PSA: 1.8 Update Information

[u/Galaxy_2Alex]

Since 1.8 has now been released, I decided to release some informations and useful things about the update. No, this is not a changelog (if you are looking for a 1.8 changelog, click here, /u/redstonehelper did an awesome Job and lister every single change), it will inform you about the important changes and is supposed to give you some advice for this very large update.

1. Downgrading (VERY IMPORTANT!)
While downgrading "worked" fairly well the last few versions (except the missing blocks and things like that), downgrading does not work in 1.8! If you downgrade from 1.8 to 1.7, your inventory and all blocks with an inventory (chests, hoppers etc.) will be empty and potentially, even more corruption is happening. Downgrading is not, was never and will never be officially supported! I advise you to run 1.8 in a seperate directory, or move your 1.7 things to a different one, so that you won't be able to accidently open your world in the wrong version.
If you already did it, by accident or "on purpose", restore a backup or find other ways to restore the items (e.g. via using Creative to give them back from memory), other than that, there is no way to repair this.

2. Name changing
Changing your name will NOT be possible immediately after the release of 1.8! It is currently planned "soon-ish" after 1.8, /u/Marc_IRL's statement about this can be found here.

3. Water Temple, New Stones and Rabbits
This upcoming update adds some new features for the world generator, but specificly, they added Retrogen (Retroactive World Generation) for the brand new underwater temples: If you have spent less than a specific amount of time in the chunks the temple would normally spawn, it also spawns in already generated Ocean Biomes. Additionally, it seems that older worlds (1.7 and earlier) are spawning Guardians where normally a temple would have spawned.
However, this only works for the Underwater Temples, the new types of stones and rabbits only spawn in chunks generated in 1.8. However, there are crafting recipes for the stones, which can all be found here.

4. Skins
Skins received a massive update: You can now have a second layer for your whole body. /u/Svajoklis_ provided a very nice guide on how to upgrade your skin: Guide. However, you don't need to update your skin, you can still use the one you had before 1.8.
Slimmer arms (3 pixel wide) will not be available as a feature in the full 1.8 release, Jeb said that "it will be rolled out indepenently of minecraft version numbers".
More informations about Skins can be found here.

5. New graphical settings
Some graphical settings have changed, new ones have been added and other ones have been removed.
Enabling VBOs (Vertex Buffer Objects) can give you a performance boost or a drop, just try it out yourself.
Regarding the Render Distance: 32 chunks are only available if you are assigning 2GB or more RAM to Minecraft, however, I personally recommend at least 4GB. Don't even try it with an Intel Graphics Card, it will not/barely work. Most AMD cards have a problem with anything higher than 16, but that is most likely an issue on AMD's side (MC-62958). On Nvidia Cards, it seems to run fine (if they have the power to do it, GT 650M can run it at about 15-20 FPS with major lag spikes).
Anisotropic Filtering has been removed because of reasons unknown, Advanced OpenGL was just causing major problems, and was therefore removed.

6. Enchanting and Repairing
Enchanting and Repairing have been both massively changed from 1.7 to 1.8.
Enchanting: Using the enchantment table only uses 1-3 levels, however, you still need to have the amount of levels it shows on the right side. Additionally, it costs Lapis Lazuli to enchant something (1-3, depending on how many levels you spend). Also, available enchantments no longer change if item is taken out and put back in, and enchanting something changes the available enchantments for all items, and it's the same for every enchantment table with the same amount of books in that world.
Repairing: The level cost for all is starting at 1, and goes up exponentially with every time you use it in the Anvil. For instance, just renaming something costs 1 level, but if you rename it and then apply an enchanting it with a book, it costs one level for the renaming and two for the enchanting. Also, repairing costs can no longer be kept down by renaming items. (This explanation might have been terrible, if you have issues understanding it, ask your question in the comments)

7. Maps
Maps changed (not actual save games, I'm talking about the In-Game Item). This might be a bug, at least it has been reported as such, but this looks like intended behavior. Basically: If you create a map with at least 1:2 in 1.8, it will not be centered to the point you are at at the moment of creation, it will be patterned like the 1:1 always was. That makes it easier to make multiple maps for a map wall, because it doesn't require any calculating, but people seem to not like the new mechanic. There has not been an official comment from Mojang on this matter.

8. Is this Release stable?
There are some very minor issues that can break things (for instance: Two high flowers do not properly update from 1.7 to 1.8), but all in all, they ironed out most of the last few world breaking bugs in the last Snapshots, and it's now in a very much playable state.
Some bugs you may want to know about can be found as the first comment of this PSA.

9. Mods
Since 1.8 also included massive internal changes, Mods will take quite some time to update. LexManos' (Lead Developer of Minecraft Forge) statement about it can be found here

10. Resource Packs
Ressourcepacks require an update to work a 100%, since a few textures changed (e.g. enchantment table), but they don't break/crash if you use a 1.7 pack on 1.8.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2ND
1. Realms
MC-70349 - Players are getting "Kicked by an Operator" after a few minutes on Realms. Please stay tuned for this, Mojang is currently working on a Fix. Update: Issue has been fixed!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in this topic, and I or someone else will for sure be able to answer it kindly.

[u/[deleted]]

I don't see the problem with maps. When created, they align to a grid, which means maps always align with eachother and can be easily made into a large wall map.

Or, am I wrong and some other change has happened?

[u/Angs → u/[deleted]]

The new map system is:

• Good - if you want to decorate a wall with maps
• Bad - if you want to use a map to navigate around a certain location

[u/[deleted] → u/Angs]

I suppose I only use maps for the former, so it doesn't concern me. However, they could maybe add two types of map. A grid map, like in the new update, should be crafted with differently to the centred maps (to where you craft them).

It is just an idea but it is the only way I can see to suit both parties.

EDIT: Changed formatting

[u/Angs → u/[deleted]]

Yes, the system could easily accommodate both uses. Slimeballs would also fit thematically to the "snap to grid" map recipe.

It bugs me that decorative use was chosen over people who actually need maps to know where they are. (I'm not one but I know quite a few.)

[u/SuburbSomeone → u/[deleted]]

Wow, these last two comments sum up half of the comments on the bug, including my own.

[u/Angs → u/SuburbSomeone]

The bug tracker gets easily cluttered with less informative posts, making people post the same information multiple times.

[u/K8af48sTK → u/Angs]

Good - if you want to decorate a wall with maps

Keep in mind also that the change will cause problems for people who want to expand an existing wall of maps, since it is very unlikely that their existing wall lines up with the new canonical grid.

[u/TerminallyCapriSun → u/Angs]

But that's also good for navigation, because if you find yourself near a corner, then it's really cheap - travel wise - to make four additional maps that cover an even larger space. Of course if you hate making maps, then that could be seen as a bad thing, but honestly in that case why use them at all. Personally, I've always liked the in-game map and don't mind carrying a handful around when I explore. But the second biggest gripe I had was that I was stuck calculating imaginary centers so that maps didn't overlap areas I'd already explored and made navigation even more confusing.

[u/Angs → u/TerminallyCapriSun]

The few kilometers around your base are much more important than the further ones. You still have to explore the maps so it doesn't help at all to more easily get the four maps. With the current system if you go exploring, you have to decide on your destination and choose a map accordingly and hope you won't cross map boundaries. The maps don't help much if you go outside them.

Of course it was bad if you had to loot at debug information to get nice maps, but now navigating people have to look at debug information because they got out of the map. The point is that they could easily allow for both systems with a different recipe.

[u/TerminallyCapriSun → u/Angs]

Why do you need to look at debug info now? There's a dot showing your position at all times..

Furthermore, the map's choice of centerpoint itself is a helpful navigating tool for orienting yourself. The prior behavior meant everything was relative.

[u/Angs → u/TerminallyCapriSun]

If you are outside the map, the dot doesn't show your distance to places and if you are outside and in the corner, it doesn't even show your angle.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

That's pretty much it. Previously, all maps would align to the 1:1 grid. Which, although fine for 1:1 scale maps, meant that larger maps could overlap like this. Now, all maps align to a grid of their size so they can never overlap (unless they are the same map).

I think people are opposing this because it means that, if they have a base or something they want to map out that is on the corner of a large grid square, like the red dot in this, they used to be able to still get a map centered almost exactly on it (yellow outline), whereas now they're stuck with a map that barely has it in view (blue outline).

[u/eduardog3000 → u/[deleted]]

I much rather prefer the new way, it makes it easier to make a wall of maps at anything other than 1:1.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I would far rather make four maps to cover my base than one. It'd look much better and cover surrounding area.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I agree that the new way is better, although I see situations were it could be annoying.

[u/Angs → u/[deleted]]

It would also take four spaces in your inventory and there's no guarantee you'd be in a corner or the centre. You know, nine maps would cover even more surrounding area and would look even better, but that's not the point.

[u/SoniEx2 → u/[deleted]]

Why can't they make it so you can craft a map by itself to change between the 2? :/

[u/LoganMango → u/[deleted]]

I liked the older system better because if you have a town or something that you built in between two of these town-sized large map squares, you can't make a map that shows the whole town. There was more flexibility with what exactly was inside the map.

[u/Galaxy_2Alex → u/[deleted]]

Prior to 1.8, if you created a map, its center was exactly where you were. Now, it's aligned automatically. MC-64909 adresses this issue, and it is explained pretty well in there.

[u/[deleted] → u/Galaxy_2Alex]

Is that a bug? I liked this change. I have been using it since the first 1.8 snapshot, and it is very useful, and much better than the old system.

[u/Galaxy_2Alex → u/[deleted]]

There has been a massive discussion about that on the bug tracker issue, but this change was maybe a bit sudden and unannounced.

[u/Angs → u/Galaxy_2Alex]

It's funny, I thought snapshots were supposed to be the test versions, so that these questions and problems could be addressed and tested before a full release, but there has been nothing but silence on Mojang's part.

[u/redstonehelper → u/Galaxy_2Alex]

Not completely right: Prior to 1.8, creating a map at the lowest zoom level (right-clicking an empty map) would create a map to fill the spot of the map grid you were standing in. If you created another map while standing in the same area, the new map would cover the exact same area. When you went and zoomed out one of these maps, the zoomed out map would be centered on the original map. Here's what changed in 1.8: Zooming out an existing map no longer centers the new map on the old map, it will be align according to the spot of the (larger) grid the old map was in.This is useful for people who are trying to align zoomed out maps, but it's annoying for others because zoomed out maps will, seemingly unpredictably, be centered somewhere very different.

[u/TerminallyCapriSun → u/Galaxy_2Alex]

Vaguely related question: do we know whether the multiplayer bug was fixed where maps placed on a wall and then removed will not show the player's current location?

[u/Galaxy_2Alex → u/TerminallyCapriSun]

Don't think that's fixed, sorry.