The Minecraft 1.6 Update brings players over a hundred bug fixes and some fantastic new additions to the game for both single player and multiplayer. With four more patches already applied to the original update, Minecraft is running pretty well with all the new additions and changes - it’s time we go in and explore our favorite worlds, which now have a few more features added to them.

It’s been more than a month since the last update, but fans have been anticipating this one for weeks. Though features like the Sky World haven’t been included, there’s still a decent amount of changes to make the Minecraft 1.6 update one to remember.

Let’s delve into the update and take a look at the new features:

Maps

Each Map is made by surrounding a compass by paper on all sides, which means that you need a total of 8 paper and 1 compass per map. Once crafted, the map will beginning showing a geographical view of the world, the center of which will be where the map was created. Beware, though - this isn’t some magical map, you’ll have to have it out in your hands as you walk for it to begin recording your travels. Likewise, it behaves just like a regular map - it has its own dimensions, and when you go past the edge of the paper, the map won’t be updating anymore - you’ll have to craft more maps when you uncover more land.

Maps are also functional in multiplayer, meaning you can give a friend a map of areas you have explored. Though underground maps are not yet possible, Notch mentioned that they’d be an interesting idea. Likewise, he’d also like to be able to pin them up on a wall at some point. Given that this level of custom detail is able to be transferred, Notch hinted that writable books may be a feature of the future. Oh, and for the avid mapper, you’re map limit is 65,536 unique maps. We don’t think that should be a problem.

Tall Grass and Shrubs

One of the simplest possible changes to the game has turned out to change the entire feel dramatically - grassy hills and ranges now have the possibility of being covered in tall grass and shrubs, whereupon deserts will now have dead shrubs on occasion. They do not impede your movement at all, but it should be noted that Shrubs are now the go-to source for seeds when you’re planting crop, as opposed to trimming the regular grass off of blocks. More than anything, this is an aesthetic change.

Hatches

Yes, the addition of a horizontal door solution is finally here! The hatch - also known as the trapdoor - is crafted by a 2x3 wooden block pattern. The hatch will flick open upwards when clicked, and as expected can be activated by a redstone trigger. Though they’re small in stature, so far they don’t work properly next to double half-blocks, so until this is fixed keep your hatches next to some proper solid blocks - and beware that if those blocks are destroyed, your hatch goes with it! And before you wonder, liquids won’t flow through an open hatch - this is an item meant for Minecraft Steve and his friends to go through.

The Rest of the Stuff

As promised, the Nether is now available in Minecraft Survival Multiplayer. At the current time of writing, all portals on the regular server map lead to the same portal in the Nether because of a bug, which will hopefully be fixed soon. Additionally, when you see players destroying a block in multiplayer it will now show the particle breaking effect, which has been missing until now.

Another great feature is shift-clicking when clicking an item to bring into your inventory - this will take as much of the item as possible, and bring it all down into your inventory. A great time-saving technique when you’re grabbing a few hundred cobblestone!

Continue to page 2 for more and a full list of Minecraft 1.6 bug fixes!

Get ready for an absolute plethora of bug fixes! The 1,6 update fixed a lot of problems, including some prominently complained about - if you get stuck between blocks, you’re player will now float towards the nearest open space. Let’s take a look at problems we’ll never have again:

  • Fixed a major CPU load issue in the server where a very tight loop would starve all other threads. Fixed furnaces dropping/duplicating their contents when they change state from lit to unlit or back. Fixed running out of memory corrupting the current level Fixed item bug when picking up an item with a full inventory. Fixed new item duplication bug 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 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. 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 Glowstone recessed into a wall no longer has shadows cast on it by surrounding blocks when smooth lighting is enabled When breaking a minecart the player is currently riding in, the player no longer falls through the block the track is placed on

You’ve got to admit, that’s a pretty impressive bug-fix list. Mojang have put a lot of effort into improving the 1.6 experience for us, so let’s go out and get some cobblestone to show for it!

[Update: There have been several incremental Minecraft 1.6 updates added by Notch since - check them out here in addition to a hint of what may be coming in the next major update!]

What do you think of the 1.6 Update? Was it what you were expecting?

Feel free to follow the author on Twitter @Makelevi and throw some cobblestone at him.

  • 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 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. 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 Glowstone recessed into a wall no longer has shadows cast on it by surrounding blocks when smooth lighting is enabled When breaking a minecart the player is currently riding in, the player no longer falls through the block the track is placed on

  • Extreme lags on Linux and Windows multiplayer servers, the Minecraft process uses 100% of CPU as soon as the host is logged on. Others may log in via LAN, and wireless without lag. [5] The frames per second of the client dropped considerably for some users. [6] Items do not eject properly from any block, they will become buried if a block is placed over them. Must dig it back out to retrieve. Items received from a Furnace sometimes have no stack number, items from the furnace can also be duplicated by right clicking. Right clicking a Duplicated item from a furnace while the chest is open results in a crash. Hatches Close through you even if standing at same level. Tall Grass are off centered and can float off edges. When looking at a map the indicator at the player’s coordinated does not always point the correct direction. For example, when facing due North, South, East or West the marker will sometimes point slightly clockwise from the direction it should. When pressing Q to drop a tool and re-collecting that tool, when you use it it’ll break instantly. watercolor.png doesn’t do anything. If you Shift-click to place items chest and the chest is full the screen will change to the “Saving Chunks” screen except there will be no loading bar and the text will be in a lighter shade of grey. The game will then crash and will flick to the error report before the screeen goes black and you cannot do anything. After death, any tools dropped will give an infinite number of clone tools to the player when he/she attempts to pick them up. Missing tooltips for Tall Grass and Dead Shrubs in Statistics menu. Tall Grass looks grey in Statistics menu (because it’s color depends on Dirt’s block grass color). Furnaces will sometimes eject all but the last item in every slot. Upon logging into a world, the player receives half a heart of damage possibly due to spawning partially in the floor or ceiling, if indoors An item bug was introduced where people could pickup items while their inventory is full. [7] The invisible fence fix is not working, so the fences that were invisible before 1.6 are still invisible If you shift-click a tool in your inventory wich was dropped and recollected will get lost