Minecraft Gets Lush Caves in New Snapshot
Minecraft has received another sample of new features from the upcoming Caves & Cliffs update. Snapshot 21w10a introduces lush caves, new Deepslate variants, and support for OpenGL Core 3.2 shaders.
The release of Caves & Cliffs is still ahead of us, but thanks to subsequent snapshots we can test at least some of the new features prepared by Mojang. The last of these test updates - numbered 21w10a - has just hit Minecraft servers. In order to test it and other content from the snapshots, activation in the game's client is required. This option can be found in the Installations section, where you need to enable snapshots. WARNING: Before activating this feature, we recommend making a backup copy of your world or running a snapshot session from a separate folder - test versions can permanently corrupt your creations!
Snapshot 21w10a is not the biggest piece of new content out there. The latest snapshot is in a way a continuation of 21w05a and introduces a new type of biome - caves with rich vegetation. They features some elements introduced in previous snapshots, but so far not present in the wild, including azaleas. Changes have also been made to the Deepslate (until recently known as Grimstone), including the ability to smelt Cobbled Deepslate and cracked variants for ores, bronze, emeralds, bricks and tiles, as well as the so-called infected Deepslate. Textures for objects related to this material have also been changed.
Significant changes have affected the resource generation system. For example, we will find more emeralds in the mountains, but iron ore will be less common and located deeper underground. The developers have also introduced basic shader support from the OpenGL Core 3.2 library, which should improve the game's appearance and performance. It was noted, however, that this support is unofficial for now, and installing snapshot 21w10a snapshot may cause Minecraft to stop working on configurations that do not meet the minimum hardware requirements. A full list of changes and fixes can be found on the game's official website.
