I was personally quite convinced that the game was already perfect, but it seems that our developers disagree. We are now releasing the first snapshot for Minecraft 1.20.2!

This snapshot brings changes to Diamond Ore generation, the ability to waterlog Barriers, and a change to Villager curing. It also brings a new Experimental Toggle that updates Villager trading, which we are eager to hear your feedback on. As well as a big batch of bug fixes, you will find a whole lot of technical features and changes in this snapshot, including new commands, function macros, persistent command history, network performance improvements, and much more.

Happy mining!

New Experimental Features in 23w31a

Villager Trade Rebalance

This snapshot introduces a new experimental Feature Toggle that updates the Wandering Trader and Librarian trades. You must turn on this Feature Toggle in the Experiments Menu when creating a new world if you want to test the new trades. You can find more information about Feature Toggles here.

As this is an experiment, we would really appreciate your feedback as work continues and to help us decide on the future direction for Villager trades. Visit this link to share your thoughts!

Librarian Changes

Before these changes, players could get any village enchantment from any Librarian. A novice Librarian could sell the best enchantment in the game! For some players, this felt too random and made trading feel overpowered when compared to using the Enchanting Table or searching for Enchanted Books in structures.

With the new rules, Librarians from different biomes sell different enchantments, and each village biome has one enchantment that is only sold by master Librarians.

Players will have to work towards getting the best trades instead of relying on random chance. We hope this makes Librarian trading more interesting and skillful, while also revealing some clues about their history of each village type through the enchantments that are sold there.

Librarians from different biomes now sell different Enchanted Books
Each village biome has one special enchantment that is only available from Master Librarians with full XP
This means that players must visit all seven village biomes to get the full set of villager enchantments
There are two secret village biomes where villages do not generate
- A player must build these villages to access their trades!
Some enchantments have been removed from village trading and must be found in other ways

Wandering Trader Changes

Some players felt that the Wandering Trader had unfair prices and didn't sell many useful items. We have lowered their prices, added more trades and increased the amounts available. The Wandering Trader will also now buy useful items from players, so it's possible to help them on their journey by giving them supplies even if you don't feel like buying anything.

Wandering Traders now have lower prices and have a higher amount of each item in stock
Wandering Traders now sell Logs
Wandering Traders can now buy many items, instead of only selling

Changes

Diamond Ore is now generated more frequently in the Deepslate layers of the Overworld
Curing a Zombie Villager now only gives a big discount the first time
- There is no longer a bonus discount for reinfecting and curing the same Villager multiple times
Barrier blocks can now be waterlogged by players in Creative mode
- Water cannot be placed in them or taken out by non-direct interactions such as Dispensers
Players will no longer be able to crouch while riding vehicles
Chorus Flower no longer provides support for hanging or standing blocks

Diamond Ore Distribution

In this snapshot, we have increased the amount of Diamond Ore found in the deepest parts of the world. Our goal is to make it more rewarding to mine for Diamonds in the Deepslate layers. We want your feedback on this! Please try out your favorite mining technique and let us know how it feels on this feedback site.

Technical Changes

The resource pack version is now 16
The data pack version is now 16
History of used commands is now saved and accessible across worlds
Optimized the way chunks are sent to clients to allow players with low-bandwidth internet connections to play on multiplayer servers
Added support for multi-version packs
Changed network protocol to allow for more data-driven content in the future
Added new log-ips option to server.properties
Added validation for symbolic links in datapacks and resource packs
When hitboxes are displayed through F3+B, entities that have a passenger will display the passenger's attachment point

Command History

The last 50 commands that you sent in chat will be remembered across game sessions
You can access the command and chat history by pressing up or down arrows in the chat
Regular chat is only persisted within the same game session (leaving a server or world clears them)
Recent commands are stored in command_history.txt in the game folder

Chunk Sending Optimization

Chunks are no longer sent over the network to the client in one big continuous batch
They are instead sent in smaller batches depending on the available bandwidth. This means that:
- Clients with extremely low-bandwidth connections will not time out while loading the world
- Clients with low-bandwidth connections can interact with the world while some chunks are still loading
Only chunks within the client's render distance are now sent

Multi-version Packs

New features have been added to datapacks and resource packs to allow creation of packs that are compatible with multiple versions of game.

Pack Metadata

Pack metadata now includes an optional field supported_formats which describes a range for pack formats that this pack supports
- Examples: 16, [16,17], {"min_inclusive": 16, "max_inclusive": 17}
pack_format field is still required and its format remains unchanged, to allow older game versions to read pack data
- If supported_formats is present, it must contain the value declared in pack_format
- Note: since this new information is ignored by older versions of the game, they will always see a "normal", single-version pack, without any extended compatibility

Overlays

Packs can now contain overlay directories ("overlays")
Overlays are sub-packs applied over the "normal" contents of a pack
- These directories have the same layout as the top-level pack, including the assets and data directories
- Overlays can be applied if they support the client's pack format
- Overlays can add and replace files, but not remove them
  - For example, if the overlay foo is applied, the file foo/assets/minecraft/textures/bar.png will replace contents of assets/minecraft/textures/bar.png
- pack.mcmeta and pack.png are ignored in overlay directories
New section called overlays have been added to pack metadata
- It contains an entries field, containing a list of overlays
- Every overlay entry has two fields:
  - formats - range of supported formats
  - directory - overlay directory (allowed characters: a-z, 0-9, _ and -)
Order of application: overlays are stacked from the bottom to top of the list
- For example, if a pack has two overlays: "entries": [{"directory":"A", ...}, {"directory":"B", ...}], the game will first look in B, then A and then in the top pack directory

Network Protocol

As part of ongoing work towards more data-driven features, the network protocol has been changed to include a new configuration phase.

Configuration phase automatically starts after login phase (i.e. after client account has been verified) and lasts until the player joins the world (play phase)
Clients can stay in configuration phase indefinitely - it's up to server to release it to the world
Servers can also request clients to re-enter the configuration phase after it has entered the play phase
- Other players will see such clients as disconnected
Users in configuration phase will not be visible on the player list
Actions allowed in configuration phase (moved from play phase)
- Configuration of data-driven registries
- Configuration of enabled features
Actions shared between configuration and play phases:
- Application of server resource packs
- Update of tags
- Exchange of custom packets
- Ping and keep-alive packets
The server will now negotiate resource pack in the configuration phase
- This means that the player will no longer be in world when answering prompts and reloading resources

`server.properties`

New option: log-ips (default true)
- When set to false, will prevent player IPs from being included in the log when players join the game

Symbolic Link Validation

To improve safety, the game will now also detect symbolic links used inside data- and resource packs.

This feature expands on symbolic link validation in worlds added in the previous release
The game will now warn users if a pack added via drag and drop contains disallowed symbolic links
Packs containing disallowed symbolic links will not be visible in UI and commands
Additionally, directories and files that are not recognized as packs will no longer be copied via drag and drop
For a detailed explanation, see this help article

Telemetry

Added a button to the Telemetry Data Collection Screen that links to the Microsoft Privacy Statement

Resource Pack Version 16

The process of upgrading your pack can be assisted by using this automated Slicer tool
All textures containing multiple sprites in a sheet for GUI have been split into individual sprites under textures/gui/sprites (automated by Slicer tool)
All textures in the realms namespace have been moved into the minecraft namespace (automated by Slicer tool)
villager2.png has been renamed to villager.png (automated by Slicer tool)
icon/trial_available and realm_status/expires_soon GUI sprites are animated with .mcmeta declarations instead of individual sprites (automated by Slicer tool)
The bundle tooltip background is now drawn as a nine-sliced sprite
The icons for the Accessibility, Language, Realms News buttons have been split from their underlying button texture
The Realms Invite button is now drawn as an overlay on the normal button texture
- The highlighted texture state for this button has been removed
The highlighted states for Realms invitation number icons have been removed
The exclamation marks on the notification\more.png have been removed

GUI Sprite Sheet

Sprites used in GUI drawing have been split into individual sprite files instead of larger sprite sheets
- For example, widgets/button.png and widgets/button_highlighted.png have been split from widgets.png
Each sprite can now be individually overriden by a resource pack instead of replacing the entire sheet
Sprites are loaded into the gui atlas from the textures/gui/sprites directory

GUI Sprite .mcmeta

Any sprite can now be animated using .mcmeta files, similar to other atlases
- icon/trial_available and realm_status/expires_soon are now animated this way
Sprites in the gui atlas can now configure scaling behavior through a new gui section in .mcmeta files
- For example, button textures must be scaled based on how big the button should be
- The gui section in .mcmeta contains one scaling field:
  - type: one of: stretch (default), tile, or nine_slice
  - When stretch, the sprite will be stretched across the desired space
    - No additional fields need to be defined
  - When tile, the sprite will be repeated across the desired space, starting from the top-left
    - width: number of pixels for this sprite to cover on-screen across its width
    - height: number of pixels for this sprite to cover on-screen across its height
  - When nine_slice, the sprite will be sliced into 4 corners, 4 edges, and 1 center slice, which will be tiled across the desired space
    - width: number of pixels for this sprite to cover on-screen across its width
    - height: number of pixels for this sprite to cover on-screen across its height
    - border: the size in pixels that the border slices should cover on-screen, one of:
      - Constant integer for uniform border size on all sides
      - Object containing left, top, right, and bottom

Data Pack Version 16

Gamerule randomTickSpeed now affects the rate of accumulation of snow and ice the same way it affects crops and other blocks affected by random ticking
Added a random command
New form of the execute command: execute if function
New form of the return command: return run
Added support for function macros
Changed Display entities post-teleport interpolation
Added new attribute generic.max_absorption
Renamed belowName value in display slot argument in scoreboard command to below_name
Game event changes
New tags

Commands

`random`

A new command for randomizing values and controlling random sequences. The value and roll forms can be used to draw a random value. In the case of roll, the resulting value is also shown in chat for all players.

Syntax:

random value|roll <range> [<sequenceId>]
random reset *|<sequenceId> [<seed>] [<includeWorldSeed>] [<includeSequenceId>]

Parameters:

range: A range of values to randomize between, inclusively
- For instance, 1..6 is a regular D6 roll
sequenceId: The name of a random sequence to sample or reset
seed: A seed to use for the random sequence after reset
includeWorldSeed: A boolean [default: true] specifying whether to include the world seed when seeding the sequence
- false means the sequence will evaluate to the same regardless of which world the command is run in
includeSequenceId: A boolean [default: true] specifying whether to include the sequence ID when seeding the sequence
- false means all sequences will evaluate to the same regardless of which name they have

By default, all sequences are seeded as 0, true, true. Using * instead of a sequence ID resets all sequences and sets the default parameters.

If no seed is specified, the sequence resets to the default parameters.

Note that random value|roll <range> used without a sequence id is available to non-operator players.

`execute if function`

A new execute sub-command that runs a function or function tag and matches the return value(s). If a tag is given, all functions run regardless of the results of prior functions. Syntax:

execute if|unless function <function> <continuation>

Parameters:

function: The function or tag to run

Matching

The matching of the result value of the function(s) that run:

At least one of the functions must succeeed for the match to succeed
A succeessful call is defined as a function that:
- Uses the return command to return a value
- The return value is not 0

`return run`

A new form of the return command is now available, return run. Syntax:

return run <command>

This takes the result value from running the specified command and returns that as the return value of the function. In all other aspects, it works like return with a specified return value. If the given command fails, the return value is 0.

Functions

A single backslash \ as the last non-whitespace character of a line now allows a command to be continued on the next line
- Leading and trailing whitespace of the following line are stripped before appending

Macros

Functions can now contain macro lines, making them Function Macros.

Any line beginning with $ (as the first non-space character) marks a macro line
A macro line also contains one or more substitutions in the form of $(variable)
When calling a function macro a compound with data for all argument variables must be provided

Calling Function Macros

The function command has new forms:

function <id> <compound> function <id> with <data source> [<path>]

New Arguments:

compound: A data compound, enclosed in {}
data source: A data source specification, like what could already be used for data get
path: An NBT path specification

Notes:

The data source and path must specify a compound data entry
The compound must contain one entry for each variable used in the macro
More data may be present in the compound and if so is ignored
Calling a non-macro function with a data compound is silently ignored
When a macro is called, the values provided are substituted in place of the variable specifications and the resulting commands are executed
Any syntax errors in the lines resulting from variable substitution result in the entire function call being skipped

Performance Considerations

Using a macro means commands must be re-evaulated after variable substitution. This has an extra cost compared to running pre-parsed functions.

Regular commands (non-macro lines) are still pre-parsed. Only commands with variable substitutions in them are parsed when a macro is called and the game will attempt to cache the result of a certain parameter set being used in a call.

This makes repeated calls with the same parameter set cheaper than new calls with different parameters, but an overhead still remains compared to regular functions. Note that only the values references by macro as parameters are included in this cache, so any extra data in the provided compound is ignored.

Display Entity Interpolation

Display entities now start updating their client-side position and rotation on the first tick after an update
- In previous versions, updates were applied in the same tick, causing uneven motion
- New behavior is now similar to armor stands, mobs and players
On the server, position and rotation are still updated immediately
Duration of this interpolation is controlled by the field teleport_duration
- 0 means that updates are applied immediately
- 1 means that the display entity will move from current position to the updated one over one tick
- Higher values spread the movement over multiple ticks
- Please note that this value is clamped to avoid glitches due to periodic position updates
- The new value will apply only to position and rotation changes made after it changed
  - That means any current movement will continue unchanged
Note: behavior while riding remains unchanged from previous versions

Attributes

Added new attribute generic.max_absorption
- generic.max_absorption acts similar to generic.max_health, but instead of being the upper bound for Health, it is the upper bound for AbsorptionAmount
- The mob effect absorption increases generic.max_absorption as well as fills the AbsorptionAmount to the max when applied

Game Events

entity_roar and entity_shake game events have been removed and replaced with entity_action game event

Fixed bugs in Snapshot 23w31a

MC-29371 Several buttons and icons use the old tooltip design upon being hovered over
MC-67532 Bottom 2 rows of pixels in selected hotbar slot texture don't appear in game
MC-69387 The "/item" command cannot replace items within jukeboxes
MC-80876 Entity riding vehicle has always same offset
MC-85582 Entity models in the inventory can render outside the boundaries of the black box
MC-93320 Water freezes even if randomTickSpeed is 0
MC-121772 Can't scroll while holding SHIFT on macOS
MC-122296 Horizontal scrolling does not work on Mac [Magic Mouse]
MC-122547 Barriers can produce fall particles
MC-140646 Text fields don't scroll while selecting text with Shift
MC-147766 Shift key stays pressed until press any other key
MC-164080 Entities riding on Ghast are partially or fully inside it
MC-181190 The discount for curing a villager is multiplied if the villager is reinfected and cured again
MC-190815 Shulker boxes don't conduct redstone when open, but don't trigger redstone updates when opened
MC-215768 Sculk sensors do not detect turtles clearing away sand
MC-228420 World not loading / falling through the world when joining a server / travelling between dimensions / respawning
MC-230732 Minecraft local difficulty setting is calculated/displayed wrongly when running a world in a server
MC-232840 Baby zombie legs clip through heads of mobs they are riding
MC-242076 The skeleton of a spider jockey sits "inside" of spider model rather than on top of the spider
MC-242092 Texture map for magma cube (magmacube.png) has unused pixels
MC-242395 Texture map for the blaze (blaze.png) contains unused pixels
MC-242396 Texture map for armor stand (wood.png) contains unused pixels
MC-242397 Texture maps for cow, red & brown mooshroom (red/brown_mooshroom.png & cow.png) contain unused pixels
MC-242398 Texture maps for the sheep and sheep fur (sheep.png & sheep_fur.png) contain unused pixels
MC-242591 Texture maps for the Llama and Trader Llama (white/gray/creamy/brown.png) contain unused pixels
MC-242592 Texture map for the polar bear (polarbear.png) contain unused pixels
MC-249109 Sniffers, frogs, goats, and camels don't panic when attached to leads
MC-252231 Warm Frog texture has inconsistent pixels
MC-254100 Iron golem spawn rate decreased
MC-255967 Old chunks that would have Deep Dark biomes below Y=0 if generated newly doesn't completely generate; only Ancient Cities are spawned
MC-256466 Raft entities are named boats
MC-256482 Sculk sensors are not activated upon camels standing up or sitting down
MC-256485 Camels that spawn within villages can spawn inside blocks
MC-256641 Bamboo fence and fence gate aren't grouped with the other fences and fence gates in the crafting table
MC-256675 Z-fighting occurs between the legs of the camel and the texture of the saddle when it is sitting
MC-256690 Camels attempt to stand up when blocks are placed over them, causing them to take suffocation damage if blocks are at eye level
MC-257342 You get slowed down when riding a camel in a 3 block tall area
MC-257431 Bamboo fence gates utilize the wrong textures
MC-257628 Sculk sensors are not activated upon camels dashing
MC-258379 Parity issue: The locations of camels' ears differ across platforms
MC-258620 Piglins barter every 121 game ticks instead of every 120 game ticks
MC-259152 Player's model displayed in inventory while sneaking differs between the versions
MC-259382 Message "Failed to get element" is logged repeatedly when giving yourself armor with invalid trimming pattern or material
MC-259401 Lapis lazuli icons in enchanting table and smithing table are inconsistent
MC-259452 Baby Camel's laying down/getting up sounds are not sped up
MC-259769 Firework explosions no longer deal knockback to entities
MC-259794 Armor enchanted with curse of binding cannot be swapped via right-clicking in creative mode
MC-260054 Pink Petals hitbox does not adjust to contents
MC-260058 Pick Block does not work properly for blank decorated pots
MC-260085 Particles are created when using a brush on a barrier
MC-260096 Decorated pots don't have creative mode tooltips
MC-260485 The "/item" command cannot remove items within chiseled bookshelves
MC-260490 Passenger's riding position is too low for non-default-sized mobs
MC-260604 Terrible loudness following consecutive use of /fill
MC-260675 Decorated pots render blank on the first frame after being placed
MC-260968 The narrator does not narrate the word "Experimental" in the world selection screen
MC-261123 item_display entity breaks certain mobs' AI when being used as a passenger
MC-261182 Sign color looks different in world and in editing screen
MC-261369 Washed banner does not stack with blank banner
MC-261411 All Smithing Templates share the same translation key
MC-261420 Sculk sensor and calibrated sculk sensor don't detect a witch drinking a potion
MC-261427 Sculk sensors and calibrated sculk sensors don't detect totem of undying activating
MC-261440 Resizing the window makes it so you can't change names in anvils
MC-261611 Placing blocks against a waxed sign does not play the block's placement sound
MC-261657 Sculk sensor range is still spherical, creating different outputs from within a given block
MC-261739 Bamboo raft next to visually half blocks z-fights
MC-261965 The "Glow and Behold!" advancement is granted when interacting with empty signs while holding glow ink sacs, despite no glow ink sacs being consumed
MC-262108 Smithing table GUI issue with custom recipes
MC-262132 Pigstep music disc is in wrong location in the creative menu
MC-262295 Warped and Crimson hanging signs uses their respective plank sounds, despite their stripped stems having unique sounds
MC-262436 Copying a pot in creative does not save NBT data
MC-262442 Camels stand a bit too close to players that are tempting them
MC-262613 Mobs can't control some rideable mobs
MC-262615 Ridden camels need to be equipped with a saddle before they can be moved by mob control which is inconsistent with other rideable mobs
MC-262620 Llamas and trader llamas need to be tamed in order to be ridden by the mob which is inconsistent with other rideable mobs
MC-262636 Mobs with passengers that are slimes or magma cubes can't move and don't function correctly
MC-262638 When a "Size:0" slime and magma cube rides on some mobs the rendering position is too low
MC-262720 One of the pink petals' stems has an incomplete model
MC-262751 Blank decorated pot's NBT depends on method used to obtain it
MC-262766 NBSP is a valid invisible character that can be added into Book titles so that they have blank names
MC-262804 Players' swimming animations are jittery for other players
MC-262947 The "Smithing with Style" advancement doesn't grant experience upon completion
MC-263011 Sniffers can sniff out and follow players from incredibly large distances
MC-263049 Camels indefinitely dash while in lava
MC-263126 Sponges no longer make a sound when absorbing water
MC-263200 Entities riding baby sniffers render too high
MC-263283 Loading a 1.12.2 structure block with signs on 1.20 removes the text
MC-263313 You cannot use the TAB key to initially create a realm
MC-263322 When a camel walks on suspicious sand, the sound produced is "camel steps" instead of "camel sands"
MC-263387 The chat scroll bar no longer renders
MC-263430 Memory leak in TickingTracker
MC-263833 Minecraft is incorrectly assuming it is able to set the window icon on Wayland
MC-263879 Open shulker boxes transmit redstone power
MC-264356 Sniffers attached to a lead will dig in the same spot forever, ignoring "explored positions"
MC-264467 GUI texture "villager2.png" contains unused sections
MC-264468 GUI texture "legacy_smithing.png" still present in game files despite not being used anymore

Minecraft Snapshot 23w31a