New Minecraft Snapshot Overhauls Lighting System

The new Minecraft snapshot 12c39a didn’t add any new features per se but it did overhaul what I thought was the biggest issue in a long time, the lighting. What was wrong with the lighting? If you have to ask then you aren’t playing enough Minecraft. The issue was weird lighting shadows in the daylight that would be blacked out and wouldn’t update until you were psychically touching the blocks.

The Mojang team has also fixed the way light passes through different areas. Before if you had a half slab in front of a torch the light wouldn’t actually pass through. Now it does. It also works by passing through stairs and extended pistons. There is a little bug with the light passing through stairs with a half slab covering the hole which is supposed to be fixed soon. We won’t see any of these updates in an actual release until the big Halloween update that includes scary witches, bats and Endermen that scream at you!

I’m not sure how I feel adding these Halloween objects to the main game, I mean who really grows pumpkins when playing nowadays? I don’t want to get off topic so I’m going to stop myself there. Download the new snapshot from Mojang here.