Currently barriers block rain and snow fall and prevent it from reaching blocks underneath. Ideally, a barrier block shouldn't effect the environment like this. Barrier walls and ceilings become very obvious if they prevent weather effects from reaching the ground, especially due to the rain splashes generated on top of them when they're hit by rain.
The precedent for a solid block that is permeable to weather does exist in the game: if you manage to suspend a piece of carpet in the air then it still clips with entities like players, mobs and arrows, but both rain and snow still fall through it and a snow layer can even build up on the ground beneath it. As far as I can tell, carpets are not block entities so copying their properties (except, of course, for the fact that they require another block to sit on top of) to barrier blocks shouldn't result in the game lagging from having to track a bunch of extra data.
If a map maker really needs an invisible block that blocks weather then they can fairly easily retexture one variety of glass, wall, fence or trap door, all of which stop rain and snow fall, don't block light and have lots of variations, meaning that just one variety can be rendered invisible with a transparent texture. That same choice doesn't exist for the alternative though: there's no solid block that allows weather to pass through except for carpets, which can't be placed in the air, which can be made transparent to act as a faux barrier block.
Thanks for reading.
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