Java Edition Beta 1.6

Beta 1.6 added maps, trapdoors, the Nether in multiplayer as well as other changes and many bug fixes.

Additions

 * Added Nether support to multiplayer.
 * Added craftable maps.
 * Added trapdoors.
 * Added tall grass in certain biomes.
 * Seeds are now found in tall grass; using a hoe on the ground no longer yields seeds.
 * Added dead bushes in Deserts.
 * New settings in Server.properties:
 * view-distance
 * allow-nether

Changes

 * Mushrooms now spread, albeit slowly.
 * The lighting on block icons in the inventory has been changed to appear brigher.
 * The jukebox now supports more than 15 different music discs; no additional music discs were added until Minecraft 1.0.
 * Ice now regenerates regardless of whether it’s snowing or not.
 * Blocks destroyed by other players in multiplayer now show the breaking block particle effect.
 * Doors make sound for other players in multiplayer.
 * Activated dispensers make sounds and trigger particles in multiplayer.
 * Players stuck in walls will slide towards the nearest gap if there is one.
 * +clicking while crafting makes as much as possible and moves it straight to your inventory.
 * +clicking something in your inventory will push it directly in your hot bar and vice-versa.
 * Trying to sleep in the Nether causes the bed to explode.
 * Temporarily disabled Advanced OpenGL due to bugs until 1.6.5.
 * It’s no longer possible to build solid blocks on the top layer of the map.
 * Powered Rails are now speedier to offset the loss of glitch-boosters.
 * Fire has been severely nerfed so it spreads slower, and doesn’t spread infinitely.
 * Compressed network traffic more aggressively.
 * Blocks that don’t change appearance when the data changes don’t send block updates when their data changes now.
 * Arrows shot by one player can now be picked up by other players.
 * Minecarts and boats can go through portals, empty or occupied.
 * Water below a layer of source blocks no longer behaves like source blocks.

Fixes
99 bugs fixed


 * Fixed saving while sneaking dropping the player through the ground.
 * Fixed player rotation not being loaded correctly when loading a saved game.
 * Fixed the player not being able to sneak off lowered blocks like cacti.
 * Fixed a game crash when riding a vehicle or animal into the nether.
 * Fixed falling while riding not dealing damage to the rider.
 * Fixed buttons and levers too close to the player being impossible to use.
 * Fixed furnaces and dispensers not dropping their contents when destroyed.
 * Fixed fire and lava dealing damage through wall corners.
 * Fixed entities reaching water through wall corners.
 * Fixed placing doors next to cacti creating half-doors.
 * Fixed farmland taking too long to dig.
 * Fixed tilling below some blocks being possible.
 * Fixed tilling the underside of blocks somehow working.
 * Fixed fences and stairs sometimes becoming invisible.
 * Fixed fences and signs preventing grass from growing.
 * Fixed walking on top of fences not producing step sounds.
 * Fixed grass staying alive below stair blocks.
 * Fixed the achievement screen not pausing the game.
 * Fixed some screens breaking the sky tint color.
 * Fixed fullscreen mode switching causing mouse issues and screen closes.
 * Fixed chat messages surviving through game switches.
 * Fixed levers being placeable on weird locations.
 * Fixed floor levers sometimes not delivering a signal downwards.
 * Fixed floor levers sometimes not being removed when the floor is removed.
 * Fixed dying in the nether spawning new portals.
 * Fixed ore density varying per quadrant from the center of the world.
 * Fixed saplings being plantable through snow onto non-grass blocks.
 * Fixed wooden pressure plates being mined with pickaxes.
 * Fixed creepers retaining charge level when they can’t see their target.
 * Fixed inventory acting weird when portaling by making the portal close all screens.
 * Fixed saplings being plantable through snow onto non-grass blocks.
 * Fixed dispenser graphics being one pixel off.
 * Fixed mushrooms spawning everywhere during nights.
 * Fixed animals only spawning near light during the night.
 * Fixed the multiplayer join screen input field being too short.
 * Fixed entities above the map height limit becoming invisible.
 * Fixed loads of exploding TNT generating way too many particles, which usually crashed the game.
 * Fixed grasscolor.png and foliagecolor.png not being read from texture packs.
 * Fixed receiving more items than the maximum stack size sometimes causing an oversized stack in the inventory
 * Fixed rain sounds not playing with fast graphics enabled.
 * Fixed glass not blocking rain sound
 * Fixed rain falling through liquids.
 * Fixed rain falling too slowly.
 * Fixed rain and snow being incorrectly lit.
 * Fixed arrow physics, making them not get stuck midair when you open a door.
 * Fixed arrows colliding with reeds, portals, and other non-solid blocks.
 * Fixed arrows being animated really strangely in multiplayer.
 * Fixed arrows triggering too many entity move updates in multiplayer.
 * Fixed submerged boats rising very very fast.
 * Fixed boats placed on snow being placed too far up.
 * Fixed sand dropping onto boats getting stuck in a falling animation.
 * Fixed dispensers shooting through walls.
 * Fixed dispensers biasing later slots.
 * Fixed fire effect on burning entities sometimes getting rendered in the wrong location.
 * Fixed fences and wooden stairs not being flammable.
 * Fixed fire sometimes existing mid-air as an invisible block of pain.
 * Fixed fire displacing water.
 * Fixed fires being impossible to put out in multiplayer.
 * Fixed fishing rod rendering being a bit lacking.
 * Fixed fishing rods being stackable.
 * Fixed water interacting strangely with glass.
 * Fixed items in glass blocks not getting ejected properly.
 * Fixed mining glass hiding the clouds behind the glass.
 * Fixed minecarts next to each other causing extreme velocities.
 * Fixed rail tiles sometimes not properly connecting to a new neighbor.
 * When breaking a minecart the player is currently riding in, the player no longer falls through the block the track is placed on.
 * Fixed the cracking texture being dark on the sides of grass blocks.
 * Fixed anaglyph 3d rendering mode having severe visual bugs.
 * Fixed the achievements screen messing up the sky color.
 * Fixed hair and cloaks being rendered in the wrong locations on sneaking players.
 * Fixed a bug where the player could mine without visually swinging their arm.
 * Fixed the attack/swing animation not being applied to the armor layer
 * Fixed fences and stairs sometimes becoming invisible.
 * Fixed redstone repeaters using pumpkin particles.
 * Glowstone and Jack-o-lanterns recessed into a wall or other surface no longer have shadows cast on them by surrounding blocks when smooth lighting is enabled.
 * Fixed running out of memory corrupting the current level.
 * Fixed the crash screen vanishing immediately.
 * Fixed not being able to target blocks when at x or z pos 1000.
 * Fixed a system clock change messing up the game speed.
 * Fixed keybindings not getting saved properly under certain conditions.
 * Fixed stats getting saved to different files in offline mode if the caps in the player name differ from the true spelling.

SMP only
 * Fixed IPv6 addresses being parsed wrong.
 * Fixed network packets being sent unbuffered, causing huge amounts of packets being sent.
 * Fixed entity positions going out of synch sometimes. They get re-synched every 20 seconds now.
 * Fixed inventory icons not animating after being picked up in multiplayer.
 * Fixed mushroom soup not leaving a bowl.
 * Fixed wolves not following their owner if the name has different caps.
 * Fixed healing not flashing the health bar
 * Fixed the compass not pointing at the spawn location.
 * Fixed record players spawning client-side fake records.
 * Fixed records not playing for other players.
 * Fixed players spawning in the wrong location and quickly lerping to the correct location.
 * Fixed monsters not being visible for players with their difficulty set to peaceful.
 * Fixed pigs getting hit by lightning spawning client-side zombie pigmen.
 * Fixed bonemeal use sometimes spawning fake client-side trees.
 * Fixed saplings sometimes spawning trees client-side.
 * Fixed weather sometimes changing client-side.
 * Fixed fireballs not being visible in multiplayer.
 * Fixed ghasts’ firing animation not being visible.

Beta 1.6 Beta 1.6 Beta 1.6