Minecraft Releases New Snapshot Update for May 2025

Summary

Minecraft releases new snapshot: fog adjustments improve atmosphere.
Projectile precision changes over time, fog increases during rain
Positive player feedback on snapshot improvements, only available for Java Edition players.

Minecraft has released a new snapshot for Java Edition players. That is the second Minecraft snapshot released in May, and it brings fixes for various bugs, improvements, and new features to make the gameplay more engaging.

Snapshots are updates Mojang releases for Minecraft players to test features before they are fully introduced to the game. On May 3, the first snapshot for version 1.21 of Minecraft Java Edition was released, with a changelog of over 900 lines of changes. Before that, Mojang released snapshot 25w19a at the end of April, which added dried ghast block recipes, the new Happy Ghast mob, and completely overhauled leads. Less than a week after the release of that snapshot, a new one is out, and it introduces more changes for Minecraft players to check out.

Minecraft Player Shares Idea That Could Make Happy Ghast Even Better

A Minecraft player shares an interesting idea to make the Happy Ghast even better, and players debate how it could work in practice.

Posts

By Bruna Telles

Minecraft Java Edition snapshot 25w19a is live, and one of the main new features is the fog adjustments. With this, Mojang plans to provide a more atmospheric experience by separating the concepts of environmental and distance-based fog from the render. The first represents the Minecraft environment the player is in, and now defines the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the latter is the fog that obscures the edge of the visible terrain and varies according to the distance set by players. As a result, one of the changes players will see is the landscape becoming foggier when it starts to rain.

A change that promises to impact the experience of fighting Minecraft mobs, snapshot 25w19a introduced a projectile target tolerance margin that changes over time. Previously, all projectiles had a margin of 0.3 blocks; after the snapshot, they will start with no margin for the first two ticks of their flight. Then the margin will expand by 0.05 blocks per tick until it reaches the 0.3 block margin. In this way, Mojang plans to give greater precision close to the Minecraft entity or player who is shooting and allow a margin of collision when the projectile is further away.

Mojang has not revealed when the changes will arrive for Minecraft Bedrock Edition, so the content of snapshot 25w19a is only available to Java players. On social media, players reacted positively to the fog adjustments, with comments praising the developers for introducing effects previously only available through mods. Some felt the new fog made the game cozier, gave it a “spooky vibe,” and even recalled the old versions of the sandbox. Several comments also expressed interest in Minecraft getting a weather update, and introducing other changes of this kind.

Minecraft Snapshot 25w19a Patch Notes

Changes
- Projectiles target tolerance margin now changes over time
- Fog was tweaked for improved atmospheric perspective
- It now becomes foggier when it rains
- The test framework will no longer try to restart running tests after a server restart
Projectile Targeting
- Projectiles now have a target tolerance margin that changes over time
  - Previously, all projectiles had a fixed 0.3 blocks target tolerance margin
  - Now, all projectiles start with no margin for the first two ticks of their flight
  - After that, the target margin will expand by 0.05 blocks per tick until it reaches the previous 0.3 blocks margin
  - This allows for better precision close to the shooting player or entity, while still allowing for some collision leeway when the projectile is further away
Technical Changes
- The Data Pack version is now 76
- --quickPlaySingleplayer command line argument can now be used without an identifier to launch into the last played world
Data Pack Version 76
- The scale attribute for the Happy Ghast now has a limit of 1.0
Entity Data
- tnt
  - The entity that primed the TNT is now stored in an optional owner field (UUID of Living entity)
- vex
  - The owner of a Vex is now stored in an optional owner field (UUID of Mob)
Resource Pack Version 60
- Panorama textures must now all be the same size, and square
- Sounds for the Dried Ghast Block have been changed
UI Sprites
- The Mob Effect atlas has been removed, and sprites in the textures/mob_effect/ folder are now included within the GUI atlas
  - This means Mob Effect sprites now support GUI sprite scaling properties
Shaders & Post-process Effects
Shader fog changes
- The fog is now split into environmental and render-distance-based
- Previously both those concepts were mixed in the same uniforms
- Environmental fog is supposed to represent the "fogginess" of the environment the player is in: lava, water, and now also atmosphere
- Render distance fog is supposed to obscure the border of visible terrain
- Environmental fog uses spherical distance to determine its intensity, render distance fog uses cylindrical distance
- The resulting fog value for any given vertex is the maximum of both
Fog Uniform Block
- FogStart was renamed to FogRenderDistanceStart and now represents the render distance fog start
- FogEnd was renamed to FogRenderDistanceEnd and now represents the render distance fog end
- FogEnvironmentalStart is new and represents the start of environment-based fog
- FogEnvironmentalEnd is new and represents the end of environment-based fog
- FogShape was removed. Render distance fog is now cylindrical and environmental for is spherical
Sound Events
- block.dried_ghast.hit has been removed
Fixed bugs in Snapshot 25w19a
- MC-69821 - TNT "forgets" the player that ignited it when the world is reloaded
- MC-118430 - Vex summoner is not stored in NBT despite being used for AI task
- MC-118432 - Vex summoner is not reset once it is dead
- MC-277486 - Mob effect icons ignore "scaling" parameter in mcmeta files
- MC-277903 - Creative inventory tab icons can display item cooldown overlay
- MC-295690 - Players stay on fire for a while after barely touching fire
- MC-296432 - The ability to stand on top of happy ghasts which have a larger scale attribute becomes unreliable or even impossible
- MC-296460 - Debug crosshair renders incorrectly
- MC-296494 - The player sometimes falls from a happy ghast when reconnecting to a world
- MC-296701 - Transformed entities do not retain their custom_data component
- MC-296709 - All non-default jukebox_playable components are deleted from existing items when updating past 1.21.4
- MC-296797 - The movement of happy ghasts for non-controlling passengers is jittery
- MC-296813 - The panorama isn't slightly blurred anymore which causes some "flickering" effects
- MC-296970 - The dried ghast block has a hit sound event
- MC-297142 - The "Leave Bed" button is invisible
- MC-297235 - Clouds not fully rendered depending on angle when very high above the world
- MC-297271 - Waypoint packet is handled by network thread instead of render thread, causing crash
- MC-297339 - Sign text is non-functional
- MC-297347 - Tamed animals no longer sit when their owner changes dimension
- MC-297461 - Equipment and sleeping pos data cannot be loaded in 1.21.4, but can be loaded in 1.21.5 to bees spawned from bee nest and bee hive