Mojang has been diligently updating Minecraft Bedrock Edition recently, patching out pesky bugs and adding new content for players to enjoy. This update follows that trend by patching many bugs and bringing graphical improvements for those on Windows 10.

These graphical improvements come from bringing the PlayStation and Xbox graphics engine, RenderDragon, to Minecraft on Windows 10. It aims to give PC players better performance and stability.

Mojang also brings Ray Tracing to the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft with this update. Although to utilize this exciting new dynamic lighting system, you will need a high-end GPU such as the GeForce RTX 20 Series and higher, or a Radeon RX 6000 Series and higher.

This update also brings OpenXR to Minecraft on Windows 10 to support Oculus VR and Windows MR.

New Features:

New Volume Settings

  • Added a variety of volume sliders for sound categories (eg. hostile, blocks, weather etc.)These play a preview of the relevant sounds in the main settings menu, and play the default click sound when in-game

Vanilla Parity Changes and Fixes:

  • Basalt can no longer be destroyed by Ghast fireballs (MCPE-75252)Basalt blocks now take slightly more time to destroyDragon Egg now always drops as an item when it’s destroyed by an explosion (MCPE-52632)Right-clicking a snow block with a shovel no longer breaks the snow blockDirt Paths (formerly Grass Path) can now be made by using a shovel on Dirt, Podzol, Mycelium, Coarse Dirt, and grassUpdated the Netherite leggings texture (MCPE-103016)Twisting Vines can no longer be placed on Composter blocks while sneaking (MCPE-78973)Netherite Armor now gives a ninety percent reduction in Knockback (MCPE-77430)Bees will no longer stray more than 22 blocks from their home Beehive (MCPE-60252)

Known Issues:

  • Players running Minecraft on Windows 10 N 32-bit systems may encounter a crash when loading the game if the Media Foundation Pack is not installed. This can be resolved by downloading and installing the Media Foundation PackPlayers are unable to rejoin a world after being disconnected from a suspended sessionIn VR, Living room hint text doesn’t change correspondingly when input method changes from gamepad to motion controller

Fixes:

Performance and Stability

  • These play a preview of the relevant sounds in the main settings menu, and play the default click sound when in-game

  • Improved chunk loading speed when flying with Elytra (MCPE-85614)Large numbers of scheduled instant updates no longer crash the game (MCPE-94942)Fixed a crash that could occasionally occur when going through a portal or flying around in Creative modeFixed a crash that could occasionally occur while flying or moving around the game worldFixed a crash that could occur when loading a local worldFixed an issue where some mobile devices would lose audio after suspend and resume (MCPE-101027)Fixed an issue that caused a crash on Nintendo Switch when trying to load a 256x resolution resource packThe system now blocks that selection and notifies the player they cannot select it

General

  • The system now blocks that selection and notifies the player they cannot select it

  • Players that own The Founder’s Cape will once again see it within the Capes tab of the Dressing Room

Gameplay

  • Only preview items will be shown in crafting screen when auto crafting an item on controller. This prevents rapid updates of the Recipe BookFixed the player’s hand still bobbing if View Bobbing was disabled (MCPE-79380)

Mobs

  • Fixed mobs and other entities freezing and becoming desynced with their bodies o_O (MCPE-71243)Villagers will no longer steal workstations from each other (MCPE-43071)Mobs no longer randomly stop attacking and following their targets (MCPE-48144)Piglins that are close together can no longer pick up the same item if it’s dropped between them (MCPE-95644)Update Zombified Piglin texture to remove flickering of loincloth (MCPE-96793)Mobs no longer spawn in Wither Roses (MCPE-97331)Bees now only exit at the front of Beehives and Bee NestsMobs are no longer teleported back and forth outside solid objects if there is not enough space for multiple entities (MCPE-101202)

Items

  • Compass is no longer consumed when used on a Lodestone in Creative mode (MCPE-96258)Glowsticks no longer use placeholder textures (Education Feature) (MCPE-45686, MCPE-68417)

Blocks

  • Cocoa Pods generated in Jungles now generate in the proper direction (MCPE-102399)Signs no longer replace decorations when attempting to place in the same space as the decorationFixed a bug where End Portal blocks were not removed after an End Portal Frame block was destroyed. Filled blocks other than End Portal blocks will remain in place

Graphical

  • Owned packs are now refreshed correctly after restarting the game when playing in VR

Accessibility

  • Fixed the screen reader not reading the screen title in-gameFixed the screen reader not reading the shortcut button on the Pause ScreenFixed the screen reader not reading the screen title and shortcut buttons on the Invite to Game ScreenFixed the screen reader not reading the title on the Profile and Edit Character screensFixed the numbering of buttons on the Pause Screen being wrong when using text-to-speechThe Emote Wheel now supports the screen readerFixed an issue where the screen reader was not reading updates often enough on some devicesFixed the screen reader so messages with controller icons in the Chat Screen are read correctlyThe screen reader now reads the Open Chat Message while Text To Speech For Chat is turned offFixed several issues regarding text contrast in the user interfaceFixed an issue where the Servers tab would not correctly read text-to-speech prompts when not signed into a Microsoft accountFixed various issues where text-to-speech indices on the start screen were not correctFixed issues where user interface controls would be improperly indexed in text-to-speech for popup modalsReduced transparency on top row of buttons in Touch UI to improve readability

User Interface

  • Added UI start up screen to inform players if they are running on outdated graphics driversFixed several death messages (MCPE-30360)“slain by Llama spit” –> “spitballed by Llama”“slain by shulkerBullet” –> “sniped by shulker”“slain by Blaze” –> “fireballed by Blaze”“slain by Ghast” –> “fireballed by Ghast”“shot by arrow” –> “shot by skeleton”“slain by Trident” –> “was impaled to death by Trident”Fixed paperdoll such that it can now always be rotated with the mouse when in the Dressing Room (MCPE-101210)“Classic Controls – Intense” font color now matches the surrounding text in VR Controls menuPreview items in the crafting grid now have a different colored background depending on item availability in the inventoryThe Player Permissions menu can once again be navigated using a controller regardless of the player’s permission level button in Chat Settings is no longer present when using a controllerProfile screen has been improved, now characters are visible and can be selected or modified as soon as they loadAvoid purchasing a Realm if the player cancels out of “Purchase History Needed” dialog screen‘Strawberry Blonde’ color now has correct name in the Character Creator (MCPE-102674)Loading screen tips no longer display the “tips.game.62” (No ID)Fixed the visual focus indicator disappearing in VR when hovering on tabs in VR with screen reader enabledScoreboard now displays properly on the pause screen when displaying in list mode (MCPE-106012)

Commands

  • “slain by Llama spit” –> “spitballed by Llama”“slain by shulkerBullet” –> “sniped by shulker”“slain by Blaze” –> “fireballed by Blaze”“slain by Ghast” –> “fireballed by Ghast”“shot by arrow” –> “shot by skeleton”“slain by Trident” –> “was impaled to death by Trident”

  • ‘/playsound’commands now play the sound correctly for all players in range‘/effect’ command duration is now capped at 1,000,000 seconds (MCPE-92916)Add ticking area commands performed in the same tick now disallow adding areas with the same name twicePlaceholder text message for the ‘/titleraw’ command success no longer returns to player (MCPE-63618)FadeOut argument is no longer ignored in the ‘/title’ times command

For Map Makers and Add-On Creators:

Updated Template Packs

  • Updated templates for 1.16.200 with new resources, behaviors, and documentation are available for downloadResource Pack TemplateBehavior Pack Template (Includes documentation)

Fixes

  • Resource Pack TemplateBehavior Pack Template (Includes documentation)

  • Turning bandwidth optimizations off to see if it fixes stationary mob problem and entity “lag” issues (MCPE-105892)Custom projectiles once again animate properlyFixed an issue where loot tables with a ‘set_data’ function produced incorrect loot itemsFixed face occlusion with data-driven blocks to properly account for unit cube transparent vs unit cube opaqueData-driven blocks no longer have their top faces rotated 180 degrees when carried or in inventory (MCPE-63134)Fixed an issue with a runaway block ticking queue that occurred on a looping data-driven block that changed itself to a different permutation. The bug could cause memory issues, increased load and save times, as well as stalling the game periodically (No ID)Fixed data-driven blocks to shrink UVs the same way as actors to prevent UV bleeding (No ID)Fixed some culling issues with data-driven blocks larger than 1x1x1 when placed on a chunk boundary. Also added content warnings for larger blocksChanged ‘set_block’ and ‘set_block_at_pos’ to use ‘BlockDescriptor’ when specifying ‘block_type’Old command versions now use the previous position instead of current oneFixed issue where ‘query.cardinal_block_face_placed_on’ no longer worked with ‘on_player_placing’Changed texture atlas padding size from 0 to 1 when disabling mipmapFixed issue of blocks listed in the “minecraft:block_placer” component not working correctlyFixed player smaller hitbox while swimming and gliding from being reset after an event is sent on the playerFixed custom spawn egg generation in template worldsMoLang geometry, material, and texture variable names can once again contain dotsItems with the item lock component no longer cause the recipe book to show invalid recipe results

  • Added ‘query.cardinal_facing_2d’ to get a ground plane direction that doesn’t return up or downAdded the ability to put block models into the models/blocks folderAdded the ability for item triggers to send events to the block they are interacting with (when there is one such as ‘on_use_on’)Added the ability to query the interacted face for both interactions with blocks and using ‘minecraft:on_use_on’ in an item. Face can be queried with ‘query.block_face’

Components

  • Fixed using ‘query.get_equipped_item_name’ with an item that was renamed not returning the right result. We now tie this to vanilla versioning so that the old name is returned if the world is tied to a specific vanilla version“add_mob_effect” and “remove_mob_effect” no longer throw content errors when valid effect names are passed inAdded documentation for “remove_mob_effect” to make creators aware they can use the value “all” in effect to remove all mob effects from a targetFixed items not being placeable in additional horse equipment slots. Does not fix all equippable behaviorsInventory size on the minecraft:inventory component has to be increased to match the equippable slots in order for the server to accept the item placementThe tooltip for item with item lock component will no longer show when game rule ‘showtags’ is disabled