We are now releasing Snapshot 23w40a, the first snapshot for 1.20.3! This snapshot contains improvements for shields, changes to chat component serialization and bug fixes.

CHANGES

• When a player is blocking with a shield, the arm with the shield now follows the direction the player is looking at, when viewed from third person perspective

TECHNICAL CHANGES

• The Data Pack version is now 19
• A few minor changes to chat component serialization

CHAT COMPONENTS

SERIALIZATION

• Plain-text chat components (text, no sibilings, no stylings) are now always serialized as string instead of {"text': "blah"}
• Chat components now serialize to NBT when sent over network
• Chat components now have an optional type value (allowed values: text, translatable, score, nbt, keybind) to speed up parsing and improve error checking
• id field in show_entity hoverEvent style now also accepts UUID as an array of 4 ints
• Numeric and boolean arguments for translate component are no longer converted to string
• The following JSON component representations are no longer accepted:
  • null
  • []
• Errors in following style fields are no longer silently ignored:
  • color
  • clickEvent
  • hoverEvent
  • hoverEvent[action=show_entity].contents.name
  • hoverEvent[action=show_item].contents.tag

DATA PACK VERSION 19

TAGS

• Added can_breathe_under_water entity type tag which disables drowning
• Added can_break_armor_stands damage type tag for damage types that can incrementally knock down armor stands

FIXED BUGS IN 23W40A

• MC-47607 - Barrier particles aren't shown if particles are set to minimal
• MC-50647 - Slime mob spawners spawn slimes only in slime chunks
• MC-78314 - (Marker) Armor stands create bubbles in water
• MC-109101 - Shields do not block damage while the player faces straight up
• MC-114761 - Area effect cloud applies effect to dying mob
• MC-172398 - Fire texture renders according to the player's rotation in the player inventory
• MC-221558 - Light particles aren't shown if particles are set to minimal
• MC-227255 - Beehives and bee nests do not rotate/mirror correctly in structure blocks
• MC-236946 - Shield attack vector is normalized incorrectly
• MC-253819 - Bells don't rotate correctly when loaded by structure/jigsaw blocks
• MC-254850 - An operator can kick a host of a LAN world
• MC-255173 - Nether portal teleportation is inaccurate at large coordinate values
• MC-261303 - Decorated pots have an unused "cracked" block state
• MC-263123 - Mending incorrectly calculates overflow after full repair
• MC-264748 - GLX._initGlfw Treats Pointer as a String
• MC-265353 - Clocks and Compasses in Item Display Entities don't show correct time/direction
• MC-265462 - Sending resource pack during play phase shows loading terrain screen for a long time
• MC-265519 - Game minimizes when certain areas of the screen are clicked on Mac in fullscreen mode