What do you picture when you hear the word “hacker”? Do you see a person standing in front of a rock ready to discover what beautiful statue awaits inside? Perhaps your mind conjures up a writer, ready to make the worst puns you’ve ever read. Or maybe you see cool, wraparound glasses and a floor-length duster. I see a wall that is a mere suggestion, because this hacker is about to walk right through it. And now, you can too because as of today spectator mode is available in Bedrock Edition!
In Minecraft, we’ve abandoned most laws of physics but when you enable spectator mode you are throwing them all out of the window. You can no longer move things or touch anything, if you try your hand will go straight through whatever block you are trying to pick up. Other players or mobs won’t be able to see you unless they too are in spectator mode. Fellow spectators will appear as transparent floating heads, which makes sense since the way you move around Minecraft is by flying.
Now that we’ve listed all the cool things about spectator mode, you are probably asking “Jay, will you be using your new spectator powers for good?” to which I say, “No! I am obviously going to sneak back into all the Realms my colleagues kicked me out of for being too good at pranks. But let’s discuss how you enable spectator mode instead.” In the Settings Menu, you can switch the ‘/gamemode spectator’ command on and off if cheats are enabled. Your inventory, health, and held items will remain unchanged when you go in and out of spectator mode. That’s all there is to it!
But wait! That’s not all we have in store for you today. Touch controls are now available for everyone. They won’t be behind a toggle anymore, and when you launch Minecraft on a mobile device you will find a Touch Controls Video Onboarding screen under Settings. If you’ve never used the new controls, this video will play automatically the first time that you enter a world.
So, what are you going to do first? Fly through Minecraft in spectator mode without touching anything, or go in the opposite direction and navigate the Overworld with touch controls. I am going to try to do both at once! Check out the full changelog of updates and have fun spectating in your own world!
New Features:
Spectator Mode
Spectator Mode has made its way into Minecraft: Bedrock Edition! This feature has been experimental for a little while but has now made its way into the game with no experimental toggle required. Here’s a quick write up of this new game mode and how it can be used:
- When cheats are enabled, players can go in and out of Spectator Mode using the Personal Game Mode option in World Settings or the '/gamemode spectator' command
- Spectators have a reduced HUD that does not show the crosshair, hotbar, XP, health, hunger, or armor
- Players’ inventory, health, held items, etc, are unchanged when switching in and out of Spectator Mode
- Spectators are always flying and cannot be grounded
- Spectators pass through solid blocks and entities without collision
- Spectators can see out of solid objects when inside blocks
- Spectators cannot take damage and are not affected by any blocks, mobs, items, portals, or effects
- Spectators cannot use items or interact with blocks or mobs
- Spectators cannot open their inventory or interact with block screens, like Chests or Furnaces
- Spectators cannot be seen by mobs or other players, except other players in Spectator Mode
- Spectators appear as a transparent floating head to other players in Spectator Mode
- Spectators are not needed to sleep to pass the night
- When playing in first person perspective, spectators do not see their arm or held item
- Spectators generate chunks, if they fly to new chunks
- Spectators do not spawn any mobs
- Non-persistent mobs around spectators will check for distance to any non-spectators when deciding if they should despawn
- Commands can select and act on spectators
A list of fixes since the last release can be found below in the Vanilla Parity section below.
New Touch Controls
- New touch controls are now enabled on touch devices by default
- Players can choose between "Joystick & tap to interact", "Joystick & aim crosshair", or "D-Pad & tap to interact"
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