Java Edition 1.7.2

1.7.2, the first release of The Update that Changed the World, was a major update to Minecraft (Java Edition), which added many new biomes, new generated structures, new flowers, stained glass, better networking, new commands and more.

Blocks

 * Stained glass
 * Glass can be dyed into all 16 colors.
 * This is done by putting a colored dye in the center of a crafting table and surrounding it with 8 pieces of normal glass, yielding 8 stained glass.
 * Stained glass can be crafted into stained glass panes using the same recipe as normal glass panes.
 * Doing this yields 16 stained glass planes, like normal glass.
 * Water, nether portals and other stained glass blocks remain visible when looked at through a stained glass block.
 * Looking through a solid wall of glass blocks, is equivalent to looking through a single piece (this does not apply to glass panes of any kind).
 * Air blocks make the view blurrier each time.
 * Adjacent glass of different colors will ignore each other's colors, and will only render the terrain behind, with the color of the outermost piece of glass.
 * Other translucent blocks may have different effects.
 * Has ID number 95, which replaces the Locked Chest's data value.


 * Wood Varieties
 * Acacia wood
 * Silver outside with orange inside.
 * Makes up the acacia tree; found in Savanna biomes.
 * Dark oak wood
 * A darker version of the oak wood.
 * Makes up the dark oak tree; found in Roofed Forest biomes.
 * Acacia wood planks
 * Orange in appearance.
 * Dark oak wood planks
 * Same texture as normal oak planks but darkened; almost black.
 * Acacia and Dark Oak Wood Slabs.
 * Acacia and Dark Oak Wood Stairs.


 * Saplings
 * Acacia and dark oak saplings added.
 * Dark oak saplings require a 2x2 configuration to grow, much like big jungle trees.
 * A 2x2 configuration of spruce saplings on the ground, can create the large spruce trees from mega taiga biomes.
 * Regular spruce trees still grow.


 * Leaves variants
 * Acacia and dark oak leaves.
 * Both visually identical to regular oak leaves.


 * Packed ice
 * When broken, it does not turn into water, like normal ice blocks do.
 * Does not melt.
 * Opaque, rather than translucent like normal ice.


 * Podzol
 * Dirt variation that fails to be transformed to it through any method.
 * Grass and mycelium fail to spread on it.
 * Does not spread itself.
 * Only found on Mega Taiga Biomes.


 * Grassless Dirt
 * Grass or mycelium cannot grow on it.
 * Obtainable only through commands.
 * Does not spread.


 * Red sand
 * Generated in the Mesa biome.
 * Behaves like normal sand.
 * Falls like sand or gravel.
 * Can be smelted into glass and crafted into TNT.


 * Flowers
 * Red, orange, white and pink tulips.
 * Can be crafted to red, orange, light gray and pink dyes, respectively.
 * Blue orchid
 * Can be crafted into light blue dye.
 * Allium
 * Can be crafted into magenta dye.
 * Azure bluet
 * Can be crafted into light gray dye.
 * Oxeye daisy
 * Can be crafted into light gray dye.
 * Poppies
 * Replacement for the rose.
 * Looks very similar to it.
 * Can be crafted into red dye as well.
 * All new flowers can burn.
 * All new flowers are randomly offset horizontally, like tall grass.
 * Two block tall plants
 * Applying bonemeal to them, causes them to dispense their respective flower item.
 * Therefore, all two blocks tall flowers are renewable.
 * Sunflowers
 * Typically face East.
 * Can be crafted into 2 yellow dye.
 * Peonies
 * Can be crafted into 2 pink dye.
 * Rose bushes
 * Can be crafted into 2 red dye.
 * Lilacs
 * Can be crafted into 2 magenta dye.
 * Double tall grass
 * Can be made by applying bone meal to grass.
 * Large Ferns
 * Two block tall variant of fern.
 * Can be made by applying bone meal to ferns.
 * All new two block tall plants can burn.
 * All new two block tall plants are randomly offset horizontally, like tall grass.


 * Monster egg blocks
 * New variants added:
 * Mossy stone brick, cracked stone brick and chiseled stone brick.

Items

 * Fish
 * Pufferfish:
 * Restores.
 * If eaten it will inflict the following:
 * IV (1:00)
 * III (0:15)
 * (0:15)
 * Used to brew a water breathing potion.
 * Cannot be cooked.


 * Salmon:
 * Eating it raw restores and cooked restores.


 * Clownfish:
 * Can be eaten to restore.
 * Cannot be cooked.


 * Potions
 * Made by brewing a pufferfish with an awkward potion.
 * Enables the player to breathe underwater for 3 minutes (8 minutes if extended) without the oxygen bar depleting.
 * The potion and particles are dark blue in appearance.
 * The potion and particles are dark blue in appearance.

Non-mob entities

 * Minecart with command block
 * Can only be obtained using commands.
 * Activate using activator rails.
 * Run their command every 2 redstone ticks when powered (activates once when passing over an activator rail at full speed).
 * Can be success tested by going over a detector rail connected to a redstone comparator.

World generation

 * Trees
 * Acacia Tree
 * Curved trees made of acacia wood.
 * These spawn in savanna biomes.
 * Dark oak trees
 * Very thick and short trees, made of dark oak wood.
 * These spawn in roofed forest biomes.
 * Require a 2x2 configuration of saplings to grow.
 * Each new tree has their own leaves and saplings.


 * Biomes
 * Mesa
 * Composed of multiple colored hardened clay that are layered in a way that resembles sedimentary rock.
 * There are seven colors including normal, orange, red, yellow, white, light gray and brown.
 * Has a floor similar to a desert biome, but made of red sand instead of sand.
 * Dead bushes spawn in this biome.
 * Occasional dying forests spawn on top of the clay mountains.
 * There is no rain in this biome.
 * Savanna
 * Generate with acacia trees.
 * Horses can spawn in this biome.
 * Villages may generate in here.
 * There is no rain in this biome.
 * Very flat with plateaus and the occasional giant mountain.
 * Sunflower Plains
 * Exactly the same as plains, but can spawn sunflowers.
 * Roofed Forest
 * Generates with giant mushrooms.
 * Aside from mushroom island, it is the only biome to do so.
 * Has dark oak trees closely packed together – "dark and dangerous under the canopy, even during the day".
 * Monsters will most likely be able to spawn during the day and the night.
 * Birch Forest
 * A forest made entirely of birch trees.
 * Flower Forest
 * Forest variant with several of the new flowers, including peonies, orange tulips, white tulips, oxeye daisies, rose bush and allium.
 * Very densely packed with the various new flowers, including dandelions, but excluding sunflowers.
 * Taiga
 * Now generates without snow.
 * The old variant with snow is called "cold taiga".
 * Mega Taiga
 * This is a very rare biome.
 * Generates 2x2 spruce trees and their regular variant.
 * Has a dirt block variant known as podzol.
 * Currently obtained only through the silk touch enchantment.
 * Contains dirt blocks that do not allow grass to grow.
 * Moss stone "boulders" are scattered around in this biome.
 * Dead bushes, mushrooms and ferns spawn in this biome.
 * Extreme Hills+
 * Goes considerably higher than the normal Extreme Hills.
 * Ice Plains Spikes
 * Contains giant ice spires similar to upside down icicles made of packed ice.
 * These ice spikes can reach y=120 from normal ground.
 * Lakes of packed ice are dotted around the biome.
 * Deep Ocean
 * Is about ten blocks deeper than normal oceans; the maximum depth is in the low 30s.


 * Biome Variants/Technical Biomes
 * Over 20 variants for the biomes.
 * M – Biomes with an M variant are much rarer than any other variant.
 * Extreme hills M, Taiga M, Roofed Forest M, JungleEdge M, Birch Forest Hills M, Cold Taiga M, Extreme Hills+ M, Savanna M, Savanna plateau M, Swampland M, Jungle M, Mesa Plateau M and Mesa Plateau F M are more mountainous versions of their normal biome counterpart.
 * Desert M has patches of water unlike normal deserts.
 * Birch Forest M has taller birch trees than usual.
 * Savanna M has grassless dirt (coarse dirt in 1.8 and above) and mountains that can generate above the clouds and up to Y: 220 on rare occasions.
 * Plateau – Biomes with a plateau variant are like the hills technical biome, but flattened at the top.
 * Savanna plateau and mesa plateau are the only examples.
 * These are landforms which are raised by up to about 30 blocks and have flat tops.
 * Mesa Plateau F – A variant of the plateau with trees.
 * Mesa (Bryce) – A rare variant of the mesa biome which works similar to ice spikes, with tall clay spikes generating from the sandy mesa floor.
 * Looks like a proper canyon.
 * Hills – More technical hills biomes have been added to fit with the new biomes.
 * Birch Forest Hills, Cold Taiga Hills, and Mega Taiga Hills can now be generated.
 * Beach – Separate certain biomes from oceans and rivers.
 * Stone Beach is composed mainly of stone and often generates between an Extreme Hills biome and a body of water.
 * Cold Beach is composed of Sand with a layer of snow on top.
 * Usually generates between a cold biome, such as ice plains, and a body of water.


 * World type
 * AMPLIFIED
 * It scales up all world generation rules, so it uses the entire world height.
 * Almost all biomes can generate huge mountains that can reach well above Y: 200.
 * Extreme Hills biomes frequently reach the world height limit at Y: 256.
 * Swampland and ocean biomes are unaffected by this world type.
 * Extremely resource intensive and requires powerful computer to run.
 * Ravines here can reach down to bedrock.
 * Contains numerous various landforms that are very rare or non-existent in default generation.
 * Some examples include floating islands, overhangs, large water and lava falls and huge indents.
 * Taiga biomes reach such altitudes that snow starts generating (about Y=130).
 * It was created to test a fix, to reduce the number of lighting glitches, but it was kept as a feature on request of Notch.

Command format

 * Commands
 * Automatically kick idle players after some time.
 * Multiplayer-only and server-operator-only command.
 * Syntax:.
 * Is written in json to create "buttons" and formatted text (underlined, bold, italics, colored, etc.) in chat.
 * Syntax:.
 * Used to spawn any entity in the game, including Giants, Ender Crystals, Ender Dragons, falling sand and primed TNT.
 * Syntax:.
 * Used to give a player achievements.
 * Syntax:.
 * Used to create, delete or replace a block.
 * Syntax:.
 * Checks for blocks in specific locations.
 * Syntax:.
 * Sets the world spawn point for all players, even those who have never joined the server or are offline.
 * Will not automatically override beds.
 * Syntax:.
 * Checks for blocks in specific locations.
 * Syntax:.
 * Sets the world spawn point for all players, even those who have never joined the server or are offline.
 * Will not automatically override beds.
 * Syntax:.
 * Will not automatically override beds.
 * Syntax:.

General

 * Splashes
 * "Now contains 32 random daily cats!"


 * Particle effects
 * Fishing has particle effects.
 * Bubbles will show up moving towards the bobber just before the player has something on the hook. This has the appearance of a fish swimming towards the hook.
 * Falling has particle effects.
 * Particle circumference size depends on distance fallen.
 * Particle appearance depends on the block landed.


 * Achievements
 * "Repopulation"
 * Breed two cows with wheat.
 * Requires the "Cow Tipper" achievement.
 * "Diamonds to you!"
 * Throw Diamonds at another player or to a zombie that has the CanPickUpLoot NBT tag.
 * Requires the "DIAMONDS!" achievement.
 * "Adventuring Time"
 * Discover all Biomes.
 * Requires the "The End?" achievement.
 * Did not fully work until 1.8.
 * "The Beginning?"
 * Spawn the wither.
 * Requires the "The End." achievement.
 * "The Beginning."
 * Kill the wither.
 * Requires the "The Beginning?" achievement.
 * "Beaconator"
 * Create a full beacon.
 * Requires the "The Beginning." achievement.


 * Statistics
 * Distance by Horse
 * Junk Fished
 * Treasure Fished
 * Mobs statistics

Blocks

 * Wood
 * Wooden logs have different textures for their top and bottom
 * Oak Logs remain the same, as if being the default.


 * Wooden slabs
 * Can only smelt half as many items as wood, when used as fuel.


 * Weighted pressure plates
 * Now output a signal relative to the amount of entities on them, always starting at 1 signal strength if any entities are present.
 * For light weighted pressure plates, every entity adds 1 strength to the signal.
 * For heavy weighted pressure plates, starting at 1, every 10 entities adds 1 strength to the signal (Example: 11 entities increases signal strength to 2).


 * Cauldrons
 * Cauldrons with water in them will put out burning entities, taking away one water level each time.


 * Sugar canes
 * Color/shade is affected by the biome color (similar to leaves, grass and vines).


 * Dead bushes
 * Can be placed on hardened clay, stained clay, red sand and dirt.


 * Roses
 * Removed and replaced by poppies.
 * Look very similar to the old roses.
 * Still exist in the form of rose bushes.


 * Air
 * Is now a block rather than the absence of a block.
 * This allows for specific air blocks to be marked and identified through data values.
 * It lacks an item form.
 * Attempting to  it to a player, will result in that inventory slot having no item.


 * Command blocks
 * Show what command it ran recently in the GUI.
 * Extended character limit past the 10,000 mark.


 * Locked chest
 * Removed completely.


 * Iron bars & glass panes
 * Connect to each other and glass blocks.
 * This includes panes of different colors.
 * They are exactly 2 pixels thick.


 * Ferns, dandelions & dead bushes
 * Are now randomly offset horizontally like tall grass.


 * Ice, nether portal (blocks) & water
 * Are visible through each other.
 * If water is directly adjacent to ice, when looking through the ice, the player cannot see the water, but not vice-versa.
 * This allows for custom fish tanks.
 * If water is not directly adjacent to ice, the player can see the water through ice and viceversa.
 * The player can no longer see the water surface from underwater.

Items

 * Enchanted books
 * Can receive multiple enchants at once.


 * Written books
 * Can be cloned by crafting them with an unused book and quill.
 * Can clone multiple copies of the same written book, by putting more book and quills in the crafting grid.
 * A book can be cloned infinitely many times, regardless if it's the original.
 * Can now be stacked up to 16.


 * Maps
 * Maps in item frames cover the whole block face, so that connected maps join together smoothly.
 * They won't display player markers then.
 * Each different type of block has a different shading on the map.
 * It now show colors for colored wool and stained clay, allowing a wider range of colors visible on maps.


 * Flint and steel
 * Is now a shapeless crafting recipe.
 * Can be used to ignite creepers.


 * Fishing rods
 * Can now be enchanted to bias the resulting loot from fishing.


 * Shears, fishing rods and flint and steel
 * Can be enchanted with "Unbreaking".


 * Technical blocks
 * Removed the item forms of the following blocks:
 * bed (26), piston head and extension (34 & 36), redstone wire (55), wheat crops (59), standing and wall sign (63 & 68), wooden and iron doors (64 & 71), lit redstone ore (74), unlit redstone torch (75), sugar cane (83), cake (92), unpowered and powered repeater (93 & 94), pumpkin and melon stem (104 & 105), nether wart (115), brewing stand (117), cauldron (118), lit redstone lamp (124), tripwire (132), flower pot (140), skull (144), and unpowered and powered comparator (149 & 150).
 * They can no longer be obtained with or, but can still be placed as blocks with ,  or summoning a special falling sand entity.

Mobs

 * Iron golems
 * Drop poppies instead of roses.


 * Creepers
 * Can be detonated using a flint and steel.


 * Zombies
 * Reduced the lag that zombies created by pathfinding.


 * Witches
 * Now drink a potion of water breathing, when they are trapped underwater.
 * Can drop a potion of water breathing upon death, as a rare drop.
 * Have been added to the mix of low light-level hostile mobs, spawning anywhere where the light level is below 7, including at night in every biome and in caverns.
 * They usually spawn in groups
 * They have roughly the same spawn rate as the enderman.


 * Zombies & skeletons
 * Zombies and skeletons can now spawn with and drop armor, bows and swords with the "Unbreaking" enchantment.


 * Baby zombies & baby zombie pigmen
 * Can walk in one block tall spaces
 * Their hitbox remains the size of that of an adult.


 * Spiders, cave spiders & endermen
 * Don't become hostile when attacking them in creative mode.

Non-mob entities

 * Item frames
 * Now drop the item inside them when they are punched.
 * Then drop themselves if they are punched while empty.
 * Will display the name of the item they hold (if it is custom-named) when looked at up close.
 * Maps display on the full face of the block.
 * They won't display player markers then.
 * The side texture then is similar to that of oak planks.


 * Boats
 * No longer inflict fall damage when running aground (old boats need to be replaced for the fix to apply).
 * Slightly improved durability from lily pad impacts.
 * Boats have been reverted to the previous "WASD" controls.
 * The and  keys can only be used while the  key is pressed.

World generation

 * Biomes
 * Jungle
 * Melons can now be found in patches similar to pumpkins.
 * Jungle biomes have been made much rarer.
 * Has a jungle edge which has less foliage, but slowly leads into the main jungle.
 * Jungle trees now generate with branches.
 * Swampland
 * Grass is greener and fluctuates more in color, depending on biome temperature.
 * In shallower parts, the coast is covered in staggered dirt block with lily pads between them.
 * Spawn with Blue Orchid flowers.
 * Plains
 * Generates three of the new flowers – azure bluets, oxeye daisies and sometimes tulips.
 * Double tall grass can also generate here.
 * Extreme Hills
 * Snow at high elevations of over y=95.
 * Contain Stone and large dirt patches.
 * Gravel can replace ground cover.
 * Flat valleys near sea level.
 * Can generate up to y=150, slightly above the clouds (previously y=124).
 * Has much more height variation and has flat parts as well, as opposed to the previous extreme hills which forced endless high peaks to generate.
 * Cold taiga
 * Old taiga biomes have been renamed to "cold taiga".
 * The name "taiga" is now used for a variant without snow.
 * Ocean
 * Oceans are smaller and take up much less of the map.
 * Contain only gravel on the floor instead of sand, dirt and gravel.
 * Gravel Beaches
 * Appear more often.


 * Categorization of Biomes
 * Four main categories based on temperature:
 * Snow-covered, cold, medium and dry/warm.
 * Biomes will attempt to avoid getting placed next to a biome that is too different to itself.


 * Elevation of biomes
 * Much greater variation of elevation in general.
 * Most biomes can generate to y=100.
 * Hills technical biomes have been made taller.


 * Temperature
 * Each biome has a base temperature that determines whether the biome is snow-covered, whether it rains or snows, or whether it rains at all.
 * Biomes are grouped according to their temperature and attempt to generate next to biomes with similar temperatures.
 * Temperature decreases by 0.05 every 30 blocks increase in altitude.


 * Caverns
 * Are less dense and interconnected.


 * Witch Huts
 * Now generate with a Witch inside.
 * They formerly generated empty, with Witches spawning inside later.


 * Bonus Chests
 * Bonus chests can also contain Acacia logs.


 * World boundary
 * All blocks beyond X/Z 30 million (±30,000,000) from origin now act as solid blocks.
 * This includes air blocks.
 * This creates essentially an invisible wall at the boundary.
 * As all blocks function as solid, if the player is moved outside the boundary via external tools, they will be unable to move outside the block space they are within.
 * Despite that, the camera can still move normally.
 * Ghost chunks still generate.

Gameplay

 * Fishing
 * Items other than fish can be obtained by fishing.
 * These are divide into three classes.
 * Fish: raw fish, raw salmon, clownfish and pufferfish.
 * Treasure: enchanted fishing rods, enchanted bow, enchanted books, name tags, tripwire hook, lily pads and saddles.
 * Junk: damaged fishing rods, water bottles, rotten flesh, string, leather, bowls, sticks, bones, tripwire hooks, ten stacked ink sacs and damaged leather boots.


 * Enchanting
 * "Unbreaking" can now be applied to any item with durability.
 * Armor, bows, fishing rods & swords can receive the enchantment directly without the use of enchanted books.
 * New enchantments for fishing rods that can bias the outcome of fishing.
 * "Lure" – reduces wait time to catch an item; increases the chance of catching fish and decreases the chance of junk and treasure.
 * "Luck of the Sea" – increases chance of getting treasure and decreases chance of getting junk.
 * Enchanted books can receive multiple enchantments at once.


 * Nether Portal
 * Can now have different width and height, to allow for design variations.
 * If the one in the Nether is big enough, ghasts can go through them.
 * Portals can be activated when any fire block appears inside the frame.
 * Before only the bottom-most blocks would work.
 * New nether portal building rules: Any rectangular size from 4×5 to 23×23.


 * Fog
 * Removed the thin fog around the player.
 * Fog is only at the edge of the visible chunks.


 * Death Screen
 * If the player dies and selects the 'Title screen' button, a prompt will ask if they are sure they want to quit, and give the player the options to go to the title screen or respawn and continue playing.

Command format

 * Scoreboard
 * Can now use statistics and achievements to create objectives.
 * Added 744 new objective criteria that were previously tracked only through statistics and achievements.


 * Commands
 * Sets the time to 1000 instead of 0.
 * Sets the time to 13000 instead of 12000.
 * Custom NBT data can be added via commands.
 * Works with, , and.
 * Syntax examples:
 * This removes the need to use external tools.
 * Will print renamed items' name by default in chat.
 * The chat will show the corresponding tooltips when hovered over.
 * This removes the need to use external tools.
 * Will print renamed items' name by default in chat.
 * The chat will show the corresponding tooltips when hovered over.
 * Will print renamed items' name by default in chat.
 * The chat will show the corresponding tooltips when hovered over.
 * The chat will show the corresponding tooltips when hovered over.


 * NBT format
 * tag.
 * Applies to items with durability.
 * Nullifies any usage dealt to the item.
 * List tags no longer need to be named.
 * No longer crashes when given the wrong type (integer/short).
 * Added .dat files in data folder for storing structure data.
 * Contains .dat called Village.dat, Fortress.dat (Nether Fortress), Temple.dat (Desert Temple, Jungle Temple and Witch Hut), Stronghold.dat, Mineshaft.dat and others.
 * NBT structure consists of the individual parts of each structure, labeled "children," the chunk it originates in, a tag called BB, and an ID for what type of structure it is.
 * The children tags have information on each part of the structure and the type of part it is.


 * Block/Item IDs
 * Can be referred to by their names, instead of numbers in commands.
 * Will be the only option in the future.
 * Necessary for the Plugin API.

General

 * Block and entity bounding boxes are now completely black instead of dark gray.


 * Resource packs
 * Complete menu overhaul with two columns, for selecting which amongst your downloaded resource packs should be rendered.
 * The ability to select multiple resource packs at once.
 * Resource packs at the top take precedence over those below, if files appear more than once.
 * Allows for non-manual merging of multiple packs.
 * For example: a sound pack and a different texture pack, etc.
 * Servers can now offer default resource packs.
 * Can be configured to be "enabled", "disabled" or "prompted".
 * The player is now able to add new sounds using resource packs, rather than replacing previously existing sounds.
 * Resource packs can remove, supplement, randomize and group sounds using JSON.
 * Maximum total size increased to 50 MB.


 * Sounds
 * Sounds and music are stored together in the new .minecraft/assets/sounds folder.
 * Music now pauses when pausing the game.


 * Lighting
 * Several lighting issues fixed.
 * A lot fewer "black spots" in terrain generation.
 * Some black spots occurrences have to be kept, in order to avoid a bug in world generation, associated with a complete removal of them.
 * Torch bugs in strongholds and abandoned mineshafts have been fixed.
 * The light level actually falls to 7 during thunderstorms.
 * Before it stayed at 12 like normal rain, but hostile mobs could spawn as if the light level was 7.
 * The clouds go black and the sky goes much darker.


 * Chat system
 * "Saved screenshot as" messages can be clicked to open the screenshot
 * It takes the player out of the game and into the ".minecraft" folder.
 * Ability to open a URL from the chat by clicking on it.
 * Names can be clicked to PM people.
 * Support for both hover and click events on the chat through.
 * Syntax example:.


 * Inventory
 * In creative mode, the display symbol for the Decoration Blocks tab, was changed from Rose to Peony.
 * The armor boxes go black when the cursor is away from them.
 * Putting the cursor over an armor box, will cause it to display what armor is put there.


 * Options
 * Grouped a few options into the Controls section:
 * Allowed rebinding of 1–9 hotkeys, screenshot key, cinematic camera toggle (can be rebinded and no longer has a default key) and camera switching.
 * Added sprint button, which will be kept engaged while held (it's left control by default).
 * Double tapping forward still works.
 * Music & Sounds
 * Now is divided into different classes, to control each one independently:
 * Master Volume, Music, Jukebox/Noteblocks, Weather, Blocks, Hostile Creatures, Friendly Creatures, Players and Ambient/Environment.
 * Video Settings
 * Render Distance is now a slider ranging from 2–16 chunks.
 * Max Framerate is now a slider ranging from 10–250 fps and then Unlimited.
 * Mipmapping can be set to levels 1–4 or disabled.
 * Anisotropic Filtering can be set to 2, 4, 8, 16 or disabled.
 * Super Secret Settings
 * Plays a random sound when clicked and cycles through various shaders: fxaa, art, bumpy, blobs2, pencil, color_convolve, deconverge, flip, invert, ntsc, outline, phosphor, scan_pincushion, sobel, bits, desaturate, green, blur, wobble, blobs, anti-alias and then back to normal.
 * The player can remove the shader by pressing F4.
 * Language Selection
 * Added 'Force Unicode Font' toggle, which allows the player to change whether Unicode font, is forced for text or not.


 * Network Code
 * Completely rewritten – uses Netty.
 * Most packets won't change, handshake and ping procedure redone.
 * There is now a packet length header.


 * Logging
 * Now done using Log4j 2.
 * Default logging location is now in logs/latest.logs; older logs are archived in logs/ - - -1.lg.gz with the number at the end increasing each startup.
 * The way logs are saved can be changed, for example: html pages, databases, errors only or no logging at all.


 * Server list
 * Can be refreshed using.
 * Added server icons.
 * Added support for multi-line MOTD comments, which do not go off-screen.
 * Hovering over the player count will show the name of up to 12 online players.


 * Minecraft Realms
 * Started preparing buying support internally.
 * Started offering an option to download the world map.


 * Statistics
 * Are now stored per world/server.
 * Achievement screen can be zoomed in and out using the scroll wheel.
 * Achievements don't appear on the achievements screen if more than five achievements need to be achieved first.
 * When a player earns an achievement, it is announced in chat.
 * This can be turned off on servers by changing a line in the server.properties file.
 * Can be hovered over to show an achievement tooltip.
 * Cannot be turned off in Singleplayer.
 * The achievements 'Time to Mine!', 'Time to Strike!' and 'Time to Farm!' are now obtainable by crafting the given tool with a material other than wood.


 * Achievements
 * Are stored per world/server on the same folder as statistics.
 * Statistics for blocks, items and mobs don't appear on their respective tab in the Statistics screen, until it is updated to be more than zero.

Trivia

 * 1.7.2 is released exactly one year after 1.4.2.