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This page describes content that exists only in outdated versions of Minecraft. 
This feature used to be in the game, but has ever since been removed.It may or may not return in a future update.

Invalid data value wool is a specific item form of wool with damage values outside of the usual range which wool can usually be obtained in, resulting in an unusual appearence.

Obtaining[]

Invalid data value wool is currently not known to be obtainable without the use of commands, inventory editors or other such tools, in any version.

Properties[]

Invalid data value wool is particularly notable due to its use of block textures in unexpected ways. From Beta 1.2 to Beta 1.8.1, as well as in early versions of Xbox 360 Edition, the item used the block placeholder texture, a texture only very rarely encountered in the unmodified game without the use of texture packs. From Beta 1.9 Prerelease to 13w01b, the item used the texture of newly-planted nether wart.

This bizarre texture usage can be easily be explained via analysis of terrain.png, a texture atlas used to store the texture of all blocks in the game prior to 1.5. All 15 textures used by colored wool blocks can be found in a 2×8 rectangle at the bottom left. This rectangle, however, contained a sixteenth texture that was initially unused. Wool with a damage value of 0 is white, and white wool's texture is located above this rectangle somewhat, and the game's code regards a damage value of 0 as a special case. However, if a wool item with a metadata value of ±16, ±32, ±48, ±64, ... is obtained as an item, which cannot be done in normal Survival gameplay or in Creative without commands, the game does not special-case these values due to them not being intentionally obtainable, resulting in this sixteenth texture in the rectangle being selected as the item's texture.

In Beta 1.9's development, the then-new nether wart required a texture to be used in-game. Where exactly a texture is in terrain.png is ultimately arbitrary, as the game's code can be made to point at any desired region. Ultimately, the textures used by nether wart were placed at a position in terrain.png which resulted in the first stage's texture being within the 2×8 rectangle used by most wool items, resulting in the invalid cases using the newly-planted nether wart texture as if it were any other texture.

201108311014 terrain 201109221032 terrain
The terrain.png used in
Beta 1.8.1
The terrain.png used in
Beta 1.9 Prerelease

Placement[]

When placed, invalid data value wool will place normal white wool blocks. As these placed blocks are proper white wool, they will drop white wool when broken, rather than invalid data values of wool.

History[]

Java Edition Indev
0.3120100131Wool 16 (inventory) JE1 Durability has been introduced. It can be assigned to cloth items via an inventory editor, but is functionally meaningless in this case. A durability bar will be displayed on the item.
20100201-2227Wool 16 (inventory) JE2 All 3D items now appear slightly darker on the left.
?Wool 16 (inventory) JE3 All 3D items now appear much brighter.
Java Edition Infdev
Minecraft Infdev20100611Wool 16 (inventory) JE4 All 3D items now appear slightly darker.
20100624Wool 16 (inventory) JE5 15 IDs relating to prior cloth/wool colors have been removed. Numeric ID 35, the only remaining wool block, has been changed from light gray to white.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.1Wool 16 (inventory) JE6 All 3D items now appear very slightly darker.
Java Edition Beta
1.2Wool 16n (inventory) JE7 Values for damage on wool are now processed as variants. The durability bar has been removed. As a result, the item now uses the famous placeholder texture.
1.6Test Build 3Wool 16n (inventory) JE8 All 3D items now appear much brighter and are rotated 90 degrees clockwise from their previous positions.
1.8Pre-releaseWool 16n (inventory) JE9 All 3D items now appear even brighter than previously, with almost no shading.
Java Edition
1.0.0Beta 1.9 PrereleaseWool 16n (inventory) JE10 Nether wart has been introduced. The texture used for the lowest growth state occupies the position in terrain.png that invalid data value wool uses, resulting in invalid data value wool now using the nether wart texture on all sides.
RC2Wool 16n (inventory) JE11 All 3D items are now shaded more reasonably.
1.3.112w22aWool 16n (inventory) JE12 All 3D items in the inventory have been rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise.
1.4.212w34aWool 16n (inventory) JE13 Items appeared slightly darker in the player's inventory than in chests prior to this version.
1.513w02aTexture handling has been overhauled. As invalid data value wool does not have a texture to point to, it causes a game crash immediately when the game attempts to render it.
1.5.113w12~Wool 16n (inventory) JE14 Invalid data value wool no longer causes the game to crash.[1] It now uses the white wool texture.
1.814w07aWool 16n (inventory) JE15 Invalid data value wool now appears as a 2D black wool texture.
14w10aWool 16n (inventory) JE14 Invalid data value wool now appears as 3D-rendered white wool again.
14w25aMissing Model (inventory) JE1 With the introduction of data-driven item models, any item with a data value outside of what is accepted by the game has no model to point to, resulting in use of the missing item model.
14w30aInvalid data value wool, alongside other invalid data value items, now appears the size of a full block when held in third person or by another player or mob.
1.915w31aMissing Model (inventory) JE2 The missing model's inventory appearance has changed, resulting in the appearance of invalid data value wool also changing.
The items also appear the size of a full block when held in first person and when dropped on the ground, and also appear larger than before in an item frame.
1.1317w43aMissing Model (inventory) JE3 The missing texture has changed, resulting in the appearance of invalid data value wool also changing.
17w47aNumeric IDs for blocks and items have been completely removed from the game. As a result, invalid data value wool has been "removed" as they now convert into white wool.
Legacy Console Edition
0.66.0054.0????Wool 16n (inventory) LCEUNK0054 Invalid data value wool exists and uses the placeholder texture.
TU2Wool 16n (inventory) LCEUNKTU2 3D item shading has changed very slightly.
TU3Wool 16n (inventory) LCEUNKTU3 The game now points to a more modern copy of terrain.png which results in use of the nether wart texture.
TU5Wool 16n (inventory) LCEUNKTU5 3D item rendering has changed again.

Issues[]

Invalid data value wool items are an issue, and due to their removal, can be considered already fixed.

Trivia[]

  • The first known mention of invalid data value wool is from January 23, 2011, ten days after it properly came into existence in Beta 1.2.[2]

Gallery[]

References[]


Invalid data value items 

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