This week's snapshot brings you some tweaks, bugfixes, and technical changes! 

We also have a survey up so that you can tell us what you think about the Nether Update. You can find it by clicking here. We would very much appreciate if you could take the time and fill it out.

New Features in 20w17a

• Added an Entity Distance scale option ranging from 50% to 500%
• Difficulty and game rules can now be changed from "Create World" screen

Changes in 20w17a

• Improved Smithing Table UI
• Ruined Portals now spawn less frequently
• Renamed "Soul Fire Torch" and "Soul Fire Lantern" to "Soul Torch" and "Soul Lantern"
• Tweaked Bastion Remnant loot
• Walls now create posts under more things, like pressure plates and banners
• The "Singleplayer" button will jump directly to "Create World" screen if there are no worlds to select

Technical Changes in 20w17a

• Chat component style can now select font
• Block storage format in chunks slightly changed to speed up various tasks (rendering, pathfinding, world generation, etc)
• Full range of Unicode characters is supported (some may know what that means 😉)
• Added the attribute command
  

World save format

• Saving level.dat now uses randomly-named temporary files (instead of using level.dat_new every time)
• player/*.dat are now saved in a way similar to level.dat (including leaving .dat_old files)

Block storage

BlockStates in Sections elements no longer contain values stretching over multiple 64-bit fields. If number of bits per block is not power of two (i.e. single 64-bit value can't fill whole number of blockstates) some bits will not be used.

For example, if single block state takes 5 bits, highest 4 bits of every 64-bit field will be unused. That also means slight increase in storage size (in case of 5 bits, from 320 to 342 64-bit fields).

Commands

attribute

Adds modifies attribute on single entity. Possible syntax:
Parameters:

• attribute <target> <attribute> get [<scale>] - get total value of attribute
• attribute <target> <attribute> base set <value> - sets base valye
• attribute <target> <attribute> base get [<scale>] - get base value
• attribute <target> <attribute> modifier add <uuid> <name> <value> add|multiply|multiply_base - adds modifier (fails if modifier is already present)
• attribute <target> <attribute> modifier remove <uuid> - removes modifier
• attribute <target> <attribute> modifier value get <uuid> [<scale>] - get value of modifier
• target - single entity (note: only players, armor stands and mobs have attributes)
• attribute - name of attribute (like minecraft:generic.max_health)
• name - string (in optional quotes) describing human-readable name of modifier
• value - floating point value (note: certain attributes have limits on final value, so your change might not be noticeable)

Chat components

Hover event argument

• style.hoverEvent parameter now has parameter contents, with contents depending on type:
• For show_text - chat component
• For show_item - either item id or object with fields id, count and tag (with last one being serialized NBT)
• For show_entity - object with fields: id (UUID), name (chat component) and type (entity type resource location)
• Old style value argument is now deprecated (but still supported)

Colors

color property can now contain RGB value prefixed by #. For example #55ff55 will result in the same color as green.

Custom fonts

Chat component style now supports font property, which is resource location for font in resource pack. No entry is equivalent to minecraft:default.

Fonts

• Force Unicode option now switches between normal and alternative font (called uniform.json) - no reload needed

Fixed bugs in 20w17

• MC-1601 - Breaking a Furnace will not give you the experience for the smelted things inside
• MC-5410 - In creative mode, flying down is stopped when brushing up against ladders or vines.
• MC-31032 - Using only one empty map doesn’t increase minecraft.used:minecraft.map
• MC-46417 - Sprint particles are generated in spectator mode
• MC-56373 - Selector and score text components don’t work on hoverEvents
• MC-94535 - Flying and holding CTRL really close to the ground, emits walking particles
• MC-96319 - Mob pathfinding AI does not regard some blocks as obstructions and is unable to pathfind on top of them
• MC-100195 - Player retains 1-block hitbox if entering a minecart/boat while swimming or when flying with elytra or a riptide trident
• MC-114544 - Kicked by “Flying is not enabled on this server” while sleeping
• MC-120572 - /recipe crashes the game
• MC-126244 - ‘/locate’, explorer maps, and treasure maps can cause extreme TPS lag, even leading to a complete server freeze if structure generation is turned off
• MC-149704 - Sneaking / crouching twice makes player sprint
• MC-169514 - Tamed parrots cannot be renamed unless they are flying
• MC-171561 - Only one player can access shulker box at a time
• MC-174359 - Piglins prefer using an unenchanted gold item instead of an enchanted gold item
• MC-175113 - Rain prevents entities from burning in fire
• MC-175186 - Respawning doesn’t check if the “respawn block” is the correct one for the dimension
• MC-175998 - Striders are moving very fast between two blocks or when diagonally running into blocks
• MC-176029 - Right clicking a lodestone with a stack of compasses converts the whole stack
• MC-176060 - Recipe book doesn’t load the entire empty map recipe anymore
• MC-176104 - Dropped compasses always point up
• MC-176116 - Saddle texture on Strider is backwards
• MC-176521 - Pressing space while the recipe book button is highlighted in crafting interfaces doesn’t toggle the recipe book
• MC-177346 - Compass in a mob’s hand does not point to correct location if mob turns
• MC-177776 - Netherite ingots are not sorted properly with other ingots
• MC-177780 - Shulkers cannot be opened while playing closing animation anymore
• MC-177796 - Blackstone walls are in the “Building Blocks” category instead of “decoration Blocks” category, unlike all other walls
• MC-177862 - Polished blackstone button and pressure plate in incorrect area in creative inventory
• MC-177885 - Invisible Horses show patterns
• MC-177997 - Baby zoglins still use the same attack damage as an adult
• MC-178086 - Flying close to the ground with soul speed over soul blocks speeds up player and generates soul particles
• MC-178093 - Piglins with full inventories won’t pick up gold ingots to barter even though you can still right-click to barter with them
• MC-178259 - Game crashes when an iron golem with the attack damage attribute set to 0.5d
• MC-178316 - Dispenser plays “dispensed item” sound when attempting to charge a full respawn anchor instead of “dispenser fails”
• MC-178630 - TNT eyeheight changed
• MC-178797 - Barrier blocks generate in bastion remnant
• MC-178955 - Badlands are viewed as a mountainous biome for Ruined Portals
• MC-179542 - Basalt Delta Blocks Override Nether Bricks in Fortresses

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.

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

Cross-platform server jar:

• Minecraft server jar

Report bugs here:

• Minecraft issue tracker!

Want to give feedback?

• Head over to our feedback website or come chat with us about it on the official Minecraft Discord.