Java Edition 21w44a

21w44a is the eighth and final snapshot for Java Edition 1.18, released on November 3, 2021, which improved the upgrading of old worlds, introduced new options, made some tweaks, and fixed bugs.

World generation

 * Upgrading of old worlds
 * Caves are now inserted under existing chunks when upgrading a world to the new world height.
 * Deepslate and the bedrock layer currently don't generate due to a bug.
 * Large biomes and amplified worlds now have an upgrade path, and retain more of their characteristics when upgraded to the new terrain system.

General

 * Options
 * Added Online Options as a separate screen:
 * The "Realms Notifications" option has been moved to this screen.
 * Contains the new "Allow Server Listings" option.
 * When deactivated, the player name will not show up in server online player listings.
 * Contains the new "Server Difficulty" option, to indicate the difficulty of the current server.


 * server.properties
 * Added, which when set to "True", will not send a player list on status requests.


 * Tags
 * Added following block tags to decide the corresponding creatures to spawn:

Gameplay

 * Advancements
 * All 50 Overworld biomes are now required to be visited for the Adventuring Time advancement, including the following biomes which were previously not required:
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 * Weather
 * Sleeping now only resets the weather cycle if the weather is rain or a thunderstorm.

World generation

 * Deepslate
 * Now the gradual transition from stone starts at height between Y=0 to Y=8, rather than Y=-8 to Y=0 previously.

General

 * JFR profiling
 * If it is started from an external source, the JFR events for network packets are now aggregated instead of one event per packet.


 * Simulation distance
 * Blocks and fluids are now also affected.
 * Increased the lower limit for simulation distance from 2 chunks to 5 chunks.


 * General
 * Optimized entity collisions.

Videos
Videos made by slicedlime: