The main options menu
The video settings menu
The music and sound options menu
Minecraft’s user environment can be configured through the Options setting. A few additional options can only be changed by editing the options.txt file manually.
Java
Options
Selecting Options brings up the main options page:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| FOV | Controls how much of the game world is visible on the screen. Also known as Field of View. Ranges from 30° to 110° (Quake Pro) |
| Difficulty | Set the difficulty level from the choice of Peaceful, Easy, Normal, and Hard. If the padlock is clicked and confirmed, the difficulty on that world cannot be changed without commands. (Note that the difficulty cannot be changed if playing Hardcore Mode. On a server, difficulty can only be changed by commands or editing the server.properties file.) |
Skin Customization
| Skin Customization Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Cape | Toggles the cape. If set to off, the cape texture for wearing a pair of Elytra would also be deactivated. |
| Jacket | Toggles the body second layer. |
| Left Sleeve | Toggles the left arm second layer. |
| Right Sleeve | Toggles the right arm second layer. |
| Left Pants Leg | Toggles the left leg second layer. |
| Right Pants Leg | Toggles the right leg second layer. |
| Hat | Toggles the head second layer. |
| Main Hand | Switches the main hand, between left and right. Right is default. |
Music & Sounds
| Sound Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Master Volume | The volume of all sounds. |
| Music | The volume of gameplay music. |
| Weather | The volume of rain and thunder. |
| Hostile Creatures | The volume of hostile and neutral mobs. |
| Players | The volume of players. |
| Jukebox/Noteblocks | The volume of music and sounds played from Jukeboxes and Note Blocks. |
| Blocks | The volume of blocks (anvils, chests, doors, etc.). |
| Friendly Creatures | The volume of passive mobs. |
| Ambient/Environment | The volume of cave sounds and fireworks. |
| Voice/Speech | The volume of speech in Minecraft (for map makers) |
Video Settings
| Video Setting | Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Graphics |
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| Render Distance | The render distance controls how many chunks of the world are visible at once. The fewer chunks that are included, the faster each frame can be rendered, resulting in a higher FPS.
The most distant terrain is faded into the sky color as if by fog, to avoid a sharp edge to the visible world; so this option is also known as "fog". Note: diameter = radius × 2 + 1
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| Smooth Lighting | Lighting is smoothed across the blocks (ambient occlusion), or each block has a distinctive light level. This setting does not change the gameplay in any way, but it has a slight effect on performance. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Max Framerate | Limits the FPS. Limiting the framerate to a multiple of your monitor's refresh rate can save processing power. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3D Anaglyph | Enables the player to use 3D glasses. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| View Bobbing | Toggles the "bobbing" motion of the camera as the player is walking. Disabling it may increase performance. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GUI Scale | Controls the GUI (Graphical User Interface) scale. This also controls the HUD (Heads Up Display) size. Using the "Auto" GUI scale can set the normally un-obtainable "Larger" GUI scale, if playing with a large resolution. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clouds |
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| Brightness | Dims down or lights up the game's surfaces, even if fully dark. It has no effect on gameplay, it is only a visual effect. Works in any dimension and affects the Night Vision status effect. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Particles | Allows particles effects such as sprinting particles, falling particles and particles from lava and water drips. Block breaking particles are not affected. In "Minimal" particle setting, rain is silent and hearts appearing around mobs in Love Mode do not appear. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fullscreen | Puts Minecraft into Fullscreen mode, keeping it off keeps it in a window. Can also be changed with F11. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Use VSync | Limits your frames per second to the screen's refresh rate, which is usually 60 Hz, 75 Hz on some CRT screens, or 120 to 144 Hz on some gaming-targeted screens. Enabling VSync fixes tearing, but increases input latency and causes stuttering if one's computer cannot draw enough frames per second. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mipmap Levels | The higher the level, the more the textures look "smooth". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Use VBOs | Toggles vertex buffer objects. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Entity Shadows | Determines whether entities will display simple shadows. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attack Indicator |
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Controls
From the main Options page, one can click down to Controls for configuring keyboard controls.
Language
Settings
Allows you to change the language that is viewed by your client.
| Option | Description |
| Force Unicode font | ON Unicode Font. OFF Ascii font |
Chat Settings
| Option | Description |
| Chat | Shown enables your ability to see the chat on a server. Commands Only allows you to only see the output of commands in the chat. Hidden hides the chat on all servers. |
| Colors | ON allows you to see the chat in many different colors. OFF disables this function and only allows you to see the chat in a light gray color. |
| Web Links | ON allows you to see URLs and other links in the chat. OFF disables this function and blocks all URLs and other links. |
| Opacity | The opacity of the chat. |
| Prompt on Links | ON forces a prompt to appear on your screen whenever you click on a URL to makes sure that you wish to exit Minecraft and head to the website. OFF turns the prompt off. |
| Scale | How large the chat is shown. |
| Focused Height | The max height that the chat is allowed to appear when in focus (chat input and history open). |
| Unfocused Height | The max height that the chat is allowed to appear normally (chat input and history closed). |
| Width | The max width that the chat may appear. |
| Reduced Debug Info | Toggles reduced information on the debug screen. |
Server options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Server Resource Packs | Allows Minecraft to download resource packs from the server. |
Resource Packs
Allows you to change your Resource pack settings.
Snooper Settings
Snooper allows Mojang to collect information about your machine to help improve Minecraft by knowing what they can support and where the biggest problems are. All of this information is able to be viewed within the settings page. They promise they won't do anything bad with this data, but if you want to opt out then feel free to toggle it off!
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Allow Snooper | ON enables snooper. OFF disables snooper. |
Bedrock
Game
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Username | Changes your public username (locked if signed in to Realms; can be changed through Xbox Live). |
| Sound Volume | Choose the level of sound volume. |
| Difficulty | Select difficulty (Total of 4 Difficulties, same as PC Version (As of Alpha 0.12.1)). |
| Third person view | Toggles third person view. |
| Multiplayer Game | Allow users to join the server. |
| Broadcast to LAN | Allow local users to join the server. |
| Broadcast to Xbox Live | Allow friends from Xbox Live to the join the server |
Controls
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Sensitivity | Changes the sensitivity of the camera when turning. |
| Invert Y-Axis | Toggles inversion of camera when looking up/down. |
| Lefty | Toggles the D-pad being on the left/right side of the screen. |
| Split controls | Chooses whether to use the touchscreen to interact throughout the screen or use a crosshair. |
| Swap Jump and Sneak | Chooses whether to swap the position of jump and sneak buttons. |
| Button size | Changes the size of the buttons. Smaller buttons allow extra slots for the hotbar. |
| Auto Jump | Toggles the auto-jump feature. |
| Keyboard Layout | Chooses whether what keyboard layout will be used. |
| Controller Layout | Changes the action of buttons when pressed in a controller. |
Feedback
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Destroy block (vibrate) | Toggles vibration when destroying blocks. (Android only). |
Graphics
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Brightness | Adjusts the brightness of the game. |
| Render Distance | Changes the render distance of the terrain, and also affects the render distance of foliage such as transparent leaves, crops and animated textures. Available in 4-8 sections on the slider (depending on the device).
For smartphones with less than 512MB of available RAM
For smartphones with 1GB or RAM or more
For PC's
|
| FOV | Changes the field of view. |
| View Bobbing | Chooses whether to show the bobbing when walking. |
| Fancy Graphics | Toggles fancy graphics. Note that clouds on fast graphics remain volumetric but become opaque. |
| Fancy Leaves | Toggles transparent leaves. |
| Particle Render Distance | Controls the distance for which particles like TNT explosions can be seen from. |
| Beautiful skies | Toggles the sun, moon, clouds, stars and sky color. |
| Animated water | Toggles animated texture for water, lava and fire. |
| Anti Aliasing | Toggles the amount of anti aliasing, which smooths the image and removes jagged edges.
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| Texel Anti Aliasing | Applies anti aliasing to the textures withing the blocks, giving them a smoother look. |
Experimental
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Hide GUI | Toggles if the HUD is displayed. |
| Limit worlds | Toggles whether a world is infinite or compressed to a 256x256 block area (Only available on supported low-end devices). |
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UI Profile |
Changes the game UI style between classic (desktop UI) and Pocket UI. |
Console Edition
There are settings for the music, sound, gamma, visibility on maps, vertical split screen, view bobbing, and sensitivity. The option to turn bedrock fog on or off was present until title update 31 - which removed bedrock fog entirely.
Render distance varies depending on device and the number of players on the same console. Note that the implementation of fog is different on console, giving the appearance of a higher render distance at the cost of pop in.
| Console | Render distance | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1P Mode | 2P Mode | 3P Mode | 4P Mode | |
| PS4 | 18 chunks | 12 chunks | 10 chunks | 9 chunks |
| Xbox One | ||||
| PS3 | 10 chunks | 7 chunks | 6 chunks | 5 chunks |
| Xbox 360 | ||||
| Wii U | ||||
| Switch (Docked) | ||||
| Switch (Handheld) | 7 chunks | 5 chunks | ??? | ??? |
| PS Vita | 5 chunks | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Video
- Note: This video dates from release 1.5, and so does not show all options currently available.
Options/video
History
| classic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0.12a | New fog distance option. | ||||
| 0.23 | Added the options page. | ||||
| New custom keymappings. | |||||
| beta | |||||
| 1.3 | Smooth lighting was added. | ||||
| 1.8 | The Brightness setting was added. | ||||
| release | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9-pre5 | The Clouds setting was added (however, texture packs were able to remove them before this option was introduced). | |||
| 1.3.1 | 12w21a | The options menu was improved with a new "Chat Settings" menu. | |||
| 1.4.2 | 12w34a | Added new Full-screen toggle to the Video settings. | |||
| Added new use Vsync toggle in the Video settings. | |||||
| 1.4.6 | 1.4.6-pre | Added an option to toggle touchscreen mode. | |||
| 1.5 | 13w09b | Moved Texture Packs setting from the main menu to the options menu. | |||
| 1.7.2 | 13w36a | The options menu was revamped, including a brand new layout, new key binds and a "Super Secret Settings" button in the menu. | |||
| 13w36b | The "Super Secret Settings" button now plays a random sound when clicked. | ||||
| 13w38a | The "Super Secret Settings" button now creates a shader effect on the game's display, in the following order: FXAA, Art, Bumpy, Blobs_2, Pencil, Color_Convolve, Deconverge, Flip, Invert, NTSC, Outline, Phosphor, Scan_Pincushion, Sobel, Bits, Desaturate, Green, Blur, Wobble, Blobs, Antialias, Default. | ||||
| 1.7.4 | 13w47a | Added "Twitch Broadcast Settings" and "Twitch Chat Settings" buttons. | |||
| 1.7.6 | 1.7.6-pre1 | Server Resource Packs option is now per-server, and has three settings: Prompt, Enabled, and Disabled. | |||
| 1.7.6-pre1 | The minimum FOV setting is now 30 rather than 70. | ||||
| 1.8 | 14w25a | Dropped items now always render in 3D, rather then just while on fancy graphics | |||
| 1.8.1 | The option to enable entity shadows is now controlled separately from the standard fast and fancy graphics. | ||||
| The cloud's "fast" and "fancy" shape are controlled by the same option which enables clouds, rather then by the standard fast and fancy graphics. | |||||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Removed "Super Secret Settings" and "Broadcast Settings". | |||
| Removed Alternate Blocks from video settings. | |||||
| Added "Main Hand" to the skin settings. | |||||
| 15w34a | Added "Attack Indicator" to the video settings. | ||||
| 16w02a | added "Voice/Speech" to the music & sound settings. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.2.1 | Added split screen option. | ||||
| 0.4.0 | Added option for peaceful mode. | ||||
| 0.7.0 | Redesigned options menu. There are now four sections in the menu, game, controls, graphics, and sound. | ||||
| 0.8.0 | Removed option for smooth lighting. It is now always on. | ||||
| Added far (256 blocks) and farthest (400 blocks) render distances. Default is now far. | |||||
| By default, fancy graphics is now on. | |||||
| 0.9.3 | View distance on Android is no longer limited to 3 sliders. | ||||
| 0.10.0 | Added the brightness slider. It is located in the graphics menu. | ||||
| 0.11.0 | Worlds can now be renamed. | ||||
| Gamemode can be changed in the world edit menu. | |||||
| On creative mode worlds the daylight cycle can be locked to day. | |||||
| 0.12.1 | Added option to swap jump and sneak. | ||||
| 0.13.0 | Multiplayer can now be disabled in the options menu. | ||||
| 0.13.1 | Removed sound section in the options menu. The volume slider is now in the Game section. | ||||
| On the title screen the options icon is no longer a wrench. | |||||
| Made the options icon slightly bigger. | |||||
| 0.16.0 | build 1 | Redesigned options screen. | |||
See also
| Help |
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| Menu screens |
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| Game customization | |||||||||||||||||||
| Editions |
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| Miscellaneous | |||||||||||||||||||