Minecraft: Bedrock Edition 1.16.200 updates for all platforms, changelog available

Minecraft may not have any news of the next Caves and Cliffs update slated for release in Summer 2021, but it’s still a big day for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, with the release of update 1.16.200. The latest update to the universal Minecraft platform that spans Xbox, Playstation, PC, and mobile devices is a big one, with a ton of bug fixes, parity improvements, minor tweaks, and more. For those playing Minecraft on Windows 10, however, this update is particularly impressive.

Minecraft with RTX ray tracing officially releases today, which we talked about earlier, which means Minecraft on Windows 10 now has the modern RenderDragon engine that has been present on Xbox and Playstation since last year. OpenXR support also means that Minecraft on Windows 10 can now be easily played in VR with Windows MR and Oculus VR devices with unified support that will integrate future devices.

Minecraft is one of the best games for kids for a multitude of reasons, but those who want to get the most out of Minecraft can now enjoy it on PC with RTX ray tracing enabled. If you need to upgrade your gaming rig to make the magic happen, consider one of the best graphics cards for gaming.

The complete changelog for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition update 1.16.200 includes:

RenderDragon

• RenderDragon, the new graphics engine for Minecraft Bedrock platforms, is now available on Windows 10
• RenderDragon was developed by Mojang Studios graphics team to give our game more performance, stability and flexibility. RenderDragon’s new architecture makes it easier for our developers to bring new graphics features such as physical rendering (PBR) and ray tracing to the game.
• RenderDragon has been available for Xbox and PlayStation hardware since 2019, and we are now bringing it to Windows 10. We plan to bring RenderDragon to all Minecraft Bedrock platforms, including mobile devices, in the future.

Minecraft with ray tracing

• Enable Ray Tracing on Windows 10 with Compatible Graphics Hardware
• Players can drastically change the look of the game. Immerse yourself in volumetric fog. Experience Minecraft in a whole new light with state-of-the-art dynamic lighting system, Ray Tracing
• Players can also experience advanced types of block textures, including metallic surfaces, bump maps, normal maps, and light emissions (glossy, reflective dirt blocks? Yes, please!)
• Marketplace content is now aware of ray tracing capabilities and will display a label indicating support in the UI

Minecraft with OpenXR

• Minecraft on Windows 10 now uses OpenXR to support Windows MR and Oculus VR
• OpenXR is an open-source, royalty-free API standard that provides engines with native access to a wide range of vendor devices covering all VR/MR devices
• OpenXR implementation in Minecraft brings a more unified experience on current VR/MR devices as well as support for those to come
• You’ll still be able to launch through the Mixed Reality Portal, as well as the Oculus Store. However, there is also a URL to launch in VR:
  • minecraft://mode/?OpenXR=true
  • This can be made into a desktop shortcut, pinned to the start menu, bookmarked in a browser, or whatever else you can do with a URL

New features

Volume settings

• Added a variety of volume sliders for sound categories (e.g. hostile, blocks, weather, etc.)
  • These play a preview of relevant sounds in the main settings menu and play the default click sound when gaming

Vanilla parity

• Basalt can no longer be destroyed by Ghast fireballs
• Basalt blocks now take slightly longer to destroy
• Dragon Egg now always drops as an item when destroyed by an explosion
• Right clicking on a snow block with a shovel no longer breaks the snow block
• Dirt Paths (formerly Grass Path) can now be created using a shovel on Dirt, Podzol, Mycelium, Coarse Dirt and Grass
• Netherite leggings texture update (MCPE-103016)
• Twisted vines can no longer be placed on compost blocks while sneaking
• Netherite Armor now provides 90% recoil reduction
• Bees will no longer stray more than 22 blocks from their home hive

Known issues

• Players running Minecraft on 32-bit Windows 10 N systems may experience a crash when loading the game if the Media Foundation Pack is not installed. This can be fixed by downloading and installing the Media Foundation Pack
• Players cannot rejoin a world after being disconnected from a suspended session
• In VR, lobby hint text does not change accordingly when input method changes from gamepad to motion controller

Fixes

Performance & stability

• Improved song loading speed when flying with Elytra
• A large number of scheduled instant updates no longer crashes the game
• Fixed a crash that could occasionally occur when going through a portal or flying in Creative Mode
• Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur while flying or moving around the game world
• Fixed a crash that could occur when loading a local world
• Fixed an issue where some mobile devices lost audio after suspending and resuming
• Fixed an issue that caused a crash on Nintendo Switch when trying to load a 256x resolution resource pack
  • The system now blocks this selection and warns the player that they cannot select it

General

• Players who own the Founder’s Cloak will once again see it in the Cloaks tab of the Dressing Room

Gameplay

• Only preview items will be displayed in the crafting screen when auto-crafting an item on the controller. This prevents rapid cookbook updates
• Fixed player hand still moving if Bobbing view is disabled

Freak

• Fixed mobs and other entities freezing and getting out of sync with their bodies
• Villagers will no longer steal workstations from each other
• Monsters no longer stop attacking and following their targets randomly
• Piglins that are close together can no longer pick up the same item if it falls between them
• Updated Zombified Piglin texture to remove loincloth flicker
• Mobs no longer appear in Wither Roses
• Bees now only emerge from the front of hives and honeycombs
• Mobs no longer teleport back and forth outside of solid objects if there is not enough space for multiple entities

Items

• Compass is no longer consumed when used on lodestone in creative mode
• Glowsticks no longer use placeholder textures (educational feature)

Blocks

• Cacao pods spawned in jungles now spawn in the correct direction
• Panels no longer replace decorations when attempting to place them in the same space as the decoration
• Fixed a bug where End Portal blocks were not being deleted after an End Portal Frame block was destroyed. Filled blocks other than End Portal blocks will remain in place

Chart

• Owned packs are now properly refreshed after restarting the game when playing in VR

Accessibility

• Fixed screen reader not reading in-game screen title
• Fixed screen reader not reading shortcut button on pause screen
• Fixed screen reader not reading screen title and shortcut buttons on game invite screen
• Fixed screen reader not reading title on Profile and Edit Character screens
• Fixed incorrect button numbering on the pause screen when using text-to-speech
• Emote wheel now supports screen reader
• Fixed an issue where the screen reader would not read updates often enough on some devices
• Fixed screen reader so messages with controller icons in the chat screen read correctly
• Screen reader now reads Open Chat message while Text To Speech For Chat is disabled
• Fixed several issues with text contrast in the UI
• Fixed an issue where the Servers tab would not correctly read text-to-speech prompts when not signed in to a Microsoft account
• Fixed various issues where text-to-speech cues on the splash screen were not correct
• Fixed issues where UI controls were incorrectly indexed in text-to-speech for contextual modals
• Reduced transparency on top row of buttons in Touch UI to improve readability

User interface

• Added a UI splash screen to notify players if they are using outdated graphics drivers
• Fixed several death messages:
  • “killed by llama spit” –> “spit by llama”
  • “killed by shulkerBullet” –> “sniped by shulker”
  • “killed by Blaze” –> “fireball by Blaze”
  • “killed by Ghast” –> “fireball by Ghast”
  • “arrow shot” –> “skeleton shot”
  • “killed by Trident” –> “was impaled to death by Trident”
• Fixed Paperdoll so that it can now always be rotated with the mouse in the Dressing Room
• “Classic Controls – Intense” font color now matches surrounding text in the VR Controls menu
• Preview items in the crafting grid now have a different color background based on item availability in inventory
• The player permissions menu can once again be navigated using a controller, regardless of the player’s permission level
• “X” button in chat settings no longer present when using a controller
• Profile screen has been improved, characters are now visible and can be selected or edited as soon as they load
• Avoid buying a kingdom if the player cancels the “Required Purchase History” dialog screen
• The color ‘Strawberry Blonde’ now has a correct name in the character creator
• Loading screen tips no longer show “tips.game.62” (No ID)
• Fixed visual focus indicator disappearing in VR when hovering over tabs in VR with screen reader enabled
• The scoreboard now displays correctly on the pause screen when viewing in list mode

Commands, creators, add-ons and more

There are also some tweaks to controls, map creation, add-ons, and other technical tweaks that weren’t included here. You can find them in the full changelog on the Mojang website.