Light



Light in Minecraft exists in two different ways. In Classic Creative mode and Survival, light will hit any block that is under it (and go through any transparant blocks to light blocks underneath). Blocks that did not recieve light were in a dim shadow that remained at the same level of brightness no matter it was.

A new lighting system was the first thing to be put in Indev. This lighting uses a more complex and realistic shadowing method: There are 9 degrees of brightness, 9 being sunlight, 1 total darkness. A light source begins at "9", and the 4 blocks around the block recieving "9" light are given "8" light, and so on. When two "9"'s light fields combine, they check all adjacent tiles to see if they have a lower light value than itself. If so, it will raise it to one below its own value. This process can be seen in the animation below.

Natural light comes from the sky in Classic Mode, and from the Sun in Indev, Infdev and Alpha. When the sun sets, all light previously dims down considerably, somewhat impairing vision. During this time however, Grass and Flowers will not die. Light can also come from Torches, Fire, Lit Furnaces, Lava, Redstone ore that has been clicked and from Redstone torches that are on.