The Redstone Update is a planned major update labeled as 1.5
Planned Changes for the Redstone Update
Note: Most of the changes listed here have no references since most of them were mentioned at MineCon 2012 respectively at the MineCon 2012 livestream (especially the Future Updates with the Minecraft PC Team talk)
More predictable and consistent behavior
The functionality of BUDs will be affected
Most of the timings of redstone contraptions will change
Overall Redstone will be more like analog signals
Redstone signal strength will matter (for some blocks)
Capacitor block
Only outputs a signal if the input has a specific strength
Configurable like a repeater
Perhaps a revised form of the Allocator
Used to suck up items into a container/transport items between container
Weighted Pressure Plates
Outputs a signal with a strength corresponding to the weight of the entity (e.g. Storage Minecarts) sitting on the pressure plate/detector rail
Perhaps a Daylight Detector
Outputs a signal with a strength corresponding to the intensity of the sunlight
Redstone repeater lock improvements[citation needed ]
Some Redstone bugfixes[1] [2]
Perhaps a new ore for crafting the new redstone devices
Will most likely be available only in The Nether , encouraging exploration of the dimension
New ways of transporting items
Using Minecarts similarly to Railcraft systems
New uses for Storage Minecarts
Filling and emptying Storage Minecarts
Specific Rails to empty them
Linking Minecarts together (driven by Furnace Minecarts )
Rails do unload mobs and perhaps players when reached
Rendering engine rewrite
Current engines has some bugs
Will require a higher OpenGL feature-set
Will include some sort of fallback for older hardware
Support for high resolution texture packs[3]
The geometry of individual textures can differ
No support for HD skins
Much faster overall rendering, thus higher FPS.[4] [5]
Includes a less intensive variation of the lighting fixes first introduced in snapshots 12w39a/b (during 1.4 development) The features were:
Support for fancy lighting control [6]
Support for more realistic lighting, such as active furnaces only giving off light from their front surface[7] [8]
Other
No new mobs
Perhaps Fireworks for New Year's Eve
Perhaps a method of enchanting equipment with paper
The player would enchant the paper, then use an anvil to combine it with equipment
The anvil cost to do this would be very high
Possibility of Ghast Fireballs' sizes to be edited via third party programs[9]
Perhaps new netherbrick slabs
Possibility to set waypoints
Perhaps an updated PVP/Combat system.
References