Minecraft update 1.3 is coming August 1st, developer Mojang has announced.
The patch brings with it a “huge” amount of change, some to the “fundamental game engine”.
“The most dramatic change is that we’ve kicked out single-player, and made it a shell on top of multiplayer,” read the official website.
“There are two major benefits to this: first, it’s required for the modding api if we don’t want to have multiple implementations of every mod, and second, if we fix a bug in single-player, we know the bug is fixed in multiplayer, too.”
It seems that more CPU cycles will be used in order to simulate and emulate the improved game, meaning more of your computer’s resources will be needed to play the game efficiently. “When playing single-player, the game needs to be able to both simulate and emulate the world, which take many more CPU cycles,” Mojang explained.
“We’re working on optimizing rendering, but those improvements will not be included until Minecraft 1.4.”
There’s also a whole host of bug fixes included, which will do what bug fixes do: make everything a little smoother, and they’ll make session stealing more difficult.
There’s also new stairs, new half-slabs, cocoa plants and tweaked dispensers, leaves, cauldrons, levers, gravel, pressure plates, cookies, buckets, boats, minecarts, ice and furnaces.
If you were waiting for new on lighting fixes then sorry, don’t hold your breath as they won’t be coming till update 1.4. The modding API arrives at some point in the future.
For the full changelog, head on over to Reddit.
While we’re on the subject of Minecraft, check out this incredible Game of Thrones-inspired Westeros effort (thanks PC Gamer).
