Surface Overhaul

Release Date: 11/3/2026

Version: 0.3.0-alpha

Development Stage: Alpha

📋 Overview

Update 0.3.0-alpha completely transforms surface exploration with redesigned terrain generation, distinct biomes, flowing water, and new ways to travel.

From snowy mountain peaks and dense forests to sandy deserts and hidden oases, the world now offers a much wider variety of environments to discover.

This update also introduces swimming, boats, water buckets, new materials, biome-specific backgrounds, and additional achievements and statistics.

✨ Added

New Surface Biomes

• Plains: Relatively flat grasslands with sparse trees, abundant tall grass, and flowers.
• Forests: Dense woodlands with tall grass, tree stumps, small rocks, and fallen logs.
• Mountains: Steep cliffs, exposed stone faces, high elevations, and snowy peaks with minimal vegetation.
• Rolling Hills: Gently varying grassy terrain inspired by the original world generation.
• Deserts: Sandy rolling hills with cacti, rocky formations, and sparse natural decorations.
• Swamps: Wetlands containing shallow pools, packed dirt, gravel, and lily pads.

New Geographic Features

• Lakes: Medium-sized bodies of water generating within forests, plains, and rolling hills.
• Beaches: Sandy shorelines that occasionally form beside lakes.
• Oases: Small, rare green areas with water, trees, and vegetation within deserts.

Water & Swimming

• Added flowing water that interacts with the surrounding terrain.
• Players can now swim through bodies of water.
• Water slows falling momentum and can prevent fall damage.
• Landing on the bottom of a body of water can still cause damage based on the player's remaining fall speed.
• Water can occupy the same tile as small decorations, including rocks and moss.

Boats & Buckets

• Added Boats for traveling across water.
  • 4 Planks → 1 Boat
• Added Buckets for collecting and placing water.
  • 3 Iron Ingots → 1 Bucket
• Survival buckets alternate between empty and filled states.
• Creative buckets retain their state when used.

New Blocks & Vegetation

• Added Sand and Sandstone.
  • 4 Sand → 1 Sandstone
• Added Snow, Cacti, and Lily Pads.
• Added horizontally fallen trees using existing Log textures.

Visuals & Animations

• Added biome-dependent parallax backgrounds.
• Added player animations for boating, swimming, bobbing, and sleeping.
• Added visual differentiation between standing trees and stumps/logs to clarify which objects have collision.

New Achievements

• Set Sail: Ride a boat for the first time.
• Paradise Found: Discover an oasis.
• Making a Splash: Survive an otherwise lethal fall by landing in water.

New Statistics

• Replaced the original Distance Traveled statistic with:
  • Distance Walked
  • Distance Swum
  • Distance Traveled by Boat

🔄 Changed

Achievements

• Updated Explorer to require visiting six different biomes instead of its previous exploration requirement.

World Generation

• Redesigned surface terrain generation to support distinct environments and elevations.
• Adjusted shallow underground material distribution, making Dirt, Packed Dirt, and other materials less uniform.

Creative Mode

• Removed Consumables and Pendants from the Creative catalog.

Interface & Crafting

• Reorganized the Creative catalog and Survival crafting recipes to group similar items together.
• Added icons to achievement-unlocked notifications.

Environmental Rendering

• Adjusted Sun and Moon movement paths to appear above the new parallax backgrounds.
• Adjusted Cloud rendering to appear above the new parallax backgrounds.

🐛 Fixed

Lighting

• Fixed an issue where multiple nearby Torches could cause excessively bright lighting.

⚡ Improved

World Appearance

• Improved surface terrain variety across different biomes.
• Introduced more natural geological transitions and shallow-ground material distributions.
• Improved environmental depth through biome-specific parallax backgrounds.

Block Rendering

• Non-colliding placed objects, such as Chests and Flower Pots, no longer create unnecessary foreground/background edge outlines.

Exploration

• Expanded travel possibilities through swimming, boating, and water interactions.
• Improved visual clarity between collidable trees and non-colliding natural decorations.

⚠️ Known Issues

Torch Lighting

• Torches may incorrectly darken surrounding areas when placed on the surface or in already well-lit environments.
• This appears to be related to recent lighting adjustments and will be addressed in a future update.