Java Edition upcoming features

This page is about upcoming features that have been announced by Mojang employees.

Near future
{| class="collapsible wikitable" style="width: 100%" ! style="width:10em; height:3em" | Version ! Planned changes ! style="width:10em" | Planned release date
 * style="text-align: center" | 1.6
 * style="text-align: center" | 1.6

Additions

 * Resource pack system
 * Will replace texture packs.
 * Currently resource pack is compatibile with texture pack, but will break compatibility. A conversion tool will be released.
 * Can conbine multiple resource packs.
 * Can contain:
 * Textures
 * Fonts
 * Sounds
 * New "missing texture" texture
 * Attribute system
 * Item attributes using NBT tags:
 * Attributes can be additive, subtractive and multiplicative using a set value
 * Some items have default modifiers in place of previously hard-coded attributes
 * Examples of possible changes players could make: A bow that slows the holder, a helm that buffs health, etc.
 * Entity attributes:
 * These properties can now be changed as easily as any other NBT attribute
 * Entity speed, base health, base attack
 * Other properties like weapon damage/bow draw speed/sword swing speed are yet to follow

Improvements & changes

 * Support for Java 5 and PowerPC users will be dropped
 * If you have a PowerPC based computer and/or Java 5 installed, a warning will be shown at the main menu.
 * Internal chat system
 * Lots of messages should be translated now that were not previously
 * Messages are now better modularized
 * Server messages can be sent by their code-defined name, allowing the client to utilize the correct translation according to their language settings
 * Color can be specifically designated, preventing leakage into further messages
 * Launcher
 * Increases performance and stability
 * Allows LWJGL to be updated, fixing many launcher bugs
 * Supports multiple versions/installs
 * Self updatable.
 * New password storing system
 * More user friendly.
 * A major step towards the Plugin API.

Improvements & changes

 * Riding mounts
 * When riding a mob, its health is on the Heads-up display.
 * When riding on an entity, dismounting has changed from right-clicking the entity to using the Sneak key ( by default)
 * Boat controls have been changed from the A, S, and D keys to mouse control
 * Respiration enchantment
 * Now also helps seeing underwater
 * Changed the idea of mob difficulty
 * Regional difficulty: The longer you spend in one area, the harder it gets
 * Scales with difficulty - items, enchants or AI improve with difficulty
 * Tooltips
 * Added extra tooltip info in the search tab for the creative inventory, which shows what category a block/item is in
 * Tooltips for swords, pickaxes, shovels, axes, and potions show how much damage the sword/tool does and what effect a potion will give

Additions

 * Horse Armor
 * Exist in diamond, iron and gold variants
 * Cannot be crafted. Can only be found in most types of generated chests, including in dungeons, Nether Fortresses, Desert Temples, and Jungle Temples
 * Horse Spawn Egg
 * When used, a different horse breed is created each time
 * Works like any other spawn egg
 * Hay Block
 * Can be placed in all orientations
 * Crafted with wheat in a 3x3 arrangement
 * Lead
 * Can be used to bind mobs to fences or lead them around
 * Right click mob first, then right-click fence or right-click the mob again to get the leash back
 * Crafted with 4 string and 1 slimeball, yields 2 leads
 * Carpets
 * Crafted with 2 colors of wool in a horizontal line, yields 3 carpets
 * Can be placed on any block (even translucent ones)
 * Name Tag
 * Found in dungeon chests
 * Name it with an anvil then right click a mob to name animals
 * Hardened Clay
 * Obtained by smelting a clay block in a furnace
 * Stained Clay
 * Comes in 16 colors, one for each dye.
 * Similar to wool.
 * Made by surrounding any dye with hardened clay
 * Block of Coal
 * Crafted with 3x3 coal.
 * Crafted only with coal, not charcoal.
 * Can be used as furnace fuel and smelts 80 items, more than 9 coal (72 smelted items).
 * Has a similar texture to obsidian

Improvements & changes

 * '''Charcoal
 * Retextured, with more brown shading to differentiate from coal
 * Lapis Lazuli Block
 * Retextured subtly, it now has a border around it
 * Saddle
 * Are now used for both horse and pig
 * Redstone Comparator
 * Now give out a signal for Cauldrons and End Portal frames depending on their state
 * Cauldrons give from zero signal (empty) to three signal strength (full) depending on water inside
 * End Portal frame varies between zero and fifteen signal strength, depending on if an Eye of Ender is present

Additions

 * Various new mobs
 * Horses
 * Must be tamed before use
 * Ridable by right-clicking them with a saddle - Hold the jump key to fill up their jump bar, release it to jump accordingly, steer them by using the usual movement keys - maximum movement speed and jump height differ between horses
 * Have various amounts of maximum health - Use wheat to heal them
 * Drop leather when killed
 * Can be bred using wheat - Baby horses can be grown using apples, golden apples and wheat
 * Players can make them jump
 * There is a Zombie and Skeleton version of the horse included in the code, although they require NBT editing to view in game
 * Creation assisted by DrZhark
 * Donkeys
 * Like horses, but smaller and grey, and can carry chests on their saddles that can be opened if sneaking and then right-clicking the donkey or mule. The chest has 15 inventory slots.
 * Mules
 * Just like donkeys, just brown and taller than a normal donkey
 * Obtained by breeding a horse and a donkey
 * Can wear chests on their saddles, just like donkeys

Improvements & changes

 * Zombies
 * Now have a small chance to spawn additional zombies when damaged.
 * Pigs
 * Pigs now show their health bar when riding on it.

Improvements & changes

 * Deserts
 * No longer contain water lakes
 * The Nether
 * Added chest generation in Nether Fortresses

Bug fixes

 * Fixed 21 Bugs:


 * - Green arrow bug on maps in frames
 * - Mobs not realizing they killed their attacker and trying to attack empty space
 * - Minecarts with Furnace consume coal in creative mode
 * - Dogs wont stop snarling after punched by someone else
 * - Damaged Anvils do not show damage in inventory or item frame
 * - Despawning cured zombie
 * - Unable to play game unless LWJGL is manually replaced
 * - After the last use of a bow you get a glitch bow that when dropped and picked up again duplicates
 * - Lava decay fails to schedule block update
 * - Ctrl + Alt + Esc crashes minecraft
 * - Silverfish breaking blocks when "mobGriefing" is set to false
 * - Switching from windowed to fullscreen and back moves the point of view
 * - Cant use scroll wheel in crash reports
 * - Item count / numbers randomly flickering in item bar, inventory, workbench
 * - Memory leak switching texture packs
 * - 1.5 HD Texture pack stitched images greater than 2048 resolution result in massive performance drop.
 * - Can get permanently stuck in a minecart in a nether portal
 * - Minecraft crashing on 1.5.1 prerelease Server
 * - Minecraft can't handle 4096x4096 or larger cloud textures
 * - Blocks stop updating one minute after entering the Nether or the End
 * - Cannot use resolution clock and compass textures with resolutions higher than 16x16

! colspan=3 style="height:3em" | Other features
 * style="text-align: center" | Unknown
 * style="text-align: center" | Account System Update
 * style="text-align: center" | Account System Update


 * Not a game update (will not modify the game itself and will be applied regardless of the version you're playing).
 * The possibility to change your username and the e-mail address that is associated with your account will be added.
 * Global Mojang accounts are already available and can be merged with Minecraft, Scrolls and Cobalt accounts.
 * Logging into Mojang games is made by using your e-mail address instead of your username.
 * Possible implementation of the long-awaited online synchronization of achievements and statistics.
 * In-game usernames will be changeable, but all usernames on Minecraft accounts have to be unique (doesn't matter if it's a legacy Minecraft account or a Mojang Account).
 * It is unknown how the username change feature will be adapted to server whitelists and blacklists.


 * style="text-align: center" | Unknown (Currently being worked on by Tobias Möllstam)
 * }