At Minecraft Live, Mojang unveiled an exciting new graphical update named "Vibrant Visuals," set to enhance the visual experience of Minecraft. Initially launching for devices compatible with Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, with plans to extend to Minecraft: Java Edition later, this update promises to bring a host of visual improvements including directional lighting, volumetric fog, pixelated shadows, and shimmering water effects. Importantly, these enhancements are purely aesthetic and will not alter the core gameplay mechanics. For instance, the new visual shadows won't affect in-game light levels or the spawning of hostile mobs.
Minecraft Vibrant Visuals Comparison Screenshots
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Players will have the flexibility to switch between the new visuals and the classic look with a simple button press, catering to those who prefer the original aesthetic.
Agnes Larsson, Minecraft Vanilla's game director, announced that the initial beta release of Vibrant Visuals is slated for a few months from now. "There's a lot of testing going on now to try to get it to as many platforms as possible, but it's important that it's high quality and good performance. So yeah, this truly is the start of the journey," she stated.
Maddie Psenka, senior product manager on Vibrant Visuals, elaborated on the project's development journey. "I think it's been a journey for a while. Something that we've wanted to do for the game. There has been past projects that we've had around graphics and wanting to do this kind of update, but I think this time we really wanted to take the space to build the foundations for this new mode. Not getting too ahead of things, making sure things were cross-platform and were really strong so we could build on top of that and release that with the community. We really wanted to give players what they wanted. We know this kind of visual update is something that they've been asking for a bit."
Psenka further explained the team's dedication to ensuring compatibility across different platforms. "We weren't going as fast as we could on PC to make things look really great and call it done. We wanted to make sure it worked on mobile, worked on console. There's a lot of complexities of course, as you can imagine when jumping across platforms and the different backends there. But it's something that we really took our time with to put something forward that we really are proud of."
This update marks the beginning of a new visual journey for Minecraft, one that will continue to evolve over the coming years. Jasper Boerstra, Minecraft’s art director, shared his vision for the future, saying, "As Minecraft continues to evolve, I think we'll find new things to add to the graphics over the years, right? I mean, we're always in active development and we're here to stay for a long time. Minecraft is always going on. It's more relevant than ever. So yeah, I think these graphic updates, whenever something comes up or we get new ideas or there's player feedback and forth, we might look into even more features."
Vibrant Visuals will be a free update, reflecting Mojang's ongoing commitment to enhancing the game without resorting to heavy monetization or creating a "Minecraft 2." This approach aligns with their stance against using generative AI technology. Despite being 15 years old, Minecraft shows no signs of slowing down.
For more details on what's coming to Minecraft, be sure to check out everything announced at Minecraft Live 2025.
