounds
Spectator Mode
- Allays no longer throw items to players in Spectator Mode
Villagers
- While playing tag, baby Villagers will now run at a quicker speed that matches Java Edition
Technical updates
Actor properties
- Actor Properties are no longer experimental (this includes Molang queries and property filters, but not Permutations)
Add-ons & script engine
- Fixed an issue where changing the subpack of Resource Packs that have subpacks, would not apply changes until the game was restarted
AI goals
- Exposed new data parameters for the `minecraft:offer_flower` AI behaviour to specify such things as the time that the mob offers the flower for, the chance that the goal will start, and the dimensions of the AABB used to search for a mob to offer a flower to
- The `minecraft:offer_flower` AI behavior can now be used by any mob, not just the Iron Golem
- The `minecraft:offer_flower` AI behavior will now search through all mobs in the specified range rather than just the closest one, meaning that this goal has the potential to be used more consistently than before
- Exposed new data parameters for the `minecraft:take_flower` AI behavior to specify such things as the conditions to be met to start the goal, the min and max wait times before taking the flower, and the dimensions of the AABB used to search for a mob to take a flower from
- The `minecraft:take_flower` AI behavior can now be used by any mob, not just baby Villagers
Stability & performance
- Fixed a crash that would occur if Education Edition items were rendered without the Education Edition toggle turned on
Experimental features
General
- Removed the functionality of the `minecraft:breathability` component. Component will have no effect on the custom defined block
API
- Initial APIs are releasing out of beta and will be usable without an experimental flag.
- The first module to release is `@minecraft/server` as version 1.0.0. The APIs included with this are listed below
- Non-beta APIs like those included in the `@minecraft/server` 1.0.0 module do not require the Beta APIs experiment to be turned on, and will be more stable over time
- This initial API set is narrow, but we intend to add more APIs into non-beta modules over the coming months
- `@minecraft/server` will continue to develop in Beta and those Beta APIs have been incremented in version to 1.1.0-beta; if you wish to continue to use Beta `@minecraft/server` APIs, `manifest.json` references will need to be updated to 1.1.0-beta.
- APIs included in the `@minecraft/server` version 1.0.0 release
- `System` type (Exposed via `systemglobal` instance):
- `run()` — runs a function on the next tick (can be used to maintain a game loop tick over tick)
- `World` type (exposed via `worldglobal` instance):
- `getDimension()`
- `getAllPlayers()`
- `MinecraftDimensionTypes` type:
- `nether`
- `overworld`
- `theEnd`
- `Dimension` type:
- `id`
- `runCommandAsync()`
- `CommandResult` type:
- `commandResult`
- `Entity` type:
- `id`
- `typeId`
- `dimension`
- `runCommandAsync()`
- `Player` type:
- `name`
Commands
- As a preview of upcoming potential changes to how commands run, new experimental functionality within the Upcoming Creator Features experiment causes all command execution to run at the end of the current tick
Known issues
General
- We have a known issue in this Preview update that may cause a crash when travelling through portals in multiplayer
- We are working on a fix for this and hope to have it addressed as soon as possible, thank you for your patience!
