Minecraft:Java Edition protocol/Development version

This page documents the changes from the last stable Minecraft release (currently 26.3, protocol 777) to the current snapshot (currently 26.4-snapshot-8, protocol Snapshot 346). Note that this page contains bleeding-edge information that may not be completely or correctly documented.

One who wishes to commandeer the merging of this into the Java Edition protocol pages when an update is made must be sure to respect any changes that may have occurred to the respective packets there.

Contents

Data types

• Chunk Section

Packets

No changes so far.

New/modified data types

Chunk Section

Chunk Section structure

A Chunk Section is defined in terms of other data types. A Chunk Section consists of the following fields:

Field Name	Field Type	Notes
Block count	Template:Type	Number of non-air blocks present in the chunk section. "Non-air" is defined as any fluid and block other than air, cave air, and void air. The client will keep count of the blocks as they are broken and placed, and, if the block count reaches 0, the whole chunk section is not rendered, even if it still has blocks.
Fluid count	Template:Type	Number of fluids (waterlogged blocks, and minecraft:water or minecraft:lava with any block state) in this chunk section.
Block states	Paletted Container	Consists of 4096 entries, representing all the blocks in the chunk section.
Biomes	Paletted Container	Consists of 64 entries, representing 4×4×4 biome regions 4096 entries, representing the biome of each block in the chunk section.

Palette formats

BPE (blocks)	BPE (biomes)	Palette Format
0	0	Single valued
4-8	1-3 1-8	Indirect
15**	7*	Direct

The footnotes of the current table still apply. Template:License wiki.vg