Rain



Rain is a feature activated by pressing F5 in-game in Classic. Rain can also fall on Multiplayer, but cannot be seen by other players. It will only fall where the sky isn't blocked, and currently has no effect on gameplay. Rain is a single moving sprite. When it falls on a block it makes a splashing effect. To improve frame rate, rain isn't replicated all throughout a map. It is instead one sprite on all sides of the player. When the player goes inside and far away from the falling rain it disappears but reappears when you move close to outside again. Water does not stop rain like a solid block. Instead, it falls through as if there was air. The same applies to lava and small plants.

Rain in Beta 1.5
Notch has announced that rain and falling snow will be included in Beta 1.5. The rain will water dehydrated crops, wet wolves, extinguish block and mob fires (except Netherrack), increase fish-catching chances and possibly fill up small holes up with water source blocks.

Rain will decrease the light level by one, to light level 14 in full daylight. The moon, sun and stars will be hidden from view. Thunder and lightning will also be included. Thunderstorms will decrease the light level by eight levels, to light level 7 if in full daylight, which is dark enough to spawn aggressive mobs. Rain as well as snow will be global and temporal. If a pig is directly struck by lightning, it will morph into a Zombie Pigman.