Baby horses steal the show in Minecraft Java Snapshot 26.1.4

The latest release of the Java edition of Minecraft, Snapshot 26.1.4, provides players with a complete overhaul of their baby horse, donkey & mule models, along with new baby mount sounds and improved baby mount user experience through the introduction of our new Technical Updates for Data Pack creators. This is in addition to an extensive bug fix list of previously addressed issues from previous snapshots.

Additionally, this Snapshot coincides with Mojang's signal of the “Year of the Horse,” as Mojang continues its push to modernize the older Minecraft mobs without changing the core essence of Minecraft.

Baby Mounts Get a Big Visual Makeover

The biggest change in Minecraft Java Snapshot 26.1.4 is definitely the baby horse-type mobs getting a top-to-bottom redesign. Baby horses, donkeys, and mules now have a new look and feel that just makes more sense; they're no longer just tiny versions of the grown-ups but smaller, stouter, and way more expressive.

Luckily, all the standard horse coat colors are included, like white, chestnut, brown, black, cream, and every other pattern you can think of. Mojang's also upgraded those skeleton horse and zombie horse babies too, so you can still get them from Creative mode or a command if you're into that sort of thing.

To stop players bumping into them and causing awkward problems, Mojang has tweaked the clip boxes of a few baby mounts so they match up with the new models properly. This makes movement, bumping into other players or objects, and just generally interacting with these little guys a lot smoother.

Why does this actually matter?
-> It's not just about making things look nice; accurate clip boxes make the game feel less clunky and more consistent, especially for players who spend their time breeding or moving animals around.

Baby Horse Sounds Make the Game Feel More Real

As well as giving the baby mounts a new look, Snapshot 26.1.4 also introduces some special sound effects just for baby horses. These include all sorts of sounds like

• Ambient noises

• Footsteps

• Eating and breathing

• Angry, hurt, and dying noises

It's these tiny details that make the game world feel more real, more alive. Baby horses now sound different to grown-ups, which makes the whole ranching, breeding, and exploring thing feel way more natural.

Resource Packs and Data Packs Get an Upgrade

For the players who like to get their hands dirty or make their own custom content, Snapshot 26.1.4 has got some big under-the-hood changes.

Resource Pack version 78.1

The new baby-specific textures are out there; there are new horse, donkey, mule, skeleton horse, and zombie horse textures for every single horse variant. Resource pack creators now have a lot more to work with, and it should be a lot easier to create new content.

Data Pack version 97.1

Alright, so in this update, accessing villager and piglin inventories has been made more standard. You can now only access those things using the mob.inventory method, and the old methods using villager and piglin have been banned, which actually helps to prevent a lot of problems that might have popped up later down the line.

The End gets its own world clock

Minecraft has finally got a dedicated world clock for the End dimension, and that's a big deal for map makers and technical players who've been designing custom mechanics or visual effects. The new Minecraft: The_End clock controls sky flashes, making it way easier for them to get predictable behavior.

This little change also just makes the game a bit more consistent across dimensions and shows that Mojang is still working on cleaning up some of the older systems.

Farming rules get a bit tighter

Snapshot 26.1.4 has introduced new block tags to make it clearer where certain plants can grow and survive. This means:

• Pumpkins and melons now only grow on actual farmland, which a lot of us have been using workarounds to get around for ages.

• These new tags will make it easier for people to create custom farming mechanics in data packs.

Bug fixes for the better

This snapshot has fixed loads of bugs, most of which were affecting survival gameplay or technical systems. Some of the ones we've got to thank include:

• Shipwrecks generating in completely the wrong place when spawned at chunk borders

• Villagers were having trouble sleeping or just acting like they had insomnia.

• Piglins weren't hunting hoglins like they were supposed to.

• Iron golems were spawning way too often.

• Some of the villagers' trade experiments had a few issues.

All these fixes mean that survival worlds are just a bit more predictable, and we've got less to worry about with mobs just acting out of order.

How to try Minecraft Java Snapshot 26.1.4 safely

You can try out Minecraft Java snapshots by using the Minecraft Launcher:

1. Just open it up.

2. Go to the Installations tab.

3. Enable Snapshots, and you're good to go.

But Mojang are being super cautious cautious;they really do recommend backing up your worlds or using separate test saves, because these snapshot builds can sometimes mess up your existing worlds.

Why Snapshot 26.1.4 matters

Now it might look like just a small update, but this one really shows that Mojang is slowly making Minecraft better by tidying up visuals, sorting out old code, and generally making sure everything runs smoothly. These little changes might not seem like much, but they all add up to make the game just a little bit nicer for both players and creators.

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