Minecraft experimental snapshot version 3 is now available to players looking to try out the big Caves & Cliffs: Part Two update ahead of its official release.
"In Caves & Cliffs: Part II, we’re not only updating the caves and adding new mountains – we are also changing the overall terrain generation to make it all fit together," developer Mojang wrote in a newly updated blog post (thanks, PC Gamer).
"We need to sort out some technical things before we can ship these in a normal Java snapshot or Bedrock beta, so in the meantime, we've created an experimental snapshot for Java that you can download separately."
The new snapshot is focused on terrain and biome generation. For starters, there's a new mountain sub-biome called stony peaks which swaps the snow and ice in the snow-capped peaks for stone and gravel. Lots of biomes have also been separated so they don't bicker with each other. No more (or at least less) snow in the desert, more clearly defined microbiomes, smoother cliffs in shattered terrain, and fewer mountain biomes in flat areas – things like that.
There are also a few gems tucked in the full snapshot patch notes, which link to the Bedrock version of the snapshot and explain how to install it. My favorite has got to be: "Swamps are even happier now." Swamps are now less likely to run into extremely hot or cold biomes, you see, so they're happy. Lovely. You'll also find that "grass no longer generates under water" or indeed in the desert, which is an oddity that I'm sure drove somebody absolutely mad. And let's not forget this brutally honest known issue: "Nether terrain is messed up." I've seen the Nether, and I have to agree. It's messed up in there.
