Aetherstone

Performance might be slightly reduced to last version in some scenarios on higher presets. New

• Valley haze: soft mist in low ground, thicker in rain and at sunrise and sunset.
• Grass and leaves vary in colour across the land instead of being one flat green.
• Pixel Clouds option (blocky cloud style).
• Reworked clouds: no more stair steps, softer realistic look.
• Player wake: water ripples behind you.
• Rain makes ripples on water; wet ground when it rains.
• Water drops on the screen when you leave water, plus a wobble while under water.
• Screen-space ambient occlusion (soft shadows in corners and around mobs).
• Ground sheen and sand/snow glitter.
• Resource-pack normal and specular maps turn on by themselves.
• Clouds show up in reflections on shiny blocks.
• Torchlight goes from yellow at the torch to a deeper orange further out.
• Stars twinkle.
• Nether Brightness slider, separate from caves.

Improved

• Water rebuilt many times: better refraction, the view up through the surface from below, waterfalls, sun glint, colour.
• Softer cloud shadows that are cheaper to run.
• Better looking distance and far shadows.
• Plants and leaves sway more, keep swaying further away, and sway harder in storms.
• Sharper image with render scale and TAAU, with less smearing.
• Normal maps shade correctly.
• Distant Horizons looks better under water.

Changed

• Distant Horizons doesn't render in the Nether, so it stays foggy.
• Caves are darker by default.
• "Toon Potato" is now called "PS1 Potato", and the Potato preset was reworked to look better and in the style from a PS1 Game.
• Menu cleanup and fixes.

Performance

• Many optimisation passes: shadows, SSAO, refraction, clouds, god rays.
• Render scale now actually saves frames.

Fixes

• Shadow glitches.
• Lighting under overhangs and under water.
• Ambient occlusion on ceilings.
• Held-item smearing.
• Grass tufts casting shadows.
• Fog from blindness and the Warden's darkness effect now works.