Minecraft fully released almost 15 years ago, and in that time, it’s more or less looked like the same blocky game we all know and love, but it’s now getting a sweeping visual overhaul.
Mojang Studios broke down the ‘Vibrant Visuals’ update, coming June 17, in a new video that also shows side-by-side comparisons of the game before and after. The main differences are that shadows now move organically and are cast by the sun, fog plays a much bigger role, water looks absolutely lush, and biomes feel a lot more distinct.
More importantly, however, is that every new effect has been slightly pixelated so it all still feels recognizably Minecrafty, as the studio had promised before. Mojang has also apparently added more than 3,000 new textures and the devs seem very proud that you can actually tell how rough or shiny or metallic every material is just by looking at them. Color isn’t the only thing that separates your blocks anymore.
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“We didn’t want to take away from what makes Minecraft Minecraft, so everything we added needed to feel really natural – a natural evolution of what players were already used to,” lead rendering engineer A.J. Fairfield said.
“Even though you have this modern look and feel, it’s also very familiar glimpses of the regular Minecraft that you know,” Vibrant Visuals lead Dejan Dimic added. It’s certainly a sweeping, handsome update, without making the now-iconic game look uncanny. So, mission accomplished?
Minecraft’s redone visuals will be available in the Bedrock Edition later this month and will be turned on by default. Don’t worry, though! You can toggle it off in the menus, and the update will also be coming to Java Edition at some point in the future.
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