Since the beginning of the beta testing phase that Mojang started with Minecraft: Pocket Edition and the upcoming 0.8.0 update, there have been a slew of changes and tweaks made to the game between then and now. However the final build of the update has been finished and the 0.8.0 update has been submitted to Apple for approval. It has been stated officially that the Android release will launch at the same time as the iOS one does.
We’ve gone over some of the new stuff arriving in the 0.8.0 update in past articles but since then a lot has been added, tweaked and changed. In terms of size, this has to be one of the biggest updates to Minecraft: Pocket Edition so far, or pretty damn close to it.
Official 0.8.0 Changelog:
New Features
* Separated far and near chunks in two queues for performance reasons
* fog only on far chunks
* transparency only on near chunks
* alpha-test-only layers are hidden in far chunks
* Made the torch an opaque block
* Mipmaps! (on iOS)
* 3D clouds with new tessellation algorithm
* New texture atlas and texture generator script
* Refactored OpenGL usage to avoid costly state leaks (eg. animals aren’t alpha tested anymore)
* Far rendering distance
* New defaults and changed options
* added far (256) and farthest (400) rendering distances
* removed smooth lighting (now always on)
* fancy is now default on
* default rendering distance is now far
* Refactored most of the rendering to use indexed VBOs
* remade arrow model
* inventory is now rendered using cached VBOs
* new sky rendering using a triangle fan
New colors and textures
* brought all textures from pc (eg. gravel)
* new grass color
* new sky color
* new water color in the distance
* Water fades to non-transparent in the distance (iOS)
New blocks
* sideways logs
* sponges
* jungle, birch, spruce stairs
* jungle slabs
* pumpkins
* potatoes
* carrots
* beetroots
* cobblestone wall
* iron bars
* tall grass, fern and dead bush
* hay bale
* coal block
* carpets
* rails and powered rails
New items
* pumpkin pies
* beetroot soup
* flint and steel, top snow and ice in creative
* iron bars
* clock
* compass
* minecarts
* redstone dust (can’t be placed!)
Misc
* New creative inventory with tabs
* Dynamic PC-like lighting on entities
* ambient light tinting
* light direction depends on sunlight direction
* New rendering for items in hand
* Transparent toolbar!
* When selecting an item in the inventory it replaces the one in the selected slot
* Showing craftable recipes first in the crafting screen
* Remade text formatting (e.g. in chat)
* Stencil shadows
* Bone meal no longer fully grows crops
* New fire effect
* New bow rendering & animated items
* New AI
* breeding!
* tempt animals by holding wheat (potato, carrot or beet root for pigs)
* Added inertia to item in hand and “breathing” idle animation
* Rotating tiles to hide repeating tile patterns
There has also been a ton of tweaks and bug fixes during the beta testing phase, way too many for use to list here. So we should definitely see Minecraft: Pocket Edition 0.8.0 before the holiday season.
