The first pre-release of Minecraft 1.21.4 is now available. Today's update and for the remainder of the 1.21.4 cycle, you will mostly see bug fixes and tweaks. In addition to that, pre-releases don't follow the regular snapshot cadence of releasing only on Wednesdays, so keep an eye out for the next pre-release.

As always, a big thank you to the community for your feedback, bugs reported, and awesome ideas throughout the snapshot series. Let the pre-releases commence!

Technical Changes

• The Resource Pack version is now 46
• Similarly to block items, Spawn Eggs for entities that could execute operator-only commands now have a warning in tooltip

Resource Pack Version 46

• Added a way of suppressing first-person hand animation on item change for specific models
• Unifont has been updated to 16.0.01

Item models

• A new field has been added to the client-side item info format (i.e. files in /assets/*/items/*.json)
  • hand_animation_on_swap - boolean field describing if down-and-up animation should be played in first-person view when item stack is changed (either type, count or components), default: true
    • only value from new item is taken into account
    • does not control "pop" animation in GUI when item is picked or changes count

minecraft:model item model type

Added minecraft:team tint source type

• Returns team color of context entity, if any
• Fields:
  • default - RGB value to return when there is no context entity, entity is not in a team or team has no color

Changed minecraft:head special model type

• Added field animation - float controlling head animation (like Piglin ears or Ender Dragon jaw), default: 0.0

Added minecraft:view_entity boolean property

• When not spectating, returns true if context entity is the local player entity, i.e. one controlled by client
• When spectating, returns true if context entity is the spectated entity
• If context entity is not present, will return false
• No fields

Renamed property minecraft:holder_type to minecraft:context_entity_type

Developer's Note: Context entities were initially used only for compasses and clocks, which means that type is available only in rendering contexts where those items would show correct reading (see MC-186797 and related bugs). The name change has been made to better reflect that.

Added minecraft:context_dimension property

• Returns the ID of the dimension in context, if any
• No fields
• Values: namespaced dimension ID (like minecraft:overworld)

Changed minecraft:time numeric property

• Removed field natural_only
• Added field source - time source, possible values:
  • daytime - time of day
  • moon_phase - moon phase
  • random - random value

Changed minecraft:compass numeric property

• Added value none to field target which always returns an invalid target

Added minecraft:empty item model type

• Does not render anything
• No fields

Fixed bugs in 1.21.4 Pre-Release 1

• MC-128225 '/data remove' can't remove the NBT "CustomName"
• MC-138100 /data remove doesn't work for the Jukebox's RecordItem tag
• MC-179815 Data command doesn't remove leash from a mob
• MC-207605 /data remove entity [tamed wolf] Owner does not remove ownership of the wolf
• MC-265788 The "Start free Snapshot Realm" element can be selected or remain selected causing its tooltip to erroneously be visible when other interfaces are open
• MC-278134 The TAB key cannot be used to select messages to report after clicking the "X message(s) hidden" element
• MC-278193 Baby piglins can't decide between crossbows and golden items
• MC-278257 Oxygen bar animation can be interrupted by applying water breathing
• MC-278290 Using items while swimming or walking underwater doesn't slow the player down
• MC-278300 Creakings struck by lightning show visual fire
• MC-278302 Bundle always takes out first item and ignores selected item
• MC-278311 Respawned creakings from creaking hearts don't persist when the world is reloaded
• MC-278312 Creakings spawned from a creaking heart can be name-tagged once again
• MC-278387 Creaking respawns when going to the nether and back
• MC-278390 Opening shulkers no longer trigger tripwire or pressure plates