Huge Minecraft patch goes live

Update 1.6 has just gone live for indie world-building sensation Minecraft, bringing with it a long list of new features, improvements and fixes.

As detailed in creator Notch's blog, new additions include craftable maps, slow-growing mushrooms, hatches and Nether support for multiplayer.

Here's the full (very long) list of changes:

New features:

• Added Nether support to multiplayer
• The client will ask minecraft.net if the current login is valid. If the server says "no", a warning message appears in the client. You can still play the game even if this happens.
• Added craftable maps
• Added hatches
• Added tall grass in some biomes
• Mushrooms now spreads (very) slowly
• Added server property view-distance. Sets the radius of terrain updates (in chunks) to send to the players. Range 3-15, default 10.
• Added dead shrubs in deserts
• Added allow-nether (set to true or false) in server.properties
• Blocks destroyed by other players in multiplayer now shows the breaking block particle effect
• Doors make sound for other players in multiplayer
• The record player now supports more than 15 different songs (you can't get the records yet, though)
• Activated dispensers make sounds and trigger particles in multiplayer
• Players stuck in walls will slide towards the nearest gap if there is one

Changes:

• Disabled Advanced OpenGL until we can fix some bugs with it
• It's no longer possible to build solid blocks on the top layer of the maps (sorry!)
• Made booster tracks speedier
• Severely nerfed fire so it spread slower, and doesn't spread infinitely
• Seeds are now found in tall grass, using a hoe on the ground no longer works
• Compressed network traffic more agressively
• Blocks that don't change appearance when the data changes don't send block updates when their data changes now
• Arrows shot by players can now be picked up by all players
• Nothing riding anything or being ridden by anything can enter portals

Bugfixes:

• Fixed running out of memory corrupting the current level
• Fixed the side textures of grass getting extra dark when mining them
• Fixed anaglyph 3d rendering mode having severe visual bugs
• Fixed the crash screen vanishing immediately
• Fixed not being able to target blocks when at x or z pos 1000
• Fixed the achievements screen messing up the sky color
• Fixed saving while sneaking dropping the player through the ground
• Fixed a system clock change messing up the game speed
• Fixed rain sounds not playing with fast graphics enabled
• Fixed hair and cloaks being rendered in the wrong locations on sneaking players
• Fixed the attack/swing animation not being applied to the armor layer
• Fixed player rotation not being loaded correctly when loading a saved game
• Fixed arrow physics, making them not get stuck midair when you open a door
• Fixed arrows hitting reeds, portals, and other non-solid blocks
• Fixed keybindings not getting saved properly under certain conditions
• Fixed the player not being able to sneak off lowered blocks like cacti
• Fixed a bug where the player could mine without swinging their arm
• Fixed boats placed on snow being placed too far up
• Fixed submerged boats rising very very fast
• Fixed sand dropping onto boats getting stuck in a falling animation
• Fixed a game crash when riding a vehicle or animal into the nether
• Fixed falling while riding not dealing damage to the rider
• Fixed buttons and levers too close to the player being impossible to use
• Fixed dispensers shooting through walls
• Fixed fire hurting through wall corners
• Fixed entities reaching water through wall corners
• Fixed placing doors next to cacti creating half-doors
• Fixed buttons and levers being placeable on leaves in "fast graphics" mode
• Fixed furnaces and dispensers not dropping their contents when destroyed
• Fixed dispensers biasing later slots
• Fixed farmland taking too long to dig
• Fixed tilling below some blocks being possible
• Fixed tilling the underside of blocks somehow working
• Fixed fences and stairs sometimes becoming invisible
• Fixed walking on top of fences not producing step sounds
• Fixed fire sometimes existing mid-air as an invisible block of pain
• Fixed fences and wooden stairs not being flammable
• Fixed fire effect on burning entities sometimes getting rendered in the wrong location
• Fixed fishing rod rendering being a bit lacking
• Fixed fishing rods being stackable
• Fixed mining glass hiding the clouds behind the glass
• Fixed rain falling through liquids
• Fixed items in glass blocks not getting ejected properly
• Fixed water interacting strangely with glass
• Fixed glass not blocking rain sound
• Fixed fences and signs preventing grass from growing
• Fixed rain and snow being incorrectly lit
• Fixed grass staying alive below stair blocks
• Fixed the achievement screen not pausing the game
• Fixed some screens breaking the sky tint color
• Fixed fullscreen mode switching causing mouse issues and screen closes
• Fixed chat messages surviving through game switches
• Fixed ice so it regenerates regardless of whether it's snowing or not
• Fixed rain falling too slowly
• Fixed levers being placeable on weird locations
• Fixed floor levers sometimes not delivering a signal downwards
• Fixed floor levers sometimes not being removed when the floor is removed
• Fixed rail tiles sometimes not properly connecting to a new neighbor
• Fixed minecarts next to each other causing extreme velocities (sorry!)
• Fixed wolves not following their owner if the name has different caps
• Fixed creepers retaining charge level when they can't see their target
• Fixed dying in the nether spawning new portals
• "Fixed" beds in the nether
• Fixed inventory acting weird when portaling by making the portal close all screens
• Fixed wooden pressure plates being mined with pickaxes
• Fixed redstone repeaters having the wrong particles
• Fixed saplings being plantable through snow onto non-grass blocks
• Fixed ore density varying per quadrant from the center of the world
• Fixed dispenser graphics being one pixel off. ONE PIXEL!!!
• Fixed mushrooms spawning everywhere during nights
• Fixed animals only spawning near light during the night
• Fixed the multiplayer join screen input field being too short
• Fixed IPv6 addresses being parsed wrongly. To connect to a specific port in IPv6, use the format [1234:567::1]:25565
• Fixed network packets being sent unbuffered, causing huge amounts of packets being sent
• Fixed entity positions going out of synch sometimes. They get re-synched every 20 seconds now.
• Fixed inventory icons not animating after being picked up in multiplayer
• Fixed mushroom soup not leaving a bowl in multiplayer
• Fixed entities above the map height limit becoming invisible
• Fixed healing not flashing the health bar in multiplayer
• Fixed arrows being animated really strangely in multiplayer
• Fixed arrows triggering too many entity move updates in multiplayer
• Fixed the compass not pointing at the spawn location in multiplayer
• Fixed fires being impossible to put out in multiplayer
• Fixed record players spawning client-side fake records in multiplayer
• Fixed records not playing for other players in multiplayer
• Fixed players spawning in the wrong location and quickly lerping to the correct location
• Fixed monsters not being visible for players with their difficulty set to peaceful
• Fixed pigs getting hit by lightning in multiplayer spawning client-side zombie pigmen
• Fixed loads of exploding tnt generating way too many particles, possibly crashing the client
• Fixed bonemeal use in multiplayer sometimes spawning fake client-side trees
• Fixed saplings sometimes spawning trees client-side in multiplayer
• Fixed weather sometimes changing client-side in multiplayer
• Fixed grasscolor.png and foliagecolor.png not being read from texture packs
• Fixed stats getting saved to different files in offline mode if the caps in the player name differ from the true spelling
• Fixed fireballs not being visible in multiplayer
• Fixed ghasts' fireing animation not being visible in multiplayer
• Fixed receiving more items than the maximum stack size sometimes causing an oversized stack in the inventory