Minecraft Java Edition - 26.4 Snapshot 1

Posted: September 22nd, 2026

Welcome to the first snapshot of 26.4! We're kicking things off with a range of technical updates and improvements, including Vulkan becoming the default graphics API.

Changes

World Generation

  • Upgrading worlds from before Caves and Cliffs will now also generate sulfur caves below old chunks

Minor Tweaks to Blocks, Items and Entities

  • Red and Brown Mushrooms can now be placed on any block with a solid top face regardless of lighting conditions
    • They can still not spread unless the brightness is less than 13, or their support block overrides light requirements

"Graphics API" Video Setting

  • "Default" now behaves the same as "Prefer Vulkan"
  • The game will no longer change the graphics API setting automatically if a startup crash is detected.

Technical Changes

  • The Data Pack version is now 122.0
  • The Resource Pack version is now 98.0

Network Protocol

Added minecraft:mod_list Custom Packet Payload

  • This packet is intended to inform servers about client mods to simplify debugging
  • Vanilla client sends an empty packet at the start of configuration phase, as it does not know about any mods - that is still a responsibility of 3rd-party modding platforms

Modified minecraft:intention Packet

  • The host field in the serverbound intention packet can now hold additional parameters (previously it stored only the domain name used for connecting to a server)
    • The new format is similar to URI query strings - the domain can now optionally be followed by a ? character and then followed by key=value pairs separated by a & character
    • Empty values can be omitted (including = sign)
    • Keys and values are escaped according to the standard URI rules ("percent-encoded component")
    • Keys starting with _ are reserved for vanilla use
    • Example: example.com?key1=value2&key2
    • Users can now input properties in any "Server Address" field in the server list
      • Additionally, any address in form of <id>@<host> will be parsed as <host>?_id=<id>
    • If a server uses SRV DNS records, the host field will contain both original and resolved domains
      • If the resolved domain is different from the original domain, the resolved one will be used as the "primary" one, while the original one will be added as _o ("origin") property
      • Example host string: <redirected domain>?_o=<original domain>:<original port>, while the port field in the intention packet will be set to the resolved port value
    • The field size has been extended to 1024 characters
    • Note: since the minecraft:intent packet is unencrypted, properties should not be used for any security-sensitive purpose

Modified minecraft:transfer Packet

  • Added properties field - a string to string map of properties that will be added to the host field in the minecraft:intent packet sent to the target server

Dedicated Server Properties

  • Added allowed-connection-ids
    • A list of comma-separted ids
    • If non-empty, the server will match the values against _id property in minecraft:intent packet
      • If there is no match, the server will reject the connection
    • This works both for both status and login connections, so any user connecting without the correct _id in the server address will not see the status and will not be able to join the server
  • Added status-contact-details field
    • If non-empty, the value of this field will be sent in the minecraft:status_response packet JSON payload under the contact property
    • This value is meant to be used to signal a way to contact the server owners about the server, even if there is no website or other information about it
    • This field is meant to be human-readable, but there are no other restrictions on field format
  • Added enable-legacy-status field
    • This option allows disabling existing legacy (pre-1.7) server status and ping protocol handling
    • To preserve existing functionality, value defaults to true
    • Note: enable-status needs to be set for any status information (modern or legacy) to be set

Data Pack Version 122.0

  • Entries for different biomes in multi-noise biome sources can no longer overlap across all noise parameters with the same offset

Commands

  • The fillbiome command will now fill biomes with block accuracy
  • NBT conversion from floating point types to integer types now always converts to the closest possible valid number after rounding down

World Generation

Features

Changed straight_trunk_placer
  • Added trunk_width field
    • optional int provider, the width of the trunk centered around the origin
    • defaults to 1.0

Placed Features

  • The possible domain in the XZ plane of Placed Features included in biomes is now validated
    • Feature placement can only occur within a 3x3 chunk region: as such, it is not valid for a Placed Feature to select a position outside of that range
    • Note: the size of the feature itself is not currently taken into consideration, which may still overflow the chunk

Placement Modifiers

Changed cuboid
  • xz_size and y_size have been adjusted to represent the actual size of the cuboid, instead of implicitly being 1 block larger
    • As such, an xz_size of 2 will actually produce a 2x2 cuboid instead of 3x3
Changed fixed_placement
  • positions now requires at least one element

Noise Settings

  • The default_block field has been removed
    • This is now always air - any other block should be defined by the Material Rule

Material Conditions

Updated minecraft:steep
  • No longer considers height modifications from Eroded Badlands "surface extensions" in an order-dependent way

Tags

Biome Tags

  • Added #generated_in_below_zero_retrogen - biomes to generate below worlds that predate Caves and Cliffs
  • Added #is_cave collection tag

Resource Pack Version 98.0

Shaders & Post-process Effects

Order-Independent Transparency shaders

  • The OIT algorithm was simplified by replacing the wavelet-based mathematics with depth bin-based accumulation
    • Slightly improved performance at least on some devices
    • Reduced floating point precision issues on average
    • OIT_WAVELET_RANK shader define was removed
    • OIT_COEFF_COUNT shader define was replaced by OIT_NUMBER_OF_DEPTH_BINS
    • OIT_COEFF_ATTACHMENT_COUNT shader define was renamed to OIT_TRANSMITTANCE_TARGET_COUNT

Fixed bugs in 26.4 Snapshot 1

  • MC-8959 - The player automatically jumps when pressing against a block while in water
  • MC-44560 - When pushed to the edge of water or lava, entities jump by themselves
  • MC-50749 - Jumping into water against a wall causes the player to bounce
  • MC-123848 - Item frames (and items within) drop atop the block they're attached to instead of under it when removed from a ceiling
  • MC-135211 - Entities automatically jump when falling into 1-block-deep water from certain heights
  • MC-135212 - Entities automatically jump when falling into water of any depth from certain heights
  • MC-262252 - The generation of lush caves and dripstone caves is poorly defined
  • MC-276879 - /data truncates floats when casting to longs, but rounds down in all other cases
  • MC-278651 - The host name in handshake packets for SRV records is inconsistent
  • MC-296053 - Item frames don't update properly when modifying their Facing NBT tag
  • MC-299060 - Setting item frames' direction with commands can cause desyncs
  • MC-303702 - Small gaps still appear in item models
  • MC-307065 - Missing optimization for the side faces of the builtin/generated item model
  • MC-310051 - Floating point cancellation artifacts from bits.fsh
  • MC-310131 - Placeable entities momentarily appear at the wrong location when placed
  • MC-310767 - Pipelines always declare a D32_FLOAT depth attachment format with the Vulkan rendering backend
  • MC-311195 - Placed armor stands are rotated incorrectly for one tick
  • MC-311265 - The world border renders incorrectly from outside
  • MC-311473 - Duplicating items with the scroll wheel in Creative mode can produce ghost items
  • MC-311582 - The texture of desert pyramid maps has one inconsistent pixel compared to the others
  • MC-311726 - The water inside waterlogged copper grates has the falling fluid state property set to true
  • MC-311727 - The check for whether a player is standing on air doesn't use the player's updated position
  • MC-311773 - Red and brown mushrooms cannot be placed at any light level, unlike in Bedrock Edition
  • MC-311786 - Running /test run with a rotationSteps value that is out of range causes an error
  • MC-311788 - Teleporting item frames moves them further than it should visually
  • MC-311818 - Traveling to the End in Spectator mode regenerates the obsidian platform
  • MC-311836 - Minecart sounds are now distorted
  • MC-311859 - Damaged dyed wolf armor no longer shows cracks in the colored parts
  • MC-311966 - The tooltip of the "Quit Shortcuts" option calls the Command key "Cmd"

Get the Snapshot

Snapshots are available for Minecraft: Java Edition. To install the Snapshot, open up the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the "Installations" tab.

Testing versions can corrupt your world, so please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.

Cross-platform server jar:

Report bugs here:

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