Pocket Edition v0.8.0 alpha

Alpha 0.8.0 added new blocks, items, crops and other features, as well as some changes and fixes.

General

 * New defaults and changed options:
 * Added far (256 blocks) and farthest (400 blocks) render distances
 * Removed smooth lighting (now always on)
 * Fancy graphics are now always by default on
 * Default render distance is now far

Gameplay

 * Game Mechanics:
 * Breeding

Blocks

 * Birch and Spruce Wood Planks, Slabs, and Stairs
 * Block of Coal
 * Carpets
 * All 16 colors in creative mode
 * Only red carpets in survival mode
 * Cobblestone Walls
 * Hay Bales
 * Iron Bars
 * Jack o'Lanterns
 * Rails
 * Powered Rails (always powered)
 *  Creative-Only: (new blocks only available in creative mode)
 * Jungle Wood, Leaves, Wood Planks, Slabs, and Stairs.
 * Sponge
 * Dead Bush
 * Mossy Cobblestone Walls
 * Cobwebs
 * Bedrock
 * Crops:
 * Beetroots
 * Although beetroots will be a source of red dye, red mushrooms still will give red dye when smelted.
 * Carrots
 * Rarely dropped from zombies
 * Potatoes
 * Rarely dropped from zombies
 * Pumpkins

Items

 * Beetroot Seeds
 * Have a 1/15 chance of popping out from grass when hoed
 * Clocks
 * Compasses
 * Minecarts
 * Pumpkin Seeds
 * Obtained from the Nether Reactor like Melon seeds
 * Redstone (cannot be placed as Redstone Dust yet.)
 * Dyes
 * Ink Sac (currently unobtainable in survival mode)
 * Cocoa Beans
 * Version exclusive : Crafted with orange dye and an ink sac.
 * Gray Dye
 * Light Gray Dye
 * Foods:
 * Beetroots
 * Beetroot Soup
 * Carrots
 * Potatoes
 * Pumpkin Pie
 * Baked Potatoes

Creative Inventory Additions

 * Flint and Steel
 * Ice
 * Snow (cover)
 * Bedrock
 * Shears
 * Dyes
 * Tall Grass and Ferns

General

 * Graphics:
 * 3D Clouds with new tessellation algorithm
 * Held items are now rendered in 3D, and bob up and down slightly when idle and sway to the side when turning.
 * Lighter colored water, sky, and grass
 * Water fades to non-transparent in the distance (iOS only)
 * Mipmaps (iOS only)
 * Refactored most of the rendering to use indexed VBOs
 * Remade arrow model
 * Inventory is now rendered using cached VBOs
 * New sky rendering using a triangle fan
 * Separated far and near chunks in two queues for performance reasons
 * Fog only on far chunks
 * Transparency only on near chunks
 * Alpha-test-only layers are hidden in far chunks
 * Lighting:
 * Stencil Shadows
 * Dynamic Java lighting on entities
 * Ambient light tinting on entities
 * Version exclusive : Light direction depends on sunlight direction on entities — affects shadows
 * Other:
 * Mining speed in Creative mode increases at/near mining distance limit (8 blocks per second)
 * New Creative Inventory, with four item categories
 * Hotbar now saves on Creative worlds
 * Items being moved to/from a chest is now correctly rendered.
 * Transparent hotbar
 * Tapping the  now closes the inventory while open
 * Craftable recipes are shown first in the crafting screen
 * If there is 99+ of an item in the inventory, it now shows the actual quantity in crafting table, rather than 99+
 * When selecting an item in the inventory it replaces the one in the selected slot
 * Changed the flow of the Inventory for the Armor/Crafting screens so that the back button goes back to the Inventory
 * Moved Grey Wool to the right inventory slot
 * Ice is not transparent anymore in the hotbar
 * Items that are not supposed to be in the game no longer have a red background in the hotbar or inventory

Blocks and Items

 * Bone Meal
 * Works like in the Java edition
 * Can grow Ferns and Tall Grass in survival and creative
 * Version exclusive : Now grows sugar cane to maximum height
 * Pumpkin and melon stems only grow by one when bone meal is used
 * Flowers now spawn other flowers when bone meal is used
 * Fire and lava now ignite TNT.
 * In creative mode, players stop burning as soon as they exit fire/lava
 * Redstone Ore now drops Redstone when mined
 * Sideways pointing wood blocks
 * New bow rendering & animated items
 * Version exclusive : New visual effect for burning mobs
 * Remade painting rendering
 * Eating particles are shown to look like the food being eaten rather than random pixels from the food.
 * Thrown eggs now spawn baby chickens
 * Wooden tools can now be used as fuel.
 * Lava buckets can now be placed in furnace to smelt items (100 items)
 * Improved signs and chests synchronization lag in multiplayer
 * Sand and Gravel now spawn resources when falling on torches, etc.
 * The textures of some blocks are randomly rotated, for a more natural effect
 * Flowers
 * Position on block is now randomized

Mobs

 * Improved Mob AI System (Mobs swim over deep water, and hostile mobs are now more intelligent)
 * Baby animals follow the adult animal of their species
 * Animals follow the player when holding wheat (cows and sheep), seeds (chickens) or Potatoes/Beetroot/Carrots (pigs)
 * Sheep have the color overlay of its wool around its face and when sheared (iOS only).
 * Increased speed for spiders

Other

 * Performance
 * New app logo
 * Textures
 * Brought most textures from Java Edition
 * New texture atlas and texture generator script

Fixes
31 bugs fixed


 * Text no longer cuts off on chat screen.

From released versions before 0.8.0
 * : You can never run away from mobs
 * : Saplings aren't Fuel
 * : Wrong dark leaves texture
 * : White line appear in pocket edition
 * : Stonecutter, Quartz Block, Melon (Block) and Melon Seeds show wrong description
 * : player jumps too early by glass pane
 * : Chicken egg bug
 * : TNT does not work in creative
 * : Different wood logs make the same wooden planks
 * : Bad inventory GUI on Retina display
 * : Automatic egg/ snowball throwing
 * : Mobs draw distance greater than stone. Creates x-ray vision
 * : Animals stay in water
 * : Creative inventory
 * : shearing a sheep gives you less wool
 * : Wooden tools cannot be used as fuel
 * : No bedrock in creative inventory
 * : Bow bug
 * : Shooting a bow, throwing eggs/snowballs, eating needs block proximity
 * : TNT dissolving
 * : Bow firing bug / annoyance
 * : Bow and Arrow issue
 * : Your own arrow can't hurt you
 * : Bow problem in Creative Multiplayer
 * : Can't pass Y=31 in Minecart

From the 0.8.0 development versions
 * : Suffocation doesn't show up properly
 * : minecart does not show anything but a wierd shape
 * : minecarts going uphill
 * : Cannot touch Minecarts in 3rd person
 * : Upward Rail Glitch

Version portable Alpha 0.8.0 Pocket Edition Alpha 0.8.0